Loft Kitchen...More Books

This weekend I wanted to make some progress on the Loft.  So I worked on the kitchen again.  I'd put one coat of the blue paint on last weekend and I got another coat on Saturday.

I painted the doors and went to work figuring out a better version of the oven doors.  I ended up using thin cardboard, pearlescent scrapbook paper in black and steel gray and plastic from a package of windows.

I think they look better than the first version.  So I started to work on the handles.  I cut two lengths of wood and drew two ovals over the edges then used my Dremel to round them off.

I taped them together so they'd end up the same shape.

The cabinets needed handles so once I got them positioned and glued to the boxes I started to paint my hardware.

I got the handles from Jodi's Shapeways shop.  I decided to go with black hardware in the kitchen.  It's a modern look and contrasts with the browns in the countertop and backsplash.

Once they were in place I got the ovens glued on and started to work on the countertops.

I added poly gloss finish once everything was glued on and that helps to bring out the details a bit.  That had to dry before I could do anything else with the cabinets so it gave me plenty of time to get the inset for the stovetop done and the sink painted and set in the countertop.

I spent so much time on the Bookshop last weekend that I worked a bit more on the Loft this weekend.  I got the first portion of the backsplash done.

The blue in the greyish/brown stone gets picked up more once it's next to the cabinets.

They need gout added but I like the look so far.  Just this section took a lot of the beads though.

Once I got that portion grouted I put the cabinets into the Loft.  I'll work on them more next week.  I need to order more beads.

A view from the front door of the Loft.

Then I started to work on more books for the Bookshop.

And in the mail I got a lovely gift from Barbara whose blog link I seem to have lost.  She sent me more books and a cute little sign.  The leather bound book is an atlas with beautiful little maps inside.

Aren't they gorgeous!  Thank you Barbara!

Deborah sent me some of her spare blank books since she works in half scale and they're 1:12 scale.  She also sent me the sweetest little readable copy of Pride and Prejudice.  I have it safely put away so I can't lose it.  Thank you Deborah!

Everyone has been so kind I can't thank all of you enough.

Books, Testing & Paint

This weekend I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the color for the Loft kitchen.  I finally decided on a color, put the first coat on the boxes and then I called it quits for the day.

I also put some wood putty on the boxes to fill in some of the little cracks where the wood joins up.  While it was drying I tested out some colors on a piece of the wood I used for the cabinet doors.

Left to right, Cherry stain, Early American stain, Dark Walnut stain, Midnight Blue paint, Bark Brown paint, Oyster Beige paint.

I went back and forth a lot and got opinions from Kristine and some of the other mini folks on Instagram.  I tested the blue lowers and Early American stained uppers but they didn't look right.  So I'm going with blue cabinets.  I have some open shelving I'm planning on and those will be stained with the Early American.

I'm planning on a good amount of lighting so I don't think the kitchen will get too dark.  Here's the first pass with the blue on the cabinet boxes.

Saturday I started out making more books.  I'd purchased some more as well, I've got one box that's pretty full now.

I decided it would be a good idea to test out how many books it would take to fill the shelves.

Filling this shelf set took half the books I had.

But I'd had enough of making books for the day so I decided to work on the actual shop a bit.

I measured, cut, (and then did it again for some of the angles) and stained the crown molding.  I'm using basic large crown from Miniatures.com and augmenting it with Victorian skirt baseboards.  It makes the crown molding look more substantial.

It's not the best picture, I'll try to get some more next week with better lighting.

That was pretty much all I did this weekend.  We're running back and forth every evening between our house and another cat sitting until Sunday and of course this coincides with my work's period end closing.

I'm hoping the rest of you have accomplished more than I did!

Books, Trim and Kitchen

This was kind of a weird weekend for me.  I was off on Friday so I spent part of it working on the bookshop.  I wanted to get any trim and structural work done because we had people coming to the house on Saturday and I knew pretty much all I'd be able to do was make books.

I'd gotten some paper/cardboard trim from Miniatures.com to embellish the trim on the first floor of the bookshop.  I got it painted out the way I had the wooden trim and finished and glued it up.

I also measured out and glued in the baseboards after I did another test of how the bookshelves would fit.  Now that the baseboards are in the bookshelves are fixed in place.

I also got the trim up around the second floor windows.

Saturday I cleaned a bit.  Not because I wanted to but it was sort of necessary.  And then I made books.  My husband printed up a bunch of book covers for me so I modge podged them and got to work.

Lots and lots of books... I started with these.

I took the ones that don't have covers out.  And then I took out the ones that looked very fake.  I can put some of the covers I have on those and make them look more like real books.

This is what I ended up with.

A little more realistic.

Sunday I worked on the Loft kitchen again.  This took most of the day.

I needed a front for the cabinets and the cabinet doors.  So I did that.  And I made some cabinet uppers.  I want to do open shelving between the fridge and pantry.

I also made myself some double oven doors.

I'd ordered a stove top which came on Friday and it's perfect.

I really love it.  It'll be perfect.

I still don't have any clue about what color I want the cabinets to be.  But I made sure I cut all the cabinet doors with the wood grain going the same way in case I ended up using a stain.

I need to make a fan for over the oven to fit between the uppers and the double oven cabinet.

So far I think it looks pretty good.  For color... I'm thinking maybe something slightly darker than the walls?  Or maybe go with a medium brown.  I'm planning on using the same countertop as I did in NOLA House since it's earth tones and it would go nicely with the walls.

The other option is using the dark blue from the feature wall on the cabinets with natural wood open shelves and some pale uppers?

Argghhh!  I'm still not sure.

Any opinions?  Here's a picture of the feature wall to give you an idea

I like the idea of adding color because I've seen some really funky mid-century kitchens lately but I'm trying to do a slightly modern take on it.

I'm still debating.  Not sure.

How are the rest of you doing?