Remember these drawers?
As I carved my way through
them (in this case literally) this project may have been my favorite. The poor
middle child's doll has been suffering greatly from a lack of good mattress
support. Lying in a makeshift cardboard box bed night after night can really
wreak havoc on a gymnast-doll's lower back.
Also, all those tiny
outfits were getting hideously wrinkled having to stay in their boxes. The
travesty!
Solution? Small doll-sized
furniture, of course. I thought of getting a set like the youngest got from
Santa: generic doll bunk beds connected to a small armoire. The problem is:
1. The set cost about $60
on sale.
2. It was pretty flimsy. I
mean, it holds up to inanimate doll living, but it really isn't super-sturdy.
To buy the actual American
Girl Doll furniture would be about $350 for an armoire and $100-$250 for a bed
with bedding.
FOR A DOLL!
Nope.
Looking at these drawers, I
figured they would work for a lot less and be really sturdy.
First the armoire:
I took a plain large
drawer. The drawers were already white so the priming was done. I sanded the
drawer well, wiping it down afterwards with a tack cloth. I used a can of dark
brown spray paint (which we had) and sprayed the whole thing until it was well
covered. (I forgot to take pictures of the second and third paint steps but did on the bed further down).
Next I sanded the whole
thing lightly again and wiped it down with a tack cloth (the tack cloth is a
really weird, sticky piece of cheesecloth-but it works!)
I took a can of oops paint
we had in the garage ($1.00 from Lowe's) and it was intended to be just the
next undercoat. Once it dried, the middle child loved it so it became the
topcoat.
I used the sander and tried
to picture where an old piece of furniture would have aged. I lightly sanded
some spots and sanded deeper in others, revealing some brown paint, some white
and all the way down to the original wood in a few spots. The middle child and
youngest kiddos thought it was great.
"It looks like it is
really old! That is so cool!"
Yup.
I threw a coat of clear
polyurethane on the whole thing and let it dry.
Next I measured the opening
of the armoire and cut some floral fabric into two rectangles, each the width
of the opening and almost as high. I hemmed three sides and folded the top over
again one inch for a rod pocket. I cut two contrasting pieces of fabric three
inches wide and as long as the armoire opening. I folded them wrong sides
together, lengthwise and ironed them flat. I sewed one to each original piece
of fabric as a hem. I ironed and topstitched the seams and slid the curtains
onto a small tension rod. I put the rod at the top front of the armoire and,
voila! Curtains.
I made some long fabric
ties to match the curtain hems and screwed cup hooks into the sides of the
armoire for tieback holders.
I put a second rod in the back, halfway down, for a clothing rod.
The middle child was ecstatic-she ran and got clothes and even the accessories and filled up the armoire. McKenna was also very pleased.
Now if only she had a place
to crash.
Aha! I got that!
The problem with the smaller drawers was the
width. The design and length were great, the height was not a problem, but the width
was way too wide. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to cut a chunk out of the
middle of the drawer, glue it back together and move on.
Armed with my tools (I’m pretty sure Handy Manny
could have done this so much faster with his tools) I pulled the drawer apart,
cut the middle out of the front and back and the same amount off of the edge of
the drawer bottom. I glued and clamped all the pieced back together. Noooot the
best perfect fit. Pretty close though. I used wood filler, glue and sanded
repeatedly. There are still visible lines in a few places, but I decided that
if this were supposed to look antiqued, it would be okay.
Because the drawer front extends further than
the back, I added two round wood balls as feet to the back (Pack of ten for
$2.40). I did the same paint technique to the bed drawer as I did for the
armoire. I’m pretty pleased with it.
For the bedding (not super detailed here but I
can give you specifics if you want):
I bought a four-inch thick piece of foam at the
Hobbiest of Lobbies on sale for $10.00. I measured and cut a piece with a bread knife for the
mattress. I made a big fabric tube, put it around the foam and glued down the
ends of the fabric.
I next cut strips of the matching curtain fabric and sewed alternating strips into a quilt. I ironed it all, layered it with batting and pink fabric and stitched them all together. I used bias binding around the edges and done!
I made two small pillows out of muslin and
stuffing and made cases out of matching fabric.
Total cost for both pieces:
Green latex paint-$1.00 (already had)
Brown spray paint-$5.00 (already had)
Spray polyurethane-$3.50 (already had)
Fabric-$12.00
Foam-$10.00
Wood feet-$2.40
Cup hooks-$2.50 (already had)
Tension rods-$3.50
$27.90 in new materials.
$39.90 if I had to buy everything.
Finito!
3 comments:
You are completely out of your mind - and I love every minute of it. It does make me feel wholly inadequate as a mother, but with three boys, I figure I can coast for a while at least. You are so creative and such a good mom. I would not be concerned with wrinkly doll clothes. Miss you.
You can coast forever with three boys!!!! Miss you too! I should post complementary photos of my trashed house I've been ignoring to make stuff-it would make you feel better. You really can't do everything-it's just more fun to make stuff than clean. :) hope to see you and those boys soon!
Nice idea, Emily!
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