The Dressmaker's Cottage: The Sewing Room Roof & Front Awning

Time for the sewing room bump-out roof.

Caroline lined her roof with popsicle sticks, so I did the same using the balsa wood ECObalsa Basics Sticks from Spotlight (the same sticks I used for the floors).

Once finished, I sanded it lightly, checked the fit, and white-washed it with diluted Titanium White acrylic paint.

I finished the inside front wall of the sewing room with stippled on Jo Sonja Texture Paste (the same as the exterior sides of the dormer windows) to mimic plaster.

Looking good so far:-)

Like the roof of the dormer windows, I made the faux metal sheeting for the roof from cereal box cardboard overlaid with thin strips to mimic the joints.

Another strip of cardboard was used for the roof capping.

Here you can also see that I have started to make the timber skirting for the base.  I found a 2.4m piece of moulding at Bunnings which is 27mm wide, to match the depth of the foam base (which is approximately one inch).  I am mitering the corners, and will putty them and then paint it to match the cottage.

At this point I wanted to see where the awning over the front door would go, to make sure it wouldn't impact on the roof, so I cut a piece of board to size and mocked up a couple of brackets.

I think that's going to look good, so I don't need to worry about it until I finish the roof now :-)

I will paint the roof the same way as I did the roof on the two dormer windows.  Here is the sewing room roof, waiting for the first (under)coat of grey paint to dry.

When it's dry, I will highlight it with silver and off-white (Semco Antique White) acrylic paints.

The Dressmaker's Cottage: Exterior Cladding, Stucco and Stone Chimney

With the roof mostly done, it's time for the outside of the house to get some attention :-)

Caroline used pre-mixed concrete on the main part of her cottage, and cladding on the bump out.  I couldn't find pre-mixed concrete here in Australia, so I was thinking of using the same Jo Sonja Texture Paste on the outside as I used on the dormer windows, until I came across a couple of different techniques for stucco-effects on Pinterest.

One of them was to use Gesso mixed with table salt!  Since I have both on had I figured I would give it a go, although I was a little dubious about the salt not dissolving into the Gesso.

Well, it didn't!  I guess Gesso doesn't have enough water in it to dissolve the salt?  I mixed it up in a disposable container, adding enough salt until it looked about right - I have no idea what the ratio ended up being.

Then I painted it on using a thick brush.

I'm quite happy with it, I think it turned out quite well!  I went over it with a second coat when it dried, just in the spots that seemed to need it.

Next, the cladding on the bump out!  I was going to buy pre-made cladding, but I had a couple of packets of balsa wood slats in my stash (Auszac ECObalsa from Spotlight) , so I decided to just cut them to size instead (definitely the cheaper option!).

I cut each slat into quarters, and then cut them to size to fit on the sewing room walls, over lapping them at the bottom on each slat.  I wasn't too particular with their placement, as I am going for a weathered shabby-chic look!

I used extra pieces to trim out the edges of the cladding.  The windows are pre-made frames which I bought on eBay so I cut the holes in the walls to size.  I could then just push them in to place after I finished the cladding.

Here is the cottage with the beginnings of the sewing room bump-out roof temporarily in place:  It's looking a bit more cottage-y!

Time for the chimney.  Caroline placed hers in the middle of the side wall, but that wasn't going to line up with where I want to put my fireplace, so I moved it further towards the back of the cottage.

I built the basic frame from foamboard, glued to the exterior.  Caroline used ready-mixed concrete on her chimney, but I decided I wanted a stone-effect.  I have used egg carton stones in the past, and liked them, so I used them here too.  I just ripped the carton into rough shapes and glued them on like a puzzle with tacky glue.

Once I was finished and the glue was dry, I sealed the "stones" with a good layer of ModPodge before I grouted them with off-white grout.

When the grout is fully dry, I will paint them to resemble sandstone, in beige and yellow acrylics with off-white highlights.

The Dressmaker's Cottage: The Roof

Gah! The roof!  I was quite nervous about this step, as I've never made dormer windows before!  Caroline's tutorial on her blog, Cinderella Moments, didn't include instructions so I knew I just had to wing it, lol.

I started with the piece of foamboard, cut to size, with holes cut out for the window frames.  Caroline made hers, but I'm not so clever, and I bought mine ready-made on eBay.

The next step was to wallpaper the insides, as it is always easiest to do this on a surface flat on the table!  I used wallpaper on the bedroom side.

But on the bathroom side, Caroline made faux tin tiles using a glue gun.  I experimented with tin tiles but my glue gun is very cheap and nasty, and the glue comes out in big ugly globs, regardless of how carefully I apply, lol.

I knew I wanted something with texture, and when I was wiping up a min mess, I noticed the texture of the paper towel I was using and I figured it might look OK.

