Natasha's Kitchen

Some of you long time readers know that my obsession with miniatures came sometime at the end of the last century. In secret, I was decorating and furnishing my daughter Natasha's first real dollhouse. I'd drop the kids off at school, rush back home, pull it out of it's hiding spot (under a cloth tarp in the laundry room's crawl space), and get as much accomplished during those school hours as possible. Christmas was coming up fast, and I was so new to every aspect of dollhousing. Wallpaper, trims, flooring, furnishings - what a dream! The house came as a pre-built plywood, two story structure with six rooms and a tiny porch. So much to do! Those short hours passed so quickly, and before I could believe it, it was time to hide it back in the laundry room again. Christmas came, she loved the dollhouse, and the whole family got involved in finishing the rooms and making little things to furnish and decorate with. But what a gift for me, too! I was left obsessed with an amazing and all consuming hobby. The rest, they say, is history...

Not long after Natasha got the dollhouse, she grew out of playing with it. That was the end of a short era for her. Now she's all grown up, 33, and while she likes to look at my projects and marvel at their tiny wonder, she has a busy life and has not been overly excited about miniatures. She's wonderfully encouraging and supportive of my interest, but hadn't shown a desire for her own to play with. Until recently.

There's a magical time in the lives of our adult children when they begin spending their weekends at Home Depot, improving their living spaces and becoming full fledged adults. Her texts now regularly include photos of furniture, design ideas and the style of kitchens she dreams of for her first house. The other thing to know about Tasha (as we call her), is that she is an amazing gourmet cook - something she definitely did not get from me!

Last fall, we started designing an imaginary kitchen for her, saving and comparing ideas and helping her to narrow down and identify her style. Meanwhile, I began to look for the perfect room box in which to create that kitchen for her in 1/12th scale. When I hinted that she may just get a mini kitchen for her birthday in July, she was immensely excited! And that, of course, made me extraordinarily excited! The goal is to give her a mini version of her dream kitchen. One that she can decorate for the seasons with tiny culinary replicas including fruits, produce, decore and wonderful mini cookware. It'll make giving future gifts so much fun! And maybe... She'll even go to shows with me!

Tasha's niche seems to be a little modern, a little rustic, open, not fussy, and with a slight nautical feel.

To house these exciting ideas, I found a unique-to-me room box on eBay. It seemed to have just enough space inside for a well equipped kitchen without being too obtrusive a structure for a new-to-miniatures person. It had a unique gable roof - unusual for a room box, and would be fully enclosed with a polycarbonate front panel that could be removed to play, decorate and clean, if I hinged the front roof panel.

Initial plans for her room box include a number if things she'd really like to have incorporated into her dream kitchen. Like her mother, she is very practical, loves a combination of modern and traditional styles, loves function mostly over form, and appreciates subtlety over crudeness. She wants to be involved in the periphery, making key decisions as I need input, but mostly she wants to be surprised. I've shown her some elements and gotten feedback, but she's got instructions to keep away from my blog!

To be absolutely certain of the layout and sizing, I made graph paper drawings of the space - all three walls and the floor. The back wall, 14" wide, will include a central gas cooktop, built in double ovens, a glass front cabinet and open wooden shelving.

The left side wall, 9" wide, will house the sink, dishwasher and more open shelving. My first challenge, and an affirmation of why I like to take the time to plan spaces out on graph paper, was the window. At first, I thought using a very large, 5-1/2" wide x 5-1/4" high modern looking window would be good. After drawing it in and seeing it with my eyes, I realized it was too large and really dominated the space.

Using a smaller, single window, I was able to enlarge the open shelving a bit and came up with a lower cabinet design I liked better, too. This one centers the sink in the space.

For the right side of the kitchen, I don't have a full wall to work with due to the area required for accessing the double ovens. Here, I decided to incorporate a wet bar, leaving space between the ovens and the wet bar for essential apron storage. Tasha loves aprons, and I am prone to finding really cute ones to give her as random "thinking of you" gifts. It would be fun to try and replicate some of them in the build. The wet bar was one of the elements that I really wanted to get Tasha's input on. So until we could collaborate, I created a generic template.

You'll also notice that I made a graph paper template of the floor. That way, I could really see how much floor space there would be with 2" deep counters. Is there space for an island? Yes, but the space actually left for bar stools is questionable. If the countertop overhangs enough, maybe there's room for two. The space between the counters and the island is the 1/12th conversion of the 1:1 standard space of 42". In one inch scale, that is 3.583 or approx. 3-19/32". Seems like a lot until you actually look at it. Often, you are able to shave a little off the 1:1 standard in your 1/12th conversion and it will still look reasonable. We'll see in the end if there are stools or no stools, but this is another confirmation for me that I should always take the time to make the graph paper drawings. It saves a lot of disappointment and frustration later on.

