A Cottage Bed

Goodness! Almost five months since the last post. Real life ... well, you know that story. *sigh* I'm glad to be back in the land of the minis!

A few days ago I built a little rustic chaise longue for a friend who has recreated his grandfather's brick cabin in Australia. Grandfather was a ship's carpenter, and although the chaise is rustic, it has the nice lines of Victorian style. This is the inspiration -- a photo of Grandpa's bed.

I did a rough sketch but didn't make a detailed blueprint. I had the approximate measurements in my head and winged it. I used scrap wood with wood glue, white craft acrylic paint and a final coat of clear satin finish polyacrylic. I was so busy building that I forgot to snap any other construction photos.

Here are the three components: the frame, the bit that keeps the mattress from sagging between the slats (Is there a name for that? Somebody help me out here, please!), and the mattress. The mattress is thin and lightly padded. It consists of two halves glued together. Each half has a piece of paper, a piece of heavy flannel, and the cover, which is light cotton. By having the paper as a core, the mattress can be bent to the angle of the backrest and will hold its shape.

The photo was unclear as to whether this part was wood or cloth, but since Grandpa was a ship's carpenter, I opted for aged canvas. It is glued in place.

When it was finished, I invited the old farmer over to check it out. He found it quite comfortable. The mattress ties were added to give the mattress a more realistic appearance. I trimmed them a bit after this photo was taken.

I hate to tell you how long it has been since I made the commitment to make the bed. Once I got started, it took just over a day to complete, even allowing time for glue and paint to dry. Anyway, it's on its way to Australia. (Wish I were delivering it in person!)

Now I'm looking forward to getting back to the Pierce/Bohemian Inn. The innkeeper is getting testy over the construction delays!

Furniture Painting Finished

It took most of the week, but the furniture is painted and clearcoated with polyacrylic. The designs came from a cousin's work and a little bell I bought in Kutna Hora. (click to enlarge)

I'm not sure how much more I'll get finished before we have to start packing up for the trip southward. I noticed a goodly amount of robins in the back yard today. They're gathering for their trip to their winter stomping grounds, too.

Furniture Shop Still Swinging

Today I sanded the furniture, put on a coat of gesso and one of the base color, and painted one of the chests. It was fun to see the little assembly line as the tables, chairs, and chests moved along. First photo show them with the little tabs and slots smoothed over with the wallboard mud.

 Next photo shows all but one coated with gesso.

 And the last photo shows the pieces with their base coat. I painted one chest in a manner similar to a chest I photographed in a log cabin in the Czech Republic belonging to the family of one of my cousins. My eyes gave out after the one chest was decorated. I'll address the rest tomorrow. They won't be as intricate, I think. We'll see where the muse takes me.

The paint colors are too raw, and I don't like the flat finish of the acrylics. When the decoration is complete, I'll use a glaze of some sort to mute the colors a bit and give it a satin finish.

In the steps of my grandfather

My grandfather, the Alois for whom mini Alois is named, was a master cabinetmaker. I'm joking about following in his steps, but I thought about him today as I assembled furniture for the inn. Alois and his brother-in-law operated the Krejsa and Martinek Saloon and Restaurant in Niles, Illinois, in the early 1900s. I never met him, as he passed on long before I was born, but I can feel him and my father looking over my shoulder as I work on this project.

Here is the furniture. It is very simple, but appropriate for the inn. It will be painted, and the chairs will have seat pads to cover the tab-and-slot construction. The table tops will be spackled smooth, as will the cupboards. I don't recall where I got these. They are by Woodcraft, made in China. I put together all three sets, thinking to sell what I don't use, but after doing a little staging, it appears I'll be using all of them on place or another.

Here is where construction stands. All but one exterior wall and the ground floor ceiling glued in place. I'm pleased to report that the stairway and partition wall slide in and out very easily. The swinging door will eventually lead into the kitchen. It is taped to a dowel that is held in place by the weight of the ceiling. I put the dowel there to keep the ceiling from sagging.

The missing wall needs some carpentry work, namely a couple of doorways cut into it before it goes up. As I mentioned earlier, a kitchen wing will be added on the other side of the swinging door. I'd thought to attach it to the main house, but I'm now thinking to make it freestanding. I need to scope out the roof line before making a final decision.

