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!