Miniature PI office part 2

After finishing building the PI office, I began to work on making furniture for it.  I started out by making the occasional table and bookcase.  As I mentioned in the previous post about this project, the office had to be scaled down to fit the room box I was using.  Therefore, the furniture would need to be scaled down as well.  I made patterns for the various pieces of furniture using the measurements provided in the instructions to see what wouldn’t fit or would need to be scaled down a bit.

                                                                                                

No measurements were given for the bookcase, so I just came up with my own measurements and then wound up using instead measurements from a miniature bookcase that’s in one of my other houses to make the pattern.

The pattern for the occasional table turned out to be too large for the office and so was extensively cut down to a smaller size.  The file cabinet remained the same size, but the loveseat and desk that I planned to make was changed to a chair and much smaller desk due to space constraints.

Making the bookcase and occasional table was fairly simple after making the necessary changes to the sizes of the items.  I decided to not follow the article’s instructions and held off on painting the pieces until after construction was complete.  This worked out fine and I found it easier to paint an unfinished piece of furniture as opposed to tiny pieces of wood or thick cardboard.  I did find the choice of the paint color to be a bit odd and I’m still not sure if the article’s author intended for the pieces to have an olive greenish tint to them, but that’s the color I got when I mixed some black acrylic paint with the raw sienna and gel medium together.  It seemed to be an odd choice, but perhaps the author wanted a bit of contrast from the wood grain finish of the office walls.  To my eye it seems as though just another shade of brown would’ve been fine, but perhaps the author wanted something a bit more extreme and to give more of an impression of an aged appearance to the office.

Since I still wasn’t sure how small I wanted to make the desk and chair, I held off on constructing these and focused on making the file cabinet next.  I decided to paint the pieces and then glue them together first per the instructions, since I was a bit intimidated by making this piece.  The instructions and diagrams seemed pretty extensive at first glance, so it seemed important to follow them closely.  My first mistake was deciding to use metallic silver paint instead of just a regular gray spray paint or acrylic paint.  I found soon after that the paint was too bright and intense for a file cabinet and tried to remedy it by mixing black and a light gray paint together to get the desired shade.  This didn’t work out either and wound up looking a bit streaky in places, so I decided I needed to get some gray spray paint or at least a darker gray acrylic paint.  In the end, I never found any gray spray paint that met my specifications and settled for a darker gray acrylic paint.

The instructions for the file cabinet I found were less than desirable and sections of them seemed to have been edited out from the article.  I don’t feel this is the author’s fault and more that of whoever edited the author’s submitted article.  First the instructions give the measurements for the front, sides, bottom, top, and back of the file cabinet and then tell you to cut these out and paint them and then glue some of them together.  Then it talks about scoring lines in the front piece to indicate where the drawers are and then to cut through some of the layers of the board in the narrow areas between the cuts and peel off a couple of layers to form the recessed drawer spacers.

Since the front piece was already been painted along with the other pieces this narrow leaves white areas where the layers of board have been peeled away and no where else in the instructions does it say to paint over these areas.  I wound up painting the white areas because they looked pretty unsightly.  Then after gluing the front pieces to the partially constructed file cabinet it talks about cutting out pieces to make the open drawer of the cabinet.  It seemed strange to me to present cutting pieces for the drawer at this stage in the instructions, when they could’ve been included when giving the measurements for the other file cabinet pieces and been asked to set them aside once they’d been painted.  The instructions also never mention painting these pieces, but it seemed logical to me so I painted them.  Again, this isn’t the author’s fault, but seems to be something that should’ve been realized while editing the piece for publication.

After the drawer is glued together and painted, I slid it in the opening even though there was nothing mentioned about this in the instructions.  I saw no need to glue it in place, since it seemed to fit snugly. 

Next on the agenda for the file cabinet was making the drawer labels and the slots that they fit into.  The lettered labels are provided in the instructions, but all that said about creating the slots is to cut the tabs from silver cardstock for each drawer—no sizing information is given as to what the dimensions should be.  At first I found this daunting and wasn’t sure what I could do to “fix” my problem of trying to figure out how large to make them when it occurred to me to glue the drawer labels to the silver cardstock and then once the glue dried cut out the tabs with the labels centered on the silver cardstock.  The trick seemed to be to cut so that a silver edge was evenly around the labels.  Because again the instructions failed me, I used the picture in the article to glue the labels in what I believed to be the right place on the file drawers.

I used heavy duty staples to make the handles, per the instructions.  These had the legs trimmed and holes were poked into the drawer fronts 1/4” up from the drawer bottom and glued in place.

Since I’ve finished creating the bookcase, occasional table, and file cabinet, next on my list is to begin working on a desk for the office.

Miniature PI office

I one of my other lives I worked in a toy store that also sold dollhouse supplies.  In an issue of Dollhouse Miniatures magazine there was an article where someone had made a PI office.  When I saw it, I immediately wanted to make it, but for some reason I didn’t.  However, the idea of making it never left the back of my mind.

Years later, I obtained a copy of the article through interlibrary loan.  The instructions called for making the office out of ½” thick foam core board.  I searched around where I live and could never find any, so I knew that I’d have to find an alternative. 

While working at the toy store, I had participated in a class where we were to make a garden inside a room box.  All of our supplies were provided for us to create the garden; however, I never finished mine and instead it sat on a shelf in a closet for about a decade waiting for me to do something with it.

