A Few Things Finished

So in the weeks since you've heard from me I've been ill, begun cross training at work and have started to finish a few rooms of the dollhouse.  Guess which of those was the desert and which are the vegetables.  Go on, guess. I dare you.

Yeah, I'm pretty stoked that some things are getting all those gorgeous finishing touches.

I had to do a few time consuming things first...like staining all the trim I'd bought for the second floor windows.  I haven't measured them out yet.  That's still to come.  But they're all stained. See?

See?  Nice dark red brown.  Pretty.

And I began to really work on completing the front hall.  See, first I had to get the crown molding up.  And...you know.  The wall.  The one that makes it a hallway.

And I needed to put the stairs in.  So I did a bunch of stuff at once.  And I forgot to take pictures.  So remember way back when I took pictures of how I wanted the rooms to look?  We're going to do before and after.

Not exactly high class or even livable...

Notice the lack of front door.  The completely bare floor.  The lack of stairs, baseboards, crown molding or wallpaper?  Notice also how big the space seems?

Yeah, it doesn't look like that anymore.  See?

Okay I lied.  No crown moldings or stairs here. Not yet.

Please ignore the boxes you are able to view through the living room opening.  But what a change right?

Let's try that same view with stairs, and crown moldings, shall we?

See? Same view...totally different.

To me the stairs really make it more of a vertical space, if that makes any sense.  But this is without any furniture.  You had an idea from the 'before' picture what furniture I was going to use.  Check this out.

You can see the grandfather clock and the coat rack.

I really need to look at the space from the front more, get a sense of what a doll would see before I finalize anything.  But we have another angle.  I like this one a lot.

I was so excited to get the mirror on the wall!

Planning on a few things to do on the lower level of the demi-lune table, flowers or a vase, something.  But for now the silver basket works pretty well.  And its perfect near the foot of the stairs.

We've also made great strides in the dining room.  Remember the dining room?  It looked like this?

Again, very bare, nothing but furniture.

So I think this is better.  Floors, wallpaper, baseboards, window trim...

Step one, floors and walls.  Cover 'em up!

See? This isn't hard... okay I'm lying.  This was pretty hard.  But I like how the wallpaper looks.  It gives me more options than just red.  I could go with gold or brown, green even... more red.  Not bad.

Of course everything is better with trim.  See?

See?  Trim makes everything better.  Finished looking.

And a view of the windows with trim... So glad these darn things stayed together.  They were not cooperative at all.

See? Pretty.  Like.

At that point I had no choice but to add the back wall.  Let me tell you, adding floor and plaster to the ceiling will take away crucial millimeters that you need to get your walls in without issue.  But I managed. 

And here we are with furniture and a chandelier.

Sorry its a little blurry.

This one is a little better?  Or is the wish father to the thought?

Yeah, definitely clearer. 

Eventually I'll fill up the cabinet with china.  And you'll notice that I don't have any curtains.  Yeah I'm pretty certain the dolls will not be doing any nude entertaining.  Clothes all the way until the curtains go in. 

I also noticed a little problem.  I was running out of crown molding.  Yeah.  That kind of problem.  So I'm ordering more.  Not a lot but enough to keep me going with the attic hall and finish the library.

We're not completely done with the upstairs but the kitchen is on the menu for next week.  I hope you enjoy.

Moving To the Second Floor and Downwards.

 

So a few days turned into a week or so.  Busy busy busy.  Run around in circles 'til I'm very very dizzy. 

Well, I'm not Cinderella but I have been busy.  And I've even accomplished a few things.  So let's see what I've gotten done huh?  We've got the second floor and the main floor down stairs to see today...even if we don't have stairs in the dollhouse, lets pretend, all right?

Second floor... This floor will also have wooden floors.  I think they'll work out very nicely.  A medium walnut wood tone.  Like so.



See?  Nice and pretty. 

I also put up some wallpaper in the hallway.  This is more scrapbook paper but I liked the blue tones, and it had an interesting pattern while still being to scale for the dollhouse.

Here's another picture from a slightly different angle, give you a better idea of how the pattern will look down the hallway.



A little easier to see the pattern right?

I was really pleased with it.  Of course I still had to do the library/study and the bathroom as well as the master bedroom.

So first up... The Library/Study.  More stripes in the dark tones...but that looks good right?  Very masculine. Which is pretty good considering the bedroom is in blue and white.



This is the view from the front bay window area. 

I took another from a different angle, it gives you a slightly better look at the pattern.   See?  I think it looks really good with the doors and door frames. And a nice contrast with the floor too.  Not all matchy matchy.



It's mostly dark green with some dark gold and mahogany red.

And next on the list is the master bedroom.  I don't have a lot up here except the wallpaper and floors.  The ceiling is up but its just more plaster paper.  It has a nice textured look but see how pretty the wallpaper is with the light coming in the windows?



It really reminds me of my bedroom growing up.

I think this picture might show the walls and ceiling a bit better.  What do you think?



Still needs baseboards and crown moldings.  I'm working on it I swear.

Next is something I'm really proud of.  I think this room turned out the best so far.  Maybe because it's actually looking semi-finished? 



Ta Da!  The bathroom.

It's not easy to see, but its a linen textured scrapbook paper on the upper walls.  The floor and lower walls are in a white octagon tile.  And I stained the chair rail to match the door and door frame.  It'll fit the bathroom set in nicely I think.  Can't wait to see how it looks when its all finished. 

Here's a slightly different angle. 



Not too bad right? 

If I was smart I would have figured out a way to make the entire second floor in blue tones.  But the library didn't want to cooperate.

However, in the picture above you get a little sneak peak of the main floor.  Which I will fill you on now. 

I mentioned the marble paper?  Right?  Well you would not believe how long it took me to get it measured and pasted down with the borders around the rooms.  Especially in the dining room.  For-Ev-Er. Seriously.


The front hall and part of the dining room.

Seriously.  I really was going crazy with those borders.  And making sure I had enough room for the walls to slide in between the floors.  See?  That bay window area?  I really was going nuts.  Ask my husband. He'll vouch for me.



It looks decent I think but OMG that took time!

Here's the parlor/living room.  Slightly easier than the goofy shaped dining room.



See? Square.  Not nearly as hard to deal with.

And I did managed to get a few other things done.  But I'm going to save those for next week. 

Right now I'm feeling seriously impressed with these floors.  They're nicer than the ones in my own house.  My husband is always very impressed when ever he looks at the house.  He's nice like that.

But, next week, wallpaper for the living room, and hallway.  And trim!  And hopefully wallpaper in the dining room.

But I got some preemptive staining done and door frames cut and stained for my dining room and parlor doorways. 

Here they are unstained: 




See?  They fit pretty nicely around the doorway don't they?

So I stained those and also got all the trim for the upstairs windows stained as well.  No pictures of those though.  But they're the same color as the doors so use your imaginations folks.

I need to measure out my cuts and get those sawed down so I can trim the upstairs windows inside. 

By the way? Any ideas for what I can use as curtain rods?  I'm figuring O-rings that screw into the walls to hang them up but for the rods themselves?  I've got nothing. 

See you next week.  Hope you liked all the progress I made this time around.