Detective Sam Slade: Private Eye (Room Box)

Private Eye Office

by Jessica Armstrong

This week I present to you the finale, the finished room box I've been working on all month. After all the aging, gluing, distressing, ripping and painting,

I've created a room set in the 1930's, during the Golden Detective Age. The same time as Maltese Falcon and similar stories. Only this detective (Sam Slade, a play on Sam Spade) isn't paid very well and isn't very tidy. In fact, it could be a crime scene. Spilled bottle, footprints, upset chair, etc.

Sam Slades office is presented to you hence:

The whole view of the office.

Close up of detective magazines and chair that's been tipped over.

Broad table view. Coffee mug, cigarettes, files, pen, etc.

A knocked over liquor bottle.

 Close up of coffee mug.

Cigarette butts in an ashtray. 

Lamp with pull string and magazines on top of a file cabinet.

Ink blotter made from scratch, along with a ballpoint pen I made. Some mug shots of "perps".

 Close up of detective magazine.

Open file cabinet with past cases.

 Individual files, all made by me.

And to finish, a top down view of the whole scene.

GSLC Products Used
4 Panel Door
Open Front Room Box

Making a Room Box - Part Three by Jessica

This week will be a tad heavy on the pictures, as I've accomplished a lot for this big ol' box of mine. If you've been following along (and I hope you have!), you know I've been working with one of the basic room box designs from GSLC and building an old, decayed room inside. This week, you find out: This is the office of private eye, Detective Sam Slade (based off of the detective from The Maltese Falcon).

This is the whole box as it stands currently.

I've added nail marks to the floor, to add an extra layer of realism to the room.

The door has been finished off, dry brushed and doorknob added.

The private investigators license and some pictures of New York City in the 1930's on the walls.

Some old copper pipes, oxidized over time. Made from drinking straws.

Photo of the Waldorf Astoria in New York, New York - 1930's.

Private eye license for Sam Slade.

The old radiator, painted over and aged with a crackle medium. Radiator is a metal dollhouse miniature from Dolls House Emporium.

Close up of the radiator and crackle effect.

Old ruddy clock, made from a button and a print out. More oxidized pipes by the door.

Oxidized pipe close-up. Straws were painted copper first and then brush with a turquoise paint.

Door knob is made from an ornate bead and cereal box card for the base.

The ceiling was first painted a tan colour, and then a water drop effect I used to create a water damaged ceiling, to add further age to the piece.

Photo of the statue of liberty, circa 1930's.

The wallpaper is stained and splattered, old and mildew-ridden. I'm hoping to give this piece the look of a truly aged detectives office - perhaps a detective who doesn't get many cases any more.

Thanks for joining me this week - next week I'll be finishing off the roombox by adding the final furniture and bits and bobs, so check back again!

Materials Used:

4 Panel Door 1:12

Open Front Room Box

The Making of a Room Box - Part II - by Jessica

Welcome back to The Making of a Room Box for our second peek into creating with the Open Front Room Box from GSLC.

For this box, I wanted there to be a door in the background and what better use of the GSLC 4 Panel Door could I think of, but to be the door to this tiny little world I`m creating.

The door comes with separate pieces that must fit inside the main door piece. What I`ve done is take (several) nail files and filed down each side of the 4 small pieces, and then file down the door itself to give a beveled look and add some depth to the door.

I went through many nail files through this process. They work better than just sandpaper on it`s own and give you a straight, flat working area.

 I highly advise learning from my mistake and wearing a mask while you do this. I started coughing a quarter of the way through and realised I`d probably inhaled some powdered chip board.

The aim of the sanding is to give it a more realistic door `look`.

I assembled the door and glued everything in place - this will be a non-functional door. `Just for show`as they say. I then took my awl (Whom I call Mr. Pointy) to the door, to give it some lines to make it look like wood grooves. Be careful to not go too deep if you attempt this - if you go too deep, the chip board sort of feathers and ruins the effect.

I used a dark stain to finish off the door, giving it a couple of coats. Be careful as you assemble the door with glue as to where the glue goes - if it seeps into the area you actually see, the stain will not affix to it and be a tad blotchy.

Pasting the wallpaper on, I just use Uhu glue sticks, as there is no bubbling this way.

And this is your sneak peek for next week - the remainder of the wallpaper is put on, as well as the baseboards.


Materials
Open Front Room Box
4 Panel Door 1:12

The Making of a Room Box - Part One by Jessica

For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to show you guys how I go about building diorama's or room boxes (if you prefer).

Over a late night conversation with my husband, we came upon the idea for this room box - surrounded with crime. I'm not going to give you all of the details just yet, though, so you'll have to be patient.

Building a room box is quite an undertaking - I always like to surround my pieces with a general theme - the more I know about who would live in the place I'm creating, the better it turns out in the end.

This box is created using the Open Front box, available from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. I really like this box because it's truly a blank slate for you to work with. You can alter it more freely should you decide to add windows or a door to your box. It's a thick chipboard and quite sturdy.

To begin, I assembled the box and stared at it for several weeks (before the conversation with my husband - haha). You can omit this step if you've already got a plan.

Once I had the idea, I used PVA glue to assemble the box, minus the frontispiece. I leave this off to make it easier to add floors and walls to the piece - it will be added as one of the last steps.

I painted the floor in burnt umber, because you never know how wood floors will turn out and it's nice to have an even colour below everything.

I printed out a brick pattern from my computer and glued it to the walls. This will not show quite so much in the finished product, so you'll notice some staining in the bottom corners from when I stained the wooden floors.

This is by far the best wooden (miniature) floor I've ever laid. Using a bag of wooden stir sticks (you can get a bag of 150 for 1.25 at the dollar store). As you might notice, the floor is laid in a 2/3/2/3 form. One layer has 2 planks, the next 3, back to 2, 3, and so on.

Despite it's small scale, this floor took me two full days to lay - measuring and sanding each piece made the end result something I'm truly proud of. In the past, I always used white PVA glue to glue the sticks down - the trouble with this is that the glue can warp the sticks, as well as if they are already warped, they will not lay flat as the glue simply doesn't have the power to grab them. I've since learned that hot glue is the way to go. A very thin bit of glue on each plank, and then held down and into place until the glue cools gives the best effect. 

I then took a paintbrush and brushed on layer upon layer of Minwax Oak wood stain. It brings such a lovely colour to the wood that painting just can't do.

Here's a sneak peak of one of the miniatures I've designed to go inside this room box - a filing cabinet full of many files and papers. Built from odd bits of wood and then stained.

Check back in next Friday for Part the Second of the Making of a Room Box.
If you want to see more sneaky pictures of things I`m making to go inside, check out The Crafty Goblin on Facebook.

Materials
Open Front Roombox

Brick paper (printed)
Paint, burnt umber
Wooden stir sticks
Minwax Oak Wood Stain