Dresser, gussied up and ready to go.

I finally picked up a cheap piece of pre-fab trim from the local craft store. It did not take the stain as well as the unfinished wood drawer units, but it'll do.

I'm not totally pleased with the final effect. The trim in the middle is too light and the stain did not take evenly on the drawers. The bottom drawer is particularly awful. So I'd suggest painting stuff like this instead.

Speaking of painting, I had fun obsessing over faux Delft drawer pulls: I painted the already attached knobs with white acrylic paint, painted a blue blob, and then put a couple coats of clear acrylic gloss.

They are pretty primitive, but because the design is simplistic, I could reproduce it three more times.

I used cardstock to line the drawers. It is easier to handle than paper is and glues in place with out warping or anything.

With the doll, for scale.

Serendipity

While I was out grocery shopping today, I swung by the consignment store. Basically, an overpriced thrift store where some crappy leather covered import footstool thing in a dark depressing color sells for the "great price, far below retail" of $299. Ouch!

Anyway. I scored.

I had to buy four little chairs to get this one, but the other two I will see about for outdoor furniture. The fourth one is heading to the real thrift store.

I'm excited because, if I can find turned posts like this, I could make more! A long time ago, I learned to do rope seats like this. Also caned seats and rush seats.

Yes, one more obscure thing I can do.

The chair is just a tiny bit too tall, and a bit oversized. But it gives me a starting place.

I might do what my grandma (5' 1") was famous for and apply a saw to the legs. It won't help the oversized aspect, but it will help the dangly feet.

Bed: done (well, enough)

(link to previous bed post)

Got the headboard covered (ugh, not too well thought-out but got it done)

Pegged and glued the siderails, sawed off excess peg, hit it with a bit of sandpaper, then touched up the stain.

I tried a photoshoot on our kitchen table. It worked OK but there are a lot of windows and openings into the kitchen nook so it was hard to find enough uninterrupted wall space for a plausible "set".

Anyway, I am pleased with the overall scale of the bed. It looks believable. Now, the table I finished earlier IS too spindly, as I feared.

I think the tabletop size (area) is OK, but it needs to be thicker and the legs need to be longer and thicker. Longer, at least for use as a bedside table. And I would like to try a shelf and/or a drawer on the next table.

Moving on.

I did not take into consideration the other aspect of scale models: you can use small diameter pieces, but they are also WEAKER, as I found when trying to upholster the headboard. 

I managed to snap off two of the pegs holding the crosspieces while I was tacking the headboard cloth in place.

I swore a little bit and glued stuff back together.

The headboard is wool, two layers of cotton batting, and a cotton backing. I would normally have tacked a dust cover over the back of the headboard, but I am DONE pounding tacks into it. I don't want to re-glue AGAIN.

Here's a detail of the freshly stained pegs.

I had fun making the rest of the bedding. 

The tick is filled with feathers salvaged from an old pillow as are The Doll's pillows, and the coverlet is blue wool and orange silk leftover from previous (full-sized) clothes sewing. The sheets are cut down from high-thread-count pillowcases.

The piece of beige cotton batting in the middle of the picture (between the sheets and pillows; on top of the tick) goes between the tick and the sheets. Helps smooth out the feather tick a little bit.

I slapped some temporary slats (too few and way too narrow) in the frame for the photoshoot.

Overall I am pleased with the project. And I learned a lot about building scale furniture, which was also my goal.

Table: done

Finished the table tonight.

(link to previous post about the table. Will open a new window.)

It is 6" high, and the table top is 6 1/4" x 6 `1/4", sized for a night stand or side table.

I had considered pegging the angled braces in place, but decided to just glue them. 

I'm still thinking the table might be a bit spindly, but I hope it will look right for The Doll when she arrives.

The first picture is taken on the top of a wooden bookshelf. With the bare wall behind, it is quite convincing!

This next shot shows the color of the stain much better. And my messy project room.

I used basswood, Minwax Provencal stain, started using a Tung oil varnish but got impatient and used an acrylic gloss for the final coat on the top. It is a little rough to the touch, so I might hit it with some 0000 steel wool and put another coat on.

For those of you who like the details: first the bottom side of the table before the legs were glued in place (dig my sloppy glue job) and second a detail of the leg bracing. 

Now, on a 'real' table I think the leg braces should be longer. But this will do OK for a first attempt.

That's it! Next up is finishing the bed and bedding.

The Wardrobe Steamer Trunk

Now, this is a HUGE project. Tons of details.

I'm wallowing again.

As I said earlier, this is a large trunk, designed to stand on end and open up, with space for hanging clothes on one side and drawers on the other. They run about 42 inches tall in real life.

I've decided to make a 1/3 doll sized one.

I made a lot of sketches and peered at ebay listings and pondered and looked for hinges and latches and so on.

I finally decided I needed to make a cardboard mock up so I could see the hinges and latches and trim on the 'real' thing (real at least in size).

So here's my butt-ugly mat-board version.

And here it is open

and here's where I drew on the hinges on the back

I ordered hinges and latches today, and will check the local hobby shop for other things I need, like plywood and dowels. A lot of the trim elements will come from paper-crafting.

Go to Bed!

I had started to think about a Mission style bed, but that required more precision and skill than I have now.

So it became a simple frame bed, just temporarily pegged together here.

That's a 40lb dog in the back ground. For scale. Yeah, right.

With a mattress.

The lower left shows how thick it was before it was tufted

 fully tufted

Oooh.

And sheets!

with fancy stitching (thank, you high-end sewing machine!)

I've stained the bed pieces, finally. I wiped the stain off as soon as I'd put it on and I like the not too dark color resulting.

From top to bottom: vertical for headboard, side rails, cross pieces for headboard (not stained all the way since they will be covered with a fabric headboard). Then on the right the two verticals for the footboard, and the long piece is the cross piece for the foot. The little bitty bits on the left are braces for the footboard and headboard.

I will permanently glue the bed together, since I could not figure out a me-doable way of making it take apart.

I still need to decide if I'm making a feather bed and feather pillows for it. And I need blankets, of course. Can't have The Doll getting cold!

(Link to next post about the bed)

Tabled

Every bed needs a table next to it.

Here it is, held up by my hand with some gratuitous deco stuff on top.

I made the top out of some thin strips of 2" wide wood, edged with some narrower pieces.

Here are the parts finally stained. These are all basswood - it sucks up stain really quickly! Except where I didn't get all the glue sanded off. Hrmph.

You can see the three strips of wood running from left to right.

The sticks to the left are legs and the sticks to the right go under the table top and help hold the legs on straight. The little pieces on the right bottom are interior corner braces and the really tiny pieces on the left will brace between the interior corner braces and the legs.

I will tung oil and then glue and clamp the table together, once the stain has dried overnight.

Here is a link to the next (and final) post about this particular table. (Will open new window).