22:27

Houseworks Double Room Box......DONE!

Here it is. Months and months later.....I finally get the chance to write about my room box! It is the Houseworks Double Room Box from The Little Dollhouse Company that you have scene in numerous mini scenes, just never as a finished whole in photos.

Walls and Doors

There were a few challenges. The walls are really, really thin plywood. So, I had to smear a thing layer of wood filler all over them and sand them smooth. Then prime and paint. I believe this is the wall colour of my bedroom!

The thin walls meant the door frames just seemed to jut out way too far into the opposite room. I corrected this with thin wood trim that sat sandwiched between the wall and the door frames. This made the thickness of the frame relatively equal on both sides of the wall. I had similar issues on the front door too, but I had more framing and bits to play with so, I could hide it better.

Then, there was the floor and the bottom of the door frames. Notice the right side of the room box is higher then the left? That's because I lay a thin plywood subfloor on the right side. Again, the door frame base seemed SO high above the the wood floor. And these are Houseworks doors I might add!

The whole bag of weirdness left me thinking, what the heck is wrong with this?? It's the same manufacturer!

Whatever. That's what morning runs to Michael's with my 50% off one item coupon is for. Wood and more wood and glue.

Left Room

Right Room

Floors

The floors are stir sticks. There a bit more narrow then regular popsicle sticks. And I wasn't in the mood for veneer.

They were stained in Minwax Classic Grey and finished with a satin polyurethane.

FUN TIP!

Have a bench vice? You can clamp reasonably 6 popsicle sticks in them....just catch the rounded ends in the vice...tighten very snug....then pull each stick forward one by one to get a clean break that nips off the end! Repeat on the other end of the stick. You can knock out tons of sticks in a short time. It does work for snapping any length you might subsequently like, rather then hand cut, but beware if you tighten it too snug, the vice might leave an imprint on the wood.

Photo: Lowes.com
http://www.lowes.com/pd_552524-281-4935507_1z11pbc__?productId=50168501&pl=1

The Exterior

You make recall a past post about egg carton stone, well, there is the finished product! The cinder blocks are coarse sandpaper. In fact, the cinder block area is really the wood base I mounted the room box on. It was a smart move. It makes the structure very secure and sound given the thinness of the plywood.

The Front Door

I grabbed a cute battery operated light for the front door. And as soon as I turned it on, the on/off tab broke. Usable, but I now need the tip of the craft knife to move the switch. It was perfect for 30 seconds...and then I had to go and touch it. Ha.

The house numbers are kind of fun. I keep my tiny minis in small divided tray containers. The dividers are movable....but I have so many I used on as the slightly frosted plastic back for my house numbers! It's suspended off the wall using jewelry findings (the long metal sticks with the flat ends for earrings). The numbers are jewelry charms from ebay....I just nipped the loop off the top, sanded and painted a flat silver.

And......

One last shot of the air conditioner on the roof. I might add that I realize I never added vents or light switches in the room box as I wrote this post. Gah!!!