Saturday, March 13, 2021

Creature comforts in the Hunting Cabin

I always have issues with finding small fridges (like dorm size fridges) for my dollhouses.  I needed a small one for my beach stall and ended up having to make it (Beach Stall Post).  And this fridge for my Hunting Cabin was causing me the same issues.  I had bought a regular fridge and stove for the Hunting Cabin kitchen and there just wasn't enough space so I have since removed both of them.  But I never found a smaller fridge to replace it with.  So, time to make one!

Scrap wood glued together
Had some scrap wood that I cut to the approximate size (based off of a real dorm size fridge for sale at a Home Improvement store).  Then I glued it into a box shape and spray painted the base black.  The front "doors" of the fridge I spray painted silver (to resemble stainless steel).

Spray painted and glued together
Glued the doors to the fridge because no one will ever know if it opens or not (except me) but it still didn't look finished.  Just looked like a box.  So I searched for some scrap wood trims to paint silver and turn into door handles and it was done:
Coffee maker and eventually a crock pot will store on top of the fridge

Door handles make it more realistic, even if it doesn't open

Small little fridge chillin' in the corner

So my Hunter can now bring some milk, cheese, frozen Hungry-Man dinners, etc. to the cabin for weekend meals!

Next up: I wanted to make the Hunter a relaxing area (it rains some weekends and then hunting and fishing might not be options).  There was always a TV for entertainment but the mantle on the fireplace just wasn't big enough for too much more.

Entertainment area before
So the mantle had to be expanded.  First attempt was the wrong stain match; I thought I could fudge the stain color since I couldn't find the original Dark Walnut stain I had used and I thought Antique Walnut with a dry brush of Ebony would work ok, but it was obviously different:
Such an obvious addition on top

So I cut the crown molding again and another strip wood to be the top of the mantle and bought another jar of the Dark Walnut stain.  Stained the new pieces and glued them in place (and promptly found my old Dark Walnut stain I couldn't find prior which sparked the whole "I can make it work with these other stains" debacle).  But now the TV, DVD player, sound system, and Playstation fit on the mantle!

I love the gaming system I found from this Canadian seller on Etsy (Etsy Seller MiniMonday3). The detailing is so great:
Now I need some games to stack up there too


So my Hunter has some creature comforts while enjoying a weekend vacation.  And speaking of creature comforts, that poor puppy needs a water bowl, food bowl, and dog bed too!  I'll take care of that tomorrow.

Then I just need to finish up the kitchen (ditched the traditional sized stove at the same time as the traditional size fridge so now I need to make a microwave cart to hold the microwave the Hunter cooks in as well as the electric grill that is also used to make weekend gourmet meals such as mac-and-cheese casserole! LOL) and I need to tackle the landscaping!  This project is so close to finally being finished!  Now I just need to resist the urge to start a new project when I have so many others waiting to be worked on!