Bits of This and That

I haven't much to show in the way of progress, but I do have some things to show you, such as George's Bathroom. I don't recall if I mentioned it before, but I figured if George's room will be on the third or second floor, whereas his siblings will inhabit the fourth floor, he might need his own bathroom.

Yes, above is George's bathroom. . . hopefully I will be able to show some progress in it soon! I find it difficult to locate good bathroom sets for dollhouses, they're either too expensive or not the style I would prefer. And they're also never custom fit - very difficult to find ones that will fit your specific dollhouse bathroom! So, against my better judgement, I decided to make my own. If I had a 3d printer, I'd print them, and if I had a Cricut Maker, I'd find a way to make them using that. Having neither, I decided it was a hit-and-miss situation, so what can go wrong? A lot will, probably, so bear with me. So far I just have a placeholder in place for the bathtub - it's a little short, I think, and not long enough, but what's your opinion?

I decided to have an orange theme, to go with the green bedroom. . . but I might change my mind, I'll have to see.

And here are three adorable turtles that are making their way across George's room. I'm trying to get some ideas to fill up the shelves in his room, and I do have some very nice 1930s magazines that I got for my birthday, but a ten year old having 'Vogue' or 'Good Housekeeping' in his bedroom seems a bit odd. But I'm sure their some other (older) inhabitant in my dollhouse will be thrilled to have them! :-) Maybe a few strewn around the reception room, so guests can pick them up while waiting for the Lockwoods to make their way to them!

And here is where I decided to pull the wall forward a bit, to create a space for more windows. The room with white walls is the scullery, and above it is the Billiard's room. The two rooms that were pulled forward are the Butler's Pantry and George's bathroom, which are not where they will end up. (Now that I write that, I think George's bathroom might possibly.)

Here is an image of the Grand Staircase. The "carpet" on it is just paper, I'm waiting until I find a more suitable fabric. I will need to have some paintings around it, I'm thinking on basing it off of the Entrance of Hillwood Estate. (For those who don't know, Hillwood is a beautiful house in Washington D.C.).

I also made a couple more trunks for the Trunk room. I'm going to have to make quite a few more before it starts to fill up!

And here is the beginning of the Music Room in Lockwood Manor. It's located next to the Reception room. I made the pianos myself, which was quite a fun job. I made the light colored one first, so there are a few defects in it, but I had so much fun making it I decided to make the second.

And there is the north end of Lockwood Manor, with the Servant's Entrance at the very bottom, George's Room on top, an unidentified room on top of that, and then the Nursery. Have a good day! Signing off with an interesting sepia photo of my dollhouse that I took a while ago. . .

Beginning Work on the Grand Entrance Hall

Today work begins on the Grand Entrance Hall! Because it is one's first impression (if you were a doll, that is) when you enter the house, I want it to be very, very, very grand.

That's the entrance I'll be working with.

This will be the entrance to the ballroom, marked by very grand pillars, which are actually children's building blocks. I will have to add a little height to them, of course.

This arch will lead into the reception hall, where the Lockwood will greet guests.

There is some space between the pillars and the ceiling, which will allow for pediments on the top and bottom. I am thinking about a green or black marble for these, to complement the red entrance hall. (That is, it will be red eventually, unless I change my mind.)

A very mysterious photo of the rug that will be laid in the entrance. . .

Well, here is my before picture! I wonder what the after will look like. . .

High Flyin'

High Flyin' - like the Jeaneatte MacDonald song from Broadway Serenade. Which is what George is doing - or imaging doing - as I continue to work on his airplane themed room. Or, using the definition Merriam-Webster dictionary gives: marked by excessive ambition. Yes, it was very ambitious of me to try to finish George's Room today. . .

I am still working on George's room - and trying to make it messy. It's easy with real life, but seemingly harder with miniature life. . . And hurray - I have finished the parquet! I actually manged to enjoy gluing in the last pieces quite a bit, mainly because I was watching Lucille Ball's The Lucy Show while doing it.

