Down on the Farm

I was cleaning up the real kitchen and glanced over to the side. This is what I saw.

I realized that I have never shown you this. It is one of my very early room boxes. I think it was about 1982 or 3. I made it as a Christmas gift for my dad.

Until I was four we lived on a very rural farm in Michigan. This is as close as I could get to the real one. Yes. We had a wood stove just like the Chrysenbon kit. Yes. We had a pump in the kitchen. Yes, that is my dad that you see through the window going out to bring the cows in for the night. Well, not really. The photo was one out of National Geographic, but it reminded me of the farm. I should add that we did have electricity. We weren't totally primative.

The photos are not the best because I made this room in a case from a stereo speaker that I had lying around. I permanently installed a glass front on it. Back then I was short on money and would put a room in anything box shaped and free. The other speaker became a small Mexican room. Well, I did say stereo.

I made the dry sink and the shelves out of bass wood. As I remember, the pattern for the dry sink came out of a miniature book. At that time I had only made a few pieces of furniture and was very proud of the fact that it came out looking like a dry sink.

The flowered plate on the back wall is the liner from a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi. I pried it out and painted it to look like a plate.

The pump was another Chrysenbon kit. Thank goodness for Chrysenbon. They are still around and I still use a lot of them. I don't think that they can be beaten for detail.

Come to think of it, the stove was only the second Chrysenbon kit I put together. I guess that tells us that they put out a good product. It still looks like new after 25 years.

The pumpkin, cat, bread and strawberry shortcake were all made out of plain old Sculpey and painted. That was all I had. I had no idea that there was such a thing a Fimo. I didn't even know about Super Sculpey! The whipping cream was spackle.

In the center of the room is a table and a stool that I made from scratch. The stool is a copy of a real one that my grandmother used to have in her kitchen. I inherited it when she passed away. That was my first attempt at copying a real piece of furniture. I painstakingly took measurements of that stool and got as close to the real thing as I could with only an exacto knife to work with.

I kind of faked the legs on the table and the finish on all of the pieces leave a lot to be desired. Back then I thought you just slapped a coat of varnish on things and let it go at that.

The rug was crocheted out of some old red leftovers from the thrift shop. I don't remember the weight.

Oh and the wallpaper is not wallpaper. I couldn't afford the fancy mini wall paper or maybe I didn't even know about it. I can't remember which, but I used fabric. I think it turned out pretty well.

I still like using fabric for wallpaper when I can find a pattern that I like. It is much easier to work with than paper. It doesn't wrinkle, bubble or tear.

I didn't get a lot done yesterday with the runny nose and sore throat. That's why you are getting a tour of the kitchen. Maybe tomorrow I will be back at it. See you then.