Hardware Cabinets: There are unnumbered varieties, sizes, qualities, and mechanical designs for hardware cabinets, and the manufacturers' catalogs appear very confusing to those who are not accustomed to this branch of decorative equipment. While a decorator should have a knowledge of the ornamental forms of metalwork that may be required for certain types of doors or furniture, the mechanical design should be checked by a manufacturer's representative or hardware cabinets dealer. Serious and quite unexpected errors may easily be made in the proper sizes and types of hinges and locks to be used, even under the simplest conditions. The great majority of rooms today are furnished with the ordinary, commercial stock-pattern types of hardware cabinets, but in the best decorative work the hardware cabinets is specially designed and made to order. The latter type is, of course, far more costly and requires more time to produce. A description of the many available types of hardware cabinets used by decorators would occupy too much space for the purposes of this book. The reader must be referred to the commercial catalogs of hardware cabinets dealers or to the craftsmen who make special-order hardware cabinets and metalwork. All counters and cabinets should be designed for working comfort. Counters should be 34 to 36 inches high, and wall cabinets should begin 16 to 18 inches above the counter. Counter tops may be in a variety of materials—stainless steel near the sink, wood in the form of a chopping block for food preparation, serviceable plastic laminates in a variety of colors and patterns, and decorative ceramic tile, mosaic, or marble. Cabinets may be constructed of wood or steel with the door fronts finished in a variety of ways —paint, stain, or plastic laminates. Floor, walls, and ceiling may be covered in vinyl.

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