Bits and Pieces

This was a weekend of 1:1 scale house projects, such as putting up a new curtain rod, hanging a new door for the bathroom, and a lot of little things for the 1:12 scale house.

I'm sure the 1:1 scale stuff isn't as interesting to you as it is to me.  The projects were mostly fixing things that got destroyed by cats or destroyed by humans to rescue a cat.  Sadly the window shelf was not one of the things that got fixed, mostly because I cannot figure out how to reinforce it and I don't want an even dozen holes in my wall.  Half a dozen is enough I think.

The Nola house progresses.  As I mentioned last time, I distressed the stair treads so they'd look as if generations of tiny feet had trod up and own them.

I sanded the treads down a bit then used the American Cherry stain over the black.  It contrasts nicely I think.

I also, as you might have guessed from the shot above, put wallpaper and trim on the staircase wall, and attached the staircase.  I decided against the wainscoting on this particular wall because it felt too busy.

The area beneath the stairs will have a small bookshelf and desk and the wainscoting would be pretty much hidden anyway.  I might change my mind later about the area below the stairs but not the entryway portion of the wall.  Wainscoting would be too much there.

I put up some of the wallpaper for the kitchen wall.  I'm planning on adding trim around the door which will serve as a visual room divider. 

I like how the brick looks with the walnut floor.  I think it'll contrast nicely with the black fridge I bought and the simple cabinets I'm going to make.

I also did some work on the front door.  You'll recall from my test run of how all the doors and windows fit that it was unpainted so far.  That was because I couldn't decide on a color. 

I wanted something dramatic to stand out from the other grey blue doors.  Something that would look good next to the white trim and not clash with the pale grey house walls. 

Here's what I ended up with.

Front door, back inside it's trim.

And the interior side of it.

The same cherry as the rest of the parlor trim with metallic black trim.

There was a lot of taping and very careful painting of this door.  In the end I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

I also put a coat of finish on the beadboard ceiling, carefully avoiding the lighting brass.  I trimmed out the stairs opening so it looks pretty for anyone sitting in the living room.

You can see my little domed kitchen light, the Reutter Porcelain dining room light and my little entryway hanging light.  The dining room light killed me for ideas to trim it out until I remembered how people would cover wires with satin or velvet tubes.

Here's a close up of the dining room/Reutter Porcelain light.  I liked the touches of red without the color overwhelming.



I'm starting to get the exterior trim ready, painting it black and adding the crackle medium.  I'll add the topcoat today I hope.

The other thing I want to accomplish today is figuring out how to trim out the windows interior.  I need to make those tiny crossbars and the curved upper portion.  I'm planning on the crossbars being black, and maybe the curved portion cherry or walnut depending on the room.

Lots to do still.  Can't believe we're almost done with May!