Where It All Started, Part II

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Dawn Treader, Grandkids, Narnia, Wardrobe

This is the second half of my previous post, a tour through Narnia, now that we’ve been living with it for a couple years.  Picking up where we left off, let’s head through the Wardrobe into Narnia proper.

Because we were working with a floor plan as opposed to having an entire world, certain elements of Narnia were treated with some artistic license.  Our Wardrobe is in Cair Paravel instead of Spare Oom, and our Narnia is a combination of Lantern Waste and the “Dawn Treader.”  However, just like the original Narnia, we have our resident Aslan!

The window lets in light for playtime and has blackout curtains for nap time.

The boys’ side of the room gives a glimpse of the portholes in between the berths as well as the crown-embellished “sail” curtains made of drop cloths.

A large hunt cabinet with a dragon reminiscent of Eustace holds farm clothes for when the grandkids visit.

The quote over the door comes from “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and perfectly summarizes my hopes in creating Narnia in our attic.

The grandkids love staying in Narnia.  Whether it’s a new book to read, a dark berth for a nap, dress-up clothes in the Wardrobe, or simply room to let their imaginations run free, there’s always something here for them.  If it’s been a while since they’ve visited, they’ve been known to ask their parents when they can go to Narnia again.  We just love the fact that we’re making so many memories together!

Advertisement

The Wardrobe Gets Around

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, Narnia, Spare Oom, The Lodge, Wardrobe

My niece, who works in the computer field, just had a post on our Narnia project published on the Homeketeers blog.  Be sure to check it out!  (It’s published under her nom de plume.)  For anyone who’s new to the story of how we turned our attic into Narnia, my niece’s account is clear and concise–and a good way to find out about it without reading through about 75 posts!

The Newest Queen of Narnia

Tags

Dawn Treader, Grandkids, Love, Narnia

She arrived April 10 and is perfect in every way!  She weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20.5″ long.  She doesn’t have a name quite yet . . .

. . . but we love her to pieces just as she is!

As soon as I put her into Didi’s arms, she grabbed hold of his finger.

What she was really doing was wrapping HIM around HER little finger!

“Hi, Didi!”  She knows just how to melt our hearts!

Such a precious gift:  another grandchild for us, a little sister for Charis and Kol, a second daughter for Jim and Monique, another niece for her doting aunts and uncles, and a royal occupant for the third berth in the “Dawn Treader”!

So much joy from one tiny baby!

Narnia Music

Tags

Dawn Treader, Jesus

Here’s a great post on Narnia Music for you Narnia fans.  It’s from a group called Benjamin Dunn and the Animal Orchestra.  Here is their YouTube video of the song “Eustace” from their new album “Fable,” the lyrics of which are in Pine Needles and Paper Trails’ post shared above.

Finishing the Dawn Treader Berths, Part II

Tags

Colors & Paint, Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, DIY, Grandkids, Narnia

The carpet remnants from Cair Paravel took care of protecting the bottoms of the bed rockers, but the beds themselves were still ugly bare plywood.  But I had a plan for that!

We had four boards cut to length at Lowe’s which I stained and poly’d the same as the berths.  Herb (by the way, the last picture of him ever at age 59!) is my go-to man when there’s drilling to be done.  First he drilled two holes in each board so we could screw the pulls in.  This had to be done first since the screws would be caught between the board and the bed once the board was screwed in.

Here’s one of the trim boards with the lion pulls screwed in and five more (silver-colored) 2″ wood screws attaching the board to the side of the bed.  We’ll take a closer look in the following photos.

A close-up of one of the lion head pulls from Van Dyke’s Restorers (see the Purveyors page).

A close-up of the lion pull in the finished trim board.

Herb counter-sank all the screw holes, a time-consuming operation, but one that enabled all exterior decoration to easily cover the screws since they were level with the board’s surface.

In the middle of each board I applied a wood decoration from Hobby Lobby.  I used Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue which dries quickly.

