More Flagstones.......

I've been playing around with the kitchen flagstones these past few days and after several colour washes I think I am just about done. I'm going to seal them with an acrylic sealent which will make them slightly shiny which hopefully will make them look like a swept and polished floor (even though I'm not sure the tudors would have ever polished their floors!).

I've suddenly realised that the overall building of the room box is complete - wow, I wasn't sure I would even get this far. I'm looking forward to the next stage though of furnishing it! Again as I have made everything so far from scratch (apart from the lights), I am going to try and make all the accessories myself. I've armed myself with some wood and some glue and already have a stash of polymer clay, so I'll keep you posted with how I get on.

Progress is slow........Tudor walls

Sorry, it seems ages since I last posted something about my roombox. I haven't had much time recently so I have only just finished plastering the walls and then I had a go at a few colour washes to age them (thank you nina!).

The result isn't too bad (sorry it's a bit hard to see in this photo - I really need to work on my photography skills!). I had a couple of hiccups to start with. Firstly making the grey wash too thick and dark and despite immediately watering it down as I hadn't sanded the walls first (another one to remember!) the paint sunk into the ridges and wouldn't dilute!

I then ended up going totally in the opposition direction as I found that if you wet plaster (like with a colour wash) the plaster looks grey and discoloured. When you come back to it after it has dried it looks exactly the same as when you started! I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong but I ended up just kind of slapping it on and hoping for the best when it dried.

I still need to do a bit more 'sooting' up above the fireplace but I think that is more or less it for the walls - if I can ever get the bits of masking tape off that I have managed to plaster to some of the beams (pulling making tape off while the plaster is wet is highly recommended!!!).

Next step - a flagstone floor made from more polyfiller. I'll keep you posted.....

A revamp update

My idea of revamping all the furniture I won on ebay, hit a hitch very early on. I discovered that the dressing table (and quite a few other pieces) must have literally been soaked in wood dye. This meant that despite sanding down, wiping with white spirit and then trying to paint with white acrylic paint it just ended up pink as the dye continued to come through. I even tried car paint primer and I still ended up with pink bits! I finally found an acrylic base paint that seems to have done the trick. The pink still came through in places but wasn't too noticeable after a couple of coats of paint. If anyone knows of the way I am actually supposed to repaint furniture, I would really appreciate some tips!

Anyway, due to the above, I've only revamped 1 piece so far. So here's the before picture -

And this is the after -

I think I need to work on where I put the worn bits as the legs don't look right (I might go back and touch them up) but all in all I don't think it's too bad. One down, quite a few to go!

Fireplace taking shape

I've redone the fireplace and I must admit I'm a lot happier with it now. I sanded down the original polyfilla and glued egg box stones in above the fireplace. I then repolyfillered it (minus the PVA glue this time - don't know why I included it in the first place!). It's drying well and it just gives a hint of the stones underneath.

I just need to finish off in between the other beams now and then I will have a go at the colour washes - eek!

I've gone for a herringbone brick base for the floor of the fireplace. The Tudor/Medieval/Jacobean/Queen Annes Dolls House Project listed a fab tutorial for creating the brickwork from eggboxes. The original tutorial is from The China Doll. This is my progress so far -

Sorry it's not very clear. I just need the patience to sit down and cut out a load more bricks now before I can paint it.

Decidedly shabby......

Looking at other wonderful mini sites and trying to work out what I could do with the main house that I have, I've decided to go for a shabby chic theme. It's not going to be perfect as I'm not sure the house is proper 1/12th scale (I must get my ruler out and measure the rooms), but I can have fun making it look a bit better and hopefully it's something that my DD will enjoy when she is a bit older.

I'm not up to the standard of making my own furniture, although I think it more comes down to the fact that I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try (yet). We also don't have a Micheal's in the UK or, from what I can make out, an equivalent so I've resorted to looking for bargains on ebay to experiment with. This is what I have won so far -

As I bought them in 'lots' the actual cost per item (including shipping) was less than £1, so I really don't mind painting them and seeing what I can do with them.

My first 'victim' isn't in this picture as I have already started revamping it. It's a sweet little dressing table. Once I have done a bit more with it I will post the 'before' and 'after' photographs (hopefully there will be an improvement!).

P.S Is this a side effect of miniatures LOL? Starting different projects before finishing the first ?!?

Walls

I am learning.....fast! I mixed up the wall filler today and not only did I find out that I'd made it too runny (after I started) but I also think that I should have done the walls before I'd glued the wooden beams on! Oh well...live and learn. The end result is, that it is taking me absolutely ages to get the filler on to the walls and right up to the edge of the beams without covering them.

The colour is whiter than I'd imagined as well, so once I've done it all I think I am going to have to learn how to do colour washes to try and tone the white down a bit.

Another thing I have discovered is that the fireplace chimney is not going to look right with just filler on it -

I'm going to go back to the egg boxes I think and follow New England Miniatures Tutorial. This means that I need to sand all the filler off and start again - arrrggghh. Oh well, I did say this was going to be a steep learning curve.

Back to it now... although I think it may be a fair few days until I get the walls finished!

Fireplace

Just a short one today. I managed to have a bit of a play with the fireplace. Rather than getting the paints out, I decided to use artists pastels on the surround and to add soot in the fireplace itself. I scribbled on a piece of paper and then brushed the pastel dust into the stones. It actually worked quite well and I'm a bit happier with the fireplace now.
I also finished gluing the fireplace into place and added a hook to the block inside so that I can hang a cauldron at a later date (you can just see it in the picture above). The surround is still loose as I think it would be better to add the wall texture first but knowing me I'll change my mind!

Timbers, Door and Lighting

Today has been the first time since I last posted that I have had a chance to work on my room box, but I am really pleased with the amount that I've managed to get done.

