Doll Armoire - Project of the Week

May 16, 2008 | Filed Under Blog, Project of the Week 

This week’s project comes from William. He writes:

Here are some pics of a doll armoire I built last year. My niece is a big fan of American Girl dolls and stuff. Her mother asked me if I could make an armoire as a birthday present. The one in the American Girl catalog is outrageously priced for a painted version. It was a fun way to mess around with hand cut dovetails on a smaller than usual scale. The armoire stands 25 inches high. The case is made of black walnut. The drawers and door panels are birdseye maple. The feet are mahogany. The drawers are solid birdseye maple fronts with poplar sides and back. Were I to do this one again, I think I’d try the hidden rare earth magnet trick instead of the magnetic catch. I didn’t notice until after the first round of finishing that I didn’t quite sand out the score line on the drawer side. Nothing says “hand cut” quite like a score line, eh? The finish is three coats of the “Maloof blend” of equal parts tung oil, linseed oil, and poly followed by paste wax. Small scale furniture can be a lot of fun, and a great way to use up some stray boards around the shop.

Comments

9 Responses to “Doll Armoire - Project of the Week”

  1. Claude Stewart on May 16th, 2008 1:14 pm

    Nice!

  2. Joe R on May 16th, 2008 10:42 pm

    I think you did a beautiful job! I think it interesting that a combination of four woods can work together with such a nice result. The only thing that I can find that is a little lacking is the three dovetails (on the drawer sides) where I would like to see five…but, awesome anyway. I’m sure she loves it. Congrats.

  3. Larry Q on May 17th, 2008 12:53 pm

    Very nice piece - My grand daughter Clairer is also very fond of American Girl dolls and clothes - She even has clothes that match. I would like to build one for her. Is their a plan available or did you design your own? Great job!!! Please reply if you can. thanks

  4. Matthew Hills on May 17th, 2008 11:12 pm

    Nice work!

    On a more general question — when doing a cabinet carcasse with dovetails, would you put the pins on the sides or on the top/bottom? (my impression would be to put them on the sides, as I’d expect the most likely forces to be trying to pull the sides out). The overall aesthetic looked good here….

  5. Rick on May 18th, 2008 11:56 am

    Beautiful job

  6. William on May 19th, 2008 1:20 am

    Joe - I agree that five pins on the drawer would have been killer, but with 1/4 inch sides, I felt lucky to pull off three. These were only my second attempt at half-blind dovetails. I think three really thin pins flanked by two thicker ones would look cool.

    Larry - No plans except my own rough drawings. I could probably dig a copy out of the sawdust if you’re interested.

    Matthew - Andy Rae’s book “Furniture and Cabinet Construction” (Taunton 2001) shows tails on the sides even in full-sized cases. I suspect this is more of a matter of appearance than any forces since the joint doesn’t experience the repeated pulling that a drawer face does.

  7. runningwood on May 19th, 2008 7:24 am

    very nice job. I had one question about the doors, from they clearly are not typical rail and stile panel doors and appear to be constructed of one solid piece with an inset panel, can you comment on your construction of the doors ?

  8. William on May 23rd, 2008 7:45 am

    Runningwood - Good eye. At 3/8 inch thick, the doors were too thin for stile/rail construction. I routed a 1/4 inch deep hollow and inset a 1/8 inch thick piece of birdseye maple veneer, which was leftover from resawing the drawer fronts.

  9. Badabing on May 29th, 2008 3:19 pm

    Awesome work! I have some experience with miniatures and this is a very nice example of fine quality and workmanship.

    As for the score lines…I think this adds to the appeal of the piece. In fact, I read somewhere that old time craftsmen intentionally left such lines on their work to emphasize the handcut nature of the joinery. Besides, someone that didn’t know what they were might be inclined to ask you and then you can take the opportunity to explain how you cut it all by hand ;-)

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