The weight of a full can of polyurethane was sufficient to press the wood decoration down while it dried.

Here’s a close-up of the finished decoration.  These cost about $3 each, much cheaper than anywhere else I had seen ones like them.  I stained them, then gilded them with Rub ‘n Buff, then poly’d them.  I was really pleased with how they turned out.

The final step for each trim board was to cover up the silver wood screws.  I bought Antique Daisy upholstery tacks at Ace Hardware for this purpose.  I gently hammered one tack directly above the screw with the nail part almost touching the edge of the screw.

I hammered another tack in below the screw.  Still a bit of screw showing, so . . .

on each side of the screw I hammered in another tack.  This time I moved them a smidgen further away from the edge of the screw.  I could have moved them further away so they wouldn’t have been on top of the first tacks, but I liked the bas relief effect of layering them on top.

Here’s a look at one end of the trim board with the screws hidden by upholstery tacks.

Here’s a full-length view of the finished trim board on Kol’s bed.  My fancy upholstery tacks are actually hidden by the curtains, but at least I’m not bothered by the thought of ugly silver screws under there!

This photo of Charis’ bed is a bit dark, but it shows how well the trim board ended up matching the paneling of the berth, making the bed look built-in.

I had forgotten to include photos of the ends of the berths earlier, so here’s a shot with the little lanterns I got at World Market hanging on the crown hooks.  I will NEVER put candles upstairs, but little battery-operated tea lights make perfect night lights for the kids–lots more fun in a lantern than something you plug into the wall.

The kids arrive tonight for a weekend of festivities celebrating Didi’s 60th birthday, and thanks to some work from Didi, their beds are FINALLY, completely done!

Aslan is ready and waiting for the kids.  Naughty lion, he nearly gave Herb a heart attack when he went upstairs and saw him laying there so lifelike!  It’s a good thing he’s a pretty healthy 60 year old!

 

Finishing the Dawn Treader Berths

Tags

Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, DIY, Grandkids, Narnia

At the very end of December, Herb built the rocking bed platforms for the kids’ Dawn Treader berths . . . and the ugly plywood has been glaring at me ever since.  Once I got my health back and got Herb’s 60th birthday planned, I finally got down to finishing the beds.  

Charis and Kol spent the day earlier this week, and after their nap, all she wanted to do was color.

So Kol came upstairs with me to be my helper/observer while I worked on the beds.

First I flipped his bed upside down.  Here’s what the rocker on one end looks like.  It’s great–except I’ve been afraid to pull the beds out from the wall to make them up, for fear of scratching the floor.

The first step (I learned the hard way by not doing it first on the first rocker) was to trim off all the excess carpet “shag” along one long edge of carpet remnant.  It’s much easier to do this off the rocker than on!

The next step was to line the carpet remnant up along the edge of the rocker.  I made sure my nice straight carpet edge was on the most exterior edge of the rocker; this way any shagginess in my cutting technique would be hidden under the shadow of the bed on the interior edge.

Then I took a small metal staple and positioned it close to the end of the rocker . . .

. . . and hammered it in all the way.  (Sorry there’s no photo of the actual hammering step, but I didn’t think Kol could aim the camera well enough–and I KNEW I couldn’t while hammering!)  I repeated this step about every 3-4 inches along the rocker.  As you can see, a dimple is left where each staple goes in.

The final step was to use a utility knife to cut away the excess carpet along the one end and along the inside edge of the runner.  Then I brushed away the little shreds of carpet fiber that littered the floor all around.

And that’s all it took to protect the bottoms of the beds!  Each time Kol saw a staple disappear into the carpet fiber he wanted to come look for it.  We had to look really hard to find the staple down in all that plushness.  There’s no chance any metal is going to scrape our nice Dawn Treader deck!

Charis and Kol can now rock (themselves) to the rhythm of the waves as they sail from Narnia into the Land of Nod.

(Stay tuned for Part II.)

