Little Boxes

When I finish one project I always have ideas lined up for the next project. . . . . Okay, for the next half dozen or so projects.  This time however I wanted to hold off on starting something new in order to firstly clean and tidy my workspace and secondly to find a use for the various containers I've collected on the basis they will make a great case for a miniature scene someday.  I have boxes, small shelf cubes, a glass lantern and sundry other items that I still don't know exactly what I want to put in them but I've been tripping over them too long to leave them hanging about empty.

Amongst those containers are this framed white display shelf and a stack of cardboard boxes just the right size for a 48th scale room.  I figured out that if I knock the shelves out of the unit I can stack ten of the boxes into the unit.  So the plan I've come up with is to make ten roomboxes, each with a different theme to display in the unit.  This will get rid of both display unit and boxes.  The catch is that I don't have ideas for all ten rooms yet and probably won't fill all ten boxes straight away but rather work on them gradually between doing other things so the unit and boxes will still be hanging about for a while yet.

Not knowing what to do for all ten boxes doesn't mean that I haven't made a start on a couple of them.  The first box now holds this Georgian style bedroom with canopied bed, dressing table and chaise.  If you're thinking that it all looks a little like the rooms in Le Petit Palais then you would be right as the room is decorated with papers and other items left over from that project.

The second box is going to be something completely different.  This box isn't furnished yet, but it will be a Roman dining room with chaises for the diners to recline on while they sip their wine and eat whatever it was Romans ate that is easy to recreate in 48th scale.  I still need to do a little research before finishing this one.  The remaining eight boxes will be set in similarly different times and places.

I also had on hand a pair of flat packed cardboard storage boxes that I had hoped would hold old dollshouse magazines but the boxes were a little large to suit that purpose.  Now they have a new purpose.  By sticking one atop the other and adding foamboard floors inside I now have a five floor 24th scale town house.  This is actually a case of two birds and one stone as I wanted to find a use for the boxes and a 24th scale town house was already on my list of future projects.  It's going to be set around 1860 and it will be the home of a doctor.  From the bottom up the floors will hold: a kitchen, the main entry and surgery/consulting room, a living space or reception room, the bedroom and up in the attic will be a bathroom and either a private office or a small medical lab.

This still leaves me with a lantern, two display cubes and possibly a few more boxes to find uses for . . . . . . . .