 Contents of room box

 When I finally got around to working on my PI office project, I decided to use the room box from my garden project.  I pulled the box out of the closet and examined it to see what needed to be done before turning it into a detective office.

The box still had everything in it from the garden class.  I found that the brick walls had been glued to the walls and that there was a “grass” covered thick piece of Styrofoam.  I was able to remove everything except for the brick walls.  These I tried at first to remove by sticking an X-acto knife or something similar behind it and wedging it from the walls of the box.  This didn’t work, but I found that heating the brick walls with a hair drier heated up the glue that was holding in place enough for me to get a butter knife behind the walls and slowly peel them off. 

In the process of removing the brick walls

After this arduous process, I found there were still remains of the glue on the walls.  This I sanded off so that it wouldn’t interfere with my painting and papering of the walls.  My next step was to make a wood floor for the office, which I did by using individual floor boards that had come from a pack that I’d obtained from my days working at the toy store. 

The boards were a wonderful walnut color and I wasn’t sure if they would mesh well with my project.  Because my idea had been that I would stain the floor to co-ordinate with the walls of the office.  After cutting and gluing the boards to a piece of cardboard cut to fit the inside of the room box, I sanded it after the glue had dried.  Then I searched through my stain samples to see what stain would work best.  I chose Special Walnut as the color for the floor.  I stained the floor very lightly so that the floor wouldn’t be too overly dark.  After about 5-10 minutes I rubbed off the excess stain with a rag and then let it dry thoroughly overnight.  The next day, I sanded the floor and tried to create worn spots on the floor by excessively sanding patches.  I decided not to gloss the floor so as to maintain the impression of a very worn floor and was concerned that applying gloss would ruin this illusion.

I tested the fit of the floor in the box, and held off on gluing it in place because I wanted to add electricity.  My plan for electrifying the room was to have a light in the bathroom area, a desk lamp, table lamp in the left corner, and a light in the hall that would be behind the back wall.

My plan with the electricity also involved figuring out how to arrange it so that the lights could be controlled independently.  I tried to come up with different ways to do this, but nothing seemed to work mainly because I wanted to use tape wire.  The only way that I came up with how to control the lights was to install a switch for each light or as I eventually decided every couple of lights.  The bathroom and hall lights would be controlled by one switch each and then the desk and table lamps would be controlled with one switch.

Tape Wiring

Once the tape wire was installed along with the switches, I painted over any of the wiring that might show by painting over it with gesso.  Incidentally, I left out the wiring for the bathroom light on purpose.  It would be put in place later, after the back wall was installed. 

After painting the Raw Sienna Acrylic on the lower part of the walls

After the gesso had dried, I painted the lower 3 ¾” of the walls with a faux wood finish using a coat raw sienna acrylic.  This I let dry completely and then added another coat of a mixture of burnt umber acrylic paint and a gel staining medium.  By applying the stain in the same direction as the paint it created a faux wood look.  This staining method I duplicated on the back wall that was made out of mat board.

Next after the paint was dry I wallpapered the walls with miniature ceiling paper that had a stuccoed texture.  This wallpaper was to have a smoky, well used appearance.  To achieve this according to the article’s instructions, it needed to be covered with a light coat of raw sienna and gel medium mixture by brushing it on and then wiping it off.  This technique turned out to be more difficult than it was described.  I found it difficult to get the paint and gel medium mixture to spread evenly.  Wiping the mixture off seemed to really mean scrub off even though that wasn’t what the instructions stated.  However, the end product seemed to turn out well enough.  The walls looked a bit darker than I remember, but since I didn’t have a color picture of the finished project, and was only going by my memory of what the office walls looked like I feel as though perhaps it’s my memory that’s faulty and not my painting of the walls.

I glued the floor to the inside of the room box once the paint on the wallpaper had dried.  Then I began cutting and painting the wood strip that would be baseboards and trim for the windows, walls, and door.  This trim was then glued to the back wall around the windows, door, and along the bottom to form a baseboard.

After the trim on the back wall was installed, I began trying to make faux hinges, door knob, and mail slot.  At first, I wasn’t sure how I would accomplish making these things.  My idea at first had been to just buy the needed items, but as it turned out I didn’t want to spend the money, so I decided to try and create them myself from scratch.  I measured the hinges on my front door and scaled down the measurements to 1/12^th scale.  Then I measured a miniature doorknob that I had on one of my other miniature structures.  The mail slot was a little trickier because I didn’t have ready access to one.  I have one on my door at work, but had no interest in making a trip over to my office just to measure the mail slot.  Instead I just winged it and came up with measurements that I thought would be to scale with the room and door. 

Round toothpicks turned out to be the perfect diameter to use as hinges and were cut to the needed length.  The mail slot was cut out of a piece of cardboard as was the door plate for the door knob.  A small key hole or impression of a key hole was poked into the cardboard.  The end of a dowel was sanded into a rounded shape and then cut to the depth needed for a door knob.  Another narrower dowel was added so that the door knob wouldn’t be flush against the door plate.  All of the pieces for the doorknob including the doorplate were glued together and then the hinges, mail slot, and door knob were painted with gold metallic acrylic paint.  Once the paint was dried the door hardware was installed on the office door.