 

DIY Decor Project: Making “Sail” Curtains for the Dawn Treader Berths II

Tags

Aslan, Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, DIY, Grandkids, Narnia

Jim & Monique and the GKs were coming for the weekend, so I wanted to get all the curtains done in Narnia.  I wanted the kids to have a quiet, darkish place for naps and a fun curtain to hide behind for play.

The first step was to collect my supplies for the stenciling job:  the stencil I ordered from Your Memories Captured on Etsy; spray adhesive from Hobby Lobby; gold stencil spray from Hobby Lobby; paper towels; masking tape (you know what that looks like!)

Here’s a closer look at the stencil.

I used printer paper to make a large paper frame around the stencil and taped it all together.  This is to prevent over-spray.  When everything was ready, I sprayed a light coat of spray adhesive on the back of the stencil and part of the paper around it.

Next, I marked the center of my curtain by pressing a small crease in with my fingers, then laid the curtain out on my work surface.  I put several paper towels under the curtain, and using a marker, I marked the paper towel where the center of the curtain hit.

Then I put lengths of paper towels all around the printer paper shield, covering all of the exposed curtain.

After thoroughly shaking the can of gold stencil paint, I sprayed it evenly over the stencil until I was happy with the amount of paint I had applied.

Here’s where I have give you a warning to learn from my mistake!  See that thick layer of paint puddled on top of the stencil?  Well, I didn’t think anything of it and excitedly peeled my stencil off to see how it had turned out, and the liquid paint splattered onto my curtain.  😦

 I was able to get most of it off with a damp paper towel, but I learned that an extra step was necessary.

From then on, I took a doubled-over paper towel and gently blotted the excess paint from the stencil; often it was necessary to blot even more around the edges or on the stencil itself or on the paper shield.  But I had no further splatter problems!

Once the stencil was finished, I gave it a few minutes to dry to the touch while I did the other curtain panel of the pair.

Next it was time to hang the curtains.  I used 7 clip rings per panel.  One went in the center and two at the ends.  That left me with two rings to divide between half of the panel.  I measured from center to end, and it was exactly 24″.  That meant that I put a ring at 8″ and another at 16″–and the rings were spaced perfectly enough to please the most CDO of OCD personalities!  (CDO is like OCD, but it’s alphabetized!)

I may bore you with my numerous shots of the curtains hanging, but I was SO excited at how they turned out (and I just told my OCD side that the splatters on the first curtain are proof that they are hand-made!)  Here’s one in the darkened room with the reading light on inside.  You can see that this kid’s light will never bother his or her sibling in the next berth.

Here’s what they look like in the light.

And a close-up of my crown.

Here are both the curtains on the girls’ side where the berths are longer.

And here are the curtain fashion options on the boys’ side: both open or just one side open.

And a final look at the curtains with Aslan gazing on approvingly from the open curtains of his tent.

DIY Decor Project: Making “Sail” Curtains for the Dawn Treader Berths

Tags

Dawn Treader, Decor, DIY, Narnia

Nothing has happened in Narnia since Jan. 19 because I went to Dallas to visit my sister.  I’ve come home all fired up to get things finished, so I started this afternoon.

Well, more accurately, I continued this afternoon.  Back in early December I bought four 6′ x 9′ drop cloths at Lowe’s.  They’re 71% cotton and 29% polyester.

Based on research I did about making curtains out of drop cloths, I washed each one 5-6 times in hot water with plenty of liquid fabric softener.  Twice I ran them through the dryer on a hot setting to make sure I shrank them if they were likely to shrink.

When they were finished, they were nice and soft to the touch–much better than the stiff drop cloths I pulled out of the packages!  Then I folded them up and waited until I had time to start the curtains . . . that would be today.

 
I’ll explain the process for each pair of curtains, although of course I repeated it four times.  First I folded the drop cloth in half and laid it out on the (fairly) clean floor, making sure that the corners matched up as closely as possible.  (If you’re OCD and want them to be perfectly square, you better not use drop cloths!)

