Stacking boxes & Bashing a stove

It finally happened last weekend... 

I stacked my three boxes and had a house. 

There is still a bit of construction to do, before I can attach the front, but at least it is now all stuck together and is looking more like a house.

The apartment on the first floor has been almost like this for quite some time, but I wasn't able to attach the ceiling light until now, which is why I didn't share it earlier. 

The other reason was that I was really unhappy with the stove I had. 

The resin stove was one of my early purchases and it was just too shiny and 'resin' looking. Besides, most Danish stoves were round (as I found out later). For my mini budget, this was not a cheap purchase, but he more I looked at it, the more wrong it looked and it was putting me completely off finishing it room. Until...

... I came across this picture from Fjellerup Østergaard (I of course forgot to save the link to the page where I found it) and it made me think that I might be able to 'up-cycle' my little stove to something I felt more happy with.

I liked the idea of a some kind of urn-looking decoration on top of the stove (a pot belly just didn't quite cut it). Without any exact plan for how I was going to make a 'cast-iron-urn' I pulled out a few different timber turnings and cut a few bits and pieces.

It was very much trail and error, stacking bits and pieces in different order, sanding, fitting, adding and taking away. It slowly started to take shape and once I added a couple of jewelry findings, I had something that with a bit of imagination could look like an urn.

Testing it on top of the stove, I begun to think that perhaps this could work after all.

After a bit more sanding, to straighten it up, I have it a coat of gesso and then more sanding.
I then painted it with acrylic paint stippled on to avoid streaks but mostly to get that cast-iron look. I glued it on top of the stove and then gave the whole thing two coats of mat black mixed with a wee bit of white and a blob of silver.

Once it was dry, I rubbed it down with very fine grain steel wool and felt so much happier with the look of my little square stove. 

Seeing it in the room, it might be a little elaborate for such a little apartment room, but I still think the overall look is so much better. 

Truffle the dachshund is curious as to when he can move in...

Enjoy our week.

Anna X