The instructions called for adhering a piece of glass to the back side of the inner wall and after adhering the letters on the door’s window applying several coats of frosted window paint to create a frosted appearance.  My idea was to instead adhere a piece of frosted acrylic plastic that I’d purchased for another project to the back of the inner wall and the lettering would be printed on a clear laser label which would be put over the door’s window opening.

This however didn’t work out.  The label wasn’t large enough to cover the entire window and so I wound up copying the lettering onto tracing paper that I glued to the area around the door’s window.  I glued an unlettered piece of tracing paper over the other windows so everything would match.  The only hitch was that the door lettering was exposed and could be smudged.  To prevent this, I glued another piece of acrylic over the tracing papered covered openings.

 

After the glue dried, I glued the wall in place along the long side of the floor about 2 inches from the back of the room box.  Once this was dried, I glued the partition wall in place to the right of the door.

I mitered the ends of the 1/2” square strip wood that would trim the top interior walls of the room box and then painted the pieces to match the other wood in the room.  I used clear tacky glue to glue each piece in place.  Then cut and painted the baseboard and wainscoting trim to match.  This was also glued in place using clear tacky glue.

I cut another piece of 1/2” square strip wood to fit under the top molding on the right side wall down to the floor and painted it as well.  This I glued in place to the right wall to be in line with the partition wall.  This would define the area where the bathroom sink and medicine cabinet will be.  The plan is for this area to be a washroom for the office.

The semi-finished office

Next on my to do list is to fill in any gaps in the top molding using a dark brown polymer clay, to add the third light switch to the back of the room box for the washroom light. Lastly, I’ll work on making furniture and accessories for the detective office.

Embroidery Projects Update Part 5

In March, I finished cross-stitching Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s, “Once Upon A Time” that I plan to give to one of my sisters.  The plan is to frame it and send it to her. 

Since completing this project, I took up stitching a Greek Key rug again that I started back in 2004.  A couple of years ago, I put this pattern into my cross-stitch design program and before resuming stitching, printed out the pattern which has made working on it a lot easier. 

The original pattern is in sections that are in an old dollhouse plan.  The rug is being stitched on 32 count linen over 1, so the stitches are very small.  To make it easier to see, I’m using a magnifying lens that my husband bought me years ago to make stitching this easier.  The rug will be put in the living room of the Green Gables house I made.

Another project that I’m working on is a needlepoint oriental rug kit that I bought back in 2003 at a miniatures show.  At the time, I didn’t know where I would put it and only bought it because I’d seen kits like it at a dollhouse store I used to frequent as a kid.  As time passed, I decided to put it in the daughter’s bedroom in the Lily house. 

I’m trying to stop devoting myself to one embroidery project at a time, which is proving easier said than done.  The Oriental rug is worked on 18 mesh canvas, so the stitches aren’t as small as the Greek Key.  The pattern seemed fairly simple at first, so of late I’ve been working on it a bit more. 

At first I thought that I would finish up with this kit quickly, but this idea disappeared very soon after realizing that this wasn’t the simple pattern I thought it was.  When I started, I primarily used the picture of the rug as a guide instead of referring to the pattern constantly.  Then I noticed that the design in the picture on one part of the rug varied slightly from the pattern and thought that it had something to do with the needlepoint stitch format. I was determined to be on the alert to match this discrepancy.  However, as I worked it became apparent that it was just a mistake of the person who stitched the rug for the picture and wasn’t really meant to be in the finished product.  So this meant that the pattern was completely correct. 

This belief then proved to be wrong!  As I continued stitching the design in the four corners of the center section I kept glancing at the pattern as I stitched.  I then decided to begin stitching the darker blue line that goes around the outside of the center of the rug.  This was when I realized that the pattern contained mistakes as well.  The pattern painted on the needlepoint canvas clearly shows a white or ivory colored line that’s nearly continuous around the outside of the center section; however, on the pattern this color wasn’t shown in that part.  Even though, the color ivory is represented in the very center part of the pattern.  Nor, is it indicated that it be used again according to the pattern.  Yet, both the picture and the painted design on the canvas indicate otherwise. 

I’m very glad that I followed the advice of the pattern and started in the center and then worked outward because the directions warned me that if “adjustments” needed to be made then this would be easier.  My thinking is that their definition of adjustment is really just synonymous with mistake. 

Dollhouse Enclosure Project Update

In February, I posted an update of what progress I’ve made with enclosing my dollhouse.  Last weekend, the weather was warm enough to have windows open.  So, I took advantage of the unseasonably high winter temperature, flung open the windows, and resumed working on re-gluing the Velcro strips to the plastic sheets using the epoxy glue.

The glue didn’t smell too fumy or toxic, which was great and seemed to set fairly quickly.  This seemed to make the whole gluing process go faster than I’d anticipated. With the large plastic sheets now affixed to the rear of the dollhouse, I was ready to begin on the curved attic section. 

I had long thought about how this opening could be enclosed and the only solution I came up with was to use a thin sheet of flexible plastic.  Since I wanted to use something that I already had on hand, my only option was to use a sheet protector.  I cut the sheet protector to the size and shape necessary to cover the attic opening.  After cutting some black Velcro that I’d used for another project to the length needed, I began gluing it to the roof using clear tacky glue.  At first, it seemed that I wouldn’t need to clamp the Velcro to the roof, but then found that clamping was necessary.  With the clamps holding the Velcro strips to the roof while waiting for the glue to dry, I then focused on gluing with the epoxy glue the Velcro to the plastic.