Next, I cut along the fold with a sewing scissors so I had two panels of the same size.  Assuming my 6′ x 9′ drop cloth started out 72″ x 108″, it had shrunk down to 68″ x 92″.  The 68″ side is the perfect height for my curtains, and the 92″ side covers the width of the berths perfectly (there will be a bit more fullness on the shorter berths on the boys’ side).  So when I cut each drop cloth in half, I was left with two panels of 46″ wide x 68″ high.

The next step was to seam the cut side.  First I ironed down about 1/2″ on the raw edge.

To avoid too much thickness in the corners, I clipped off part of the thick side seam on an angle.

This left an easier-to-handle corner when it came time to hem the side.

Finally, I turned the edge over one more time so the cut edge would be inside, and I ironed it to hold it in place for sewing.

So much for the easy part!  I am NOT a seamstress, and sewing machines and I don’t get along very well.

Well, once I got the right-sized bobbin in, we did much better!  But you can tell from my tense face that I’m having to concentrate on what I’m doing.

As a sewing project goes, this one wasn’t too bad–just two straight lines on each panel for a total of four straight lines of sewing for a pair of curtains.  You can’t beat that for easy!

 

The first line I sewed was along the left edge of the hem to hold it down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second line I sewed was along the folded edge.  Its only purpose is to hold down the fabric inside the hem and keep it from fraying as well as to make that side match the double-hemmed sides the drop cloth came with.

In preparation for the final step of making the curtains, I washed them again with an extra rinse cycle to remove all the fabric softener!  Note to anyone with allergies:  You might want to do that before sewing!  By the time I finished four pairs of curtains, I was sneezing my head off!

Here’s one pair of curtains hanging up to dry in the laundry room.    (By the way, my walls are not the nauseating shade of lemon yellow they appear to be in the photo!)

I don’t want to take a chance that the thread will shrink and pucker my seams, so I’m hang-drying the curtains, and I’ll toss them in the dryer to soften up before I continue.

Stay tuned for the next step–the fun part!

Narnia: Ready for a Royal Visit

Tags

Aslan, Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Dawn Treader, Decor, Design, Grandkids, Jesus, Kara, Narnia, Spare Oom, The Lodge, Wardrobe

Here’s a glimpse upstairs after I finished getting Narnia ready for the first Royal Visit by the Grandkids.

(A word of explanation is in order about “Narnia.”  We call the whole upstairs “Narnia” because all the different rooms were actually in the real Narnia, and they are part of our whole Narnia theme.  We also call the Grandkids’ Dorm itself “Narnia” because you go through the Wardrobe to get there.  Hopefully the meaning of my use of “Narnia” will be clear from the context.)

Aslan’s Tent is the parents’ bedroom.  As you climb the red-carpeted stairs, Aslan’s Tent is on the right, across the hall from Cair Paravel.  It’s the only room that already existed upstairs.

There’s room for a sitting area in the corner of Aslan’s Tent near the French doors to the balcony.  (The large mirror is only here temporarily.)  I have plans to make Aslan’s Tent more Rococo-Morocco, but all in good time.

Step across the hall into Cair Paravel, soon to become the Library.  The doorway at left leads to The Lodge; the one on the right, to the landing between Cair Paravel and Aslan’s Tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other side of Cair Paravel will soon hold bookcases, and the reading area will move over next to the Wardrobe.

The stained glass door that leads into Spare Oom contributes to the castle ambience of Cair Paravel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s peek into The Lodge as we call the bathroom (in honor of the furry friends who led the Pevensies to Aslan).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to find this Amish-made towel tree in a local furniture shop.  I was also excited to find the Bed, Bath & Beyond shower curtain that ties in the colors of the river rock floor, the Brazilian cherry vanity, and the log walls.  Who knew furnishing a bathroom could be so much fun?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every bathroom in our house has to be set up for reading, so an antique hook and a Victorian-era hanger were pressed into service as a magazine rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kara found this reproduction sampler (made in China) at a local antique store, and we laughed so hard I had to buy it.  That’s one of the best $10 I’ve ever spent!  Kara thought hanging it across from the shower would be the perfect touch.  In case you can’t figure out why, here’s what the motto says:  “When this you see remember me, and bare me in your mind.  Let all the world say what they will, speak of me as you find.”  (The answer appears at the end of this post.)

