Flower shop stairs

... around the corner and going up.

While working on the stairs for the flower shop, I did ask myself why I didn't just plan for a straight flight of stairs...  or even better a fake door with an imaginary stairwell behind it ???

The answer is; I had a picture in my head.. a hint steps at the back of the room. 

I wanted steps or stairs to help create a bit of structural interest to the otherwise very square box that will be the shop. This would also allow for a small partition to form a bit of a work and storage space for the florist under and behind the stairs at the back of the shop.

I had only build one set of stairs before, those for the furniture store next door. These stairs are similar, only this time there will be no landing instead the steps 'turn' around the corner.  

 

As with the previous stairs, I started by creating a 'model' on the computer - pretty much like stacking boxes to replicate the steps and risers, making sure the finished height matches the height of the wall. 

To work out the three steps that turn the corner, I simply divided the 'landing' from the previous stairs into three wedges and crossed my fingers it would work out.

Once the dimensions were worked out, I printed them off and then stuck the paper onto card stock and cut them out (a little like you would put a paper pattern onto fabric when sewing). This saves trying to measure and cut everything square - which I am absolutely not very good at. 

Once the side pieces were cut out, I cut the pieces for the risers and it all went together surprisingly smoothly. 

Since these stairs will be fully enclosed by walls, there is no need for a handrail, nor did I need to worry about keeping the sides clean and tidy. I undercoated the risers with black gesso - I like using black, it gives a different 'worn' depth to the top colour.

I then cut the steps from 3mm balsa, sanded the front edges to round them off, then painted them with an oak stain before sanding each step again to give the worn patches in the middle.

After testing the stairs for size and fit in the room, I began building the partition walls around them and suddenly realised I would have to decide on a paint colour for the walls in the stairwell even though it will never be seen once the stairs are in place. 

As you can see the top riser goes above the wall to allow for the first floor.

Once the stair and partition structure is in place, the storage space under the stairs is really tight as you can see below so I haven't glued  in place yet. I will wait and do that after I have had fun decorating the back.

I started by cladding the back of the partition wall under the stairs with narrow strips of wood and painted this wall a warm clotted cream before adding the beige trim and skirting.

I then added a short wall piece, cladded and painted the same way to act as the back of the shelving. Once the shelves were in place, it left just enough room for a little row of hooks to hold a few items out of view from the shop floor. The little brush and dust pan are by 

María José

 miniatures and are just so beautifully made. 

This is were I left off a few months ago... 

...and I think it will be nice - and fun - to get back into this project by decorating this tiny space. After all, it is only small and there is no way I will be able to get to it easily once it is in place. 

We have a vineyard, are heading into harvest but at the same time are suddenly having to get property packed up and ready for sale, so as you can imagine I have a lot going on and will have very limited mini time (and energy) in the next few months. Playing with this little space might just turn out to be a nice and manageable distraction from what is going on around me. 

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

Anna X

The building begins

Ok, I didn't completely just start building a door without a plan 😄 

This next house, will sit next to the Toy House and started to take shape in my mind a long, long time before the Toy House was anywhere near finished. 

I wanted to build a Florist (Ea's Flowers) - a room filled with colour and pretty things. I love my real life garden, worked in florist many years ago (more about that connection later) and have discovered I really enjoy making mini flowers, but...

.. when I began reading miniblogs not so very long ago, everyone seemed to have 'a stash' of just about anything and everything. Turns out that is easy to do and I have managed to build up quite a stash of furniture, furniture kits and mini accessories that don't have a specific home to go to yet so end up in boxes 'for later' and I forget I have them.

I decided, I needed to build some kind of room box, like an attic or something, to put them all in while they wait for a suitable home. I wasn't very excited about the prospect of building this 'box', it felt more like a 'I need to do this' kind of project.

Then it came to me.. what if I could combine the two? Could I perhaps just stick the furniture in the attic above the florist?

I had been enjoying following the making of The Old Misery an old Coach Inn on the TheInfill blog (have looked everywhere for the creator's name, and just can't find it). The story and make of the build is so incredible and captivating, but what really inspired me was the archway in the middle of the building. It got me thinking...

...what if I combined my Florist with a furniture, bric-a-brac, antique kind of dealer shop for my mis-matched furniture and other bits?? With an archway between where both flowers and furniture can spill out into? 

