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Miniature Kitchen Cabinets

Miniature furniture is perfect for my small shop.  Transitioning from woodworking as a hobby into a business the new tools, more wood, and project storage space has severely cut into the shop free space.  So full size furniture building is a trickier proposition.Happy-Bungalow-miniature-furniture-custom-cabinetry-kitchen-alt002-570

This is a kitchen I modeled on my own full size kitchen.  Except in real life I don’t have room for an island.  And I don’t have the nice walnut furniture piece you see on the left (though I do have an herb garden in a window box – not a bad trade).

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The little brass knobs I bought, but the dark walnut knobs I made.  Tiny little suckers.  A bit more than 1/16th inch square.  I don’t have any dedicated miniature tools, but I’ve learned to cut accurate scale lumber on full size saws.Happy-Bungalow-miniature-furniture-custom-cabinetry-kitchen-alt001a-570

It was a real chore to come up with the counter-tops and have them look something like stone.  Real stone doesn’t come in 1/8 sheets (too brittle I suppose) and laminate isn’t at the right scale.  In ended up painting thin pieces of oak in multiple layers while the paint was still wet.  It has sort of a marbled look – I’ll keep working.

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Wood Hardware Finished with Fire

Before there were The Kids, the only residents in this Happy Bungalow were Liz and myself.  We were alone in a house in need of major renovation:

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Let me tell you, fixer-uppers are a lot funner when you’re watching someone else do the work on television.  Though, no one at the Bungalow is shy about working hard, so out came the tools, and something like nine months later there’s this:

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But before there were these:

 

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the cabinets were devoid of hardware.  The kitchen renovation was done as frugally as possible.  Buying nice cabinet hardware would have cost more than the cabinets did.  But I figured if I could make the cabinets, I could make the hardware.  Originally I was going to make sand molds, melt aluminum cans in a cast-iron pots, and pour the molten metal into the molds.  Violla!  Rough-hewn, hand-crafted, custom-hardware.  (triple hyphenated-word threat)

Then I did a little aluminum research.  It melts at something like 1200 degrees.  I’m pretty sure my skin melts at a lower temperature.  Hmm.

So I ended up with this:

Happy-Bungalow-cabinet-hardware-wood-knob-unique-poplar-FIRE-alt001-300Which is the basic shape I had in mind for the aluminum hardware, just made from wood.  Though I did keep fire involved.  The dark color isn’t stain – it’s scorch marks.  With a torch, each knob was burned and quickly dunked into a water bath.

Happy-Bungalow-cabinet-hardware-wood-knob-unique-poplar-FIRE-alt004-570The color of each piece is different; sort of like a snowflake.  Love these knobs so much you need them in your house?  Head over to the Bungalow’s shop and pick some up today. Happy-Bungalow-cabinet-hardware-wood-knob-unique-poplar-FIRE-alt006-570

tired wood robot toy after long day of work

One Year Anniversary

Happy Bungalow is one year old!  We celebrated at our hometown show.  We’ve come a long way since last year (view here)

There’s a number of new products and new show furniture to display them on.

A new easier on the back sign

And ever popular dollhouse furniture.

I’ll be adding more products for the upcoming slate of fall shows and I’m going to tweak the booth o give things a bit more pop.

The anniversary show went off well – increased sales from a year ago, loads of business cards handed out, and bunches of conversations.  A tiring day, but fun.  Phew.