Sunday 8 August 2010

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 :)
Posted by at 21:45

6 comments:

  1. The Dangerous Mezzo29 August 2010 at 18:09

    That's a lovely dresser -- I'm working on a William and Mary/Queen Anne/Early Georgian house at the moment and really enjoy your blog :)

    Thanks for the earlier tips about the Phoenix grate model, too.

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  2. Jennifer31 August 2010 at 13:39

    Thanks DM. I enjoy your blog too - your William and Mary House is really coming along.

    You're welcome. I like passing on the info as it can be hard to find period items sometimes.

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  3. Martha 1 September 2010 at 11:23

    Enjoyed reading your blog! Have always adored dolls houses and finally bought a second hand one. Cheating I know but my main interest is in furnishing and decorating it. Hadn't thought of building furniture but you have given me food for thought.
    Don't worry that we are two dogs - we occasionally let our human borrow our identity!!!

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  4. Gilly Jelly1 September 2010 at 20:24

    Hi there,

    I love reading your blog, I'm doing an Edwardian house and like finding out what other people get up to and how they do things.
    Your dresser looks great I bet you are really pleased with it. I was originally going to do a Georgian house but seem to have collected alot of Edwardian bits over time so that's why I opted for that era. I did quite a bit of research and found a fantastic website which has so many photo's on it of loads of different periods of houses. You may have been on it already but if not I thought I'd let you know as the hardest part for me has been finding any decent pictures to work from. Google NEN Gallery go on to the home page click on the history section then on page 2 the album is "inside a Georgian house" it has so many fantastic photos of virtually every room in a middle class georgian house and is really inspirational.

    happy looking

    Linda

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  5. Jennifer1 September 2010 at 21:38

    Thanks very much Linda - that's a brilliant link. I've seen some of the photos before but not the site and the way it's organised is really good.

    Of course, you could always have some Georgian furniture that the owners have kept as antiques....?

    It's great to know that people like reading my blog. I just need to do another update now!

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  6. Karin Corbin16 March 2011 at 05:19

    Chickens? No problem, talk to Linda Master, she loves chickens, has had them as pets for many years. Linda is a master carver of dollhouse miniatures who will make you as many chickens as you want.

    Linda's website
    http://www.artisansinminiature.com/miraclechickenurns.html

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