What an image - I really need to work on my photography skills. The airplane hanging from the ceiling isn't at a particuarly good angle - it looks much better in real life. (I hope!) I have tacked up quite a few paintings and posters - all airplane themed, of course!

And here's the picture of the fireplace - with the grate-y thing I keep referncing. (In case you can't see it, it's inside the fireplace.) I made the little clock - I think it's a cute addition. And there's also a much better picture of the art deco (ish) fender I was trying to show you before!

I love the painting above the fireplace - I love views of fields - and that airplane is gorgeous! Those little shelves were an addition I added to give George more room for books and games. I need to print out and assemble some 1930s board games - hopefully very soon!

This is the ceiling photo I have been promising you for so long! The little hole in the ceiling is where the electric light will go. I added the crown moldings - I've been too lazy to add them to the rest of my dollhouse but I really need to - the rooms look so much more complete with them.

And here's a terrible photo of a little outlet I made for the room - a dollhouse never can be too complete, I think! Also, I should probably add some to the rest of the dollhouse - they are such a cute detail, I think. I tried to copy outlets from the 30s, but there weren't many photos of them.

Here is a little crossword game I made - not scrabble but definitely close. It's very small - about the size of a penny. It took me a very long time to cut up the tiny little pieces of wood and write letters on them!

A little paint set and paintbrush in water for George to paint with - I think he needs some newspaper and a little airplane to paint, too!

Here is a little print out of a 1930s airplane kit that George is cutting up with scissors (which are a charm). Do you think he needs a little desk? It'd have to be very little to fit in the tiny space between the fireplace and the wall.

And here is a not very good, out of focus image of the window and the bedside table with a little lamp (non working, although I did attempt to electrify it, it failed).

Here's a much better photo of the airplane that George has strung from the ceiling, and his bed! The airplane was made from a miniature print out of a 1940s airplane, I believe.

You can see the window much better in this photo, and the fact that I still haven't managed to cover up the stained glass on the interior side - I'm waiting for inspiration to strike!

I cut up a coffee stirrer into a very thin piece to make matchsticks, and then dotted red paint on the tips - for one I colored black on the tip to make it look used.

Here are the shelves on the wall - do you have any ideas on how to fill them? I can't think of a thing! Well, that's it for George's room - sorry for such a long post! I still have a few things I want to show you, however, such as a tiny rotary phone I got for my birthday!

I made the table using a piece of wood and Houseworks spindles.

Here are some vines that magically made their way to the side of the nursery overnight :-)

A little gate I'm working on for the servant's entrance - I added hinges! And, last but not least, a beautiful rug I got for my dollhouse - right now it's in the Grand Entrance Hall. (Sorry that the photo is on it's side!)

Thank you so much for visiting - signing off with a photo of the Master Bathroom in the dollhouse!

George's Room is Coming Along! (Very Slowly)

From my last post, you can see that I wanted to add depth to my dollhouse, but to do that I need four more IKEA drawers. Luckily, my birthday is coming up, so I might just pop that onto my wishlist! In other news, I have been really slowly working on George's Room. Currently he's sleeping in the bathtub, poor kid. I did have some problems with the fireplace - I wish he'd decided he wanted a radiator instead, but George insisted it had to be a fireplace, so I had no choice in the matter. The reason I was having so many troubles with the fireplace was so that the fireplace could fit into the little nook, the walls of the fireplace had to be reasonably low, creating a gab where you could see the wood of the dollhouse through. Of course, this wouldn't do, so I had to compromise and make a sort of grate-y thing. It took me an hour or so to ensure the fit (who knew painting three coffee stirrers could be so tiresome?), which makes me even more amazed that people actually managed to do this in their real-life homes. They must be born with superpowers! I really wish I'd just waited on the parquet floor until some coffee stirrers came my way, but I didn't, so now I'm stuck cutting up tiny pieces of wood. Very, very fiddly, especially when you get to the edges and have to cut a tiny piece of wood even tinier, and it splits in half. Ugh! Luckily, the little grate-y thing that I made fixed the fireplace, so now I just have to insert the wires through a tiny, tiny hole, and glue in the fireplace. Which, I'll frankly admit, I'm scared to do. I really don't want to glue it in wrong! Luckily, the floor is more than halfway finished.

