The Den of Slack

emilymorganti.com

Page 231 of 240

McKinley – mosaic table

September 25, 2004 / / 1 Comment

I had been intending to buy some kind of pedestal table for the McKinley’s kitchen, but recently came up with an idea to make my own. I paid a few dollars at Goodwill for a butterfly windchime from Pier 1 (still in the box). It had a round, flat glass top and seven glass butterflies that hung down on invisible thread. One of the butterflies was broken, but I thought I could cut the others off and make them into Christmas ornaments or suncatchers. When I did this, I was left with the round top, which seemed like a good size for a dollhouse table top. I have always loved Pier 1’s mosaic tables… I have a coffee table in that style, and had been eyeing a dining table that stopped being available in their stores before I had a house big enough for it… so, once again, I decided to live out my life-sized dreams in miniature.

Rather than building legs, I tried resting the table top on top of a Mackintosh reading table I bought last year and so far have found nothing to do with. Initially this was just to see how the glass piece would look as a table top, but I like the effect so much I may leave it this way. I couldn’t find any good mosaic pictures at the Pier 1 website so I used Google’s image search and stumbled upon this great mosaic supply site. I went through their gallery (apparently all the work of students) and saved several mosaics that I thought might look nice. I resized them in Photoshop to match the diameter of the table top and printed them out.

The little holes in the table top are where the thread for the butterflies went through. With the mosaic in place, the holes are barely noticeable!

Continue reading

Fairfield – furniture

August 24, 2004 / / 0 Comments

I started building the Fairfield after receiving a set of Avon Victorian Memories kitchen furniture as a gift (most of which I’m not actually using in the house!) Since this is my first half scale endeavor, I’m furnishing the Fairfield from scratch. I still have a lot of furniture to buy / make, but here are pictures of some of the first semi-completed rooms.

I intended to use the Avon kitchen in this house, but decided instead on something more modern. (This picture of the kitchen was taken when I was debating putting a window where the door should be. I decided instead to board up the door altogether.)

The cabinets and fridge are from a Town Square set, and the oven is an Acme magnet. The table and chairs are from the Avon kitchen. I’ll be doing a bit of bashing to the kitchen furniture before it’s done. I want to replace the fridge handles and sink faucets with ones that look more realistic. Since I’m using the oven magnet, I didn’t need the oven that came with the Town Square set. I removed the door from the Town Square oven to make shelves for cookbooks. I will cover the stovetop up, maybe with a microwave. I’m also thinking of getting another of these kitchen sets and bashing it to make upper cabinets… or maybe putting up white shelves with pretty dishes on them instead.

I bought Delft tile paper for the kitchen, but the dollhouse shop only had one sheet and it wasn’t big enough. So, I scanned it, did a little color correcting to make the blue darker, and printed it out. I wouldn’t have been satisfied with this in one inch scale (even on the best setting, my printer is not as crisp as a professionally printed design) but in half scale it worked pretty well! I put the Delft paper on the walls with the cabinets, and a blue scrapbook paper that looks like sponge painting on the other walls.

(The wires on the floor are from the sconce in the front entryway. I drilled a hole and ran the wires through the kitchen wall.)

I’m starting to think this table looks a little out of scale in the room. I may replace it with a Cassidy Creations pedestal table.

Continue reading

Fairfield – electricity

August 23, 2004 / / 3 Comments

I did not intend to electrify the Fairfield. I figured with a house half the size of what I was used to, and for which it would be harder to find fixtures, it just wasn’t worth it. Then I saw someone else’s Fairfield lit up and changed my mind! I had already assembled most of the shell when I decided this, but I was still able to run tapewire to most of the rooms. The warping actually came in handy here because it allowed me to slip tapewire from the bedroom wall into the dining room, where the warped floor didn’t have a tight fit.

The wire in the kitchen goes under the foundation to the junction splice.

All the ceiling fixtures will be hardwired to the floor above them.

Half scale lights aren’t as easy to find as 1:12 lights, but Dollhouses, Trains, and More did have a small selection. Unfortunately, many of the ones they had on display were sold out Marie Toner lights, which are no longer available! But I did get a few. So far I’ve electrified the kitchen, living room, and front entry. I just ordered lights for the rest of the house from The Lighting Bug.

I put Marie Toner lights in the living room and entry. They really are neat. And interestingly enough, the wires didn’t split or break at all as I was wrapping them around the brads… with most lights this happens a lot! It made me wonder if these use a different / better quality wire than most of the mass-produced ones. The living room light hangs down a bit low, but in this room it shouldn’t interefere with any furniture.

   

Continue reading

« Older posts Newer posts »

Follow

RSS

Subscribe to Blog Updates

Fine Print

Privacy Policy

Calendar

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

© 2025 The Den of Slack

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