Again, this was a lot easier than I had envisioned and only a small amount of clamping was necessary since the epoxy glue dried faster than the tacky glue.  After leaving everything to set for a few hours, I returned later to see how everything functioned once it was put together.  I laid the plastic sheet protector that now had Velcro strips glued to it over the attic opening, being careful to match up the Velcro and then stepped back to admire my handiwork.

Success!!  Or so I thought at the time.  The plastic over the attic opening seemed to work out really well and it was cut exactly to fit the opening perfectly.  I then took ahold of one end of the flexible plastic to see how removing it would work.  To my horror, the Velcro that was glued to the sheet protector came off and remained attached to its mate that was glued to the roof.  It became readily apparent that this method wasn’t going to work as I had thought.

I thought about my problem some, but couldn’t quickly come up with a solution.  My husband said that I should use Velcro that already had adhesive on the backside, because that might keep it in place better.  He had used some for an old computer project of his and still had some left over.  I took some of it and affixed it to the sheet protector in the exact same places where the glued strips had been.  Then, I again laid it over the opening and everything seemed to be great.  I tried to make a minor adjustment to the placement and discovered that when I pulled up one corner the Velcro that had been glued to the roof began coming off.  It became very apparent that I needed to use the adhesive backed Velcro for the roof as well.

Unfortunately, my husband didn’t have anymore left, and I also found that I had torn part of the sheet, so I would have to visit the local fabric store and buy more.  Last evening after work, we made a trip out to the fabric store where I bought more adhesive backed Velcro. 

Today, I cut the Velcro to the length needed after completely removing the old glued on Velcro that was coming off.  I cut another plastic sheet protector to the size I needed, using the torn one as a pattern.  Then, I stuck half of the Velcro strips to the roof, taking care to cover the roof areas that still had dried glue on it.  Once those pieces were in place, I placed the remaining Velcro strips over their mates that were adhered to the roof.  Then, I began laying the plastic sheet over the attic opening being careful to align the sheet so that the top edge was flush with the underside of the roof’s verge boards and trim.

So far, the adhesive Velcro is working out nicely and the dollhouse is now completely enclosed.  The next step of course is to give the entire dollhouse a thorough dusting inside and out and to also dust off the large table it sits on.  My hope is that by enclosing this dollhouse that it will stay dust free more easily because the rooms aren’t open to the air.  Then I’ll only have to dust off the outside of the house and the table in order to keep it looking descent.

Here are pictures of the finished project.

Dollhouse Enclosure Project

Earlier this year I had made the resolution that I would come up with a way to enclose one of my dollhouses.  I had made an attempt in the past using clear plastic panels and thin sheet magnets, but it turned out that the magnets weren’t strong enough to hold together.

I had toyed with the idea of using Velcro and plastic panels.  This idea had progressed to the point that I bought some thin green Velcro that was intended to be used for gardening that I planned to use, but had never gotten much further with my progress. 

The project made it onto my list of 2012 resolutions and pretty much remained in the background as I worked on the other items on my list of resolutions.  After talking to my dad via Skype on Christmas day about my dollhouse, I suddenly felt inspired to work on enclosing the house again.

After purchasing a few more supplies for the project last night, I set to work on it again early in the afternoon.  Using clear Tacky glue, I glued pieces of the thin green Velcro to the top and bottom opening of the living room.  Then, I glued sections of the Velcro to the clear plastic panels, carefully matching up the lengths of Velcro that had been glued to the opening around the living room.

I set the plastic panel aside, and when I returned I expected that the glue would’ve set.  Unfortunately, I learned that the Tacky glue wasn’t holding the Velcro to the plastic very well.  I lamented at this and my husband suggested that I use super glue. 

I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post about my miniature projects that I have almost a phobia about working with super glue.  My fear is still intact, but I did follow my husband’s suggestion and tried using super glue to adhere the Velcro to the plastic panels.  This appears to have worked out great.

We’ll see what happens as this project progresses.  So far, only one room is enclosed on one side of the house.  I have the panel for the 2^nd floor bedroom in the works now and will try it out on the house tomorrow.

The back side of the dollhouse will be the biggest challenge because I’ll have to use more than one panel to cover it.  I haven’t quite worked out how I’ll make this work, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

Electrical Problems Solved!

When I installed the tiled bathroom floor back in November, I took that opportunity to check over my dollhouse to see if there were any repairs that needed to be done.

That’s when I noticed a lighting issue on the 1^st floor of the house.  This dollhouse is electrified using round wire.  The previous month I’d received an email from my favorite local miniatures store saying that they were closing their doors at the end of 2011 and knew it was time to head out there for some much needed electrical supplies.

The electrical problems were that the ceiling light in the entry hall didn’t work and then the lights in the living room were all turning on no matter which switch that controlled the living room lights was turned on.

The living room light situation confused me and I decided to put off the repairs until later when I could devote the time to resolving them.  I examined the light in the entry hall and determined that it had come unattached to the ceiling.  I glued it back in place and then examined the wiring when it still didn’t turn on.  The wiring appeared to be fine, so I examined it’s connection to the control panel on the back of the house.  I have diodes attached to the lights in the entry hall and the dining room, so that the light from them is dimmer than they would be without it.  My feeling is this gives the lights a more realistic appearance.

