This week we are taking a look at some one of the pieces of unfinished dollhouse miniature furniture that is sold at Hobby Lobby. I know I have seen several people using various pieces of this furniture in their projects and I wanted to see for myself what the quality is.
I picked out the nightstand which is marked at $1.99, which makes it just a tiny bit more that the furniture from Dollar Tree. Some of the bigger pieces were higher in cost.
One thing I want to say is that I simply pulled the front piece off the hook and purchased it. I did not take any time to look for one that was in better or worse shape than the others on the display. I felt this was the most fair way to do the review.
So first impressions, it seems to be make of decent wood, not sure exactly what it the quality of the wood is nice. The overall piece is fairly smooth out the package and only needed minimal sanding.
For the most part the glued joints seem to be neat and done well. One of the three drawers in my piece had the front put on a bit crooked but not a lot. It was definitely more noticeable in person than on camera. Do note that because of the style of this piece all the drawer fronts are angled a bit the top one is has stronger angle. Only really noticeable when you are really looking for defects.
I decided to test both a penetrating stain and a painted finish on the piece. These are probably the two most common ways to finish furniture and I wanted to see how both would behave on the piece. The only stain I had on hand was the black tone that I had for the roof of the Beachside Bungalow. Not my first choice as far as color goes but for our project today it is fine. One of the things I was looking for with the stain was how neat those glued areas really are. Stain normally will leave a light spot anywhere there was glue that was wiped away. I am happy to say that there was only one place that the stain did not take and that was this little area where the back and the top meet. Other than this one spot the stain was pretty even and covered nicely. The grain of the wood on this piece is also acceptable also for the piece.
For the drawers I used a red craft paint. I wanted to see how smooth the paint would go on and would it raise the grain badly. I have to say that with only 1 coat of paint the coverage was excellent and even if I was going to use this piece in a scene I would be tempted to skip a second coat. The only place the paint raised the grain was at the edges of the decorative cut area on the drawer fronts and even that was minimal.
A quick coat of gold paint over the red on the knobs and they are smooth enough to mimic metal hardware in person.
The only clear finish I had on hand the day I filmed was Mod Podge so that was what I used and it worked out fine.
So overall I really like this furniture piece. The crooked drawer could most likely be avoided by looking the piece over carefully in it’s package before purchase.
The spot where the stain did not take could be camouflaged by careful touch up especially since it was a small spot and in the corner.
I am pretty certain I will be purchasing more of this furniture in the future for projects. I think they will spark a lot of creative proctors in the coming months.
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