Philco Radio House

I purchased a antique Philco Radio cabinet a few years ago.  When I saw it, I decided it would be a perfect miniature house. I came across it at a local antique mall and loved the Art Deco design of it. While I have been slow to blog about it, I have made some progress the past few weeks.  I decided that this would be the perfect place to house my 1920's-1930's Arcade cast iron furniture collection.

Here is an ad for the radio from the year of it's introduction.

Online after a little research, I found that the Philco model 45 Lowboy (45L) console radio was in-troduced in June of 1934, listed at $59.95. It was one of 49 new models for the 1935 model year and was heavily promoted by Philco as a world wave receiver. It could not strictly be considered all wave as it did not cover the band region above 13mcs. The 45L continued to be offered for sale through June of 1935.  For 11 weeks at the end of 1934 Philco celebrated the production of its 5 millionth radio. As part of an aggressive advertising campaign, special promotions on Philco radios were offered in stores, including extra generous trade-in allowances, preferential credit terms and combination deals, where one of Philco's 1935 models was bundled together with accessory items, all for the price of the radio alone. Two bundle advertisements featuring the Philco 45L are included below (Nov 26th & Dec 1934).

Here is a picture that I found online of the Philco model 45L in a lot better condition than mine ;)  The one I purchased is missing all of its radio components and knobs.

I began by removing the existing platform inside the cabinet and figuring out where to locate the three floors.

After I located the floors I did some preliminary furniture layouts and decided where I could locate windows.  I have had a few windows in a box that I have purchased at sales, and realized this would be a great project to use them on.

I used a dremel tool to cut the openings for the windows.

The round windows are located on the top floor and will be in the bathroom and the kitchen.  These two windows were also in my stash.

The first floor will be the living room

After studying the furniture layouts and trying different rooms on different floors, I came to the conclusion that I was not going to have enough room for my antique Arcade cast iron furniture collection.  I decided that I could add a penthouse on top.  My first thought was to find another radio and set it on top.  Maybe a cathedral type?  Then after looking at some antique radios, I realized they were not large enough.  I decided I would just create a room on top that was from that era.

I input the radio cabinet into AutoCAD so that I could study different ideas.  I figured this would also come in handy when I got to the openings on the front.  I plan on making the openings into art glass windows.

More to come - Stay tuned!