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Winnie Lam, our featured Jane who specializes in designing and building fun and quirky furniture, is at it again. Inspired by the story of Rapunzel and the film The Princess Diaries 2 that references the fairy tale, Winnie came up with a whimsical yet practical bookcase. "The scene (of the movie) is so awesome that I had to have a piece of it in my house somehow," she says.
The project began with sketches based on the fairy tale. After showing her drawings to her boyfriend—who pleaded that the piece be practical—Winnie decided she'd transform her idea into a bookcase.
Despite her long list of projects, Winnie had never used a drill prior to starting the bookcase. Determined to learn how, she headed to the store and was overwhelmed by the selection. "I noticed another woman staring at the drills looking just as dazed and confused as I was," Winnie remembers. "We ended up having a conversation and discovered that we were both Be Jane readers." A buyer's guide led the pair to the right drill.
To create the piece, Winnie bought a Billy bookcase from IKEA and added her own special finishing touches.
First, she measured and cut a door from wood about the same thickness of the bookcase and attached it with hinges. The faux-stones were made from wooden blocks from the craft store that Winnie painted gray and then glued the bookcase.
Rapunzel stands on a wooden platform that was attached to the back of the homemade door with brackets. The pointed roof was constructed from black poster board, and the balcony consists of wooden spindles cut to size. Rapunzel's extra-long locks were achieved from extensions woven into her "real" hair.
After getting acquainted with her new drill, the romantic scene was finished. It even earned Winnie a thumbs-up from her boyfriend. She tells us, "He approved it as a functional piece of furniture deserving of a place in the living room."
