Queen Anne japanned secretary in miniature

This is a cross post from my blog on 1:12 scale miniatures, since most of the visual art I'm working on these days is teeny tiny :)

I've been buying and making more pieces for my future dolls' house lately.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I had ordered a custom Queen Anne settee from Kris Compas.  It arrived yesterday, so I set up a little vignette to photograph, including a red chinoiserie secretary I painted recently.

I'm so pleased with how this secretary turned out.  It started as a bog-standard unfinished whitewood piece by Streets Ahead.  I primed it, spray painted it red and then used gold and black permanent markers to draw chinoiserie designs on it, looking at a variety of early 18th century japanned antiques for inspiration.  You could also japan a piece in black chinoiserie, but I really love red (as anyone who walks into my house knows!