Hello! Long time no see!

 Hi all. It has been a very long time between posts. I have been mini-ing a little (the odd mini basket, mini knitting, painting, painting 3d printed items) but I have made very little progress on my houses. I spent last weekend at a weekend away with my state mini enthusiasts organisation and it got me a little inspired. I painted the shelves in my doll shop so they're ready to restock. I also pulled out my Mountfield to work on the kitchen I had pulled apart.

Yesterday was a disaster. I had none of the things I needed, so ordered all the things and left it at that. Today, I opened the roof and found some of the things I needed - spare windows, skirting (painted and ready to go) and a spare sheet of wallpaper to replace a piece in the hallway that got ruined. I was so relieved and horrified at how dumb/genius I was to store it all in the roof.

Anyway, I finished up trimming the skirting in the lounge room and dining room beside the new fireplaces I made. Now I just need to make a new back for the dining room fireplace and finish painting the fire inserts.

I had already made the pantry for the kitchen, so I glued the door I had to the pantry shelves, cut a wall piece to fill in the opening in the back wall of the kitchen, then glued both in.

In that last photo, you can see my pieces of tile sheet that will be glued in. I am leaving those off for now as I am getting my husband to help me cut a window opening on the right wall tomorrow. Also I need the floor tiles I ordered to patch into the floor first. 

I've always felt the kitchen needed a window. I also want a window in the left wall of the front bedroom. I am debating putting one in the left wall of the lounge room too, but not sure it will fit with the dresser there. I will have a think between now and tomorrow. I have an idea to put a room in the attic, and therefore a dormer window, so for now I wanted to hang onto a spare window for that (although it's likely too big for that). Maybe the window in the lounge room could be a round one. 

Thanks for reading this far! Hope you are all well. 

Mountfield wallpaper updates

Hello all! Wanting to just post a quick update on my Mountfield. Have I banged on before how some of this house I love and some of this house just isn't working for me?? I don't recall, but I really love The Infill's 1930s house (plus all their other stuff!!!). So I bit the bullet and repapered the front bedroom, the living room and entry/hall. At first I glued the paper on top of the existing paper and quickly decided that was too risky, so went with double sided tape. That made life much easier and would highly recommend it. I learnt a few things, and it is by no means perfect but I am OK with that. Nothing furniture won't fix. Now I need to decide on fireplaces, although I have purchased the Phoenix metal fire grate things. So, some photos for you! (FYI it appears I can't reorder my photos on the new blogger, so I apologise for the disorder....)

The hall upstairs:

And overall view of the right side:

The front bedroom: (the colours on the nightshade no longer match...)

The living room (with the cabinet covering up a dodgy wallpaper job):

The entry (and the paper got a bit smushed up as I had to squeeze it in between the stairs and wall and I cut it too small..... sigh):

And entry again:

Which brings me to having to stain and varnish some picture rail to match the other wood. I have the stain still, but no idea what varnish I used. What could possibly go wrong??? 

But on the upside, I am pretty happy now. I LOVE the bedroom and hall, an pretty happy with the living room. And this is the original paper I chose for there. Silly me.

Anyway, take care all. I hope you are well and that those in the northern hemisphere are enjoying some sunshine. We are enjoying a tiny bit of rain although still not nearly enough. Talk soon!!

Mountfield shower finished

Or at least it was until I pulled the shower door handle off. Never mind. I can reattach it. When I find it.

So I made the shower screen pretty simply. I cut a piece of acrylic to fit the opening, made a cardboard frame to sit on top, with about 4mm additional strip on one side to act as the hinge. I glued the hinge to the inside of the opening and painted it gold, so you can't really see it's there and it was done. Somehow the acrylic got a bit scratched up though, and not sure how. Never mind, you can't really tell. Now I just need a bath robe hanging off the door and I think this is done.

How much do I love that wicker laundry hamper?? So cool.

Did I mention I couldn't get a light fitting into the bath enclosure? The roof is glued on and the angle prevents me getting my hand in there with any sort of drilling device. Hence for now it is lightless in there. Still, I am happy. Have a great weekend everyone!

Dollhouse dilemmas

Hello all. Another week started - where are they going??

I had the chance to work on some of my 1:12 projects over the weekend but didn't make a lot of progress. As per this post's title, I am a bit undecisive about a few projects:

1. I haven't worked on my French chateau much as I am contemplating either pulling it down and remaking it from gatorfoam, or having the back, sides and floor laser cut in 6mm ply. The reason being I am worried about strength and rigidity in such a large structure. I dread the thought of having to recut the windows in gatorfoam, but it would be the lighter option than ply (even light ply). Still, I'm not going to be carrying this baby around, am I? I suppose the other options is making it in roomboxes. But then you have the issue of joining them seamlessly.

2. I really want to relocate the Mountfield bathroom into the music room at the back of the house, maybe then putting the piano into the dining room. But it's about finished. Not sure about ripping two rooms apart and having to redo them. Here is a photo of the front as it is and some of the bathroom about done (with a little room left for some choice minis as I find them!):

And the front entry:

3. I put many of my painted metal minis into the 1:12 doll shop and I don't like the paleness of the room with the toys. So this isn't much of a dilemma anymore, as I tore it all apart at the weekend.....

Chaos and devestation. By yesterday afternoon, this is how it looked:

The alcove/door bit is just foamcore. It needs to be painted. Next step is to make a shelf unit to match the one on the right and then paint all of the timber/trim in a pale grey-turquoise-green colour. Or something. I spent a lot of time looking at Veronique Lux vignettes and thought I'd try something along those lines. I think I'll try colouring the wallpaper too, maybe a teabag stain. I probably shouldn't have stuck all the trim back in, but I couldn't help myself. I think I just like to make things hard for myself.

If you have any golden nuggets of wisdom to help me with my dilemmas, I'd love to hear them. Have a great week everyone.