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Tile kitchen countertop

The next step in the Mansard Victorian’s kitchen is the countertops.

Looking back at the inspiration picture, the countertop is white tile with a black border. The backsplash is subway tile, but you can’t tell in this picture what the countertop tile looks like.

I found a picture of another kitchen with a similar countertop. In this one you can see that it’s square tile on a diagonal, like I did on the floor.

I bought a 1/4″ square paper punch (the equivalent of 6″ in half scale). The squares are cut out of scrapbook paper, and I folded black squares over the edge of the wood to make the border. I left a small space between each tile to simulate grout lines. (I had painted the wood white before starting this process.)

One side finished. After taking the picture, I went around the sides and back with the nail scissors, cutting the tiles flush with the edge of the wood.

The black tiles got pretty gooped up with glue crumbs. I touched them up with a black Sharpie.

The cabinet will sit on top of the countertop, like this.

Next I applied clear Gallery Glass paint to each paper tile, to make them hard and shiny.


Looks pretty good. The tiles have a nice sheen.

I did the other side the same way and set them in place. This could have been the end of it.

But of course it wasn’t.

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Bashed Cassidy Creations cabinets — stove hood

Since my last post about the Mansard Victorian’s kitchen, I finished the second upper cabinet.

Then I started thinking about how to make a hood. I was enjoying bashing Cassidy Creations kits into something completely different from their intended purpose, so I sat down with my box of kits and went through them looking for something hood-like. I was down to the last few kits in the box when I spotted this.

I have a completed one of these already. Hey look — it’s exactly the right width!

I didn’t want to destroy my Bauder-Pine chest, but I didn’t mind bashing the kit. (Especially since I apparently only spent $1 for it!) Here’s what I came up with:

I kept the side pieces, and modified the original top and bottom pieces to create a new, wider front and back. The bottom is open, and the top is a thicker piece of basswood with a hole drilled into it for a light.

Here’s how it looks wedged between the two uppers.

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Half scale at Auntie Em’s Miniatures in Glendale, AZ

Last week Geoff and I took a trip to Arizona. We spent a couple days in Sedona and also visited the Grand Canyon — which is, as you can see below, very big.

On our way back to the airport, I sweet-talked him into taking me to Auntie Em’s Miniatures in Glendale. We got there at 2:15 and needed to leave at 3:30. Plenty of time, right?

I could have spent ALL DAY in this store.

Walking around looking at the houses on display, I noticed a few half scale.


This one is a Bauder-Pine shotgun house. There were plans for this house in the May 1995 Nutshell News. This one was built in a class.

If I hadn’t been about to get on an airplane, it would have come home with me.

And a couple of half scale shells. I don’t recognize either of these.


It was now 2:30 and I was worried about running out of time so I asked if they had a half scale section. The owner led me to this case. The top two shelves and left half of the bottom shelf were all half scale.

There was a good variety ranging from Bespaq to handmade stuff. A lot of kitchen accessories and food, some resin pieces, several of the raw wood Shenandoah Shaker furniture pieces.

There was also a rack of half scale components and accessories.

Most of the furniture was inside its own little plastic box, stuck down with putty, which was perfect for stuffing into my suitcase because I didn’t have to worry about it getting crushed.

I’ll show what I bought farther down in the post. But here’s one piece I didn’t buy.

I liked this southwestern table, but it was $40 and seemed like it wouldn’t be hard to make. I used that tile as the floor in my Orchid kitchen a million years ago and think I have some left.

These 1:12 porches also caught my eye.


I have one of these (not finished yet) in half scale. I’m not really sure what to do with mine — which might have something to do with why it’s unfinished — so I enjoyed seeing two different takes.


And one more shot of some of the vintage dollhouses on display. There was plenty of 1:12 stuff there too, and half of the store is devoted to vintage toys and pedal cars, but I just didn’t have time to see it all. (It’s not a huge store, but there’s a lot crammed in!)

So here’s what I bought. These William Clinger chairs were $35 and $40. I’ve always loved the William Clinger chairs but didn’t want to pay the (usually much higher than this) prices on eBay. Well, now I have a couple!

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