Inspiration photo - Sudergade, Helsingør.

Suddenly I had a very clear picture in my head how this house will work. I can't do pretty sketches like some of you, so after scribbling my ideas roughly out on paper, I drew this 'draft' on the computer.

Draft plan for façade 

It is pretty much the Toy House x 2 with an archway thrown in.

The Florist will be in the bigger shop to the left, with a small apartment above (oh, I can't wait to do pretty). To the right will be the Antique / Furniture / Second hand shop (Kaj Larsen & Son) with the door from my last post inside the archway. This shop is (deliberately) tiny on the bottom floor and will have stairs to a larger shop floor above.

Back of house

Like the Toy House, this will be a front opening house. The trouble with front opening houses is often the lack of windows. I love windows! 

Yes, you loose some wall space, but I like what they add to a room with the light coming in. So, this house will have windows at the rear - lots of windows! (and as you can see, some kind of door on the first floor of the furniture shop, since it clearly is impossible to get large pieces of furniture up a narrow staircase). 

Like is very often the case with houses in the old Danish towns, the front will be painted or 'white washed' but the timber studwork will be left exposed at the back. 

I am going to build this one as a series of individual room boxes, much in the same way as I did the Toy House. I liked building that way because I can work on one box at a time, easily move it around and get into the nooks and crannies easy. So, here it goes....

The first two boxes. I am using plywood again this time even though it does have a tendency to warp, but it is easy for me to cut. I found when I did the last build, that because the individual pieces are smallish, any warping does not tend to become a big issue especially since everything will be covered and cladded in one way or another. Besides this is an old house... 

I couldn't wait to 'tidy up' the outside of the boxes, so masked off the pattern for the studwork right away. 

A coat of render: filler compound mixed up with 1/2 water, 1/2 pva glue to make it nice and hard wearing. 

It is beginning to look like a house already :-)

Have a lovely week, everyone!

Anna 

Corner cupboard

There is still lots of little bits and pieces to finish on the upstairs apartment and I really haven't done anything on this room since.... way back when.

Half the pictures are still stacked against the walls and furniture; I still haven't hung the curtains; and I want to make a plant or two - especially for that gorgeous red and white pot by Lorie March that I was so lucky to win in a giveway a little way back. 

So this week, I finally set about building the last piece of furniture. I know the small room looks pretty packed already and I am hoping this last piece won't be too imposing. 

I am going to be  making a corner cupboard to go house the 'good' dinner set and other special bits and pieces. It is going to go in the right hand corner of the room. Once it is done, I am thinking the longcase clock (made from this Chrysnbon kit) may need to move over a bit and the small sidetable by the door will have to go. We'll see.

I did a bit of looking for corner cupboards online for ideas. These cupboards were quite common. My guess is, that in small rooms and apartments, being placed in the corner is rather space saving and still offers plenty of storage space. So searching in Danish brought up loads to images, many from antique store listings so they had the dimensions. A real bonus since that gave me something to work with. 

I didn't plan to try and copy one exactly, but I really like the one in the picture above - especially the way the drawer is set in - so away I went.

After drawing it up, I cut out paper templates just to test the size before I started building anything. I then decided to build it in modules, a top and a bottom. This allows me to have the top slightly smaller 

and will make it easier (I hope) to secure the doors (which I will pin - still to scared about hinges LOL).

I had really planned just for two shelves in the top section, but once I was at it I couldn't resist trying to cut a curved shelf with little slots for hanging fine glasses - I like how it looks, but I forgot to test if I have any glasses that will actually fit, so fingers crossed..

Building it this way also made it easier to work out how to make the drawer. I started by building the drawer itself, minus the front, and then put dividers under the bottom shelf for it to slide evenly. The front piece of the drawer will go across the full width of the cupboard front, so I won't cut that until I can measure exactly how wide I need it to be.

At this point, I realized it will be near impossible to paint the inside neatly, once the front panels are glued in place, so I have started painting it a pale cool yellow like the original in the picture. It still needs a couple of coats, but I am so glad I decided to this now and not having to get my brush inside it later on.

So far, so good. My next challenge is going to be cutting the 45 degree edges on the front panel pieces. I don't have any fancy tools for this, so it will be trail and error and a lot of sanding I guess.

Have a lovely week everyone and stay safe wherever you are.

Anna X