And now for something radically different...

 Hello my friends, 

In the past few years I have worked (slowly, very slowly!) on making miniatures and rooms for a double room deep dollshouse complete with facades and roof. All according my plan and designs for Huis ter Swinnendael. The fictitious country estate around the year 1806 where the Zonneschut family used to spend its summers here. But, in the last ten years of their lives, have taken up their residence here permanently. 

I have also started on building the first few roomboxes that, together, will make up the house as designed. Due to real live events and other reasons the scheme for building these rooms has been delayed a few times. But stil, the plan had remained the same.

Until now, that is... 

After much consideration I have decided that I will turn Huis ter Swinnendael into a Cabinet House. Not similar but inspired by the 17th and 18th century cabinet houses (aka Babyhouses) you can find in several Dutch museums. 

Why? Because I have come into possesion of a mahogany wardrobe from around 1880 that has always been in the family since then. It is part of the bedroom furniture set my parents have used as long as I remember. This wardrobe is the only part of the 7 piece set they have not used the last 11 years. Why, you ask? Not because there is anything wrong with it. No, but their current bedroom has a large built-in wardrobe and the ceiling is a few centimeter too low to house this (elegant) beast. Bedroom ceilings in the Netherlands usualy vary between 2.4 and 2.6 meters. The top of the carved scroll is 2.7 meters high... So what to do with it? 

Throwing it away is not an option. Keeping it stored away in the attic does not do a piece of furniture like this any good. It is quite a large cabinet. Deeper than normal and with the carved ornaments on the hood it is uncommonly high... wait, a cabinet...  A cabinet house!

It took me some time to come to terms with the idea. After all, converting Huis ter Swinnendael into a Cabinet House does alter the project quite a bit. I have put quite some time, thought and effort in the original plans that I will now set aside. 

But that is not all. A few of the planned rooms will have to be scrapped or altered. The 21 rooms of the original plans will be reduced to 16. It could be more but I want to compomise as little as possible on the original rooms. But on the other hand, it is a pretty big piece of furniture. Measuring on the inside a width of 140 centimeter by a depth of 50 cm and a height of just over 170 cm, I can easily fit 5 tiers with rooms into it without needing to adjust the ceiling heights. As I said, some rooms will need some modification in order to fit, but the cabinet has enough room for a decent selection. 

The mirrored doors make sure that sunlight can not fade the colours of miniatures or fabrics when closed. 

The two drawers, that nice and deep, are already in use. The one on the right stores items of furniture and other miniatures that have not yet found their place in a room (at this point my whole collection). The left drawer houses the kits and half/almost finished projects. My tools and craft supplies are stored in the workroom.

What alterations do I mean? When we look at Lady Zonneschut's dressingroom some of these changes can be made visible. In the original plan the wall with the window and windowseat (on the right in the picture) would be the door to open the room to us. Behind the door in the oposite wall the corridor next to the room would be visible. On the top wall in the picture, a door would stand ajar to suggest another room but there would not be an actual acces to a room. The door in bottom wall would be fake and not open at all. 

In the new situation the opening wall dissapears. I do not want to part with the wall with the window and windowseat. Nor the two walls where the fireplace will go in the corner. So I turn the room 90 degrees. The original "left wall" with the fake door is discarded. The original "right wall" has now become the back wall. Inside the cabinet there will be ample spaceeft behind this roombox. Because now the room is only 33 cm deep while there is room for 50 cm. It would be a shame to let these 22 cm go to waste. So the door that would only stand ajar will now have to be able to open in its entirety. This will make a new corridor or little cabinet visible. So a hole must be cut in the back panel of that double wall to open it up.

A fiddly job... But it would be a shame to throw the now discarded wall away ( ánd not use those 22 cm to my advantage) the discarded wall will be altered to become the back wall of the small room this door opens out on. Waste not, want not! 

Being a small room it will need a more simple and cheaper decor. I will remove the painted wallpaper and fill the large area with paneling. The colour for te woodwork will change from sage green into a cool light blue or a light coral pink with decorations in white. But all that will be the subject for a new post. Because I have not decided yet what the colourschem should be...

All in all I think it is justified to call this to be a radical change of plans. I hope that you will like it none the less. I will always have the drawings of the original plans. They will not change or be thrown away. It is an important part of the development of my miniature house.

Huibrecht