I had fun making this toilet paper holder from:  a lion’s head pull I spray-painted bronze; a key chain ring; a piece of leather rein; a curtain rod hook; and a piece of an old broomstick that Herb cut down for me.  The rein is permanently screwed to the dowel on the right while the curtain rod hook fits through an existing hole in the rein for changing rolls of TP.

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s take a quick peek into Spare Oom as we call my craft room.  It’s a great place to read by a window with a view or to stick an extra guest, as long as they don’t mind a crafty mess!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally–on to Narnia proper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aslan waits beside the miniature Christmas tree Kara decorated as a gift for her niece and nephew.

If you look behind you after you enter Narnia, this is what you see.  Some of the decorative features are (from left) a cross-stitch of Jesus and the children rescued from a junk shop along with the lion mirror (Aslan, of course!); an antique hunt cabinet with a dragon that we purchased from Kara; and next to the lion corbel, the quote that sums up our whole project, taken from C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

“I am [in your world],” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. That was the very reason you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

(A future post will cover this vinyl wall words project.)

The berths on the boys’ side have fur throws for blankets and red velour spreads which can double as dress-up capes.

The dress-up capes on the girls’ side are purple.

At the foot of each bed is a crown hook for hanging pajamas or robes.  (A future DIY post will feature the hooks.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we turn out the lights, all is ready for the arrival of Charis and Kol, Daughter of Eve and Son of Adam, Queen and King of Narnia.

DIY Decor Project: Build a Bed That Rocks!

Tags

Dawn Treader, DIY, Narnia

While telling someone about our Narnia project awhile back, I described the Dawn Treader berths with their shipshape lights and portholes and the “sail” curtains I was planning.  “We’ll get an ocean white-noise-maker for the kids,” I explained, and jokingly added that the only thing missing was that the beds wouldn’t rock with the waves.  And–BOOM!  Just like that, an idea was born:  I knew how we could make the beds rock!

I researched online to see if someone had already covered that ground, but all I could find was a machine one man built to move his bed sideways, an enormous and expensive rocking metal frame, and the idea of hanging the beds from ropes.  I had already thought of that very nautical idea, but rejected it as potentially dangerous for small children who might climb the ropes and fall.  My idea was this:  If a chair can have rockers, why can’t a bed?  Herb kindly agreed to turn my idea into reality.  So here’s what we did:

(1)  We measured the twin mattresses at 37 3/4″ wide by 74″ long.  Herb bought 4 sheets of 3/4″ plywood at Lowe’s and had them cut to 39″ x 75″ inches.  This left enough room to put quarter round trim around the top edges to help hold the mattresses in place.  Herb made 4 beds, but I will give directions for just one bed.

(2)  Herb used 2x4s for the base of the bed, attaching them to  the rougher, stamped side of the plywood.  First, he cut 2 pieces 39″ long and screwed one at each end of the plywood base, 1.5″ away from the end of the plywood.  He then cut two pieces 69″ long and screwed them between the end pieces along the sides of the plywood base. This created a rectangular support underneath the plywood.  Finally, he cut two 36″ pieces as cross-braces which he attached between the long sides, leaving roughly 22″ between each cross-brace. Herb counter-sunk all the screws so there would be nothing to catch on the mattress or on small children’s fingers.  The end result is a sturdy frame that is a mere 4.25″ off the ground and will easily support even a large adult.  (We still need to tack pieces of carpet at all the joints to make the bed easier to slide in and out for making up.)