So, I ModPodged a piece to make it stiffer, and then glued it to the bathroom ceiling.  When it was dry, I painted it white.  I think it looks pretty good :-)

Then, using skinny sticks again, I framed the dormer window openings. 

Onto the dormers!

It took me a little bit of jiggling around with cardboard templates to come up with something that I thought looked OK for the window frames.







I traced the templates onto the foam board and cut them out, then glued them to the painted window frames.

I knew it would be difficult to access the interior of the dormers once they had been installed, so I took the opportunity to use spackle on all the joins, both inside and out.
 

Caroline's cottage has faux metal sheet roofing on the dormers and the bump out, so I attempted to approximate her roof using cardboard (from a cereal box) with the thin strips of the same cardboard across the top and along the sides.

I painted the cardboard grey and then used silver and off-white acrylic paint to add highlights.  I coated the sides of the dormers with Jo Sonja's Texture Paste, using a stippling brush to approximate a stucco finish.

I think they turned out OK for a first timer!

Now it was time for shingling!!  I was super nervous about this too, but I was glad that I was going to a run-down shabby chic look, rather than perfection, lol, so I just grabbed the shingles and tacky glue, and went to town (after undercoating the roof with brown paint).

The shingles I bought from eBay and they arrived pretty bashed up and broken.  Although I had enough for what I needed, pretty much none of them were the same size!  That forced me to just eye-ball the rows, while attempting to keep the bottoms of the shingles relatively straight!

The front almost done:

And the back piece (also made from a piece of foam board, cut to shape):

It's just roughly taped in place, but it's done finally.  Now for the painting of the shingles.  I can't decide what colour/s to use (or to stain them) so I think about it for a while :-)

The Dressmaker's Cottage: Upstairs Trim & The Stairs

Today I finished white-washing the beadboard upstairs, and then trimmed out the top with 2.5 x 2.5mm balsa sticks.

Then I undercoated the stairs (I bought a pre-made set online) and popped them in to see how they looked in place :-)

Then I moved on to the skirting boards, using skinny popsicle sticks (Skinny Craft Sticks from Riot Art - these are 5mm wide unlike regular pop sticks, which are 10mm wide), painted white, and with the round ends cut off. 

The stair set I bought was quite plain, and I felt I needed to fancy it up a bit to fit in with the shabby chic look!  I painted it with several shades of white and blue, then sanded it roughly to age them (although that doesn't show up very clearly in the photo).

I then used small pieces of 2.5 x 2.5mm balsa sticks, cut in half, to add a bit of dimension to the edge of each step.

Lastly, after asking for suggestions on Instagram, I remembered I had a cheap wooden fan I bought to use for miniatures in my stash.  I cut up several of the pieces to make small imitation moulding for each stair end. 

When they are painted painted and roughly sanded, I think they will add a nice touch to the house :-)

The Dressmaker's Cottage: The Bathroom

Now that the first floor is in place and the flooring is done, I can move onto the bathroom!

Firstly I dry-fitted a dividing wall between the bathroom and the bedroom.  I won't have a "proper" doorway between the, just a gap in the wall at the back of the house.

While it was still flat, I wallpapered it to match the existing bathroom and bedroom papers.  I left a gap at the bottom of the wall as I want to add faux "beadboard" around the bottom of the bathroom walls.

Before I glued in the partition wall, I added the beadboard, made from a packet of mini popsicle sticks (Arbee Mini Craft Sticks from Spotlight), which I had previously cut the rounded ends from.

With that wall done, I moved on to doing the rest of the room.

With the partition wall now glued in place, I began white-washing the beadboard, with the same diluted white acrylic paint as the floorboards.

It needs trimming out, but it's looking good so far I think :-)

The Dresssmaker's Cottage: Flooring

As per the cottage tutorial, I have used balsa sticks as floorboards.  These came in a packet from Spotlight and are thicker than coffee stirrers - around 5mm wide by 3mm thick (ECObalsa Basics Sticks).  I tried to stagger them for a more realistic look, but I didn't concern myself with getting them too perfect, as I am going for the "shabby chic" look!

Getting started:

Ground floor done!

Lightly sanded:

Now it's time for the second floor!  First I dry-fitted a piece of foam board cut to size, with a hole cut for the future stairs on the right hand side.

Once I was happy with it,  I glued the floorboards to it before attaching it to the actual house, so that I didn't have to put pressure on the foam floor.  Plus, it's easier to do when it's flat on the table!

A light sanding and it's time for white-washing!

I used Titanium White acrylic paint diluted with water, to white-wash the floors in order to show up the grain and accentuate the shabby chic look :-)

It's starting to look more like a cottage now!