Shabby Chic Cabin Roof & Porch

I have been having fun working on my Shabby Chic Cabin project.  

Here is a progress photo of the roof and porch.

The cabin was a club workshop project that the local miniature club did a while back.  We put together kits to build the cabin and invited regional members to Tulsa on a Saturday to build the cabins.  The cabin came with a small piece of foam core for the floor, a couple of small posts and a small roof.  I decided to do something a bit more grand!

 Here is an AutoCAD drawing that I did to study the porch and roof.

I browsed a few architecture books and Pinterest to do some research on eyebrow dormer windows, then drew a few options of the dormer to see which one I liked.  I had decided to do the cabin interior in a "Shabby Chic" all white palette.  It's basically an upscale 'She-Shed'  This drove my decision on the eyebrow to the curved window mullions.  

One of the dilemmas I had with the cabin furniture placement was that there isn't really enough space inside for a nice seating area, a kitchen and a table and chairs, so I decided to make the porch deep enough to comfortably house the table and chairs.  

The floor and wall of the cabin are made from 1/2" thick foam board.  The exterior of the cabin is covered with vinyl flooring that is cut into strips. I found some square wooden posts at the local hobby store that were roughly the same width as the "logs" on the walls.  I figured that the posts would look like the same wood that the walls were constructed of.

The floor of the cabin and porch are covered with scrap book paper.  I like the color of the wood print, but the boards were a little out of scale.  I divided each of the boards in half with a black pen to make it seem more like a believable scale.

Here is the paper glued in place and the corners cut out for the posts.  I also removed a piece of the vinyl flooring on the walls where the posts tie back into the structure.  I figured it would be more structural and easier to glue to the foam core.  I also used wooden dowels in the foam board between the porch floor and cabin floor to add extra support.

I stained the posts and glued them in place.

I decided to keep the ends of the porch open at the gable ends for a more contemporary look.  The roof is made from 1/4" foam core.

I transferred the measurements from the cad drawing to the roof and cut a hole for the dormer.

I cut the front of the dormer out of mat board and glued it in place. I constructed a framework out of bass wood and glued it in place with tacky glue.

I painted the underside of the structure white.

After the framework was dry, I glued a piece of cardboard to the room and frame members.

 I finished off all of the exposed edges of the foam core roof with thin strips of balsa wood and sanded and painted them with the same technique that I was using on the rest of the project.  ( brown paint, crackle finish, then a coat of the white paint)

 The kit came with corrugated cardboard for the roof.  I found a piece to do the same on the porch roof.  I painted the cardboard with a coat of metallic looking craft paint, but it was too shiny.  I did several washes of dark colors over that.

This was the piece that fits over the porch.  The dormer pokes through the hole.

Here a few shots that I took with some furniture.

I added some vinyl pieces around the base of the cabin and porch to finish it off.

Up next, I need to finish the stone on the fireplace chimney outside.  I have saved a few rough textured cardboard packing containers and I want to see what I can do with those.

Wish me luck!

Cozy Cabin

I purchased this cabin kit at a garage sale during State Day in Oklahoma City a few of years ago.  The 'bulking' box was full of what looked like big Lincoln Logs from my childhood and the tattered box was held together with duct tape.  The seller assured me all of the pieces were there, as were the instructions.  I have not really worked on the cabin in a while, but as I have been gearing up for my Victorian house project, the cabin has been calling to me.

Whenever I pick up a item at an 'estate sale' or a 'garage sale' or even something eBay that kind of have a 'cabin feel', I stick it in the cabin.  I was looking at it the other day thinking, "I should really work on that."  I have accumulated quite a collection of stuff for this place:
fabric, a canoe, a sled, a 1940's Strombecker grand piano, a bear skin rug, lots of fishing gear, books, and even some snow shoes !

The large grid window is the enclosed breezeway that I turned into a small kitchen.

When I brought the kit home, took out all the pieces and compared them to the parts list.  The parts list had a brief history of the house and a photo of the Kenneth W. Keller.  The note with the following text was included: 

"Kenneth W. Keller died June 26, 1988 at the age of 14 years of cancer.  He was treated at OMH Childgren's Hospital from December 1985 'till his death.  The log cabins were in part, his idea.  As a living memorial to our son, a portion of each cabin will go to the hospital.  The research and development must go on if we are to spare our children - signed John and Debbie Keller"

I studied the homemade, yellowing instructions and layouts that came with the kit and decided immediately that I wanted to change the layout to allow for more rooms. .

Page from instructions

Page from Instructions

Fireplace instructions

The original kit called for the kitchen to be located in a separate building connected to the main house by a breezeway or "dog run".  I decided to enclose the "dog run" and locate the kitchen there.  This would allow me to locate a master bedroom in the space that is supposed to be the kitchen.  It would have a great big cozy fireplace.

