New additions to the nursery

The Victorianna’s nursery is coming together. I’ve been working on trim, starting with the built-in corner cabinet. I can’t add crown molding until the ceiling is glued in, but I cut the pieces before gluing the cabinet into the room. I then glued them together, using the cabinet as a guide but not actually gluing the crown to the cabinet yet. This is a deep room, so having the crown glued together ahead of time should make it easier to install when the time comes.

I recently bought a new miter box to cut 67.5 degree angles. (My other one only does 90, 45, and 60.) This will come in handy for the baseboards and crown molding around the towers, the corner shower in the master bath, and any other trim pieces that make up an octagon or a portion of an octagon. My old method was to cut 90 degree angles on one piece and 45 degrees on the piece that butted up against it, but then the back corners don’t meet up nicely. It’s an okay fudge if the corners will be covered up, but I want the trim pieces in the towers — and on this cabinet for that matter — to be nice and neat.

Next I cut the baseboard pieces, again at 67.5 degree angles, and glued them on to the cabinet. The edges that meet the wall are cut at a 45 degree angle to meet up with the baseboard there.

One last coat of paint, and now the cabinet is ready to be glued in.

Here it is installed, along with the baseboard along this wall. That pesky zebra butt is gone forever!

I mentioned in a previous post that the baby I ordered was taking her sweet time getting here from the UK. She finally made it! I bought this clay doll from Sheryl Coupland on Etsy. Her dolls are adorably detailed and the prices are reasonable. She doesn’t have much half scale in her shop right now, but I have seen a lot of 1:24 dolls there in the past few months as I kept checking for the perfect addition to my scene.

Like in the little girl’s room downstairs, I added 5/64″ double bead trim above and below the border strip. The flocked giraffe toy is a generous gift from Debora Loughner (dalesq at the Greenleaf forum) — she added nail flocking powder to a plastic toy. The detail is amazing.

Here’s my other exciting Etsy purchase — a custom-made bouncy chair, high chair, and swing from Jane Timms at Thimblemins. I had been looking for a high chair that didn’t look fake and I was blown away when I stumbled across this store but, as usual, everything was 1:12 scale. I reached out about doing a custom order in 1:24 scale. Lucky me, Jane said yes!

Jane suggested matching the pieces to the wallpaper, which prompted me to order the matching safari fabric from Itsy Bitsy Mini. I used some for my crib and changing table and then mailed Jane the rest. She was was wonderful to work with and I couldn’t be happier with the result. I plan to put the high chair in the kitchen, and the bouncy chair and swing will go in the nursery.

As I tried to take pictures of the room with the new pieces in it, I realized how hard it is to see everything due to the slanted roof and the tower jutting into the room. This angle won’t be visible once the roof is glued on. (Also I had to hold up a plastic lid against the open wall so you wouldn’t see my messy workshop beyond the dollhouse…)

This top view will also be gone once the roof is on.

And viewing the room from the open side, you can’t even see the baby!

I’d already taken a zillion photos when it occurred to me to rearrange the furniture. This provides a better view of the crib.

In spite of its funny shape, the nursery does have a good amount of floor space. I’m cross stitching a rectangular rug to go there. I adapted this design from a real rug, and I plan to make the chart available for download when I’m finished with it. I’ll post more about this later, but here’s a sneak peek.

I’ll add a knee wall behind the chair and bouncy chair, and wallpaper it once the roof is glued in. I found this piece of wood in my scrap pile. It’s painted with a tough shell of glossy off-white paint that makes me pretty sure this piece came out of the McKinley I salvaged and then scrapped 14 years ago. Like I’m always saying, never throw anything away. Someday that scrap will be exactly what you need.

I love this — the baby can sit in the swing!

That’s it for now — the rest of the trim and wallpaper need to wait until the roof is on. I glued those toys into the cabinet facing left so they would look good from the open side of the room, but now that I’ve moved the crib it sort of looks like they’re all staring at the baby…