Victorian Doll Furniture - Canopy Bed - Fits Barbie Size Dolls

"The Ultimate Barbie Bed"

- DOLL ROOM BOX PROJECT-

Fits 9 - 16 inch dolls

victorian woodshop doll room box project

Hello and welcome to a project inspired by the great people over at the Ann Estelles World Forum on Yahoo. Several of the ladies there were asking me about making a room box to display their dolls in settings with an emphasis on photo-sets ups. While I could make a room box for general sale, they would all tend to look alike. So, I put together an easy to follow project that can be made for under $25 and done on your kitchen table over a weekend......

One of the problems I found is that a standard room box just isn't big enough to use for picture taking. For this reason, I decided on the following size. Naturally, I made a Victorian room box. The steps below allow for a great deal of room for individual taste and period decor.....have fun, Tom

DIMENSIONS: 30 inches wide, 20 inches tall and 15 inches deep.

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STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS

STEP 1

The first thing you will need to do is gather materials and clear off your kitchen table. I used a standard three pack of white 1/4 inch foam core poster board available at any Staples type store for about $10.00 for the three pack. You will also need an exacto knife or box cutter, to cut the board and a can of #M Super 77 spray mount adhesive, also available at Staples or a hardware store. A small can goes for about $4.
PICTURE OF MATERIALS

STEP 2
Using a long straight ruler, cut the pieces to the required size and tape them together from the back using a strong tape like a wide role of duct tape. When finished it should resemble the picture below.
PICTURE OF CUT AND TAPED POSTER BOARD

STEP 3
The next step is to apply spray mount to your wall paper. Measure and draw a line with a pencil to have a straight line to use as a placement. Be careful not to use too much and take your time. Smooth out any bumps or air bubbles with your hand. Find a wallpaper design you like and have it color photocopied on 8 1/2 by 11 sheets. You will need 8-10 sheets. Cost about $1 per sheet to photocopy. You can find free wallpaper examples at any flooring store.
PICTURE WITH WALL PAPER

STEP 4
Rather than go wall to wall and floor to ceiling with wallpaper, I decided to use a 1/4 inch strip of redwood as a chair rail. Any thin piece of wood will do. HINT: Don't use too large or thick a piece. Cut to desired length and wood glue to the bottom of the wall paper. This will also hide any mistakes you may make in lining up your wallpaper to the line you drew. I put the chair rail 5 1/2 inches up from the floor. The wall paper could go below the chair rail as well. Depending on the look you are going for.
PICTURE WITH CHAIR RAIL

STEP 5
IMPORTANT! Beware of interlopers........your project at this stage will start to draw unwanted attention.
PICTURE WITH INTRUDER

STEP 6
Once your chair rails are dry and glued securly, you can apply your desired flooring. Either carpet or wood flooring. I used matching thin redwood highly polished strips. Do not glue down your flooring. Just cut it to size and see how it looks for now. I used solid wood for this project as I wanted to highly polish it. Another way might be to purchase one square of flooring, 12 inches by 12 inches, from your local hardware store and have the square color photocopied. Cut the pieces to size and spray mount them to the bottom of your box. I like the idea of a wood looking floor as a base so you can add a carpet or throw rug to change the look of the scene.
PICTURE WITH FLOORING

STEP 7
For a top crown molding, I used simple strips of screen door trim available at any hardware store for about $2 for eight feet. Cut to size, stain and glue in place using wood glue. This will also hide any mistakes in your top end of the wallpaper and give a nice three dimensional look.
PICTURE WITH TOP CROWN MOLDING

STEP 8
Using another strip of screen door trim repeat the process and make your bottom baseboard molding. Leave enough room to slide your flooring in and out so it may be changed for future photo sets ups to even allow for carpeting to be tucked under it if wanted.
PICTURE WITH BASEBOARD MOLDING

STEP 9
Here is a picture with all the flooring and baseboard strips in place. For this picture I only have the initial coat of spray lacquer. I will add about 5 more coats to obtain a highly polished look. Spray clear gloss lacquer is available at your local hardware store for about $4 a can.
PICTURE WITH FLOORING INSTALLED

You now have a functional room box with removeable flooring and the ability to insert pre-made panels of different wallpaper to change the room scene. Now all you have to do is find a place to put it.
PICTURE OF FINISHED ROOM BOX

PICTURES WITH 10" ANN ESTELLE DOLL, FURNITURE, AND SETTINGS:

NOTES: - This room box project was designed around photo set-ups and to be easily made on a kitchen table with little or no tools. By adding trim to the top and front, a permanent display room could be created. I left a white space above the top trim of about two inches, as I may want to put in little square wood panels to complete a true Victorian look. This space could even be used for popular stencil art. While I used foam core art board, the room sections could be made from 1/4 inch plywood as well.

While this box is fairly large, 15 inches deep, I also decided to make an extra piece of flooring, about 6 inches wide. By placing this extra piece in front of the box, the depth is greatly increased for taking head on photos when needed.

The reason I only used duct tape to secure the sections into a box was to allow for easy break down and storage.

LIST OF MATERIALS:
1- three pack of foam core art board
small can of #M Super 77 Spray Mount Adhesive
10 sheets of 8 1/2 by 11 photocopied wallpaper
1- six foot section of baseboard trim
1- 6 foot section of top trim
Flooring of choice
Small tube of wood glue
roll of duct tape or other strong wide tape

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Victorian Room Box Project

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