My belief was that the diode on the entry hall light needed to be replaced.  I don’t have an electrical engineering degree, but that doesn’t mean that it’s necessary when wiring a dollhouse or miniature scene.  However, when I’ve developed a theory about any electrical problem I’m having—I consult my husband who has an EE degree.  I told him my theory and that I couldn’t find any other reason for the problem and he said that yes, diodes can die after awhile.  We went out to a local Radio Shack and got a couple of new ones.  I replaced the dead diode with the new one and my entry hall lighting problem was solved!

Entry Hall with fixed ceiling light

Today I was able to look into the electrical problems in the living room.  I got out my binder that contains the diagrams I made when I first electrified the house.  Switched on each of the lights that had issues back in November one by one.  Next to my notations for each switch, I wrote down what was happening now. 

It seemed that my problem had changed.  Now the lights all worked independently except that the lamp in the front living room window would come on with the entry hall light.  I pulled the house a little off the table that it sits on, so that I could examine the wiring underneath.  The wiring looked fine with the exception of the fact that the masking tape that had been holding to the underside of the house had come loose and was now hanging down.  This led me to examine the wiring of the control panel at the back of the house. 

I unscrewed it from the back and it appeared that everything was fine.  Then I noticed that the diode from the entry hall light was reaching all the way over to the 7^th switch that controlled the lamp in the front window.  The diode is pretty much swathed in tape, but there’s a bit of the end that’s not protected and I felt that I might have found my problem.  I gently pulled the diode a little away from the panel and tested out the 7^th switch.  Surprise, the living room lamp lit up without the entry hall light turning on as well. 

Living Room

I still asked my husband if this was possible and he confirmed my theory.  His suggestion was to put tape over the traces on the back of the control panel.  This would keep the diode from coming in contact with them and keep it from creating a short, which was causing my electrical problems.  He gave me some wonderful electrical tape to use for this, and I also used it to tape the wiring underside of the dollhouse’s first floor.

It’s great that I was able to resolve my electrical problems without spending any money or having to reconstruct my wiring system.

Completion of Diner

I had been putting off completing my diner because of my apprehension in bending the aluminum tube.  This tube would serve the purpose as a footrest for the diner patrons sitting at the counter.  Earlier this year I blogged about my tube bender issues, and this weekend finally got up enough courage to use it. 

I decided to take small steps in getting it bent.  The tube bender instructions mentioned heating the tube and then bending it.  Once the tube is bent to meet your specifications you’re to submerge it in cold water.  I filled a large tub that I use for hand washing with cold water.  Then plugged in my hair dryer.  With the tube inside the tube bender, I aimed the hair dryer at the specific point where I wanted to bend it.  I tried bending it many times, but was unsuccessful in getting it bent.  My husband suggested heating the tube with the hair dryer and then bending it against the kitchen counter. This didn’t work, so my husband very kindly took over.  At last, we resorted to heating the tube sans tube bender over the gas burner of our stove.  Heating it over fire turned out to work better than the hair dryer.  My husband was then able to bend the tube with the tube bender while wearing winter gloves, to protect his hands from the heat. 

There was still more bending to be done, and I suggested using vice grips on the tube encased in the tube bender, which worked out really well.   When the tube was bent to the proper curvature, it needed to be cut down to fit around the counter. 

My husband and I discussed what to cut the tube with.  We came to the conclusion to use my dremel with one of its cutting wheels.  Then came the task of finding a way to mount the tube to safely cut it.  Neither one of us owns a vice, which would’ve been really useful in cutting the tube.  My husband went through his pieces of scrap wood and found some large pieces that could be clamped together with the tube sandwiched in between.  It seemed like a great idea but it had one minor flaw, our largest clamp was just a hair too small to fit around the tube and wood scraps.  Another search through the wood scraps turned up two thinner pieces that could be successfully clamped with the tube in between.  We rested this on top of a large block of wood on our kitchen floor.  I tried cutting the tube while my husband stood on our make shift vice, but was only successful in making a few dents in the tube that seemed to resemble small scars rather than anything else.  Just a note for those of you sitting in the comfort of your home reading this post-yes, I was wearing safety goggles.  The torque of the dremel was too much for me to successfully cut through the tube, so my husband took control of cutting the tube.  He wore safety goggles while cutting and I waited in the next room.

Installing the tube on the counter

The next day, was the day to finish up the diner project.  I cut up and glued small pieces of foam core board to the reverse side of the counter so that it would have shelves.

 I already had wire that would be used to affix the tube to the sides of the counter.  Kath Dalmeny’s, Dollhouse Style mentions using thin pieces of silver cardboard or strips of aluminum.  I didn’t have the aluminum strip and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to superglue tiny pieces of cardboard to the tubing, so I opted for using gray colored wire instead.

I twisted a small part of the wire securely around the tube and then cut away the excess.  Then I repeated this process in increments along the piece of tubing.  In total there were 5 pieces of wire that were twisted around the tube.  Next came attaching it to the counter.  The directions in the book never say how far from the bottom of the counter to affix the tubing, so I had to make a guess.  Hopefully, if the publishers of Ms. Dalmeny’s book decide to make another edition or printing, the instructions for installing the tubing around the base of the counter will be more specific. 

