Beachside Bungalow - Butcher Block Busy-ness

Picking back up where I left off on the Beachside Bungalow's kitchen, it was time to make countertops. Instead of the polished natural stone look counters I made for the upstairs bathroom, I opted instead for something a little less pretentious: Butcher Block. 

I wanted a subtle contrast, not as much as the butcher block counters in Natasha's Kitchen. I ordered bundles of 1/8" x 1/8" in maple and oak from Bill & Walt's. I was hoping they would tie in with the other wood tones in the project.

I had to make counters for three cabinets: The drawer units on either side of the stove, and the center island.

Units needing countertops.

The drawer units were each under 4", and the island was just under 7", so I figured out how many 1/8" pieces I'd need, divided that number in half for each of the wood species, then cut them into 8" lengths.

Maple left, oak right.

The next step, gluing them, was relatively straightforward. I like to glue one of each species at a time to one another, clamp, and then let dry. Some tricks I have learned in doing these is:

• Use wood glue.
• Apply with a small nozzle bottle applicator.
• Use glue sparingly, but cover every millimeter.
• Apply glue to both pieces of wood.
• Spread glue thin and even with a toothpick.
• Clean up any oozing, excess glue immediately.
• Use plenty of clamps.

Gluing in pairs of maple and oak.

Once the pairs were dry, I begin to glue sets of pairs to one another, clamp and let dry. I repeated the process until I had the depth of counters I needed. For the drawer units the depth was 2" and for the island top it was 3-3/4".

Once my pieces were glued and dried, I cut them down to the widths I needed. I marked my lines with an architectural square to get exactly 90 degrees, then cut them with my mini table saw.

Here I am testing the fit to be sure everything looks good. I made extra boards in various sizes.

This wood came really rough and raw, unlike basswood that comes pre-sanded from brands like Houseworks that you purchase through dollhouse retailers. It requires extra work, but it's worth it.

I started with 100 grit sandpaper to remove the really rough finish. This abrasive grit also helps to remove any glue I may have missed that oozed out during clamping. Then I moved through sanding sponges in progressively finer grits, ending with a completely smooth surface. If anyone is aware of any mini sized electric planers and belt sanders like in real sized woodshops, let me know!

Top board is raw, bottom board is after the 100 grit sandpaper

Once all of the pieces were smooth, I applied Howard Paste Wax. It gave the wood a nice sheen and brought the natural wood colors to life. It also smells fantastic, like lemon oil. The piece on the left is right after sanding, and the piece on the right is after one application of the wax. I applied three coats, buffing in between with a soft cotton cloth. The more you buff, the shiner it becomes. I don't want my counters too shiny. After a couple hours, there is no residue, just a hard surface.

Raw wood left, waxed right.

Here I have all of the pieces cut, waxed, buffed and ready for the next steps. You can also see that I have cut to size, sanded and waxed some cherry for the drawer unit backsplashes. Why the seven extra pieces of butcher block? I'm glad you asked!

I have always wanted to make butcher block cutting boards in fun shapes. Making these countertops for the Beachside Bungalow's kitchen gave me the perfect excuse to give them a try. I found several great, free cutting board patterns at Sun Catcher Studio. Because they offer an svg export, I was able to easily upload them into Cricut's Design Space program. I thought if I cut the shapes from 2 mm chipboard, I could use them as jigs. By attaching them to the tops of the cutting boards, I could follow the edges with my scroll saw blade. 

The orange rectangles represent the sizes of the extra cutting boards I made. All I had to do was to resize the patterns to fit my cutting boards in Design Space. 

Resized to fit the cutting boards.

I let the Maker do the work of cutting the patterns. 1-1/2 hours isn't so bad when you're not the one holding the blade! I was able to fit them onto a leftover strip of chipboard at the bottom of the last sheet I cut. Using up leftovers is so thrilling!

Shapes cut and paired with their cutting boards.

