A Chippendale bed

As I reported in the previous post I have been buying more Chippendale kits, but I still have many from previous bargains that I haven't made. There is no system in my cabinet-making: I pick up a kit, look at it, think a bit, often put it aside, either because it feels too complicated or because I don't know exactly where it might go.

I have two bed kits, and I decided that the single bed should be in the nursery, to replace a rather clumsy bed of unknown origin that has been there for a while.

 

This is a straightforward kit that just needs a lot of patience. Since I had made the canopy bed I knew what was coming.

 

But I am much more skilled now than I was three years ago. I am better at aligning, I am better at drilling tiny holes (with a pushpin), at holding the assembly together. What I did wrong here was that I painted the parts before assembly, not thinking that the inside wouldn't have been painted, but there isn't much I can do about it, and nobody will ever see.

Stringing was fun:

 

Then I made the mattress of the same towel fabric as for the canopy bed, and used handkerchiefs for bedding, but I wanted a patchwork quilt for this bed. I have made miniature patchwork, and it's a hard job. It so happened that I went to a craft shop to get some more Really Useful Boxes to organise my supplies, and there I found just what I needed.

Of course as soon as I put the bed into the nursery I had to remove several items that were not in scale. You couldn't tell with the old bed, but now it was obvious. Fortunately, I know exactly what Chippendale pieces I will put there instead. But so far there is complete chaos. As nurseries usually are.