Since it was Russ' birthday last weekend, and because Tasha and her fiancé Brent have had Covid (and therefore antibodies), we felt safe about having a masked and distant gathering here with them. I was able to confer with Tasha about the wet bar, and with her input, came up with a combination of these two in the design for the last wall:

Now that the basic layout has been settled, I can turn my attention to the structural tasks. The walls in this kit are only 8-3/8" tall (not including the gabled walls). That will never do! A good, modern kitchen must have a minimum of 9 foot ceilings in real life. You can see in my drawings that I made lines at 9" and 10" on the graph paper to determine how tall I'd like the walls to be.   

I added 1-1/2" strips of plywood to the tops of the walls to bring them up to 9-11/16" high. That should help to make the space feel more grand, and clear the way for open trusses in the gabled ceiling. She was very excited about that idea! Now I hope I can pull it off!

You probably noticed that the herringbone floor has been finished, too. Well, almost. When I consulted with Tasha, she was in agreement with me that the kitchen might feel more modern if there were less contrast between all three wood species. That can likely be achieved with a darker stain. I'm going to try the dark walnut that I used on the front edge strip and see how it goes. 

In my next post, I'll share all the info about the floor, including resources for the material, and how I got 'er done. Hopefully, I'll have the sink window and skylight holes cut, and the hinge installed on gable roof. Sawdust... Here I come!

Have a great week my friends! Hope it includes something creative!

xo xo

Jodi

Twenty~Two Tomorrows...

I am shocked at the degree to which time just slips away from me this past year. No excuses. Suffice to say that many times since December 10th, when I'd look at the roofing left to be completed on both Vera and Virgil's cottages, I'd say "tomorrow". There were at least Twenty~Two Tomorrows... But finally, the roofing is finished!

In looking at the last dozen of my mini projects, I managed to avoid using traditional wooden shingles on nine of them. There's no denying I have an aversion to them - probably because I am hyper critical of my results and therefore try to come up with any other kind of roofing that will do the job. If I need accountability, I look no farther than my "leftover shingles" drawer. There are at least four giant bags of various kinds in there to choose from, all from projects where I managed to avoid using them in favor of a metal roof, Paperclay tiles, or simply no roof at all. But this time, I faced my fears and made a deal with myself to accept and love the results no matter the outcome. It turns out I actually really enjoyed the process this time! Take the judgement out and I reconnect to the fun of mini building.

Now what's left on the cottages are the furnishings, the little details and to make a final decision on how I want to incorporate the plug strips for the wiring. These I can do as the urge to make furniture kits or cleverly hide wiring inspire me. Like with the bakery or the Storybook cottage, I hope that inspiration to finish them comes sometime. Until then, as is my true MO, I have started on a new project that has me captivated. I'll share more on that in my next post. Hopefully, it won;t be so long until the next one.

Stay safe, hopeful and patient, my friends.

xo xo,

Jodi

A Porch For Vera

When driving through neighborhoods, one of the things about houses that practically make me slam my breaks on is a charming front porch. I have been known to park and take photos. My grandparents had a super good one growing up. It had fancy carved posts painted white along with carved wooden panels stretched between. Set against the red brick structure with 8 foot high curved windows and beautiful Corinthian molding, it was as 'Leave It To Beaver' as they come.  The best part about that porch was it's size. It was large enough to amply accommodate my using it as my home when playing house. I'd drag all the boxes, blankets and kitchen items my grandma would let me get away with and set up my cozy abode. I was the envy of the neighborhood kids. It was devastating years later when my grandpa enclosed it. Sure, it made sense to have an airlock during cold Montana winters to keep the cold from invading the living room, but it really just ruined the charm of the front facade. We won't even discuss how grandpa later removed the front bay window, too. Grandpa was a practical man to the bone, but what a tragedy! I wish I could have found photos to share with you, but you'll just have to imagine it.

When it came to thinking about the kind of porch that would make both Vera and I happy, it was clear that it would need to be Victorian in style and coloring, with a good bit of interesting detail. But not so complicated that it ruined the fun of doing it. I dug through my "someday" drawers to try things out, and settled on fancy carved posts and laser cut cardboard low fencing pieces for the balustrade. Once that was settled it was time for a mock up and measuring.

The blocky posts on the right came with the Lisa's kit.

Once I had the measurements, I used some 1/4" x 1/4" basswood for the base. To make channels for the fencing, I sandwiched a piece of 1/16" x 1/8" between two 1/8" x 1/4" pieces. This created the frames that I could slide the fence pieces into which would then attach to the posts. With all of that worked out, it was time for tedious painting and fitting.

Then methodical gluing...

But patience persevered!

Vera and I are happy with the outcome, and she is already working on a layout for all her flowers and decor...

And asking when I might have time to assemble her rocking chair.

Soon, sweet lady. Soon... But first, the roofing.

Xo Xo,

Jodi