A
few year ago, my mom gave these beautiful, delicate little wooden
German dolls from Käthe Wohlfahrt to my daughter for Christmas. She was
3. Needless to say, I had to watch her like a hawk with them. When the
holidays ended that year, I opted to store them away with the Christmas
decorations. Ever since then, the flower children have only come out in
December with the the Christmas decorations. This year I decided to try
to find a way to display them year-round and keep them safe.
I thought I would probably find something at IKEA, and they did not disappoint. Their Kasseby display case has a
hinged front with a magnetic latch for easy access, and happens to be
just large enough to fit my daughter's doll collection stacked three
high. It doesn't come with shelves, though, so it was time for a little
hack.
Initially
I thought I would use some balsa wood from the craft store, but that
would have involved priming and painting. Then, as I was unpacking the
Kasseby from it's box, I realized that the white cardboard it came in
was in very good shape, and the ends of the box had a nice, crisp edge
to them. Good enough for me! I cut them off with scissors, then measured
the inside width and depth of the display case, and cut them with a
carpet knife. I tried to be precise as possible, and I wound up with a
very snug fit.
Next,
I put some white glue on the insides of the cardboard pieces, and
plopped the heaviest book I could find on top while it dried. For some
reason, the glue worked well on one piece, but not the other. I wound up
digging out some double-sided tape that was left over from one of those
plastic window insulation kits (sometimes it pays to be a pack rat).
That worked like a charm.
If you do go with glue, be sure not to use too much. If you over-saturate the cardboard, you could wind up ruining it.
Since
the cardboard pieces fit so snugly in the case, they actually stayed up
on their own, but I knew I needed to brace the shelves with something
to keep them from slipping over time. You can buy white or clear plastic
tiny shelf brackets at any home improvement store, but I didn't feel
like getting the drill out. Since the dolls are pretty lightweight, I
dug through my stash and found these little self-sticking rubber pads
that came with my IKEA Betydlig curtain rod brackets.
I
cut one of the thinner pieces into quarters with my carpet knife (I
recommend not being lazy like me and putting a nice, sharp blade in your
knife).
I
fitted the shelves into the case and double checked the placement with a
measuring tape. When everything was in place I just stuck the rubber
pieces right under the edge of each shelf. I do reserve the right to go
back and use a more permanent, cosmetically pleasing solution in the
future.
And
here we are! Free shelves for our IKEA Kasseby, now a lovely little
display case for my daughter's Käthe Wohlfahrt collection.
