using the oval ornament from the previous post, i chose this time to cut it in half since it wouldn’t stand alone. i made the base the same way as the first bed, except i cut the dowels the full width of the 4 craft sticks.
glue the head and foot boards to the base lining up the bottom edges and clamp till dry. the clothespins would make funky legs but they are just temporary 😉
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bed for a 15cm prince(ss) number 2
bed for a 15 cm prince(ss) part 2
once the glue has set, line up the base with one set of curls to make sure it is straight and glue it on. clamp in place till glue dries. proper clamps would be ideal but clothes pins work in a pinch ;0)
you can leave the bed like that or paint it as desired.
verdict:
not very springy, it needs a mattress!
but it’s just the right size. 🙂
bed for a 15 cm prince(ss)
while we were waiting for paint to dry on the previous project, liya started hauling out wood and asking me to build her a princess bed that was just her size. feeling bad that every one thinks the poor girl is a boy since she is still bald i complied since it would be a fairly quick build anyway.
we gathered up a bunch of odds and ends to see what would work. the “frilly” ones are christmas ornaments i got on sale at michaels. we have jumbo craft sticks, odds and ends of square dowels left over from other projects, a bag of balsa scraps, my miter box, saws, pencil and glue. after some testing we decided to start with the rectangular ornaments for the head/footboard, the dowels for supports and 4 craft sticks for slats as the balsa wood was just a smidge too short and narrow.
next we figured out how high the bed should be and marked the dowel supports against the end boards at that point
and marked the ends of the craft sticks so they would be square not curved
i wrapped some scotch tape around the craft sticks so that i could cut them all at once. then laid the bundle flat in my miter box and zipped off the ends. it is turned this way just to show how even it came out. (the miter box is really handy for people like me who don’t really know how to do wood work, and if you use your 40% off coupon at michaels it is less than $10… even in canada!. go on a separate day and use the coupon to get the matching saw that cheap as well ;))
center the trimmed supports across the very ends of the slats making sure everything is square and even, and glue down using weld bond, or wood glue.
and placed a heavy weight on top and wait for the glue to dry
dollar store dresser upcycle part 4 finale
i painted the whole dresser with 2 coats of ultra matte varnish to maintain the lovely chalky/worn look no pics of that since it really doesn’t look any different. then glued down the knobs on the drawers measuring as carefully as possible to line them up
i’m really happy with the look and scale of them. once the glue sets i’ll be done, though it will take 24 hours for it to reach full strength.
and the finished dresser
looks much better i think than when it started, the glue still has to cure for another 23 hours or so before i can safely open the drawers, but i am very pleased with how it turned out.
bonus pic with the matching desk and my mline minifee meg for scale i haven’t decided if she will use it as a file cabinet or an end table yet. maybe both depending on the photo shoot.
Continue reading dollar store dresser upcycle part 4 finale »
dollar store dresser upcycle part 3
last color added. now it starting to look like a battered dresser, perfect for the room of a student or fledgling artist
while the paint is drying i started on the handles. i picked 6 small metal look buttons from my stash, cut the shafts off (using appropriate eye protection!) then glued on beads as spacers so they stick out a bit like real handles. this glue is really strong but has to cure over night so i started now. hopefully they will be ready by the time i finish the varnish coats.
dollar store dresser upcycle part2
base coat done and drying. it took four coats of paint but i managed to smooth out the top enough that you can barely see the divots. not something i would normally do, but i didn’t want to spend any extra money on a dollar store mdf dresser, and the paint was basically free since it was left over from another project. besides which the next step is to start painting distressed coats on top….
in the picture is also the paint i used. it is a great paint, seems to stick to anything. quite a bit pricier than the usual small tubes i use but the original project that needed coating was painted metal. i got it at michaels using my 50% coupon so it turned out not to bad. (we have a michaels right beside our favorite grocery store so i went in with a coupon 3 days in a row till i got the 3 colors i needed ;))
now for the fun part. this is where it temporarily starts looking worse. the first time i did this coat i gasped and said ” oh no, what have i done!” but i preserved and it got better… so, coat two is done with bright red painted on with a wooden stir stick dipped flat in the paint and then dragged across the surface to create a random pattern. the red needs to be both solid and blotchy if that makes sense. you want it to look chipped not transparent.
back view
dollar store dresser upcycle
ive been collecting odds and ends for quite a while with the goal of eventually building and furnishing a small dollhouse for my doll family. i decided it was time to start finishing up some of the projects that were in desperate need of an upcycle. one of the projects i’ve almost finished fixing is the desk meg was using in the last post. the supports didn’t match and the top was unfinished wood, but since i forgot to take pictures as i was going along i thought i would do a step by step of the matching dresser/file cabinet instead and then show them both together when i’m done 🙂
i started off with this
a $2 mdf jewelry box from the dollar store, pretty gaudy and the knobs are far too large for dolly scale, but the drawers fit nicely and everything is square so it has potential.
first step was stripping off the rhinestones and the knobs. which i did (very carefully) using a sharp knife.
next i paint it a creamy yellow using a chalk paint that sticks to anything
after the first coat i can see that the painted design is still showing through, and the divots from the rhinestones as well. i really should fill the latter in with wood filler, but i don’t have any on hand and i don’t want to go out and buy anything for this particular project, so i’m going to see if they will smooth out with a few more coats of paint.
quantum education
i thought it would be interesting to show the books in use to get an idea of the scale and how realistic they look, so here is meg busily study a text on quantum physics in her dorm room
my next obsession
…mini books! i took a photography class with my husband this fall and for the final project needed a couple of books. but i’ve always wanted to build a library for my kids so i went a bit crazy and cut up the whole stack of readers digests i’d been saving for years, just for that purpose.
here’s a sampling of some of the finished books. they all open. most just have random magazine pages, but some of them have mini printed excerpts from real books in the middle so they can be photographed open.
i think the final count was over 600! now i just need to build some book shelves….
a rug completed
i chose to complete the rug by trimming the edge back to about 5 rows past the stitching line, cutting a wedge out of the corner to cut down the bulk, then folding it back and satin stitching around the edge with a very narrow stitch in the pink.. after that i used a loose whip stitch and stitched the edging down flat to the back, catching only a stitch or two at a time so it wouldn’t show through on the front. now it looks just like the full sized rugs i have in my house, and the little girls are thrilled. crystal is showing it off here
after i was done someone pointed me to a great tutorial on how to finish rugs, so rather than re-inventing the wheel, i’ll just link to it here