Kitchen Dresser Finally Finshed! - July-August 2010

Firstly, welcome to my new followers.  I hope this post makes up for the long wait for an update.  I would have posted this a couple of weeks ago had it not been for making a huge mistake and having to rebuild my dresser - more on that in a minute!

So, after many long hours I've finally finished my Georgian kitchen dresser!

It started well.  I made the carcass relatively quickly and then spent some time making the little drawers.  My fiancé then suggested I try it in my dolls house and unfortunately I then discovered my mistake - I'd made it over scale for a small dolls house kitchen.  I have learnt a valuable lesson -be careful when scaling off full size furniture as it's not always meant for small dolls house rooms!

Luckily, I know a man with the appropriate tools and he chopped half an inch off the width and the height so I still had most of my carcass intact and just had to re-glue the base on.  In the end, I also decided to make it shorter as well so I kept two drawers the same size and just made the little one smaller.  I think it works ok.

Today, I finally finished it. It has a chicken coop in the base (for those that are wondering what on earth it's for!) as the Georgians used to keep chickens in the kitchen as they thought they laid better if kept in the warmth during winter

I just need a few drawer knobs and some chickens :)

If anyone knows where you can get realistic chickens please let me know.  I've only found fairly crude ones so far that are too glossy to look real!

This is the chopped down carcass for the base and I've added a top to hide wood edges and finish it off nicely.

Base with scalloped trim.  I cut those with a knife then sanded them smooth.

Top shelf unit with decorative moulding - getting the mitred corners right was tricky.

Base unit with chicken coop - the middle section lifts up to let the chickens out / collect eggs.  The shelf is for them to roost on.
I used small pieces of paperclip wire to hinge the door.

Completed dresser minus the drawer knobs and a few coats of wax.

The dresser in situ in my kitchen.  Thankfully looking the right size now :)