Pull Up A Chair

More Beginnings....

The Weather is getting cooler, Dear Readers, and the Nights are getting longer.... it feels like Time to pull a chair up close to the fire and lose oneself in a good book.... in other words... the Season of the Library has arrived! But Alas, my Library is Far from ready.... hardly any books on the shelves... no lights to make reading possible... and the only Chair is a not-yet-finished heavy wooden frame with no upholstery to cushion the seat.
I wanted to make a Jacobean-style chair.... the sort with a dark wooden rectangular frame and tapestry sort of cushion for the seat and the tall back. You can see below the humble beginnings of this chair.....

I have used some of the trimmed sides from the "woodsies" I used for the books as stock for the legs and glued them into a notched seat cut from a scrap of the basswood that is being used for the walls. The back is a piece of 1/4 inch stock trim. For the arms I decided to get a little bit fancy and carved the curved profile and rounded end out of slightly wider pieces of "woodsies".

Of course, it is so small that it is a little bit hard to see the swoop in the arms.... 

so I thought I had better point it out...!

I also took a tiny file and "carved" some grooves into the front legs....

these will bracket the front cross rail.....

but again.... they are so fine that they are almost invisible...!

But then I decided to get Really Daring 

and tried my hand at "carving" the front rail to resemble barleytwist turned wood.....

Using just my mini file and a tiny round wooden dowel.... 

about 5/64ths of an inch (says the pkg)

Here, you can see it closer....

I have never done this before....

and my spacings are not even....

and the grooves should be rounder....

But it is so tiny that maybe it isn't too noticeable when it is cut and fit....

And maybe it looks better standing up.....

Well, sort of... it is amazing how Brutal the camera close-ups are...!

I added the remaining cross rails and stained it a lovely Walnut......

And the dark color seems to Swallow so much of the details.... 

especially when placed in the dark Library.....

You would hardly know it is there! 

This will improve, I hope, when I find the right upholstery material! 

And so far, this has eluded me! 

Most of the ones I try are too thick a fabric 

to work on such a small scale... 

And I am searching for something with a small pattern as well.... 

I am trying all sorts of tiny pieces from my "archives"!

So it is not done yet.....

Meanwhile I have also made a start on the decoration of the walls. 

 I was not certain whether I wanted to keep with the Very Dark Tudor style 

and just make paneling for the upper portions of the walls... 

or whether I wanted to try to bring in some color and light with a painted finish. 

Or even be as non-traditional as to use Wallpaper if I could find a small enough design. 

And then I remembered some paper I had bought many years ago in a Museum gift shop.... 

a Gold paper with a delicate fern-like pattern in Glitter... meant to be used for gift wrapping... 

but I had always thought it would make Wonderful wallpaper for a Fairy house.... 

or a fancy Victorian Dollhouse..... 

or.....

 

Perhaps it would be just Perfect for the Library of a Tiny Tree House?

So I carefully cut tiny sections and tried them out....

Oh, I do like the way it looks!

So then I had to make tiny window trim moldings out of cardboard stained to match the cabinets...

And more molding trims for around the doors... to the stairs going up....

As well as the ones going down at the back of the room.

And you can see that the cabinet doors are all done and have their knobs as well... 

but the books are still in the works....

Just Look at the sparkly walls!!

(I am Such a Sucker for Glitter...!!!)

But I have not finished because on the fourth wall I have added a little window...

High up... next to the chimney...

Or rather, I have added the Opening for the window...... and all the rest....

The shutters, the diamond panes.... the niche and framing .... 

all still need to be built... before I can paper that wall....

I have a long way to go!

I have even made a Start on the framing for the overhead arches on the ceiling....

You can see pieces taped in place for fitting....

still so crude.....

And all the walls shift and fall down at every chance they get because nothing is finished.... 

so nothing is glued down...... but it is a start!

I have even started to paint some "gilded" frames for artwork on the walls....

 

But they are not yet finished... 

so I cannot show you the art in place.....

But I hope you will be patient with me while I get the details worked out!

But for now.....

I hope you will join me....

As dusk falls and the room grows dim......

Pull up a Chair.....!