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 -

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.

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.

Masking tape - a girls best friend!

My first attempt at plastering the walls wasn't very successful (as you will see from previous posts). It took forever and I ended up getting the plaster filler everywhere. I must admit I had been putting off doing the rest of the walls as I was dreading how long it was going to take and how painstaking it was. Then I had a 'ah ha' moment - masking tape! Why I didn't think of this before I really don't know.

I've had a (tiny) bit of spare time so I grabbed a roll and got masking. I then made up so filler and slapped it on. As I didn't get a chance to all the walls I only peeled of the tape on walls that I had finished. I'm pleased with the result. It's much quicker and neater (in so far as I didn't get as much on the beams), although where I've left the tape on and plastered one side it has started to crack slightly, so when I get a bit more time I really need to finish all the walls in one hit.

Sorry for the short post. I thought I might get a bit more done when the kids were back at school, totally forgetting the fact that if the kids were back at school then I was back at work! Doh!

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.