Chinese Cornice Box and a Short Lambrequin....

That probably should be Chinese Chippendale cornice box. It has the lines used in a lot of the Chinese Chippendale furniture.

This one is made of mat board, covered with fabric. I don't think that I mentioned that you may cover cornices and lambrequins with other materials if you wish. There are no rules on that as far as I know. Sometimes they are just painted. That technique was popular in the 40s and 50s.

This is a pattern that I free handed. It is on quad rule paper and you can copy it with a bit of work.

I cut it from mat board with a #11 Exacto....Very sharp! Dull Exactos cut people, not mat board.

The side and back pieces were cut 1/2" wide and the length of the sides and the length of the space between the two sides, just under the lowest point of the top curves.

I then glued each of the pieces to the fabric with white glue and cut them out about a quarter of an inch from the edge of the board.

I clipped inner curves and cut Vs in the outer curves. This allows the fabric to rap around to the back smoothly and no over laps.
I bent the sides to match the curve on the main board.

A cool trick for bending is to lay the piece down on your thigh and roll over it with a pencil or Exact knife handle, pressing down. You will get a nice even curve by doing this, rather than trying to curve it with your hands. That sometimes leads to bends in the board, instead of curves.

Here you can see the back of the cornice. It doesn't have to look fancy if nobody is ever going to see the window from the other side. You can see that the top of the cornice is recessed down and sits between the two end pieces.

If they are, I recommend that you glue a layer of fabric to the back side and trim, with a small pair of sharp scissors, even with the edge of the box.
After it is covered, comes the fun part. You can decorate it any way you please.

I did two lines of white bunka at the top and bottom. One is on the edge and the second one is about 3/8" in from the edge all the way around.

Now about that lambrequin.....I forgot one cardinal rule for them. They should be taller than regular windows....


I just whacked it off at seven inches, knowing that the box was eight. Oops. Tessie can't even walk under the arch. Rats!


Back to the drawing board on that one. I may have to save that one by cutting it down to a cornice with a rounded bottom on the sides.


I really like it. It is covered in suede. Wish me luck on fixing it.


I have more of the suede, but the seam will show if I try to lengthen the sides. Oh well... At least I am having fun!


You must have been out in full force yesterday! I am now ahead in the voting...Thank you so much!!!! Keep it up and keep Tessie out of my hair.


See you tomorrow.