The Wardrobe

A Foray Into Fine Furniture......

I left you, Dear Readers, Wondering about the Ceiling in the Chinoiserie bedroom, but I found myself taking a Different Direction altogether last weekend! What I had not shown you previously was my Terribly Disappointing Attempt to construct a Mini Wardrobe with Hinged doors....! Alas, I was so disappointed that I tore the hinges off and deleted the pictures! So You are going to have to believe me when I tell you that the hinges when first installed on the door panels ended up causing a Huge gap between the door and the side panel when the doors were in the "closed" position..... while they opened up to a tightly closed flat seam. (I know it is difficult to understand the description!) It was so glaring a fault that I was about to abandon altogether the idea of a Wardrobe with beautiful Hinges! But after several sleepless nights... (sort of) and Much pondering, I decided to re-examine the Science of the hinged door. Most hinges have their pivot point off-set from the plane of the surface they are fastened to.... ie the bolt sits above the surface when the hinge is open flat.... so when the hinged pieces swing.... they either swing in a tight arc or a wide arc from the pivot point.... depending on Which Face of the hinge is contacting the surface!  So in order to get my doors to swing in a Tight arc...(and therefore showing little to no gap) I needed to set the pin pivot face Down between the flat sections of the door and the side panel not face up as I had first thought!! I am Sorry to bore you with this incomprehensible description.... but I was just So Excited by the discovery that I wanted to share it with you! Go ahead and try it yourselves!

So thus encouraged I commenced with building the Mini Wardrobe.....

You can see above the beginnings.... I stained all the pieces Before gluing them together, and if you look closely you can see the hinges attached with the pin side Down ... requiring a space between the door and the side panel.... but if you envision it swung closed..... the door and the panel have no crack visible!

Here is a closer shot and a view of the base section as well....

One of the panels (on the left) cracked as I was attaching the hinges 

so I had to start over with a new panel....

Here I am testing the door panels for size 

( I needed to shave off a slice from each door... 

I had forgotten that the hinges in this position would mean 

the door did not overlap the side panels at all and so did not need to be so wide) 

Also you can see the drawer mostly constructed.

Here above you can see the nearly completed Wardrobe next to the rough (and very faintly drawn) sketch I made for an initial design... the size discrepancy is mostly due to the perspective.... the actual is quite close in size to the sketch!

And here you can see the doors open... 

with the bar for hanging clothes.... sorry it is a little crooked! 

But as beautiful as this was, I thought it lacked something.... 

so I added a decorative crown pediment....

and also added all the door pulls and tiny finials made from beads....

That is So Much more Elegant!

Here you can see the drawer open too....

The whole cabinet is just under two inches tall!!!

Which makes it a quite Large almost Eight feet tall in the Mini scale!!!

And then we Have to see it in place in the Tiny Dressing Room.....

Oh Dear.... is there room???

I measured So carefully, Dear Readers... Yes, it fits! 

But Alas, it covers so much of the painted walls....

Can we Forgive it...? 

This is the Dilemma posed by Painting the murals to begin with.... 

we have to hide the paintings with the furnishings...

I should be used to it by now....

But did I stop there, Dear Readers......

I had to make at Least ONE thing to go inside the Wardrobe....

Can you see it...?

And Now can you see it...?

I'm sorry the picture is blurry..... 

Besides.... I couldn't stop there either.....!

I had to make a Lacy Negligee.....

Of course it is really Difficult to photograph it well....

This Tiny little gown tucked into a Tiny Little Wardrobe....  

stuck into a Tiny little corner of this Tiny Little Room.....

Of this Tiny Little Tree House!

I am So glad I was successful with this Foray into Fine Furniture, Dear Readers,

Because what Dressing Room would be complete without a Wardrobe?