Diorama: Sindy's Commercial Bakery Kitchen Part 1

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Making a Commercial Bakery Kitchen

Planning a commercial bakery kitchen is really no easy task. I do have an entire tote full of castoff thrift store kitchen appliances and furniture. I bought a Barbie house full of furniture in 2018. And here is two of the great pieces, plus all the excellent accessories. A little oversized, it hasn't worked for any other project so far. 

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Here it is in all its 1990 Mattel PINK glory, and ...

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the matching kitchen cabinet with sink and dishwasher. Luckily the dishwasher pieces were still there, those often are missing!

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I sort of work backwards when designing a room or diorama space. I gather the furnishings first and then design the room. Just backwards from real life.

View from the GrandView side. This really only shows up occasionally in photos of the patisserie.

The door to the kitchen has been just a prop so far, always leading to where all the baking 'magic' supposedly happens.

The tape on the fridge is to keep everything controlled when not photographing. The door has led to nowhere, until now. I think I will paint the door a lovely blue on both sides.

I've been collecting pieces of what I thought was necessary for Sindy's commercial kitchen.

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Here is a good view of the sink unit with the dishwasher and 'fake' cabinetry, sprayed with silver paint. I'm missing the faucets, but I want a tall faucet and sprayer...we will see what I come up with. The counter tops were carefully applied contact paper in a speckled pattern that works super for 1:6 scale.

TIP: When going over rounded surfaces make cuts on the curves straight into the paper and apply one small piece at a time, overlapping your plastic  as you go.

The existing floor was too small, so I'm going to add to it--and then separate the whole thing from the Hotel, for storage. I will then be able to set the kitchen up independently for photo shoots. Now to match the floor exactly. I saved my printable flooring, but I have a new printer??? Or maybe I will just start with some new plywood. 

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One thing on Sindy's want list was a fridge and a microwave. This was a silver Mattel fridge/microwave, I just papered the window with actual bakery photos and touched up the pink accents to black and navy blue. This has the rotisserie flip in the microwave, I have a few of these and they are not so huge as the older model refrigerators.

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All the plastic pieces were given an alcohol cleaning and scraping and several sprays of silver spray paint. The oven door also has baking printed on it....I'm not sure I will use the hood (it's not painted). I thought it might interfere with photos, as I had originally planned to place it in the middle of the room.  Since I'm adding floor space, I can move it to a wall now. Maybe the vent hood will be added later.

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The door wall will be where the huge work table will be along with bins for supplies. This wood shelving piece will be used on the wall with supplies and tools.

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Sindy's Patisserie has an outdoor space and I may continue the walk near the outdoor table and add this window to the kitchen annex. I scavenged thrift stores for structures and if they are beyond using as is, I use them for parts. I think this Mattel window will work well on the street side.

This was my start for a commercial oven...made from scratch from a mahogany finish cigar box. 

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Here I am measuring for height for Sindy. I ended up adding a hunk of 2x4 wood for the base, and pushpins for legs. Commercial ovens have a motor and venting system usually located on the floor level...so that made sense.

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I cut the existing cover into three pieces, for two bake ovens and a proofing oven for raising yeast breads. Fancy Schmancy...lol.

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The box was too deep so hubby sawed an inch off the back and sides. Thank goodness for power tools.  But, now I needed a new back...which used foam core covered with dull silver stickum paper.

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Nice clean look. This piece needed gray primer then silver spray paint.

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Shelves were needed inside.

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Not sophisticated, I sawed small stock for shelf brackets. After sanding and painting they worked fine.

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I did use a super glue...for instant add-some-finger-skin to your project's success.

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The doors are all pretty smooth, I used nails and screws in predrilled holes for attaching to the box.

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I searched commercial ovens and screen shot some photos, printed and used them glued on the doors. The bottom is still waiting for some sort of screening. On a commercial oven, motors and venting is done through this area. This piece is top heavy and will be velcro-ed to the walls.

One thing I need to create --a commercial mixer??? 

Can't wait to get to the fun part: walls, the work table, all the accessories and some vintage touches to match the age of the Grand View (Grand Hotel) building. 

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new spaces for your Dolls?

Tools used so far:

Power saw for cigar box

Drill, hand tool or electric

Screw driver

Exacto knives ...great for scraping, cutting, trimming

Glue-instant and wood glue

Small brushes

Scissors

Products used so far:

Spray paint satin silver

Acrylic craft paint, gray for priming wood pieces

Acrylic silver paint for wood pieces.

Paint markers, silver, white, black and blue.

Speckled contact paper

cigar box

1/4"x 1/4" wood cut to lengths for shelf brackets

Small shelves (thrift store)

Foam core scraps 

Silver contact paper for covering shelves

4 pushpins for oven legs, screws/nails for oven doors.

Photo copies of bakery in ovens and actual appliance doors size adjusted.

Modge-Podge or thinned white craft glue for attaching photo copies

Clear acrylic sealer (I tend to use satin)

Thanks for viewing and feel free to ask me any questions or inquiries, and I will get back to you. 

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Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi






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