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Half scale sleigh bed from a kit

The sleigh bed I made for the Victorianna’s little girl’s room is a kit I bought off eBay, and the instructions didn’t come with it. I went online looking for pictures and ended up on Karen Benson’s website. One piece from my kit is stamped HCC which I think stands for “Heritage House Collection.” I don’t know if they’re associated with Karen Benson in some way but it seems to be the same kit, and from the photo on her website I was able to figure out how it goes together. And once I figured that out, I promptly changed it!

[Clarification 11/29/15: I was poking around the Half Scale Yahoo group and found a post from 2001 that says Karen Benson bought the Heritage House Collection line. Mystery solved!]

Here are the pieces that came with the kit:

Something about the base bothered me. It doesn’t have a front and back piece — just side pieces — so the feet end up looking one-dimensional instead of having the bulk of many the sleigh bed feet I found on Google Images. I decided to leave off the bottom pieces and make my own bulky feet.

I started by assembling the frame. Easy enough.

These pieces were supposed to go together to form the headboard and footboard. Sleigh beds have curved tops so maybe I was supposed to sand the top of the skinny piece to curve it?

I had some quarter round of the correct thickness lying around, so I used that instead.

With the quarter round glued on the top was a little too tall, jutting out above the side pieces. The quarter round I used is the same height as the pieces I replaced, so this might have been by design?

Easily fixed! I used the disc sander to sand down the bottom of the piece until it fit well.

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Flea market find: House of Hidden Treasures

In August I went to a miniature flea market, which is always dangerous for my wallet. I got some great half scale things I’ve been meaning to blog about, the first being a House of Hidden Treasures kit by American Craft that I bought for $15.

This kit is similar to the Queen Anne Rowhouse I’ve been working on on and off for a few years. It’s meant to be a jewelry box, but it’s scaled appropriately for half scale. House of Hidden Treasures is a catchy name, but I’m going to go the boring route and call mine the Queen Anne Cottage.

I’ve only ever seen one of these built up before, in this old Etsy listing. I emailed the seller to ask if I could repost her photos and she said yes. (Thanks Candy!)

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Walk-in closet with clothes

Want to make your own clothes with hangers? Scroll to the bottom of the post for a tutorial!


I have always loved the idea of closets in dollhouses. Usually mini closets are bump-outs, like the Timberbrook closet kit I used way back when in my Orchid. But adding the laundry closet to the Victorianna’s bathroom gave me an opportunity to build a real, walk-in closet in the bedroom on the other side of the wall.

I forgot to take an establishing shot before I started on this project, but here’s what the room looked like before I added hardwoods and started wallpapering.

I made a clothing rod out of two Northeastern Scale Lumber brackets and a dowel. I got this idea from Greenleaf forum member LadyGunn who made 1:12 curtain rods this way.

Initially, the dowel was very tight in the holes. I actually snapped two brackets in half trying to cram them in. (Good thing these come in packs of four!) It loosened up as I was playing with it, but I still decided not to paint the rod, just so added paint thickness wouldn’t interfere with assembly.

I made a shelf to go on top of the rod. The hanger and overalls are a Mark Richards 3D sticker that I stumbled upon at Tuesday Morning. They only had one packet, which included four dainty hangers made out of wire. I looked online and tried another local Tuesday Morning but couldn’t find any more of these.

The closet door is a Houseworks door, positioned with the trim on the inside. I added basswood to the outer edges so it fits snugly in the opening. I’ll add a piece at the top to close in the closet, and then add wallpaper and casing around the edge of the door. But it’ll be next to impossible to rearrange things in the closet once it’s all glued in, so I have to do everything I need to inside before finishing the outside.

And that means making some clothes! I agonized over how to do this. I wanted a realistic looking closet for the tween girl whose room this is, but sewing is not my forte. Then last week someone asked about making clothes on the Yahoo half scale group and Carol Jones posted about making dresses out of printouts from the web. And I thought, hey, I can manage that!

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