The Plans and Mock-up

Once I had some pieces made, it was time to plan for the box itself.  I found the actual floor plan online (yay for the Internet!).  I used quarter inch graph paper and experimented with drawing out the plan to scale.

I tested the pieces in the room, as well as against the elevation drawings, and compared them to the pictures online to see if I was getting the proportions essentially correct.  I needed to make sure I also accommodated the wood trim I’ve purchased, as well as such things as the projection of the cornice on the bookshelves.  You can see me playing with the layout below.  The bookshelf should be flush against the left-hand side.  Based on that try-out, as well as my elevations, the drawing below changed a bit.  The drawing above is the one I used.

Left side elevation (second bookcase shown in middle):

Right side elevation:

I was confused by the header over the fireplace, as it appears to come out some distance from the wall.  You can see that the window actually disappears up in behind it.  According to this fabulous find (again, yay for the Internet!  How did we ever get anything done without it?), it’s called a valance wall.  Who knew?

The next step was to create it in foam core:

On my first try, I messed up the two side walls, inadvertently making the windows too wide and moving the fireplace too far to the left.  I think this should be called the “do everything twice” build.  Sheesh!

Now I’m satisfied with the pattern, and the next step is to cut the wood.  I picked up quarter inch craft plywood from Joann.  This is definitely going to be my least favorite part of the build.

The Main Bookcase

The bookcase took a full week to make.  The back is pre-made miniature board and batten.  The rest is made from miniature cornice, 1/16” quarter round (the same as I used on the desk), lots of strip wood, and a bit of lace. 

The first photograph shows it lying on its back.  While that washes out the color a bit, you can really see the detail.

I glued the vertical pieces to my back first, using a printout of my plan with the vertical lines extended.  I stuck the board and batten on to the printout using removable scrapbooking tape, then used the extended lines to help me see where to place my vertical pieces, gluing them down with wood glue and holding them in place and at right angles with nano Lego blocks on either side.  (Sorry; no pictures of this.)  To ensure that I had them even along the bottom and top so that I could add the strips there (which are also glued to the backing), I put blue painters tape across my board and batten where those strips would go.

Cutting all those shelves to size and gluing them in took three nights (and don’t even get me started on cutting the cornice; let’s just say I’m really glad I bought extra).  To get the shelves (relatively) even and (relatively) straight, I used spacer blocks.  In the end, I used two sizes.  Even though there is a minuscule difference between the two, using all of one size either made the top shelf way too large or way too small.  The bottom shelf (and top shelf) are the size of the larger spacer; the middle three shelves used the smaller spacer.

Here you can see it upright.  The color is a bit closer to real life, although it’s warmer in person.  In this picture, the little vase (a great find on Etsy) has yet to be painted.  The “bronzes” on top are made from charms and pewter miniatures that I painted an aged bronze.  I’ve had good luck buying very inexpensive charms (between 50¢ and $2 apiece) from Etsy. 

The comparison.  My bookshelf is missing the embellishments and that odd configuration on the second stack, but it was complicated enough as is and embellishments like that would largely be lost in half scale.  You can see I’ve swapped out my original elephant for a tinier one.  I really liked the original elephant, but the elephant on his shelves is quite small, and this one is a better proportion.  I also have a larger panther charm, though it’s a bit chunky. I knew I would never be able to replicate the Russian wolf hunt (second bronze from the left), so I just used two wolves.  None of my bronzes is a complete match (as you can see, I have a bear climbing on a rock rather than a mountain lion; a rodeo cowboy rather than “Sheridan’s Ride”; and a bucking bronco rather than whatever the heck that is on the far right), but I think I’ve captured the general essence.  Still working to find the right charm for the falcon/hawk on the far left.

The Leather Chair

For the brown leather chair, I made several attempts to find thin brown faux leather.  I had found some fabulous red faux leather by LuvFabrics when I was making the mid-century bar in my Merrimack, but couldn’t find it in brown.  One version was too thick; another that I thought was exactly what I wanted ended up being metallic bronze!  So, in my first try for the brown leather chair, I used some material I had purchased from Joann.  It’s actually fabric, but has the look of aged, cracked brown leather.  I’ve seen it used to spectacular effect in 1:12 scale.  However, in 1:24 scale it just looked . . . odd. 