The room layout for the second floor has yet to be finalized. The furniture up there is just scattered about. The general plan is to have the far corner, at the top of the stairs, be a sort of lounge/public area for the guests, with two guest rooms to the left of it and one larger room to the right. A doorway in the missing wall will lead into the room above the kitchen, where there will be a stairway to the 3rd floor/attic rooms and a shared bathroom.

I'd hoped to have a  fireplace in the dining room (on the missing wall), but with three tables, there really isn't room. If I replace one of the square tables with a small round one, it might work. Debating.

The private dining room is looking good. Alois is in his favorite place, behind the bar. He'll be even happier when it is stocked. Although some of the walls appear to be white, the entire ground floor (except for the lobby) is painted Venetian Stucco by Glidden.

A Carpentry Session

Today I built a couple more cabinets for the main shop room, a cabinet to hold the thread rack and a shelf/counter to hold fabric bolts below and miscellany on top. The fat quarters will be part of the miscellany. I used balsa wood. The white is painted with gesso, the oak is stained with the MinWax golden oak. I ran an emery board over the gesso to knock down the little "hairs" that stand up. It was so smooth that I decided not to put a coat of satin finish house paint on it. The cabinet needs door and drawer handles.

This is what the main shop room looks like now. The new shelf is front middle. I think the furnitures and fixtures are pretty much where they'll end up. Subject to change, of course, when the accessories and display quilts go in. I glued feet on the new shelf and the three smaller units -- sage green pony beads. It works with the floor and gives them a little lift that they needed. I'm not sure that the tapered shelf in the back left corner will stay. We'll see what there is to put on it when the accessories move in.

I want to build cupboards for the kitchen. And there are quilt racks to be built for the show display. It is coming together.

Making Shelves

Today I worked on the portable shelves for fabric bolts. The photo at upper left is the inspiration piece. I took the photo at The Quilter's Harvest shop in Higginsville, Missouri. The proportion changed a bit in translating to 1:12, but with the mini bolts in place, it works! The point was to make some small modular units. Display space around the perimeter is limited, since I want to hang several quilts. I made three units. The magnetic jig was right handy!

Over the course of the afternoon I managed to get a couple of coats of paint on them as well as paint the counter and another bolt shelf. I started to paint the inside on the first one, then realized that it won't be seen once the bolts are in place. I gave the counter a couple coats of satin white enamel, too. It needs another coat, but I like it much better than the yukky stain.

Painting and winding

Today I had fun jumping from one thing to another. This photo of the stained ceiling paper is a good example of what happens when wallpaper is applied to raw plywood. The chemicals in the wood bleed through. The white on white paper turned to brown on beige. The bathroom ceiling fared even worse. All of the ceiling paper seemed to be very well adhered, so I took a chance and put a coat of gesso over it rather than pulling it off. It appears the gamble paid off, as the ceilings are now sealed with a coat of gesso and the paper held fast. :)

I'd thought to leave the paper in the bathroom as is, but when I pulled a corner out to peek, I discovered bare wood underneath. I may as well take the time to strip it and seal these walls, too.

One of my orders from miniatures.com (Hobby Builders Supply) arrived today. In it were a couple of interior doors to go on the bathroom. Of course the opening is about a quarter inch too small, but it shouldn't be too difficult to enlarge them.

I spent a couple of days scraping wallpaper but just couldn't get myself to begin taking the paper down in the kitchen. When I realized how well the gesso covered the ceiling paper, I decided to experiment by painting over the kitchen paper. You can see a bit of the pattern peeking out. It will get another coat of gesso and then paint. I can reach in there with a paintbrush a lot more easily than I can repaper that area. I think Dad must have papered it before he put the walls together. Part of the fun today was auditioning furniture. This is a Michael's hutch that may or may not make the cut.

The goody box also brought in the sales counter. Haven't decided yet whether it will go this way or turned around. I think the shelves are supposed to go where the clerk stands, but this unit will double as a cutting table and display, so there may be yarns and other goodies on the shelves where the customers can reach them. Can you say fat quarters? The piece of linoleum is being auditioned for the ground floor. I was going to paint it a commercial battleship gray, but the base is made of two boards put together and held with corrugated staples that would show through the paint. The linoleum is left over from our real kitchen. I can cut a piece to fit the room precisely, so it would not have to be glued down and could be removed if someone wants to redo the house as a residence.

