Saturday 23 November 2013

Four Poster Bed

I previously mentioned the four poster bed which came with the bedroom suite I didn't order (it was substituted for a larger four poster bed which I did order); well, after tackling the rest of the suite, I got started on the bed.

Bed: Before

Bed: Before




First I carefully peeled the fabric bedding and trim away from the frame, and put it away for safe keeping. I may dye the bedding and glue it back on, however I think I will do something different with the canopy.




During

I sanded it back as best I could and then painted it black, like the rest of the furniture.  Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry enough to do some distressing, I decided to play around with the bedding. I grabbed a red fabric marker and coloured in the top part of the bedding.

Painted and waiting for distressing.



Painted and waiting for distressing.

You can still see the floral pattern through the red marker, but I am liking the blood red against the black so far.  I'd like to use something more tattered and threadbare as the canopy, so that it looks a but like cobwebs. I'm not sure how I can achieve that - I thought about tea-dying some cheesecloth but I think the cheesecloth would be too large a scale. Maybe an old, worn handkerchief might have the right drape? Regardless, I certainly prefer it without the ruffled valance around the bottom, so that will be staying off.


I'm loving this miniature bed I found on Pinterest. And here's a real-life four poster:

Friday 22 November 2013

The Fairfield: It's Here!

Woot!  It finally arrived this morning by courier - my Greenleaf Fairfield half scale dollhouse kit.




Now the exciting bit - unpacking it!  Followed by the mundane bit of checking the panels off and undercoating everything.

Friday 15 November 2013

The Fairfield: Windows

I think I spent almost a whole day yesterday - on and off - trying to decide which windows to buy for the rest of the build. I have the three timber Victorian single windows and the two French Doors, which are all now stained and waxed (although I have not added the mullions to the French doors yet), and these will all go on the second floor.  The French doors will be 1) off the bedroom over the bay window with a Juliet balcony and 2) off the "other" room (which is generally used as a bathroom in other builds) and onto the main balcony (ie the roof of the porch). I was going to turn this room into a servant's bedroom but I think I may remove the dividing wall now and make it a sitting area with weapons and armour and such.

I couldn't decide what to do about the double windows on the first floor though. Most other people opting for the half scale Victorian windows have just swapped out the double windows for two singles - because Houseworks don't make double windows at half scale - but I didn't really like that for some reason.  But making the kit windows from scratch scared me, so I wanted to put in pre-made windows... but couldn't find what I wanted.

I finally found these Georgian style doubles at Maple Street in the UK. They seem to be unavailable everywhere else so I presume they have been discontinued. I ordered three from the website, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they email to tell me that they are out of stock!  In which case, I will have to give in and buy more single Victorian windows.





In all my browsing looking at windows on other minis, I came across several houses with aged stone finishes and fell in love!  The look really appealed to me, though I doubt I have the artistic skill to carry off painting the effect successfully :(  In the end I decided that I'd like to make the turret section of the house out of 'stone', to make a real feature of it.  If that works OK I'll consider doing that on  the rest of the house.  Not sure yet if I will go with the egg carton method or opt for the (much more expensive) mortar and stencil approach. Either way, I had already decided to do the base and porch in flagstones, so will carry that same finish up the turret. I may also make the verandah post supports out of stone too, and finish them off on top with a dowel?  A bit like this verandah:





Nevertheless, in my searching I also came across these plastic Grandt Line Gothic windows.  Wouldn't they look great in the second floor of the turret? With little narrow arrow-slit windows in the secret room instead of the round portholes.
 



The main issues with these Gothic windows is that they are plastic instead of timber, so they can't be stained to match the other windows. If they are only in the stone turret however, I can probably get away with just painting them to blend in with the stone? Hmn.  Anyway, I've ordered a couple from the US and we'll see what happens!

Thursday 14 November 2013

Bedroom Suite

I should have known better than to leave well-enough alone! I didn't mind the distressed, painted finish I ended up with on the bedroom suite so I left it to dry for a couple of days before I waxed it today... which then rubbed off more of the paint than I had anticipated! Argh. So annoyed with myself. It made a big difference on the wardrobe in particular.

It's hard to take photos of black things...

 The other pieces in the set were better sanded - and less fiddled with! - than the wardrobe and they fared much better and I was able to buff the wax reasonably well.  The armoire however... well, it still looks flat and waxy and I don't like to rub it any more for fear of taking off nearly all the paint :(  You live and learn though I suppose, plus half the reason I didn't mind fiddling around with the set is that I suspect it is much smaller than 1:24 scale? I have read that different manufacturers of minis sometimes differ in sizing, so maybe this is one of them. I'd certainly like the bed to be bigger, but I haven't started on it yet.

Before.. and after.

 In other news, I have received some more accessories that I couldn't resist ordering along with building components.  I love these minis: a little skull, skull candle and book and a palmistry chart with a crystal ball. Cute!




As well, I got a few thing from the Lemax Spooky Town range which were on sale after Halloween: a packet of crows and vultures, a packet of rats and snakes, tombstones, cats and skulls and a couple of  'bare' willow trees.  I plan to have a small family graveyard next to the house when I finish the landscaping.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

The Fairfield: More Components Arrive

On Friday the latest of the building components I have ordered arrived. The stair kit, the other two interior doors, the two sets of French doors, the porch spindles and hand rail, roof finials and the black Victorian railing. I love the railing but I'm worried it's way too big for the scale. I guess we'll see.

I have still to order the porch posts, as I am wondering whether I should go with plaster columns instead of the traditional turned wooden posts? They are much more expensive to buy but would add more to the character of the house I think? Regardless, I haven't decided how I want to finish off the porch and railings yet, so I'll leave them for the time being.

So today it was time to stain the new doors, and then wax them with Black Antiquing Wax.  They turned out nicely - I love the warm patina that you can only get with wax. Plus, I think it might look more realistic on the house than a shiny lacquered finish.

While I was waiting between coats, I started fiddling around with the bedroom suite I mentioned a few posts ago.  The original finish on the suite - a four poster bed, armoire, dressing table and mirror, two bedside tables and another mirror - is lacquer over a pale timber. Very boring and conservative.




I experimented with staining and various methods of ageing on this armoire before I finally settled on just lightly sanding, painting them black and distressing them lightly with an emery board. When they are completely dry I will also wax them with the black antiquing wax.




I was hoping to achieve a more realistic finish than this but the difficulties of working with such tiny pieces which have already been finished got a bit beyond my current collection of tools! Never mind, I hope that once they are in the bedroom and surrounded with other peices they will blend in OK. I ended up distressing the armoire too much so I painted over it again and will make it a bit more chippy tomorrow before I wax it. I hope it comes up better than it looks at the moment!




The next challenge is the four poster bed. It has bedding and a fabric drape attached to it, but I think they are just glued on and I can carefully peel them off.  The floral fabric used on it is not to my taste at all, lol. Once I have painted and distressed the bed, I will experiment with either making new bedding or perhaps using fabric paint to upcycle the existing bedding and glue it back on.

Monday 4 November 2013

The Fairfield: Mood Board Library

I really wish  that the dollhouse had double height ceilings! I considered adding an extra inch or two to the height of the first and second floors but realistically, this is probably making things unnecessarily difficult for myself. Sigh.

Anyway, although the library won't be nearly as grand as I had hoped, I'm thinking:

* Floor to ceiling shelving, and perhaps a chandelier


* A grand fireplace, red velvet chairs and a spiral staircase


* And wood panelling everywhere.