I experimented with paper clay when my daughter Carolyn and I built her house.  I plan on using paper clay again to create a lot of the stone-work for this project, including the porches, fireplaces, and column bases.  Carolyn's place and our paperclay rocks can be seen here:  http://tulsatinystuff.blogspot.com/2010/01/carolyns-place.html


Another change I made was flipping the upstairs floor to the middle of the house instead of locating it on the end.  I figured it would look more symmetrical.  I plan on building a rustic staircase with half-log steps and twig railings.  I have added real logs here and there to help get a rustic feel.

I added a front porch to the house to define the front entrance and give the cabin a little more character. ( note my paper door - I am working on a kind of Arts & Crafts design for the entry with some sort of art glass)

I cut some cedar strips from a large board and made some decorative trusses for the roof/ceiling.  I also bought some wood strips to use for the roof.  The original plan had some pre-cut pieces of old wall paneling. I also added copper flashing to the roof valleys and will probably trim the edges with it as well or maybe create some sort of rain gutters.

I converted a standard formal brass light fixture into a deer antler chandelier. for the living room.

More posts to come - I welcome your comments and suggestions!

Cozy Cabin Front Door

I spent some time building a front door for my cabin project this weekend.

I spent a little time, mainly on Pinterest getting some ideas.  The white paper cut-out was my original concept from back when I started the project. 

  I started by cutting a piece of basswood the size of the door and cutting the window opening out.  This cabin was a kit, so the door openings are not a standard size.

 Then I cut the side pieces and the cross member and glued them to the door on the front and back.  

I scored lines to give the illusion of many pieces of wood instead of a solid piece.  Then did a dry fit, and glued it all together with craft glue.

I tried a new product "gel stain" available in the craft paint section.  You paint it on, let it sit for a while, then wipe it off.  It is water based and cleans up pretty easily.  It was a lot easier than oil-based wood stain.

 I glued on some metal straps that I had picked up a craft show and added some mini-faceted beads to give the illusion of iron rivets.  Then coated the entire thing with a clear coat.  It is a little more glossy than I would normally do, but live and learn.

These are the pieces of wood that I cut for the frame.  I set the door inside, and used pins for hinges at the top and bottom, then glued the frame in place.  The pieces on the paper are for the exterior trim.

Here is the door glued in place.  I have ordered a door latch and will update after it arrives.  The rocks around the front of the cabin are still a work in progress.

I was originally going to try some stained glass for the window, but I think I will stick with clear.  I have also been debating painting the trim to match the windows.

To see additional blog posts on my cabin, click the cabin label below.

Cozy Cabin Fireplace Update

I haven't worked on the Cozy Cabin project in ages.  To be honest I was a little discouraged after I started the fireplace a while back.  I used some inexpensive air dry clay.  I made the rocks, glued them in place and let it dry.  Sadly, the clay shrunk by almost 50% and most of them fell off the walls.  Needles to say it has been sitting in this state for quite a while,

  Until today!

This is what it looked like at the end of today.  

Let me back up-

I started off by removing all of the cabin furniture which needed to be dusted any way.

I scraped off the old air-dry clay rocks.

This was the debris field outside the cabin.  I decided that since the clay was done shrinking, I could probably re-use some of it. 

After a little research, this was the design I came up with.  I made a template out of cardboard and a removable firebox too.

 I decided to work horizontal this time.  The two logs will support the mantle.

This is the firebox portion of the fireplace.  I started by re-using some of the old pieces and gluing them in.

This was my progress early on.  I had envisioned that I would roll our the clay and glue it on, but I was having trouble getting the river rocks to look round, so I ended up rolling the clay into different sized "rocks" in my hands and glueing them on one at a time.  I mixed in some of the rocks from the previous fireplace. After the everything drys, I will paint.

To see my earlier posts on the cabin click HERE or on the cabin label below.

Cozy Cabin Fireplace Update

I have been making lots of "rocks" this week for the cabin fireplace.  I have been using Paperclay to create the stone.  After some more 'trial and error'  I figured out that the most successful method was to make the rocks individually then glue them to the fireplace when they are close to being dry.

I added another small section of roof to the living room.  I ended up using some paint stir sticks for the structure from the local big box store.  I had been holding off on the roof and shingles around the fireplace until I figured out how I was going to create the stone. I wasn't sure if I should build the roof around the fireplace or install rocks around the roof.

After the roof piece was in place, I finished shingling the roof on both ends of the cabin.  

I decided to create a stone top for the chimney out of the clay also.  Now I get to select some paint colors for the stone.

Here is the view of the chimney from the living room side of the cabin

Here is the view looking over the front porch.

Here is a birds eye view from above.

The other project that I started was the stone work at the front door.  

I used some cardboard to build a base for the stone column surrounds. 

I toyed with the idea of creating four stone tapered pieces -but decided on three. 

Four didn't leave a lot of room for furniture.  I may build some sort of trellis over the front porch to tie the elements together. The porch floor and the three pieces will be covered with stone.  I am also going to put stone around the entire base of the cabin.

Click on the cabin label below to see the progress on this project.