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!

Sonia Messer Magazine Article

Be sure to check out my latest article about the history of Sonia Messer/Blockhouse dollhouse furniture.

The article is in the July/August issue of Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine

Click on the label to see some of my collection and repairs for these pieces.

Clock Shop Room Box Update

Although I never really feel like a project is finished, I feel the clock shop room box is at a point where there is not much more I can do. ( in fact I have found and added another clock since this photo was taken!)

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you have already seen some of this. 

This photo shows the shelves and the refinished desk chair. I also painted one of the grandfather clocks black.  It was green when I found it at a sale.

I have had this chair with faded fraying fabric - I believe it is either Block House or Sonia Messer, but it is not marked.  I removed the fabric, refinished the wood and added some new lime colored seat.

As you may recall, I found the clock case at an estate sale for few bucks and couldn't resist the architectural look of it.  The clock case was missing the columns, so I decided to add some.  I went into a local clock repair shop here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was surprised that replacement pieces could be ordered.  I purchased a piece of paper with a marble print and ordered the metal column capitals and bases.  He also confirmed that the clock that I had was from the mid to late 1800's.

I had wooden dowels at home, so I just had to cut them in half lengthwise on my table saw as well as cut them to the proper length.

I gave the capitals and bases a coat of gold paint.

The wooden dowels are all cut to length.

I just used craft glue to adhere the paper to the wooden dowels.

If you look closely, the column bases and capitals are held in place with nails.  I also added some hot glue just to be safe and a dab of gold paint to the nail heads.

The top "pediment" of the clock was also missing a decorative scroll.  I cleaned it off as good as I could and also used some Armor All after some internet research.

I found this decorative metal piece at Hobby Lobby, its not exactly what was there, but it will work out just fine.  Here is it is before I painted it gold.

 The feet and the lion heads were taken from another antique clock, I touched up the paint of them.

A friend of mine printed out a vinyl clock face which I attached to the inside of the glass bezel. The door frame and glass were another piece that I picked up from the clock repair shop.

I used hot glue to put the glass in the frame, but didn't like the looks of the glue, so I added some clack fabric cord to the inside ( and also painted the hinge black since this photo was taken)

That pretty much brings you up to speed on this project.  It has been a lot of fun and I learned quite a bit along the way.

Shabby Chic Hydrangea Planter Box

Our local miniature club worked on a hydrangea planter box last month.

A thank you to Carolyn who put together the kits which included all of the pre-cut pieces that we needed to build the wooden box, some soil, florist foam and the pieces to build the flowers.  She also included a small picture of the finished product to aid in construction.

The first step was to glue together and paint the wooden box.  Here is mine held in place with a rubber band while the glue dried.

After the box was glued together, we glued in a piece of florist's foam.  In anticipation of putting my project in my Shabby Chic Cabin project (another Tulsa Miniature Club project) I painted my wooden box white to match the rest of my cabin.

Here is glue applied to the foam to hold the  "soil" in place.  

While the glue was drying under the soil, I started constructing the hydrangeas.  These were assembled by gluing a small inexpensive "Mardi-Gras" type bead to a piece of wire.

The petals of the flower were tiny pieces of tissue paper that had been punched out using a flower shape.  Using a stylus tool, we shaped them into a more realistic looking bloom, by pressing the paper into a piece of foam and curling the edges up.

The bloom was then dipped in some craft glue and applied to the bead.  I inserted the wire/bead base into the foam before I started gluing the petals on.

I added some small pieces of plastic greenery to the wire and then added some green tissue that was also punched out of a flower pattern and molded with a stylus tool.

click HERE to see more posts about my shabby chic cabin project

Recent Acquisitions

Recent acquisitions include a canopy bed, pedestal desk, an "antique" wall phone and a couple of vintage non-working lamps from a recent estate sale here in Tulsa. I purchased the gilded clock on a recent trip to NYC and the remaining three clocks are Ebay purchases.  The two cream colored clocks are antique RENWAL.

The clocks will go in my clock shop room box that I have been working on.

I picked up these tiny souvenirs on a recent trip to NYC.  I'm going to place them in my Kage house.  I think they are probably 3D printed and stand less than an inch tall.

My collection of vintage lamps grows! I'm going to put these in my Victorian house.

The vintage pedestal desk is marked FORMERZ on the bottom and has a working drawer.

The vintage bed is by SHACKMAN

And in other news, I have made some progress on my clock shop room box.  A friend of mine cut out a vinyl clock face that I stuck to the glass "window" of the shop.

Below is what it looks like in place.  

I will post more pics of the clock shop later!