The pattern was a combination of the upholstered chair and the Lisa chair from One Inch Minis.  Instead of wrapping the bottom and covering the front of the arms with fabric, I used real wood scrapbook paper that I had stained.  I was pretty happy with the pattern, but the stain could have been a bit darker on this version, and the legs are too long.  I also didn’t get quite the tufting effect I wanted.  Back to the drawing board.

Since I couldn’t find the faux leather I wanted, I ended up getting an inexpensive pair of used leather gloves from eBay.  The glove leather was a bit thicker than I would have liked, but it was soft and pliable, so I gave it a try.

Much better, I think.  Instead of using batting on the seat and back, I used craft foam.  Using a leather punch, I punched holes in the craft foam where the tufting would be, to give the leather some place to sink into. 

 I stained the wood scrapbook paper with a darker stain, and I cut my legs (fancy toothpicks superglued to flattish round beads and painted) a little shorter.  For the buttons, the leather was too thick to use, so I painted a sheet of plain paper with brown satin-finish paint.  This allowed me to use the tiny dots from a border craft punch to punch even smaller circles than I could with the leather punch; I then “rounded” them on my craft foam according to Kris’ instructions.  

I think I can live with this version.

Lion Skin Rugs

Teddy had two lion skin rugs (female lions? mountain lions?) in the library.  While I would never have animal skin rugs in real life, the imitations are important to this build, and I swear that no actual lions were hurt in the creation of my rugs.  I was lucky to find some lion-head beads on Etsy that were pretty close to the right size.  I puttied in the holes and painted them, using photographs of mountain lions found online.  (I love the little jewels in the eyes.  In real life, they really sparkle!)

I then snipped some embroidery floss into very fine flock (almost powder) and glued a thin layer onto the bead using tacky glue.  The body is made from microfiber “suede.”  The wonderful thing about half scale is that most projects can be completed using swatches!  I easily got two lion bodies out of one 8” x 8” swatch, even though part of the swatch had been rendered unusable by a sticker.  I’m not sure the proportions are quite right, but the body was as big as I dared go in half scale, and I could not pass up beads this perfect.

I made a cut-out of thin chip board just slightly smaller than the back of the bead, glued the suede around it, then glued it to the back of the bead and added a little more flocking over the seam.  I also slightly padded the front paws and added false eyelashes as claws.  The markings were made by grating a brown pastel and brushing it on like eye shadow.  On my first try (left-hand lion), I used flock for the markings on the head, but thought it turned out too dark.  For the second lion (right-hand lion), I used the pastel on the head as well as the body, and I think it looks much better. 

Right now, they’re lying on drink coasters, which are a little thick.  I’ll be cross-stitching my own rugs for the library. 

The Desk

My original plan was to buy this desk, but the price was a little steep.  Plus, this is all about challenging myself, so I decided I would try to build one myself using strip wood.  As always when I’m planning a furniture piece, I start by finding the measurements of a similar piece online.  I then begin “drawing” it in Word, using shapes sized to my strip wood to create something that I think will work. Often, I have to play around a bit to get the proportions looking right.  I then pull the pieces apart and make notes on what I’ll have to cut.

I just use bass strip wood for my furniture.  The rim of the desk (surrounding the “leather” inset) was cut from wood scrapbooking paper using my Cameo Silhouette III.  Maybe someday I’ll start using more high-end wood, but it’s difficult to come by where I live, and I don’t think my skill level is quite there yet anyway.  I get most of my strip wood from a local hardware store with a model railroad section or from Blick Art Supply. The quarter-round around the bottom came from Earth & Tree.  

I used my mini miter/chop saw from MicroMark to cut the wood, then stained it using Minwax stain.  Once it was dry, I lightly sanded, then glued the pieces together.  I find that using nano Lego blocks to stabilize my pieces helps ensure right angles as I glue.  For this piece, I used three coats of shellac (sanding with 0000 steel wool in between and at the end) for a soft luster finish.  I took links from a fine chain, glued them to diamonds cut from card stock, and painted them gold with Testor’s enamel to make my drawer pulls.  The “leather” inset is currently card stock coated with Mod Podge.  I am still trying to find leather or vinyl that is thin enough to work for the inset. 

