The Dressmaker's Cottage: Exterior Finished

So the exterior is finally finished and now I can move onto the interior decoration! 

These photos aren't the greatest as the lighting wasn't playing nicely with me, but they give you a pretty good overview of how the Cottage is coming along :-)

The Dressmaker's Cottage: Exterior Trim, Painting & Landscaping

Gah, the cottage is getting so close to completion! All very exciting, but of course I will still have all of the inside to do, lol :-)

I have added a little timber capping to the chimney and have started on the trim under the eaves.  The chimney needs some more paint work at this stage, it's all too creamy, lol.

The chimney is looking a little better now, so I've begun painting the cladding in Antique White, with a light sanding in between to make it look a little more weathered and shabby.

Now it's time for the front pathway in the courtyard.  I decided to do "crazy paving", made from egg cartons torn into rough shapes.  I painted the pathway with grey paint first and then glued the egg cartons "stones" onto the path like putting together a puzzle.

When the glue was dry,  I started painting the stonework in dark greys and browns.

Like the chimney stones, I sealed the "stones" with ModPodge, and then (when dry), I will grout the stones.

For a bit of detail on the sewing room gable, I made a little vent out of balsa offcuts and cardboard.  I made the inside piece out of a rectangle of cardboard cut to size, with regular slits cut almost to the edges.  I then inserted the tip of a scalpel into the bottom of each slit and eased it up to look like the vent edges.

Oh my gosh, the number of times I repainted this front door is embarrassing!!  I knew I wanted a weathered, shabby chic look which is quite easy to achieve with sanding and rough painting... but I could NOT decide on a final colour!  Lucky for me, each layer of paint colour just adds to the patina, LOL.  I think I have finally settled on this pretty grey-blue.  I will paint the door handles to age them too, so they won't be so shiny and new-looking ;-)

Here, the doors are in place, and the grout has dried on the crazy paving.  I've cut faux grass inserts from a roll of artificial moss from Spotlight, and the pre-made picket fence is from eBay.  The moss was a little thick, so I peeled the black foam backing off it, before gluing it to the foam board base.

The awning over the front door is glued in place with hot glue.  I went through a couple of different covers and colours for the awning before deciding on this paper, which I ModPodged to seal.  I trimmed the edges with pinking shears.

At this point you can see that I've also painted the roof shingles - I forgot to take a photo!  There was a lot of fluffing about with colour washes and I've made a lot of mistakes, but I'm running out of time to do much more so it will have to stay as it is for now :-)

Now I've taken a piece of fern garland I bought from Alpha Stamps (they don't appear to sell it any more, which I am really bummed about) and hot glued it across the awning.  I also had some shrubs I bought from Minimum World which I added to the grass.  I think it's starting to look good!

Here you can see I have glued the timber framing to the base and have puttied the joins on the corners.  It just needs some paint - although I am yet to decide on a colour, lol.  I have added some scenic scatter around the edges of the grass (and in spots across the roof tiles) to resemble moss.

As a little treat, on the corner of the awning I added a tiny birds nest with eggs, which I found in an Etsy shop :-)

Caroline uses a wonderful-looking (and cheap!) faux greenery garland as her vines, but despite extensive searching, I couldn't find anything similar here in Australia.  I made the vine on this side of the cottage from a branch trimmed from this garland from Spotlight, which I bought on sale.

You can also see below, that I finally decided on a French grey-blue paint for the timber base trim :-)

Oh my gosh, just a few final touches, and the outside is almost done!!

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.