After
much thought, I finally decided to go with veneer for the exterior of the room
box. I really wanted to try using the
exterior colors of Sagamore Hill, but, to be honest, just painting what I had
wouldn't have looked that great. There
are lots of imperfections in the box I built.
It was my first scratch room box, and my skill at "larger"
construction is somewhat lacking. Maybe
if I had put siding on it, it would have been OK, but that wasn't really what I
wanted to do. The advantages of veneer are
that it can hide some of those imperfections, it will go with the interior wood
on the room, and if the box is placed on a bookshelf (which is where I intend
it to go), the wood exterior will blend with the wood of the bookcase, so the
focus is more on the interior.
I
had planned to use some veneer that Carrie had kindly sent me, but it turned
out that none of the pieces were big enough to cover the top. ☹ I ended up ordering some cherry veneer from
Amazon. I love the cherry wood in the
floor, so figured I couldn't go too wrong with cherry veneer. As with the floor, I stained it a mixture of
golden oak and red mahogany. I made
pattern pieces for all the exterior walls and "roof," then cut the
veneer and sanded and stained it before
applying. I also went over the stained
veneer with 0000 steel wool before applying.
After
I applied it, edges were sanded flush and another layer of stain was put on. Then steel wool, satin varnish, steel wool,
satin varnish, and finally a rub down with a bit of worn brown paper bag.
Pre-veneer:
Post-veneer:
I am pleased with the way it turned out.
The
library has also had a visitor.
I
recently purchased a beautiful half-scale doll from Maria
Narbon. While she will be "living"
in the Fairfield, her clothing seemed perfect for the era when the Roosevelts
were in residence at Sagamore Hill, and I'm sure Edith would have been
delighted to have her has a guest. Here
she is in the Fairfield:
This
weekend, I am off to Arizona for a week to visit Mom.
I will be taking my rug along, as well as some printed book covers, and
hope to get more done on those.
Enjoy
your weekend, and happy mini-ing to all!
The veneer is beautiful Deborah. It is a finished work of art and now you can display it with pride. Have fun in Arizona, and wave to me when you fly over Las Vegas;)
ReplyDeleteThank you! Be looking up about 9:00 a.m. :-)
DeleteI’ve been tracking your progress on this piece and am so impressed. It is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWelcome! Thank you so much!
DeleteSo pretty! I was in favor of painting but the veneer came out wonderfully! I love how it looks!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I really did want to paint, but it just wasn't going to work out.
DeleteIt's absolutely stunning work on the veneer Deb and in my opinion and for all the reasons you gave is the perfect choice! You did such an excellent job finishing it, and you'd never know that you didn't have loads of building experience by looking at your finished work! It was such an ambitious idea with so many varied skills and talents required, but you did beautiful and creative work on every part! Teddy would be very proud of you!
ReplyDeleteThe doll is so lovely as is the photo of the Fairfield with her in it! It's as though she was made exactly for the room, style and furnishings! I hope you'll consider having the artisan make Teddy and Edith, too!
Have a super time with your mom! My brother is there with my mom this week and I wish we'd planned better so I could have spent Mother's Day with my mom in AZ, as well!
Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement. I have learned a lot and really enjoyed the process. Sorry you're not going to be able to spend Mother's Day with your mom.
DeleteAn Exceptional job Deborah and I think that the veneer was the perfect solution since the room will be sitting on a bookshelf, and probably in-between stacks of books, so viewing the siding would be severely limited at best.
ReplyDeleteThe novelty of seeing your mini books and bookshelves nestled in with your 1:1 books/ bookshelves will make Teddy's room a long conversation piece for sure! :D
Love the doll too!
Happy Mother's Day with your mom!
elizabeth
Thank you so much! I'm looking forward to moving it to its new home in the near future. I love the thought of a little library among the books.
ReplyDeleteWell done Deb. It looks great in the photos and even if it isn’t perfect in real life, I am sure no-one will be looking too closely or criticising it. And your tiny lady is adorable. She looks pretty impressed with the roombox!
ReplyDeleteThank you! My little lady very much enjoyed her visit to Sagamore Hill, but was happy to return home. 😉
DeleteThe veneer looks really elegant and makes you focus on the lovely interior - what a great choice of finish. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
DeleteOh wow! This looks brilliant! I love Elisabeth's vision of a mini library in a bookcase as well. Do you have plexi for the front? I couldn't imagine dusting the interior without destruction ensuing. :O
ReplyDeleteThe varnish/steel wool/varnish dance has paid off in spades. I'm too impatient to apply coats with sanding in between to my minis.. but I really must work on that because the finish is so refined. Must. be. more. patient.
Your little doll is so adorable in both settings. I agree, you definitely need a Teddy doll at least.
Thanks, Sam! Sanding or using steel wool is a must between coats. When my mother was in her antiquing phase, she refinished several pieces, and I sometimes helped. She used to get the most beautiful finish. I never forgot what she taught me. 😊 Not sure about the Teddy Roosevelt doll. They might be hard to come by. 😉
Delete