Before I got my butcher block pieces anywhere near a blade, I wanted to make sure to protect the wood from scratches or from splitting out. I covered the "good" side with masking tape.

I saw this next trick on a YouTube video published by a guy who claimed that he'd bet you didn't know at least one of his tricks for blue tape. He was right, and this is a good one for many things. To stick two pieces of wood together without using glue on them, apply a piece of masking tape to both sides. Then, apply CA glue to the tape and stick the pieces together. Ha! So clever! That's how I stuck my chipboard jigs to the butcher block pieces, and it worked like a charm! This method is also amazing if you ever need to cut two shapes exactly alike.

Tiny dots of CA glue on the masking tape.

Jigs attached to butcher block boards.

After carefully measuring for the sink hole, I taped both sides of the island countertop, too, just to be safe.

Now was the moment of truth. Would this chipboard jig idea work? More on that in a moment...

If you read my posts from Natasha's Kitchen, you know I have a little experience cutting a sink hole with my scroll saw. But that was acrylic countertop, not hardwood. Would it be as easy? I made access and pivot holes in the corners with the Dremel, then threaded the scroll saw blade through the access hole. A quick prayer, and I was off!

I found that there was a significant difference in cutting basswood and acrylic vs. the hardwood. The saw blade definitely wanted to grab into the harder wood and yank it out of my fingers. And a little force was required to pivot into the blade for the curves. Once I realized it was a fight, I was ready! After all, I have wrestled alligators a time or two! Overall, the cutting went pretty well on the saw. But how did they look once I got the tape off?

I peeled off the chipboard jigs and all the protective tape and was pretty happy with my first attempt at cutting wee hardwood butcher block cutting boards with a power tool. They definitely needed sanding and shaping, but I was pretty pleased with the results! Like most things, practice will make perfect.

After sanding and rewaxing. I am still deciding whether to add holes to
some of them so that I have the option to hang them.

And here's what the island looks like in dry fit. I glued the dishwasher face on, and am experimenting with printing 3D faucets. Some are meh, some are a disaster!

The drawer units with their countertops and backsplashes affixed and ready for installation.

And the in their places...

In the interest of keeping this post from becoming a novella, I'll just tease you and say you'll have to come back to see the full kitchen install in next week's post. ;O)

xo xo,

Jodi

A Breakfast At Tiffany's Happy Ending!

This past week I was able to focus on the last few tasks for the Breakfast At Tiffany's custom order. The big job, creating a door based on the brownstone's, was challenging! You see, the dollhouse kit's door openings are much slimmer, and instead of a copy of the original basement door, the client wanted both doors to match. Here's the comparison photo to refresh your memory:

Client's Park Avenue Kit Left, BAT house right.

I had to try to capture the detail and feel of the door in a much more compact design. The main BAT door has two windows on top. The client said she could live without them, but I was determined to try and make that feature a reality for her. Since she wanted to paint the doors herself, this created another challenge because I had to make the glass removable. I cut the doors from 2 mm chipboard, two outer layers and an inner core, with the Maker. This allowed me to create a recess for the glass to slide into. This sequence of photos shows how the window feature will function:

Lexan and trim piece cut to size.

Slide Lexan into recess.

Lexan seated into cavity.

Insert top trim piece.

A pin hinge has to fit here, too. Tight!

I created the door parts in Tinkercad, then 3D printed detail molding pieces to fit into the chipboard recesses. Here are the doors with the detail molding glued in, dry fit into the door frames and with the two different pediment options. I included both pediment options for the client to choose from once she's seen a live dry fit. The basement door does not have windows per the client's request. I also added the same 1/16" x 1/4" trim detail onto the door frame to match the window frames. This is to try to recreate the stepped depth look of the original facade details. I think she could even add an additional 1/16" x 1/8" piece on top of all of the frames to even further the effect.

