Unfinished Bespaq kitchen for the Turret House

It’s been a couple of years since I touched the Turret House. I have a tendency to go all-in on a dollhouse for a while, and then put it aside for an even longer while. (Ahem, speaking of which, I’ll have an update on the Mansard Victorian soon…)

To refresh your memory, this is an ornate Victorian bashed from an American Craft Queen Anne Rowhouse, which I’m decorating with over-the-top colors and details. I’m planning on a fancy interior as well.

Last week, during a late-night eBay search, I came across this unfinished Bespaq kitchen and impulsively decided I needed it for the Turret House. I paid $245 with Buy It Now. I’m glad I happened to check eBay before bed, because I’m sure it would have been gone by morning.

I have a similar kitchen set that I bought ten or more years ago for the Little Belle (which has also been sitting, untouched, all this time). Both of these kitchens also include an island, which you’ll see farther down. The walnut kitchen did not come with a sink.

I paid significantly less for this set (I think $20 per piece), and someone on one of the mini forums later informed me that it was a knock-off. I didn’t notice until too late that the cabinet next to the fridge doesn’t have the medallions that are on the other cabinets.

At the time I was aware of two 1:12 kitchens made by Bespaq. One was the Provincial, which has medallions.

The other was the Mercer, which has plain doors.

I assumed mine was a half scale Provincial, but after someone told me it was a knock-off, I looked into it and learned that there was only one 1:24 version of this kitchen, which had plain doors like the Mercer. Long story short: my walnut kitchen was not genuine Bespaq, but I didn’t care. It’s still a nice set and I got it for a good price.

The day after I placed my impulsive midnight order, I took out my knock-off kitchen to see how it looked in the house. The stove and the corner piece fit perfectly along the back wall, but the single cabinet slightly overlaps the doorway, and then there’s nowhere to put the sink.

In theory, I could fill in the doorway to add the sink to the left wall, but then there would be no door into the room.

And even if I could accept having a kitchen with no door, the house has a back panel with a back door that would be blocked by the cabinets.

I bought this house as an assembled shell, and it’s very well built. The wall partitions are nailed in from the top and bottom. I spent a little time thinking about whether I *really* wanted to destroy this nice wall.

Of course I did.

I started yanking on it and was able to pop the front bottom piece off the nail pretty easily. The nail just came through the front of the plywood.

Then I twisted that piece until it snapped in half.

After cutting off the tape wire and pounding on the other piece of wall a bit, I was able to get it out too.

I removed the nails with something out of Geoff’s toolbox. (Pliers? Vice grips?)

Then I laid out the kitchen with the (invisible) sink on the back wall and the stove on the left. I put the broken piece of wall back in to give an idea of where the new wall will end. There’s not quite enough space for a door, so I’ll put in a shallower wall to provide access from the dining room.

A few days later the new kitchen arrived. Here it is with the island. I like that the set is unfinished because I’ll be able to glue the pieces together and fill in the seams between the counters and backsplash pieces. I’ll also add a new toe kick to fill in the gaps between the pieces.

Besides the medallions, you can see several variations between the knock-off stove and the real one: the hood, cooktop, knobs, and oven doors are slightly different.

The knock-off pieces are also a little shorter.

And they have different item numbers. I’ve heard that knock-off furniture was made in the same Chinese factory as genuine Bespaq. Hansson was one of the brand names (case in point, this Hansson kitchen that looks a lot like the Bespaq Provincial). There was another company called UOL HK that sold on Etsy, but I just looked for them and it seems they’ve gone out of business.

(Bespaq, too, has gone out of business. Several years ago, Debbie Heard bought their remaining inventory and she was selling it off in her eBay store, but it seems like she’s mostly sold through it. She does coincidentally have an unfinished 1:12 Provincial kitchen up for sale right now.)

One last comparison shot. My knock-off island doesn’t have the medallions on the doors, and it came with plain glass at the top instead of stained glass.

Here’s how the kitchen pieces will look in the newly expanded space. It’s a shame they don’t take advantage of the tall ceiling, but maybe I can add a decorative bulkhead above them… stained glass with lights behind it?

And there’s room for the island too. I think this small, dark kitchen will benefit from light-colored cabinets, rather than the dark stain they would have had if they came finished.