Messing with Michael's Hutches

It seems like everyone has a different way of fancying up the little hutches that you find unfinished at Michael's. I have a problem with the height of some of them. The two that I want to use in the Haberdashery are short, very short.

I like the doors on this particular model. I just like them better if they are trimmed and sanded.

The door on the right kind of shows you how much I take off of the inside edge of the windows. The one on the left has the shavings taken out so that you can see better what I did.

As for the height, I took off the bottom skirt and the bottom edge platform. They are at the front of the photo. I just pried them off with a utility knife. I don't advise using an exacto for this. The blade will snap if you aren't careful!(experience speaking here)

Then I pulled off the knobs with a pair of needle nose pliers. They don't seem to use glue on these at all.

I determined that I wanted the body of the base 2" tall. I used some scrap 1/32"cherry wood that I had lying around. and covered the existing base. That will be the body of the bottom. Since I plan to use a painted finish on these pieces, it doesn't really matter what kind of material I use. I am thinking that mat board could even be used in a pinch.

After this dries, I will do some more sanding, a lot more sanding. Then I will put some fancy trims on the corner of the corners of the body. I will also put some false drawers on the front. No, I'm not messing with drawers that work if they are never going to be opened. You should know by now that if I don't need to do anything complicated, I won't.

I will put a piece the same size as the bottom of the original drawer inside the bottom of the cherry wood part to stabilize. Then I will glue on the original bottom and maybe some fancy feet in place of the skirt.

My cut hand is arguing with me about typing. It is much happier doing minis where it doesn't have to participate so much. I need to go work some more on these so that you will have something to look at and read tomorrow. See you then.