If you remember, the client had sent me both doors and their frames from the kit so that I would have exact measurements. This was great so that once I made the new doors, I could actually mount the doors into the frames. After priming, sanding and drilling holes for the pin hinges, I mounted them. The client asked that the doors open from the left instead of the right, so I changed the hinge pin holes on the door frames, as well.

Basement door front and back

Main door front and back

Doors Opened. The chipboard has been rounded off so it does not get hung up on the frame.

The client thought, after seeing the fancier large window pediment, maybe she'd want the large window above the entry to match all seven of the other slim windows. I printed a simple rounded pediment and sent both so that she could choose her favorite once she'd seen them both in person.

Large window with fancier pediment, with simpler pediment and slim window.

I was surprised that the door portion of the project went so well and so quickly! Because of that, I was able to get final approval from the client, get paid and ship her package well before the one month time frame that I quoted to her! Here's a collage of the final order, though I included a lot of extra architectural elements (not pictured) for fun.

I can't emphasize enough what an amazing opportunity this was! I was challenged in many new ways, learned so much about the possibilities of my tools and myself, and was able to help a fellow miniaturist fulfill a dream! It just doesn't get any better than that!

Now that this fun distraction is finished, I'm looking forward to getting back to the Beachside Bungalow's kitchen. Hopefully, I'll have some progress to share with you next week!

xo xo,

Jodi

3D Printing The BAT Designs

The work continues in all my spare time on the Breakfast At Tiffany's facade project. In fact, so much work has been required, that I haven't had a moment to think about the Beachside Bungalow. I hope it's not worried that I have forgotten it!

The next step in the BAT project was to start the 3D printing. Most of the files took an entire day or longer to print, so it was a long process. I also had a four day conference to attend, so time has flown since my last post! I don't have a true step by step to share, so I'll just share some info about the process that I hope you'll find interesting.

For the pediment piece to the doorway entry, it took just under 14 hours to print. I did not get to bed until long after midnight that night. Luckily, the print went perfectly so the only hard part was staying awake!

The hour glass on the left represents how much time has elapsed and the one on the right tells you how long you have left to go. After four hours and fifteen minutes, it seems like very little progress.

After 4 hours and 15 minutes.

This is what you see if you sit mesmerized in front of the printer, as I often do.

A long while later...

And finally finished...

Once the main piece and the side trim and detail pieces were printed, I could see my design in the physical world. I really like it! This is going to be one grand entryway!

The other pieces went really well, too, and will require only minor finishing! Here are the corbels. I printed the file two times to make a total of twelve of them. The customer only needs eleven, but you can always use an extra fancy bracket somewhere in a house like the BAT house.

For the large window and all seven small ones, after printing, I had to test out my design. The cornice supports were easily pulled off with pliers and fit over the window frames perfectly.

I removed the wooden sills and trim and replaced them with the new 3D printed sill with attached corbels. I also added a strip of 1/16" x 1/4" basswood to each side of the frames to add an extra layer of detail. It mimics the BAT windows much better, now.

With all of the printing in progress, I concentrated on designing the front and basement doors. Here's a refresher of what the BAT doors look like:

To construct these, I will be cutting them in three layers of 2 mm chipboard: An inner core and a carved interior and exterior layer to sandwich it. The basement door will be solid, while the front door will have a panel of glass at the top like the original door.

To add the molding detail, I created an insert which will be 3D printed and slotted inside the carved top layer, interior and exterior.

My first test print of the molding inserts went fairly well, though one of the knobs fell off. A little revision to the design is in order.

I exported the pieces to be cut in chipboard as an .svg file from Tinkercad, then uploaded the file into Cricut's Design Space software. It worked like a charm, and the pieces are ready to cut. I just need the final design approval from the customer and then I can get started.

Once the door pieces are cut, I can assemble them and mount them into the door frames. I printed pediments to top the wooden door frames, too, so they'll need test fits and possible adjustments.

Hopefully, for the customer's sake and the Beachside Bungalow's, too, I'll be shipping this project out in a couple weeks!

Until next time, my friends!

xo xo,

Jodi