Building a 'Cathedral'

I thought I'd share a step by step description of setting up the set that was on my dining room table all of January, even before sharing any more of the photos taken in it.

​The 'cathedral' set uses the china cabinet in the background to provide architectural detail, as well as depth. I always start with the floor fabric which protects the table....

After covering the table, and clamping the edges, wood shelves are brought up out of storage..

The wood shelves are stacked to create the raised dais at the front, and a carpet is laid down. Three styrofoam pillars are raised on empty plastic yogurt containers to give them extra height.

Black Bristol board is inserted behind the glass in the china cabinet to hide the interior, and a half wall is positioned on the back edge of the dais, behind the throne....

At this point it became apparent that the table wasn't going to be wide enough, so everything had to come off so we could insert another table leaf. Then I started all over again. Then I started hanging 'stained glass window' wallhangings on the china cabinet doors. I was going need more styrofoam wall units than usual, and was going to have to use the Tudor interiors as well as the 'stone castle walls'

I decided the walls were going to be too short for wide shots, so we went to Dollarama to get several sheets of black foam-core to raise the walls higher. We cut the foam core and hot glued it to the bottoms of the existing wall units.

I noticed the glass chimneys on the chandelier were extremely dusty, so took them down to clean them ... after all, every extra bit of light would help once I started taking photos.

The finished set. I wasn't concerned about all the black lower walls, as all the guests would be standing in front of them, so they wouldn't show anyway. And for wider open scenes, I'd just move the wooden railings currently along both sides of the middle off to the sides to hide the black.

I used the set all month, for a coronation, a wedding, and as a palace setting for lots of various doll portraits.

But yesterday it all came down, and once I finish processing all the photos, I'll start sharing them.