Firescreen and Candle Tables

These were part of a lot of broken and half finished kits I acquired on the cheap. Some of the pieces needed to be glued back together and some pieces were missing.

I loved the delicate look of the candle stands and firescreen so I was pretty sure I would be able to fix them.

So I decided to restore the legs and finish them out. I decided to carve the pieces out of basswood. Each piece needed four legs to stand on. There were two different sized legs.

I wound up carving out eight legs. These are so fragile that I broke a couple of them just sanding and holding them firmly in place to dry. Over all, they do add a little extra elegance to the living room though so I think they were worth the trouble.

Rung Back Chairs

I got two chair kits that are the same in my stash. (I now have a miniature furniture stash). I wanted some chairs with rungs for backs so I took this kit, switched out the back pieces and made rungs out of toothpicks for them. I also cut pieces for the seat to look like slats. For the baby's room I painted a white chair and the plain wood chair goes in the hall outside the bathroom.

All I did was lower the top back piece a little and cut a bottom piece of wood for each chair. The rungs get glued in-between.

I decided to use four rungs for each back. The pattern calls for padded seats. They come with blue fabric in the kit so you can gauge how much fabric you will need to use, but you can use any fabric you want - or none at all. There are so many cute little chairs in this series of kits and ways you can modify them. They can all be bashed to make a multitude of unique chairs for every room.

And now that I have the kits, I can make my own patterns based on them to make more chairs. Yippee! (I still like to make the fancy ones from the book too!)

Entry Table

I'm really getting into the shabby chic look for my house. I've learned that being "not so perfect" is just right. There is something beautiful about worn furniture. Each piece has its own story that new furniture just can't tell yet.

So I put together this Queen Anne table from a vintage kit. I sanded the piece after I stained it to give it a little wear. It's a replica but I'm not a purist... I like to bash and shabby it up.

The little drawer pulls were so tiny and fiddly... but I eventually got them put on. The wood was easy to poke holes in for the wires. I just used a straight pin.

I love the delicacy and precision of these little furniture kits and they go perfectly with my little shabby french chic house.

All it needs now is a little vase of flowers on it.

Bedroom Vanity with Pull Drawers

A pattern is given in the book for this cute little three mirror vanity that I fell in love with so I had to make it. I cut the mirror frame pieces out of cereal box card and stuck the polymer mirror pieces between the backing and the frame. I buy the mirror stuff by the sheet in the Tim Holtz section at the craft store but I've seen other brands out there too.

The dresser pieces are cut from two different thicknesses of balsa. The little drawers pull out on the original pattern but mine don't because they were too fiddly for me. I didn't have a lot of patience for them this particular day.   :)~

The legs are wooden stair rails that have been cut down. I added a "wooden" decorative ribbon to the top of the mirror by mashing a strip of paper and shaping it into a tied ribbon after coating it with glue. You can use regular little hinges (I used metal tape) and glue them to the back of the mirrors. The little side mirror bottom edges are glued to the tops of the drawer boxes.

I put the vanity together and gave it a coat of white paint and let it dry overnight before glazing it with gold paint and then going back over it with white dry brushed on top of it (I went a little heavy on the gold). I added little suggestions of drawer pulls and decorative trim to it with glossy accents. It dries clear and hard and can be easily painted over.

It looks so cute in the bedroom. I got a bunch of vintage kits (The House of Miniatures) for cheap on ebay to help me finish making the rest of the furniture - especially all those chairs. I have three decorative chairs to make from scratch with patterns for the living room alone! I've got six additional chairs and assorted furniture pieces in kits that I'm going to use for various rooms to complete them. I may bash a pre-cut chair or two so they don't all match. And I need to make a low back vanity chair out of one of them.

I'm thinking about maybe painting some rugs on canvas too. Hmmm... so much more to do.

Bathroom Wash Stand

The book does not give you patterns and designs for all the furniture shown. This is where I have to either make some furniture from scratch or buy kits and pre-mades and "adjust" them for my house.

There is no pattern in the book for a little bathroom wash stand so I bashed a pre-made piece of furniture to make one. It's made from a three drawer nightstand that I modified. I took the bottom two drawers out and removed the divider between them so it could hold some towels.

I white washed the whole thing and then dragged a tan paint brush around the edges of it to make it look a little worn.

I added a little towel bar on the side. It is just florist's wire that has been painted silver with alcohol ink. It made a pretty cute little wash stand. All it needs now is some little towels!

Kitchen Table

There is no pattern in the book for a kitchen table so I made mine out of balsa wood and then painted it with a white wash and stained the edges. It didn't look exactly the way I wanted it to. It's a little too rustic for the dining room half of the room. You can see how it went together by looking at the underside.

I decided to give it a stained wood look. It makes the kitchen a little darker but it looks right. The chairs will be dark too but not too matchy-matchy. From the book, I still want to make some more furniture from scratch even though not all the furniture has instructions. For most of the rest of the furniture I will use kits and ready-mades and just modify them to my liking.

Then I can take my time decorating the living room and adding special little touches. That living room really has a lot of furniture in it! I really don't want the project to end. I'm enjoying playing with it too much! I'm already thinking of more things I can add already.

I might put hinged walls (doors) on the back of the house to keep the dust out... just one more idea I have thought of... we'll have to see.

Louis XVI Sofa

I really liked the looks of this little sofa in the living room, and it has a matching chair too that still needs to be made.

I started out making the frame from layers of cardboard glued together like the instructions called for but decided to do the arm pieces out of thin 1/16th balsa.

To make the little top back carved wood-looking decorative ribbon, I cut a thin strip of paper and then smooshed it up in a ball. I loosened it a little and rolled it in white glue, placed it across the back rail loosely and shaped it into a ribbon shape with a toothpick.

I made the little round decorations on top of the back rails with two sizes of beads glued down with a pin. I made the flower shapes on the blocks with fabric dimensional paint just dabbed on in dots.

Once I got the frame together and after drying several hours, I painted it with a coat of gesso and then a coat of gold paint.

I cut the seat and back out of foam core and covered them with cotton. Then I used a brown stamp pad to age the cloth back, sides and front edges.

When that was dry, I used colored pencils to draw some faded flowers and scrolls onto the fabric very lightly. The twisted trim around the seat and back cushions are cotton cord glued on.

It looks great in the main room. I can see it start to come together. This room is the only room that gets fancy curtains and then it will really pop!