Paint, Trim and Wall Assembly

This weekend was nice. With Memorial Day I had three days off and I spent part of each working on the dollhouses.  My Shapeways order arrived last Monday so I could work on the Loft.

I got the faucet on the sink.  And worked on the lights some more.

I ordered some ceiling plates for the hanging lights and got them attached.

And I found some old tubing for the bathroom lights which hide the wires nicely.

I also managed to get the addition ceiling cut.

Then I started painting the walls.

I had to fill in some of the cracks with wood putty and sand it down before I could paint.  And some of the wood putty is still drying so I couldn't paint that portion.

But I could finish the addition ceiling with the same blue I used on the main house.

It might need another coat.

It looks pretty good I think.

I worked on the bookshop a lot too.  First, and I would have been better off doing this later, I added the 'plaster' to the ceilings.  I used the same paint that I used for the WQRC stucco and used a stiffer brush to make swirling plaster motions.

The circular brush marks aren't completely visible but I know they're there.   The next step was to add the floors.

I used Minwax Dark Walnut to contrast with the trim and the shelves.  The doors pop nicely against it too.

I began to work on the trim while the stain on the floors dried.

This is the crown molding for the first floor.  I had some chair rail which I used as trim for the second floor opening and the opening for the staircase.

I'm using magnets to hold the front to the rest of the shop, and while the glue is drying they're kept from pulling out with some painters tape.

While the crown molding was drying I glued the walls onto the base.

This is why dry fits are so important for me.  My second floor broke part and I reglued, but I didn't get the front pieces perfectly lined up so I need to sand one of them down a bit otherwise the front of the store doesn't fit properly.

But I did get the back glued on. At least partially.

I haven't glued the back of the second story in yet.  I want to add the railings to the second floor first.

But so far so good.

I have to work tomorrow. But I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day.

Aging, Trim & Wallpaper

This weekend I was supposed to get a package from Shapeways.  It had stuff for the Downtown Loft so I decided I'd work on that Sunday.

Saturday I finished up the trim on the front of the shop windows.

I took the doors out and sanded down the edges of the kickplates and now they open completely which I like.

Then I decided to give the front of the shop some aging.

The black is still a little heavy in places so I'll water it down a bit but overall I like the look.  The blue on the front of the doors pops a bit more.

I decided to start adding the wallpaper afterwards.  I'm going to put brick on the outside, so I'll end up routing some channels into the wood and putting the brick over them.  If I'm really ambitious I'll make some sliding panels so I can get at the wiring afterwards.

I like how it looks so far.

I did a test fit of the walls and the stairs to see how they'd look.  So far so good.

A few from the front doors.

By the end of the day the package from Shapeways hadn't arrived so I decided to keep going with the wallpaper in the shop.

I also added some wood and metal moldings to the ceilings.  The metal I primed with gesso so I can paint it a creamy white to look like plaster.

I went through all my trim so I could figure out what to use for crown molding.  And then I gathered up all my books that I have so far.  Some I've bought, some I took from the Gothic Victorian's library, and some I've made.

I need about three times this many.

I might need to start making some books during the week.

Hopefully the Shapeways package will arrive this week and I can mess around with the Loft this coming weekend.

Lights, Windows and Paint

This was an odd weekend for me.  I spent almost all weekend working on miniatures but I don't feel like I got a lot done.

Part of what I did was adjust some of my LED lights because I had some in bright white and some in warm white. So I got some of my antique white paint and covered the bright white LEDs with it.  That gave them the same hue as the warm white LEDs.

Then I got started painting my lights.

I had a lamp from Jodi's Shapeways shop, and a hanging light fixture from Marion's.  And I remembered lamps from growing up that were a mix of wood and brass.

It's not perfect but I'll work on it a bit more.  I painted the hanging fixture a mix of browns and then added clear nail polish for shine.

I wanted a mix of geometric shapes in the house, so I'm playing with circles/spheres and hard angles.

I found some of my jewelry findings and glass globes.  The jewelry findings were black so I added some gesso, repainted them black and added the same metallic brown to them.