I rummaged around in a box of miscellaneous furniture and found a pyramid shelf unit that could go in this awkward corner by the stairs. The jury is still out. I also found a wonderful baker's rack that would make a great display unit for yarns and threads, and more fat quarters.

The goody box also brought a rug for the proprietor's studio apartment. It has a sort of quilt-like design. Notice the flooring beneath the rug. I was going to sand the upstairs floor and stain it, but on closer inspection, it has a lot of stains. Lloyd convinced me that the entire upstairs needs to have wooden flooring and baseboards added. Of course he thinks it's a good idea. He doesn't have to do it! But I have to agree with him ... it will be much nicer with plank flooring. It will be stained.

Paintning on the gesso and moving furniture and building supplies was fun, but I wanted something repetitious and relatively mindless to do, so I tackled some accessory kits sent to me by a lovely lady on the Greenleaf Dollhouse Forum. Her mini group did a quilt shop a while ago and she has some great ideas. She sent materials for balls of crochet cotton, skeins of yarn, and spools of thread. She even sent some silk thread for the spools. I pulled threads from some of my fat quarters for additional colors. There are two sizes of spools on one delicate wood turning. Now that the thread is wound on, I'll cut them apart very carefully by rolling them under a supersharp X-acto knife blade. Her samples are at the top of the photo. At the bottom are various books made from printies.Here is a close-up of the items. They're going to add a lot to the shop and I'm most grateful for Barbara's generosity!

Quilt Shop Rehab Begins

The quilt shop has finally moved to the worktable. I've been working on furniture and accessories without a real Plan. It seems prudent to get the structural rehab finished so I'll know how to proceed. Here is the old master bedroom, before. The floor is in relatively good shape, so I think it will get a sanding, light stain, and varnish. Mini OSHA would not like the stairwell (against the back wall) open, so I've ordered ballusters and railings to enclose it. I believe I'll construct the railings to be removable for ease in dusting/decorating. (What a great place to hang mini miniature quilts!) The doorway on the right connects with the bathroom. I've ordered doors for this opening and the one on the other side that leads into the proprietor's living area. This is the wallpaper. I think once it had a white background, now yellowed with age, grime, and chemicals from unsealed wood.
Just like in a real house, rehab reveals surprises. This flowered wallpaper was under parts of the blue striped. It doesn't appear that the wooden walls were primed prior to wallpapering. I think I will prime the raw wood with gesso and give the interior walls a fresh coat of ivory or cream paint -- a plain background to set off the quilt shop's details. After the real life quilt show exhibit, new wallpaper can go up over the paint. The ceilings are papered. You can see how the chemicals in the wood have changed the color. It seems to be glued tight. I'm going to try to use gesso and white paint right over the paper. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to scrape it.

Here is the room all cleaned up. The basin of water I used for cleaning was so dirty that I think I could have planted watermelons in it. :)

The living room is painted, so there was no wallpaper to remove. The green shag carpeting was tacked in place, so it was easy to take up. The "tiled" area by the front door appears to be Contact paper, the same as in the bathroom. A hair dryer softened the glue but there is a slightly sticky residue. The floor is stained. I think it may get sanded and then a coat of light gray paint with an eye to installing carpeting after the quilt shop moves out. This photo shows one problem area: mini OSHA wouldn't like the stairway without a handrail, so it will be added when I make the upstairs railing.

Here is a shelving unit I made to hold fabric bolts. I've put just a few on it to give the idea. It's made of balsa and will be painted. It's open on both sides with additional shelves on the end cap. The feet are made of wooden beads glued together. No special reason to use the beads; they're what I had on hand. I'm not sure where the shelf unit will be placed. I'd like the viewer to be able to see both sides and the end -- that makes it tricky.

Here is the unit in the room, along with a shelving unit that will hold yarns, thread, and other small items, maybe batting. It fits on the wall with the fireplace and will be behind the cutting table/counter, I think. The doors between this room and the dining room and kitchen will get trim added, but not doors.

Back to Work on the White Orchid

Two months! That's a long time to go without minis, but I've been keeping in touch via the Greenleaf Dollhouse Forum for vicarious mini fixes. The garden has been keeping me busy, and the first two weeks in August, Lloyd and I were in the Czech Republic. It has been a busy summer! These ceramic pieces are souvenirs from the Czech Republic. They are decorated in the traditional Southern Bohemia manner. They will go into the Pierce, which insists it is going to be a Bohemian inn with a bar and restaurant. I'm looking forward to making mini roast pork and dumplings with sauerkraut.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The garden is semi dormant, and my craft area has been screaming for attention, so this afternoon I descended to do a little cleanup -- or so I thought. I almost hate to post these photos, but you really need to see how it deteriorated while sitting unused.