I made the books and the map on the desk; they’re duplicates of the ones from Teddy’s real desk.  Although I have made a lot of half-scale books that are either readable or have actual pages from the books inside, these books do not open.  I wanted to be sure they lay flat on the desk.  The tankard is a Warwick metal mini, with paper flowers I made from paper punches.  The phone and candlestick are pewter miniatures from the Virtual Dollhouse.  The frame for Edith’s picture was made from some left-over embossing metal decorated with bits cut using paper punches.

The hardest item to make was the Lincoln ink stand.  There is nothing even close to it out there that I could repurpose.  I ended up making it from polymer clay (definitely not my best skill), a seed bead, microbeads, card stock and mat board.  Originally, I painted it bronze (as you can see in the picture above), but it didn’t really seem to match the original.  I ended up repainting it a soft gold, then giving it a light verdigris finish with watered down acrylic paint. Yeah, it’s not that close, but it will do for now.  I still have my eyes peeled for something that may be able to replace it.

On the whole, though, I’m pretty pleased with the way the desk turned out.  On to the lion skin rugs!

The Floral Chair

The chair pattern I used was based on the Lisa Chair by Kris Compas of One-Inch Minis.  I have found her tutorials enormously helpful, even for half scale work.  Because I’m working in half scale, I also size down the materials I use (substituting mat board for foam core, card stock for mat board, etc.) to try to keep the proportions correct.  For this chair, I decided to use my Cameo Silhouette III to cut the pattern pieces.  Since it doesn’t do well on a thicker material like mat board, I had it cut four duplicate patterns from lightweight chipboard for each piece, then just glued them together with glue stick.  The Cameo cuts much more accurately than I ever could!

I found the fabric I used at Miniature Luxuries, which has a lot of lovely print fabrics for miniaturists.  The background is a very dark navy (not black, as it appears in the picture).  It’s not perfect, but I don’t think I’m likely to find a closer match.  My first try was too narrow, the arms were too thick, and the back wasn’t padded enough.  Plus, the legs were a bit wonky.

On my second try, I widened my pattern a bit, used skinnier dowels for the arms, added more layers of batting to the back, and drilled holes in the bottom of the chair for the legs, to make them more stable.  The legs are made from fancy wooden toothpicks.  I know his chair has casters on the bottom, but I went with painting the tips of my legs gold.  For the button tufting, I used the button tutorial from One Inch Minis.

Not an exact match, but not bad.  Time to start the desk.

Sagamore Hill Library Room Box

Although I have loved miniatures and dollhouses since I was a child, I got back into them seriously about three years ago.  Because of space constraints, I started building half scale (also known as 1:24 scale, where one half inch equals one foot in real life).  So far, I’ve built three houses--a Real Good Toys craftsman bungalow, a Greenleaf Fairfield (Victorian), and an Earth and Tree Merrimack (mid-century modern), as well as three smaller projects—a greenhouse/conservatory, a front porch that was a gift for my mother, and a train car modeled after the Orient Express. 

Each of those builds started with a kit.  For my latest project, I decided to build a room box from scratch.  I hope to do a complete house from scratch, but starting small seemed a good idea.  Having been inspired by “Teddy’s Campaign Room” in an exquisite (1:12 scale) build based on Arsenic and Old Lace and a recent escape room experience based on Theodore Roosevelt, I started looking at his real-life studies online.  I ended up choosing the library at his summer home, Sagamore Hill.  Since it will likely end up on a bookshelf (the finished dimensions should be around 9½” x 12½” x 6”), what better room box than a library?  It also has a lot of interesting elements that will challenge me when trying to recreate them in half scale.  I don’t expect 100% faithfulness.  I figure it’s going to be more like those shows on HGTV where a designer tries to recreate a high-end room on a budget:  I want the same look and feel, and I want it to be recognizable, but it won’t be absolutely identical.  Finally, it’s so complex and has so much in it, I figure it will take me at least a year to build, and keep me busy and out of trouble.

I’m used to building a lot of my own furniture, since ready-made half-scale options are limited.  During the build of my most recent house (the Merrimack), I had a lot of fun finding real life mid-century modern pieces I liked and trying to recreate them in half scale.  I’ve also spent a lot of time studying the pictures I’ve found online, as well as a wonderful exhibit from Google Arts and Culture on the Art of Sagamore Hill. This exhibit allows me a 360-degree view of the room and close-ups of some of its features.

I started with three pieces that I thought would be most challenging—a blue floral upholstered chair, Teddy’s desk and his lion-skin rugs.