Lawbre Greenhouse Construction Progress

Happy spring everyone! Though you would not notice any difference if you were here in the northwest US with me. It is foggy, gray with low lying clouds, very chilly and drizzling with tiny droplets of rain. Would someone please tell the sun and the flowers that it is time to come out now??? Ah well, at least here in my work room I am doing spring things - building the Lawbre Greenhouse kit!

While I would never want to discourage anyone, I am compelled to say that it is no wonder why you do not see many photos of this completed kit. Nor can any blog posts be found about building one. It is fiddly, complicated, has loads of parts, takes an extra amount of patience and, while it has extensive instructions, some of them are not very clear. It is "vintage", long out of production, and not cheap if you do happen to find one. I purchased both of mine from eBay: this kit with the potting shed/greenhouse and a stand alone greenhouse only kit. But I am a glutton for hard things and can never pass up a kit from times past. Let me expound on the assembly process...

Kit Components

The first thing you need to do is to pull apart the instructions to remove the included building template sheets. With these, you will make a board to pin the parts to for assembly. You'll need large sheets of foam core boards to attach the templates to, then you'll have to cover the templates in waxed paper so you do not ruin them with glue. This is because for the long sides and roof sides, you will need to use the template boards twice. For the Potting Shed and Greenhouse kit, there are four sheets: long wall (x2), roof side (x2), end wall and door. In the freestanding greenhouse only kit there is an additional template for the end wall with no door.

My Foam Core boards were 11" x 14" x 1/8" and were the perfect size. Luckily I already had them in my supplies. I used an Elmer's Glue Stick to adhere the template onto the foam core board, then covered the template with waxed paper using Zots to hold it in place.

I followed the instructions, using "T" pins to hold the parts in place while the glue dried. I used Gorilla Wood Glue for the wood to wood adhesion and Fast Grab Tacky Glue for the "glass" jobs..

At this point everything needed to be painted before inserting the "glass" (which is just some sort of plexi material). The wood is nice but needs a good deal of sanding. I am not super happy with the glossy finish for the black paint: it is Wrought Iron by Patio Paint. It is weather resistant so I should have considered more carefully before settling on it. It isn't terrible in person, but the gloss finish and photos aren't the best of friends.

In between all the gluing and painting I started on the greenhouse floor. I didn't have many of the clay bricks left over from the potting shed but I did have a lot of Magic Brik sticker roll in my stash. I covered the MDF floor in primer, then stuck down the brick sticker in several rows.

I made a mistake when I used a mystery baggie full of powder to make the bricks with. It was not a good mortar. I think I had made the same mistake a while back and didn't like the results. But because it was a while back, I forgot and repeated the same mistake. Can I blame menopause? It was too gritty and too runny and wanted to pull up with the sticker. I should have used joint compound. At any rate, it was not the look I wanted but I decided I could rise to the challenge and make it work. Instead of uniform brick it turned into an ancient and worn out paver look. Whatever.

Mortar spread over the sticker paper

Pulling off the sticker sheet along with some of the "bricks"

Once it dried I sanded and cleaned up the grout lines a bit.

To make the bricks coordinate with the bricks in the potting shed (at least in color tone), I repeated the color palette from my last post. Then I applied whitewash, then sealer, then spackle for the grout. I applied a grayish wash once everything was dry. It still needs more aging, but I'll save that for when I apply the final aging to the entire structure. That way it stays uniform.

Initial coloring

Applying matte sealer

Turned out well enough for a greenhouse floor

Once the floor was ready I began to assemble the walls. I am playing with the idea of leaving one of the walls removable so that it is easier to set up and take photos. Only two of the three walls are glued to the floor now.

A daisy chain of rubber bands held the floor tightly to the walls while the glue dried

I left the door to open in or out for scene flexibility

The third wall is not attached

I made a valiant start on the roof, but that is a whole new level of complicated!!! I had hoped to have it finished for this week's post, but the process is going much slower than the walls had gone. Hopefully, next week, I'll have the roof plus the landscape board to share. And I also hope to share some exciting updates on the real life family room progress!

Until we meet again, I wish you blooms and buds and a bit of sunshine!

xo xo, 

Jodi