Oh ... see the Van Buren box? A cousin presented me with it when we went to visit in July. She'd bought it for her daughter years ago but never got around to building it. I think this one will be made and donated to a charity, but that's a way down the line. The current project is the White Orchid, which ought to be finished in jig time. After I got everything cleaned up, somewhat sorted and put away, I worked on the base. It is glued to a lazy susan, so the house will turn easily. Because it has battery pack lights, no need to worry about a cord getting tangled.

The base is a sheet of foamcore board with a layer of contractor's foam with rounded edges. A couple scraps of the foam form the berms on either side of the porch. I covered all of it with a thin layer of wallboard mud. For a while I was thinking it would be a snow scene, but I think it will be a summery forest setting for better contrast with the white of the building. When the mud dries, I'll give it a coat of gesso, and then paint in some rocks and the brick walkway by the stairs. I have some train layout greenery and lycopodium and other bits of greenery and flowers I can use. I may make some tiny mushrooms, too.

It's good to be back in the mini workshop!

By the way, if you'd like to see some photos from our trip, check the blog here.

Dining Table & Chairs

It has been nearly a week since my last post. I managed to get our real life bedroom wallpaper stripped, and the painter is coming tomorrow to do the trim and ceiling. The paper hangers will be here in a few days. Meanwhile, the elves have been waiting patiently for me to get back to what's important to them.

While I was still in cleaning mode, I tackled some of the storage bins in the craft area and found a set of wooden furniture from Greenleaf that I'd marked as being a little bit smaller than 1:12 scale, more like 1:16 -- elf scale!

After the glue dried, I filled in the holes & slots with wallboard mud. Spackle would also work. When it dried, I sanded it smooth.

I painted it with a coat of gesso and let it dry, then gave it a couple coats of sage green acrylic. I may put a bit of decoration on the chairs, but for now the elves have someplace to eat dinner.

As I was looking at the table and chairs and envisioning some hot games of checkers or chess in the evening, it occurred to me that maybe one or more of the elves would want to turn in early and have a little privacy, so I dug out the wall and slipped it in place with a paper template of a door. It would open between the hammocks. I have more styrene left from the downstairs wall I didn't use to fill in the missing bit at the front. I'm giving this some serious consideration. What do you think?

Settling down ... sort of

I got a bit distracted today. I was going to head right downstairs and make the settee and dry sink, but on my way past the bedroom I reached in and pulled a bit of the old vinyl wallpaper away from the wall. It came very easily. Before I knew it, I was having a good old time peeling away the vinyl. It was sort of like peeling skin after a sunburn: the trick was to see how large a piece would come off before tearing. I got a couple of good ones -- nearly half of a strip in one piece! And yes, we have new wallpaper to put up. It's been sitting here for the longest. Tomorrow I can start wetting down the paper backing and scraping it down to plaster. I don't think that will be as much fun, but now that the project has begun, I'm committed.

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So I didn't get downstairs until late afternoon, but I did manage to make a settee, age the worktable a bit, and put a couple coats of matte finish Modge Podge on the stained items. I like the silky smooth look of the MP. It gives it a sort of aged patina, like eons of waxing the furniture. All you can see in this photo is the back of the settee. It faces the front door.


This is how the settee began. I found a sketch of one I liked on the Internet and then made a pattern freehand. I had some old pieces of 1/4"=scored basswood flooring that I used. It was a bit warped, but gluing and clamping flattened it enough to be usable.

Here it is waiting for the glue to dry. This particular elf seemed interested, but the way he gazes at the little gingerbread man in his hand makes me wonder how much he really sees.

Next step, gesso.

Here it is finished. I used a couple coats of acrylics of various shades, mostly watered down to a stain. The cushion is a piece of foamcore board with one of the cardboard sides sliced off wrapped in cloth. Aileen's Tacky Glue holds it just fine.

This is the view of the settee through the front door. Sorry it's so dark. The lights weren't on. It will have a throw of some kind and probably some toys or presents on or beside it.

I know what the dry sink will look like now. That's the project for tomorrow.