In the Breakfast Room

When I saw the "Retro" dining table kit on Jane Harrop's website, I couldn't resist it, so I counted up the money from my Christmas stocking and splurged.  I really liked the set anyway, but when I found out that the table is only 4"/10cm long, I knew it would probably be perfect -- you can see how small the room is!

Now that it is all a month or so behind me, I am beginning to forget how much of a bother the chairs were to put together, and instead to just appreciate their ingenuity and beauty.  The kit pieces are laser-cut, so you must sand off the scorch marks, and despite heeding Harrop's warning to be especially careful with the side pieces -- because the horizontal part goes across the grain and is therefore very vulnerable -- I managed to snap two of the eight before I even got to the gluing stage.  One went back together almost invisibly, at least! 

There are also very few points where the pieces actually come into contact with each other -- just at the ends of the three stretchers -- so the glued joints are also vulnerable.  I was using Aleene's Tacky Glue, so maybe it would have been a different matter with something else, I don't know.  They were definitely more sturdy the more stretchers were in place, which was helpful, but I even managed to knock one apart while finishing it -- I wanted to use the Tried & True I have, which was so successful on the Arts & Crafts bed, but requires that you finish it after assembly.

The cushions are some glossy papery stuff I'm not familiar with -- you glue one piece to the top and one on the underside of a piece of heavy card cut to shape (all provided in the kit) and then shape them to the required curve while the glue is still damp, to fit the stretchers in the seat.  I found that this worked perfectly to shape them! --

I learned along the way that these particular chairs are based on Erik Buch's "49" design from the 1950s -- I guess a minor Danish-modern designer, as he doesn't even have an article in the Danish Wikipedia, let alone the English one.  Here is a photo of the 49 chair from the Erik Buch company --

There are some interesting pictures here of a 49 chair with the seat removed, so that you can see how the seat "floats" -- other photos of restored chairs are here and here.

Harrop's 1:12 version is ingenious in miniaturizing the essence of the chair and table, just with the caveat above that the kits (certainly the chairs, the table is much easier) are probably best for someone with some kit-building experience.  I do wish that the seats were a tiny bit bigger, so that you could get more of the "floating" effect, but it's certainly good the way it is!  I did put the back rest up a little higher than in the instructions, which looked to me more like the originals.

(I used Loctite gel glue for the cushions, by the way, as the back is held on essentially by friction, since you can't use much glue or it will show.  By this point my chairs had a linseed/beeswax finish, and regular glue probably wouldn't have held.) 

The table was a breeze after the chairs!

The piece underneath can actually be a table leaf if you like.  I was sorely tempted to do so, but trying it out before gluing, the larger size would have been just a little too impractical in the small room, and so that piece is now a reinforcement, its original purpose anyway.  The grain lines look a little darker in the above photo than they are in real life, where they are quite beautiful.

It's funny because usually the things I like best are really old, but Danish Modern does get my heart pounding! and so I'm delighted to have found these kits.  I didn't plan it, but they also look really good on the Karagashli carpet I worked a few years ago -- I really like the golden wood against the green, and the styles, despite being both a century and a continent apart, are unexpectedly harmonious!

Comments

[brae]

They look perfect! Money well spent, and you did a marvelous job putting them together.

[Nancy Enge]

These are charming! Love your choice of linseed/beeswax finish; you did a splendid job.
I just ordered these chairs from
https://www.etsy.com/listing/523830765/dollshouse-miniature-kit-one-scale-112?ref=shop_home_active_8 from melissasminiwereld on Etsy; they reminded me of Jane Harrop's work.