Right side of the Christmas shop

Originally I had planned on having open shelving on each side of the shop. But because the walls below the windows were a bit high and the wooden framing below them added another 5/8" to the depth of the space below the windows, any furniture placed on the floor of the room would be barely visible through the windows. With that in mind, I decided to put a raised carpeted section on the right hand side of the room in order to showcase the furniture. (Thanks to Sue in Calgary for suggesting this solution.)

I started by putting a piece of 1/4" balsa on the side wall to act as a support for the 'floor'.

TIP: When you need to take a measurement inside a piece, one way is to fit a piece of typing paper in the space then remove and measure it. Another way is to take two rulers (in this case two 6" rulers) and put them across the space to be measured with the 0 measurement at either end of the space. Add the two measurements where the rulers overlap and you'll have the measurement you need. (In this case, the upper ruler is 6" and the lower is 4 3/4" so the total width is 10 3/4". (Yeah, I know that in this case I was able to make that particular measurement from the outside of the glass but that isn't always possible.)

I want the 'floor' to be 3 1/2" deep so I've cut a piece of 3/32" basswood to 3 1/2" x 11 1/2".

Then I clipped out a 3/8" square out of each corner to allow for the wood frames of the case.

I dry-fitted that then cut two 3" pieces of the 1/4" balsa to support it at either end.

Then I used Weldbond to glue the balsa in place and clamped the side pieces in place.

None of the green carpeting I had looked right with the floor of the room plus I wanted the contrast of the red and had this nice piece. Using Yes glue, I glued the velvet to the basswood and wrapped it around the edge about 3/8". (I'll trim it once the glue has dried completely.)

Here I've put that piece under a heavy book (good book and also a great weight for this) to ensure it dries flat.

One of the problems on this side of the room is that the glue that attached the matboard to the outside of the glass shows on the inside so I have to cut another piece of matboard for the inside of the glass. I've cut it to width but won't be able to cut it to height until the carpeted piece is in place. (This won't be an issue on the other side of the room as the top shelf on that side will be even with the top of the partial wall.)

Once the glue has dried completely on the carpeting, I'll be able to trim it and put that piece in place, trim and add the matboard. Then I have to cut and carpet the piece between that and the floor....and cut a piece of matboard to cover the inside of the glass on the right front.

Later:

I trimmed the carpeted piece and glued it in place on the balsa supports and clamped it.

Once that was done, I was able to measure the height of the matboard and glue it in place.

Second thought here: This is a shop, perhaps in a mall, where the rent is high so the space below the furniture display would be used for storage of extra merchandise rather than being closed off. So I'll deal with that tomorrow (hopefully).

Most of the work on this can be done by simply putting the top of the container on it's back or side but sometimes I have to work on it through the bottom and I can do that by propping it up on these two boxes as I needed to do to try the placement of the furniture.

Tentative placement of furniture in the window: (I photographed it against a piece of white matboard so it would show up.)

Quilt, if I decide to keep it in the window, needs to be draped properly.

It's coming together.