I need to do something to the wires...maybe prime them and paint them?

I had some other globes with a cord net around them.  They reminded me a bit of old net floats.  They're larger than the other ones and since I have two I thought they'd look nice hanging on either side of the bed.

But that was as far as I got on the Loft.

I really didn't have a plan for the shop this weekend, so I decided I'd do something simple and paint the front.  I like the blue but it definitely needs some weathering.

I think some watered down black paint, dripped down the front will make it more realistic looking.  Victorian London had a ton of soot in the air so when it rained that would have coated the buildings.

I painted the dormer window frames out too.

When I got that done I decided to put the windows and interior framing in.  I'm running out of my trim though so I need to order more before I can finish the front windows.

I like how it looks so far.

I put the doors in to test the fit and how they look with the trim around them.  I need to sand the sides of the interior kickplates a bit because they impede the doors opening slightly but the look is very nice so far.

I think with some ageing on the storefront the doors will stand out a bit more.

I painted the base black but I think some brick will look better there.  Or stone.  The black doesn't look very real to me.

And I didn't post this because we started watching Game of Thrones (and having a drink to dull the angst of the episode) and I forgot to finish it before I went to bed.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and a Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Including mine!

Aging, Iron & Sink

I didn't want the stove for the shop living quarters to look shiny and new so I found some of my chalk paint and dry brushed it over the black.  The color is called Castle and it gives it a slightly dingier look.  I did the same thing with the coal scuttle too.

I didn't like the decal much and then when I tried to put it on the stove base it ripped and crumpled so I gave up on it.  I found some of my scrapbook paper with an interesting pattern and scored lines in it, then went over them with pencil to make it look more like tiles.  I glued it all down to the base and then put some modge podge over it.

I remembered before I glued the wall guard on the stove pipe that the wall it would hit would be angled.  So I sanded the pipe down to match the roof angle and glued the guard on.  I want to age up the silver of the guard and the handle on the stove top a bit but it'll have to wait a bit more.

I'm not sure where in the living quarters I'll place it but most the angle will likely be needed no matter what.

The next project was the spiral stairs for the shop.  Much simpler, almost plain, in comparison to the Loft stairs anyway.  I painted them with Folk Art Licorice first after I stiffened them up with modge podge and primed them first.

I had a paint that was called 'Wrought Iron' but it was more like a dark grey than black and I didn't like it much.

I had to let them dry for a while because the paint was really thick.  So I decided to start making books.

I bought a kit from LDelaney's Store on Etsy.  It makes 124 books.  I'm cheating and using balsa wood for the pages.  I don't plan on these to come off the shelves really.  It's kind of nice I have a ton of cardboard left from making my roof last year.

So I started with six.  Once I get in a rhythm I'll make more at a time.  Probably until I get sick of making books.

The other project for the weekend was the sink for the Loft bathroom.  I'd started out making the base last week.  You remember. I dropped it after I got it primed?

A thought occurred to me as I was trying to figure out the counters though, and so I set up the floor in the loft to check it.

See a flaw with my plan?

Yeah... the window is a bit of an issue.  So I was thinking of to where I could reposition my sink/vanity.

I think that will work.  I can put a vanity mirror on top of the shelves or against the back of one.

Since I had the loft in anyway I tried out the stair position.

I was struggling a bit with how I wanted to finish the sink/vanity. But eventually I remembered I had a bunch of tile samples and found one that would look nice with the floors.  

I had to recut the top twice before I got a good opening (without breaking the surround) for the under counter sink.

I need to find some hardware for it though.  I've got some somewhere.

My high tech method of making sure the pieces don't separate.

But then I painted the bottom portion a nice neutral.

I'll make some towels to put under the sink.

Lots to do still but I find I'm really enjoying the slower pace.  There's a May mini challenge on Instagram going on which is very cool but I don't have such great photography skills that I wanted to participate.  Maybe next year.

I hope everyone else is having fun and enjoying spring.  Happy May the Fourth be with you and Happy Cinco De Mayo!