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?

The Other Wall of the Side

More Painting Roses...

You will probably not be surprised, Dear Readers, to see that the outer wall, the Door of this Tiny Chamber, is also Painted with Roses!  It is Such a Tiny space, this Dressing room.... that there is barely room for the furniture I have planned. Nevertheless, the Garden wall on that side was crying out for an Arbor with a seat... so I started to build one.....

It is made of cardboard and thin wood  only one quarter of an inch wide. I know that this translates into only a one foot wide seat... but I decided the compromise was necessary given the small dimensions of this room!

And of course, I had to paint the walls before I could paint the roses.....

You can see that I am "Building" the bench to surround the "window" in this room... 

(one of my found marbles!!) 

At first I left the area behind the bench open... 

but then I decided it needed to be brick too....

Here you can see the background being added....

And starting to paint the Roses... 

they need to be under-painted with several coats of white before adding the color... 

this is so the color is not influenced by the color it is covering....

Then finally adding the color....

And lastly adding the bench....

Which conveniently covers some of my uneven painting!

(Yes, the glue is still not dry so it shows here...!)

And then attaching the door so we can see the effect....

Except that we really Can't see it because the door is swung open.....

 

And if we try to look in from the Bedroom side....

It is barely visible....

So you will have to use your Imaginations with this Little Room!!

Meanwhile, now that both sides of the Bedroom wall are painted, 

it is Time to glue the walls in place! 

Except that I needed to make an adjustment in the 

Wire framework which supports this Tree House!

Here you can see the structure showing the wires with several of the walls removed....

The wall placement was such that the wires were ending up inside the room.... 

and so they needed to be bent outward before continuing upward....

As you can see in this picture below.....

Which then meant the walls need to be notched slightly to accommodate the wires....

Which you can sort of see on the back side of the wall below...

And then a little patch needed to be made to cover the part of the 

wire still showing on the inside of the room.....

Can you see it on the back corner...? No? 

Great! I don't want you to notice it!!!

And here is another view from above.....

With the walls glued in place and the wires on the Outside!!!

(I do still need to patch the notch for the wire by the window...)

And now that the Walls are in place we can 

test the Lighting without Everything Falling Down...!!!

I have found a Lovely jewelry finding that has a very Oriental look.... 

and fits around one of those tiny LED's!

Here we are testing the fit..... 

and Here we are noticing a Problem on the Horizon....

Either the walls are too short or the bed is too tall!!!

I can tell I am going to have to get Creative with the Ceiling....

But I suspect we all know that was going to happen anyway.....!!!

So while we are figuring that out, Dear Readers, 

maybe we should just take Refuge in the Little Garden Room... 

and Dream about Roses....

Even though we can't see the Room from the Inside....

with all the Roses surrounding us....

Perhaps we can Imagine the other wall of the Side..... 

Sitting quietly in the Arbor....

And the Roses....

Always More Roses....

Can you smell them....?

I wish I were painting More Roses....

The Other Side Of The Wall

Another World Entirely...

You May remember, Dear Readers, that the little Dressing Room was an After thought in the design of this Tree House. And so I have given it only a Little bit of thought! But as I was adding the final details of painting to the walls of the bedroom and preparing to Begin gluing them in place...... I realized that the wall behind the bed that is shared with the Dressing Room would need to be painted on the Dressing Room side before anything could be glued in place! Here below you can see an overhead view of the two rooms....

The Dressing Room is that Very small odd shape on the far right.....

And while we are looking at the walls... 

let me show you the completed paintings....

You may be wondering what was added from the last time you saw these walls... 

well, just the tiniest details on a few of the plants and some butterflies ! 

I dare you to find them!

It is the right side wall, with the door into the Dressing Room 

which needs to be painted on Both sides....

But before I show you that, I thought you might like to see these walls in relation to my regular 1:12 scale dollhouse.... In the Chinoiserie Bedroom of The Lovely Old Dollhouse which I painted several years ago... Reaching into the already constructed room of my childhood dollhouse to paint on the walls in place! (I tell you this so you will not think my painting on the larger walls was sloppy or not detailed enough...!)

And another view of the whole room of the 1:12 scale house....

And a close up of the Fireplaces.....

I thought it would be fun to see them together before the little walls 

are permanently glued into the Tree House!

So it was time to paint the Dressing Room wall and I needed to decide what I was going to paint! 

I could have continued the Chinoiserie decor on into the Dressing Room... but I thought it would seem redundant and ho-hum to do that! You may have realized by now that I am not the sort of decorator who makes all the rooms "compatible" with each other. I like to take each room as a World unto itself and see where we end up! And for the Dressing Room I was really just thinking about Roses....

And Roses like to climb on an Arbor.... and maybe a wall...

Then I Swear to you that my paintbrush took over and the next thing I knew...

I had painted this.... 

Can you see where the arbor goes over the door?

And then it needed some background.... 

And of course, I forgot to take pictures for a while...

This process required a Lot of testing the walls in place...

And Anna Maria even came by to see the progress....

I thought someone said "Roses".... she said as she left....

So I Finally started the Roses!!!

First the Pink... I think they are "Constance Spry"....

And then the Red.... "Blaze" I am sure!

I apologize for the glare on the paintings... 

as usual it is difficult to photograph them well....

And we must keep testing the placement....

And more plantings to keep the Roses company....

A little topiary shrub and an Urn with a peony... 

to carry the theme from the Chinoiserie on the other side of the wall ....

And one more topiary.... 

even though it will be hidden behind the furnishings....

And then we must see them in place....

I Truly don't know How we got here, Dear Readers......

There is an Entirely different World on the other side of the Wall!!!