The Den of Slack

I can’t remember where or when I got this Mission-style thingie. I’m not even sure what it is… probably a 1:12 firescreen? But I’ve had it for a while, and when I started working on the Craftsman bungalow vignette I pulled it out thinking I could do something with it.

I thought about putting a fireplace and built-in cabinets on the side wall, and using the firescreen’s stained glass panels as cabinet doors. But the window placement prevented a fireplace in the middle of the wall, and the spacing wasn’t good for a fireplace with one cabinet next to it. So I paneled the side walls instead.

But I still liked the cabinet idea, and decided to build one into the space next to the front door.

I popped the stained glass out of the firescreen. The stained glass is just paint with no plexiglass behind it, and some of it pulled off when I removed the panels.

In order to build the cabinet to fit between the door and the window, first I needed to put up the window trim. I lay a scrap piece on top of the two headers to make sure they lined up.

Then I built a cabinet to fit inside the space. This is 3/8″ deep and the same height as the rest of the paneling. The top piece doesn’t go back to the wall (because it overlaps the trim), but you can’t see the very back, so I left it that way rather than notching it.

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Now that the windows and door are glued in along the front wall of the bungalow, I can add paneling. (If you need to get caught up, this post shows how I created the paneling for the side walls.)

Because the paneling on this wall is broken up by the window and door trim, I took care of that trim first. I’m using plain 1/4″ x 1/16″ basswood for the trim, with Craftsman style headers that match the front of the house.

When I painted the door frame, I painted the inside edges knowing they would get covered up by trim. The frame isn’t quite flush with the wall, as opposed to the windows, which are flush thanks to the basswood strips I added before gluing them in.

I rectified this by gluing 1/32″ thick basswood in over the green trim. I didn’t have any that was the right width, so I cut these pieces down with a utility knife, and then glued them in with the cut edge facing the wall so the door trim will meet up with a clean edge.

The top of the window is slightly higher than the top of the door. I glued the door’s side trim pieces in first, so I could ensure the bottom of the header lined up with the bottom of the door frame.

I glued in the header next.

And then the window side trim pieces.

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