Counter-sunk screws

 

 

 

 

(3)  The next step was to make the rockers.  If you’re any good at math, you’ve realized that Herb made the bed support frame 3″ shorter than the plywood base.  This left a 1.5″ gap at each end of the plywood base–just wide enough for a 2×6″ rocker at each end.

Corner of bed frame showing 1.5″ space left for rocker

First, Herb cut two rockers 39″ long, the exact width of the bed frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4)  This is how we made the curve for the rockers.  We set up two sawhorses 25 feet apart.  In the center of the far sawhorse (see photo above) we drove a nail and tied a piece of hay twine to it.  (We found that other types of string had too much give, which made the rocker tracing turn out uneven.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put the 2×6 rocker on the nearest sawhorse.  We used a T-square to be sure the string was centered and squared on the middle of the 2×6.  I held the string exactly at the center mark of the rocker on the “bottom” edge.  Next, without moving my fingers on the twine, I swept the end of the twine in an arc from end to end of the rocker.  We had to move the sawhorses about another foot farther apart before we finally got the curve shallow enough to suit us.  At that point, I tied a Sharpie marker onto the end of the twine at the place I had been holding.  Then I swept the Sharpie from end to end of the rocker to draw the curve.

Herb was taking photos and I forgot to remind him to get a shot of the completed curve drawn onto the rocker.  You can see a bit of it in photos below, but you’ll have to take my word that it ended up quite nice with almost no measurable difference between the two ends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5)  Next we had to cut the rockers, and for this we needed a jigsaw which Herb had bought at Lowe’s.  He had used one years ago, but for the life of us, we could NOT get the blade into this one.  After half an hour of struggling with the blade, reading the directions, trying to decipher the pathetic drawings, and searching online, Herb finally drove back to Lowe’s with the jigsaw.  A couple hours later he came back with a new jigsaw.  It wasn’t us!  It was the jigsaw!!!  When no one at Lowe’s could make the first jigsaw work, they all agreed we had gotten a faulty one!  We were glad to discover that we weren’t jigsaw idiots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(If you’re lucky, you can skip step 5 and go straight to step 6!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6)  Cut the rockers.  Herb started at one end and cut to the middle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7)  Then he moved to the other end and cut to the middle again.

(8)  On the first rocker, there was an uneven bit in the middle which you can see in the photo above and below (on the closest rocker to Herb).

By the time he cut the second rocker, Herb had refined his jigsaw technique and got a very even edge.

(9)  He used a hand plane to smooth out any unevenness so that the rockers would move smoothly.

(10)  The final step was to screw the rockers onto the ends of the plywood bases.  Somehow I neglected to take a photo of this process, but here is the completed bed above (right).  You can see a rocker-less plywood base at left, also minus a mattress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This close-up shows the completed bed at right with the rocker in place.  You can see by the reflection on the floor that there is indeed a small gap between rocker and floor.  And yes, the bed does rock!  It’s a very mild rock because we wanted to imitate gentle ocean waves, not sea monster-riled turmoil!  The final step will be to cut strips of excess carpet and tack them to the bottoms of the runners, thus making the bed easy to slide in and out for making up.

If you are quite sharp-eyed, you will notice that the rocker-less bed frame at left does not have a 1.5″ gap at the end for the rockers.  This was a goof made on the first bed, but it can still have rockers–they will just go inside the frame.

(11)  The final touch on the beds still has to be done.  Herb will cut one 75″ piece of 1×6    and attach it along the outside edge of the bed.  It will jut up about 1″ high to serve as a “stop” for the mattress; the rest will hang down to cover most of the bed frame without interfering with the rocking motion.  I will stain the decorative 1×6 board, add an ornate gilded appliqué in the middle, and screw in two lion head drawer pulls, spaced widely enough that I can easily grasp them to pull the bed out from the wall.  Once that final touch is done, I’ll post a photo below so you can see the finished project.