A shiny floor and new table.....

Here is the promised photo of the 'polished' tudor floor lol. I've been informed that Tudors wouldn't have polished their floors but I do think it looks so much better now, and the tudors in my kitchen liked clean floors ;)
I've started furnishing my kitchen by building a trestle table. I followed the instructions here (as this is my first time furniture making) but changed the design of legs so it looks similar to a photo of one in a reconstructed tudor kitchen. I'm going to work on a shelf next and long stool to go along the left hand wall.

I made these items a while ago, but couldn't resist putting them 0n the table to see how they looked -

Tudor Kitchen .......Flagstone Floor

I've made a start of the floor of the kitchen. Following Nina's blog and comments (thank you Nina, I really would have been lost without your blog!) I used a knitting needle to carve stones out of the polyfiller. I'm now patiently waiting for it to dry so I can sand it down and start colour washing.
I've also been playing around with the furniture. I've added some venetian gold and more distressing to the dressing table and painted and distressed a chair to go with it. I'm going to find some suitable material to upholster the chair and make a cushion (all firsts for me so this could be quite interesting!).
I know they both look a bit over the top and I'm in two minds as to whether to remove some of the gold, but I'll wait and see I think. With my recent paint purchases I also bought some crackle glaze. I've been experimenting with it on another piece but haven't quite got it to look right yet - I'll post more once I've played around with it a bit more.

That's it for now. We've got a bank holiday on Monday so I'm hoping I might manage to get a bit more done.

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!

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 ?!?