At first, I poked holes in the sides of the counter about 5-10mm from the bottom of the counter with the pointed part of a safety pin.  I tried to poke the twisted wire through the hole made with the safety pin, but couldn’t get the wire through.  I tried widening the hole with the pin, but to no avail.  I have a very small hand drill that I used to increase the hole made with the pin.  This made a larger hole and the twisted wire fit through it.  At each point where the wire would go through the sides of the counter, I used the safety pin and then the small drill to make the hole large enough for the other pieces of wire. 

When I had it all attached to the counter, I discovered that my tube was a bit too long at the curved end of the counter.  I considered removing the tube to cut it, but really didn’t want to deal with the hassle.  Instead, I opted to take a pair of vice grips to the overhanging end and bent it back around the counter.  This wound up working really well, I did have to realign the tube—but it wasn’t a crisis.  I glued the pieces of wire some more on the backside of the counter and then let it dry for a bit.

Signage Creation

While waiting for the counter to dry, I made signage for the diner.  I had painted the surface of an oval shaped sign with white acrylic paint.  There are 3 trim pieces that fit in between the top edge of the walls and the top section or roof of the diner. A couple of these trim pieces had square area that I could envision painted white and have the diner’s name on them.  I painted a square of white acrylic paint to these sections.  The smaller third trim section would have a clock face on it.  When I was planning the diner, I bought a small clock face from my local miniature store.  I glued pieces of Velcro to this trim and to the back of the clock face.  The clock runs on a battery and I wanted to be able to easily change the battery, attaching the clock with Velcro seemed to be my best option.

Previously, I had experimented with different fonts on my word processor.  I found one that would work really well for my diner.  Several years ago, I had made a sign for another miniature store by printing the shop’s name on a clear label that I cut down to fit the sign and stuck onto the sign.  This time I did pretty much the same thing.  I tested out different sizes of the diner’s name in the font I had chosen before printing it on the labels. After printing out the labels, I set them aside to dry and returned to other aspects of completing my diner.

Once the counter was dry, I glued it to the floor with tacky glue.  Then I noticed that the stools were too tall for the counter.  I used my easy cutter tool to cut the stool legs so that they would be shorter and more to scale.  To test out and make sure that I had the stools were the proper height, I set a miniature doll on the stool.  She seemed to be the right height for the counter, and so I knew that I had cut the stool’s legs correctly.

With the counter glued down and the stools now the correct height, I returned to creating my diner signage.  I cut out around the diner’s name from the clear label.  Then I separated the paper backing from the label and stuck it onto my sign.  I did this for each of my signs.

At last, I put the roof on my diner and then inserted each of the trim pieces around it to hold everything in place.  I set on a shelf and then plugged it in and sat back to enjoy my hard work.

All-Nite Grill Decorating Redux

Mirror, Mirror

I mentioned previously that I wanted to have mirrors covering one of the diner’s walls.  I had bought a few small mirrors at A.C. Moore a long time ago and had toyed with the idea of cutting one of these down to size so that there would be a continuous line of the along one wall.  Because cutting the piece of Plexiglas with my special cutter had worked so well, and after having read up on glass cutting I thought that I would it a try. 

The plan was to have a silver painted narrow strip of wood at the top and bottom of the mirrors.  I couldn’t find a piece of wood strip to fit my needs.  So I took one that I cut to the right length to fit along the wall and then cut in half lengthwise.  I really wanted to paint it with metallic silver model paint, but I didn’t want to deal with the fumes and needing to have the windows open on a cold winter day.  Instead I used metallic silver acrylic paint.

I glued one of the pieces to the wall just behind the booth.  Then I glued the small mirrors in a line until I ran out of space for a complete mirror.  I held the small mirror over the empty space and drew a mark on it so I would know how narrow to cut it.  Next, I placed it face down on my desk and using the mark as a guide, drew a line all the way across.  I placed a strip of masking tape along the line I’d drawn and then put on safety goggles and gloves.  I started cutting along one side of the masking tape with my plasticutter tool.

As I continually cut along the same line, I noticed that all that seemed to be happening was that I was scraping off the silver backing from the mirror in a thin line and wasn’t really cutting into the mirror itself.  There was a cut in the glass, but it wasn’t too deep.  When I cut the Plexiglas, I had scored it and then was able to snap it apart.  I tried this with the mirror and instead of a clean break it splintered a bit.  The piece that I had been trying to cut away from the mirror was streaked on the lower portion with scratches so it was unusable.  It was disappointing that this didn’t work.  I decided to trim the silver wood strip so it was flush with the last mirror on the wall.  I trimmed the second piece of wood strip to the same length and glued this in place above the line of mirrors.

Making the clock

In Kath Dalmeny’s book it shows a clock on the wall and includes an image of the clock face that one could use in their diner.  I wanted to use the clock face, but wanted to use an old piece of a key chain of my husband’s.  The piece is round and a bit smaller than the book’s clock, so I knew that I would need to make adjustments. 

To start, I chose a half round piece of wood strip and cut it into the three pieces.  I painted each of these with metallic silver acrylic paint.  When the paint was dry, I glued them one by one to the wall over the fake door.