I 'ummed' and 'aahhed' about including a door in the room box but at the cutting stage I decided against it. Now, starting to put things together, I've decided that 'yes, it does need one'. Cutting a hole in the side at this stage would not be the best idea now I've glued together so I have created a 'false' door. I'm gobsmacked with how well it has turned out, it's a shame that this photo doesn't do it justice! It's made from a rectangle of balsa wood which I scored with an empty ballpoint pen. I then stained it and added the wooden braces (again made from balsa wood) and a frame (3 layers of balsa wood).

The wall timbers are also now in place. As this is my first project, I'm experimenting a bit so the timbers are again, all made from balsa wood stained with Medium Oak wood stain. Initially I started cutting the wood in straight lines with a ruler but they looked so fake that I ended up re-cutting wonky bits out of them to make them a bit more realistic. I then stuck them on with tacky glue - it's wonderful stuff!

Finally I've attempted my first ever lighting and unbelievably it worked first time! I bought these wonderful little Tudor torches from http://www.minimumworld.com/. They come complete with plugs and all you do is buy the socket and power adaptor and away you go. The only slightly fiddly part was pulling out the pins on the plug so I could thread the wires through the holes in the room box and then re-attaching the pins, but once I sussed out how to do it is was very straight forward. I love the glow they give out...

Next steps -

I'm really not happy with my fireplace surround and annoyingly I'm not sure exactly why. The colour certainly isn't right so I'm going to have a play with it and see whether I can get it a bit more realistic.

The bricks in the fireplace also need 'sooting' (is that a word?!? - but I'm sure you know what I mean).

The next stage for the walls is to put some daub in between the timbers. I'm going to make up some polyfilla and mix in some pva glue and see how that works.

For the floor, I'm going to try and make some separate flagstones from polymer clay (unless anyone can give me any other suggestions) for the fireplace and for the main floor, I've amazingly found some 'dry wall compound' sitting in our garage so I'm going to have a go the flagstone floor tutorial at New England Miniatures - it looks fabulous.

That's it for now. I hope it won't be too long until I can report back with a bit more progress.

The Fireplace

I haven't had a chance to do much prior to today, so I thought I would save it up and include it all in one post.

As I wanted a deep recess for the fireplace, I set about contructing a false wall. I used tacky glue to fix all the supports in place -

After I glued it all I decided that actually I wanted the walls to be flush with the fireplace (why do I always think of things afterwards!). So I glued further supports, and measured and cut some leftover mdf to make the walls either side of the fireplace.

Next up was making the fireplace surround. My woodworking skill really aren't that good yet, plus I don't have the right tools to do precision cutting so I cut the surround from thick cardboard.
I'm really pleased with how well it turned out. I've decided that the back of the fireplace should be brick and as I have no brick moulds or anything similar, I've improvised!
I've cut another large piece of cardboard which will fit on the back wall of the fireplace (you might just be able to see it in the photo above). This means that I can put bricks on this card and glue it into place rather than trying to fit them straight on the back wall. I painted this card a creamy colour (it's still unpainted in the photo below) and then painted some sandpaper a reddish brick colour -

Once dried I cut out thin strips and then cut them into brick shapes and voila....

(It's a good thing tudor bricks were different sizes!) I still need to finish it and then do the same for the inner left and right sides of the fireplace. Once I've done that I will glue it into place.

While I was waiting for the paint on the sandpaper to dry I whizzed over to Casey's Minis and got some fabulous inspiration from her egg box tutorial for the fireplace surround -

Once again it still needs to be finished, I will try painting it a darker stone grey colour I think.
This is the final picture of it all together so far.

I will be putting anothe piece of mdf aboce the fireplace so it looks like one long wall. That's it for today, I'll hopefully be able to finish the bricks later so I'll post more pictures once it's done.

Construction complete....

.....well the shell anyway!

I sanded all the pieces, test fitted them together and discovered that they weren't perfectly straight so wouldn't fit together as tightly as I had hoped. This was especially important as I was just intending to glue the pieces together. So this time, rather than abandoning the project when I hit the first problem I decided that I would also use small nails to hold it all together as well as the glue. This meant that I could eliminate the need for corner clamps (I still hadn't found any to borrow anyway) as the nails should hold it together whilst the glue dries.

As the MDF I am using is only 1/4" thick, I was worried that just hammering in nails would split the wood, so I pre-drilled the holes using a pin vice and this is the result -
It's not perfect, but I'm really pleased how it's turned out. I haven't fixed the top permenantly yet so that I can access the inside more easily. Once I have completed the room box I will just glue the top on -

The next step is going to be constructing the fireplace. As the box has ended up slightly bigger than I expected I am going to include a false wall at the back so that the fireplace will look more realistic and have depth to it. New England Minatures have put a wonderful step by step tutorial together for doing this in their Kitschy Kitchen Part 1 Post. I am also going to be using their fab tutorial to create a flagstone floor.

Baskets

OK, I know I'm a bit back to front, especially as I haven't actually constructed my room box yet, but I couldn't resist having a go at making a basket from Jane Harrop's 'Finishing Touches' book. This is the first time that I have tried weaving and despite a few mistakes I am really pleased with the result.

I'm planning on having several different sized backets in my room box, filled with seasonal fruit and vegetables. This one is the log basket - I think I may need to find a few more logs to fill it.

There will also be a trestle table (I need to get some wood before I can start on this), stool, shelves, food and fireplace. All of this I intend to make myself, so I will update you with my progress.

On the room box construction front, I found this great website which gives you step by step instructions on how to put one together - Plan for a Dollhouse Room Box. I've measured and cut my pieces, I just need to sand them down and fit them together. The tutorial suggests corner clamps to hold it together while the glue dries, so I need to try and borrow some before I can stick it all together.