While waiting for the glue to dry, I took the image file of the clock face and put this into my photo editor program to shrink it down.  For whatever reason this program doesn’t allow me to print, so I put the image file into Paint and then printed it.  I had to adjust the size and print out the image a couple of times before getting the right size that would fit the key chain piece. 

Once I had the right size printed out, I cut a piece of thin cardboard and glued the clock face to this.  I then centered the key chain piece onto the clock face and glued it in place.  I set this aside to dry a bit before gluing onto the silver half rounds on the wall.

Diner from Dollhouse Style

All-Nite Grill Decorating

Making the fake door

I wanted to have a door behind the counter that would lead to an unseen kitchen.  Not wanting to deal with the expense of purchasing this said door, I decided to make one.  I knew that I wanted a window in the door that I could put the picture of the knife and fork symbol that is shown in Kath Dalmeny’s Dollhouse Style.  The color scheme I decided on for the door was brown and then the molding around it would be maroon. 

I measured the height of the front door to the diner and then put the counter in place and measured the width of the area to obtain the size I wanted for my door.  I took a piece of thin cardboard from a cereal box and then measured out the size I had decided on.  I cut this out.  Then I needed to come to a decision on the size of the window in the door.  I drew a couple of different sized rectangles on the door piece before coming to one that suited my needs. 

After cutting out the window from the door piece, I painted it with brown acrylic paint.  Next I cut out a piece of thin cardboard to use as the grey/silver wall piece that would show through the window.  I painted this with several coats of silver metallic acrylic paint.  I tested the fit of the silver wall piece once both sections were completely dry.  The window ‘glass’ that I wanted to use has a hazy glaze to it.  It’s actually a small piece of non-glare plexi glass.  I cut this down to size with a plexi glasscutter while wearing safety goggles. 

Previously I had scanned the page from Dollhouse Style that has a picture of the knife and fork symbol and a clock face that I want to use for this project as well.  I manipulated the symbol with my husband’s help in a photo-editing program.  I needed to make the background of the symbol transparent so it could be printed onto a clear label.  Once the symbol was printed out, I set it aside for a couple of days so the ink could dry.

After it was dry, I cut away just enough of the clear label so that it could just be put on the window ‘glass’ without a line being visible around it.  Then I glued the ‘glass’ to the backside of the door and let it dry.  After the glue had dried, I glued the silver wall piece to the backside of the door’s window and after that section had dried, I glued it to the wall behind the counter. 

The next step was to make the molding around the door, paint it and glue in place.  I cut out three sections of thin cardboard that would fit around the door.  These I glued together to form the door’s molding.  When it was dry, I painted it with maroon acrylic paint.  After the paint dried, the molding was glued in place around the door.

Making the table posts

Next on my list of things to do with the diner was to make the table posts.  In Kath Dalmeny’s book, she mentions using buttons painted silver as the base for the posts or table legs.  The posts are really dowels painted with silver metallic paint. 

I wasn’t interested in using buttons.  Frequently miniature books mention using things like buttons and jewelry findings to make miniature things, as though everyone has such things just lying around their house.  I don’t have a huge quantity of buttons that I’m willing to surrender to my latest miniature project.  I also don’t have random jewelry findings floating around my home either.  It’d be nice if someone wrote a miniature book about items that people actually do have in their house.  I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Since I didn’t want to use buttons, I had decided to use washers instead of the buttons.  My husband had gotten me the washers for Christmas one year.  I cut the dowels to the correct length with my razor saw and miter box.  Then I glued the cut dowel lengths to the washers with Tacky glue.  When the glue was dry, I painted the dowels with silver metallic paint.

Painting the interior cornice trim

While deciding on my next step, I noticed that the cornice molding in the diner needed to be painted.  I had toyed with the idea of somehow covering that area with lighting.  There’s already a light fixture in the diner, so I don’t really need to put lights on the molding.

I decided to paint the molding with maroon acrylic paint.  I tore off long pieces of masking tape and placed these around the edges of the molding to keep paint from getting onto to the walls and then painted the molding with one coat of paint.

When the paint was dry, I removed the masking tape and was left with nicely painted cornice molding.

Installing LED lighting strip

A few years ago the Hobby Builder’s Supply catalog began selling LED lighting.  They sell a strip of LED lights that will stick onto pretty much any surface.  When I saw this being sold, I thought immediately of my diner.  This Christmas, I put these lights on my Christmas list, and sure enough Santa gave them to me. 

As I mentioned earlier, the diner already has lights in it.  However, my plan was to install the strip of LED lights and remove the one lighting fixture that I had installed.  When I got the lights, I read the installation directions.  It said to affix the lighting strip to the positive side of the tape wire run with brass eyelets. 

Unfortunately, I’m not one for using eyelets in my electrical runs.  I’m more of a brass brads type of gal.  I was apprehensive to use something different then what the instructions called for, but came to the conclusion that the worst that would happen is the strip wouldn’t light up.  Most likely the diner wouldn’t burn down.  I removed the paper backing from the LED lighting strip and then affixed to the wall and ran it from the middle of one bay window to the next.  Then I pressed a brass brad at each end on the positive side of the tape wire.  I plugged in my lead-in wire to the junction splice and flipped the switch—and there was light!

The effect of the LED lighting was absolutely wonderful and added to the retro look of the diner.  Definitely worth it!!

After a week or so, I removed the old lighting fixture that I had installed when I initially began to decorate.  It was pretty easy to pull the one wall scone off the wall and then pull out the brads with the wire from the sconce wrapped around them from the wall.  I did need to touch up a few areas with paint after I removed more of the glue that had held the sconce in place.

Gluing booth seats to booth bases

While trying to put the furniture in the diner, I came to a conclusion.  The only way that everything would fit would be if I first glued the booths to the floor and from there glued everything else.  This meant that I would have to glue the booth seat pieces together before going any further.  I glued the seats first to the base carefully positioning the cushion pieces so that the whole unit could be glued flush to a wall.  The seats were of course covered with waxed paper and weighted down with books while the glue dried. 

Once the glue had dried, the backs were glued and positioned to correspond with the seat cushions.  Any glue that wanted to run down the edges was wiped away before it dried.

When the booths were finished I glued the ones that would rest against the back walls of the diner in place first.  Then I placed another booth across from it and tested out the fit of the tables.

Redoing the table tops

After the paint dried on my table posts, I tested out how everything would look together.  I came to the realization that when I had downsized the furniture that would go in my diner that I hadn’t taken into account the tables.  The tables needed to be resized.  I thought that I could just cut off part of the tabletop and then re-glue into place the strip of silver painted cardboard trim.  This I realized wouldn’t work and I also needed to test out various sizes for the tables before settling on the size I would use.  I cut out different sized pieces of cardboard and set them onto the table posts to test the effect.  Finally I decided on a size and then cut two pieces of foam core board to that size.  I cut heavy paper out and glued this to the tables just as I had done before.  In my efforts to salvage something from the original tabletops that I had made, I carefully tore off the silver cardboard trim from around the tables and then glued this in place around my newly sized tabletops.

In my efforts to glue the trim, the silver metallic paint became marred.  I tried to paint over this and touch it up in areas.  This worked but in the process I also got paint onto the tabletops surface as well.  I also tried to touch up areas of the trim surrounding the counter with similar results.  Some of the paint could be scraped off carefully with an

X-acto knife, but other areas the paint was a permanent fixture. 

To solve this problem, I cut out pieces of the heavy paper again and glued this to the tabletop’s surface.  I cut away any excess or pressed it down between the trim and the foam core board.

With the tabletops restored, I then glued the other booths to the floor across from their mate.  Gluing the table posts in place was next and was quickly followed up by gluing the tabletops to the posts.

Making the stools

I already made one stool cushion.  With the booths and tables in place I could return to the difficult task of making the second stool cushion.  For some reason, sewing the pieces together by hand went a bit faster than before.  The second cushion appeared to be a bit thicker than the first, but oh well. 

The next step was to glue two key rings together.  Kath Dalmeny’s book says to use super glue for this task.  I don’t have much experience with super glue and actually have almost an irrational fear of it.  I tried using Tacky glue to glue the key rings together, but it didn’t work.  So know I realized that the super glue was my only option.

My husband suggested wearing latex gloves when working with the super glue.  I took his advice.  Using the super glue on the key rings worked out nicely. 

I had previously painted some lengths of thin dowel with silver paint and cut them to the size I needed.  These were glued to the underside of the key ring and cushion combo with super glue.  This was pretty tedious and some of the dowels just didn’t seem to want to stay straight. 

When the dowels had dried in place I glued another larger key ring onto the dowel legs with super glue.  This was even more tedious than the previous gluing task because it was difficult to get the key ring to stay straight.  I used scotch tape to hold the key ring in place on the dowels.  This seemed to do the trick, but I found that when I removed the tape I was left with dried clumps of super glue in places.  So needless to say it didn’t look too great.

I tried to remedy the situation by taking nail polish remover to the glue globs.  This worked to remove the glue in some spots, but also had the undesired effect of reactivating the super glue—good thing I was wearing gloves!  In one instance the key ring came off of the dowels completely and had to be re-glued in place again.  I didn’t use scotch tape to keep it straight and so it wound up being a bit askew. 

The condition of the stools did bother me at the beginning, but I realized that I needed to get rid of my feelings that everything must be perfect.  I put the stools in the diner in front of the counter and other than being a little tall (which can be remedied) they look wonderful and the glue issues aren’t that noticeable.

Tube Bender issues

I have a length of aluminum tube that will need to be curved to fit around the lower part of the counter to act as a footrest.  I had no idea how to go about bending it, but thought that I might heat it up and then try to bend it. 

One of the gifts I received at Christmas was a book on building 30’s and 40’s style dollhouse furniture.  The book mentions using a tube bender as a tool to make some of the furnishings.  I had never heard of a tube bender.  My husband located a hobby shop, called Hobby Works that’s some distance from where we live and said that according to their website they carried it.  The day after Christmas, I called the store and asked if they had a tube bender.  The really nice man on the phone said that he would have one sent over from another location.  I gave him my name and number and he said he would contact me when it came in.  A few days went by and I didn’t receive a call, so I called again. 

This time I talked to a pretty surly man who said that they had never carried tube benders and that if I wanted it I would have to come to the store and special order it.  I found this whole episode to be a bit strange and decided to find it online.  I bought it from a store called Hobbylinc.  The cost was under $3 for the tube bender.  This didn’t include shipping and handling, but at least I wouldn’t have to do a lot of driving and deal with a crabby salesperson.