It's come a long way from this:

I could probably finish it this afternoon, if I worked up the enthusiam. Also, I made an Art Deco (sort of) fireplacae fender.

You probably can't really see it very well in the photo, but it's there. The shiny metal sheet is from this dollhouse kit I had, and I cut it up to cover the wood that formed the fender, and glued it. Imagine my surprise when, as I was working on the finishing touches of it, I discovered that the shiny metal sheet was a sticker! How did I not realize that before?? It would have saved me a lot of time! Also, I got a very large stash of coffee stirrers which I was using to finish the very messy edges in my dollhouse. For example, in the attic:

After I added the finishing edges:

Much better, don't you think? I will be back soon with more news on George's Room! Stay tuned!

Yesterday: My Rainy Sunday

Yesterday it was a rainy, rainy Sunday, but luckily the plants in the garden got some water. And, it left me an entire day for dollhouse fun! Just give me a second to tune the radio - and here we are!

That's an image of one of the Servant's Rooms in my dollhouse on the fourth floor. It's where the cook and a housemaid sleeps. Those identical beds were a lot of fun to make! You can also see, to the right, another servant's room (but the configuration has shifted, they are no longer next to each other), and a bathroom below it (same sentiment as before). Now, for some dollhouse updates! I love houses with odd features - they seem even more realistic that way, so I decided to add my own special twist on my dollhouse. And - here it is! I decided to jut one of the walls forward - creating a space for more windows. Here's an image of what will be the new configuration.

Or, another image:

I'll have to wait until I get more IKEA Moppe Boxes for this to become reality instead of a dream - and I can't wait! Have a great day!

The Philadelphia Story (in my dollhouse!)

One of my favorite movies is The Philadelphia Story, from 1940, with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and Ruth Hussey. It's a wonderful movie - very well acted, good plot, etc. Also - the house in the movie is fabulous! I drew some inspiration from it - the grand rooms, for instance! I highly recommend that you watch it - you'll love it! Now, about the dollhouse: If, let's say, you were only two or three inches high and could fit inside my dollhouse, you'd walk through the nonexistent-front door, and enter the hallway. It's enourmous - and unfinished. But let's imagine. The walls are strung with paintings, a rich red wallpaper, and an enourmous archway at the end of the room, leading into another beautiful room behind. On one side of the hallway is a door in the middle of two enourmous green and black marble columns - very grand. Opening that door would lead to the enourmous ballroom, with the intricate parquet adorning the floor. Oh, how I wish! But it might take a few more years to get to that point :-) So far none of the grand rooms are completed (or even started - except for the Music Room), as I'm summoning the courage to do it. Please come, courage! Back to The Philadelphia Story. In my dollhouse, I have a miniature poster of it, in Anthea's Room.

I wish I had an original in my house, too. . . As Robert Young used to say on Good News of 1939,

"Go to the movies, and take the family with you!"

Goodbye for now!

Slow progress. . .

What would you like, the good news, or the bad news? I'll give you both: the good news is that I am slowly inching my way through the floor in George's room, and the bad news is: I still have to finish half of it! To start us off, I'm going to show you a photo of the back stairs that the servant's entrance leads to - I seem to talk a lot about it! (One thing that really bothers me here is that the wall isn't thick enough - there's no way you'd ever find a wall that thin anywhere!)

Ugh!!!!!!! Now, for the floor! (Drum roll, please)

That's not sunlight - it's my desktop lamp :-) If you are wondering about the floor pattern, I was too lazy to cut the squares in half - but it turns out that that was a good call on my part - I can't even keep the squares themselves square!

A bit worn, but still loved! Now - you may remember the fireplace from a few posts ago:

You can see the wall through the fireplace, but luckily - it's all finished now! (That is, I still have to finish the thingy-ma-bob that lets the smoke out, I know there's some name for it for gas fireplaces).

It's a bit dark, but you may be able to see some coals; they are made out of gravel. Now, I'll show it to you, all lit up! (By the way, for some annoying reason two of the lights in the Manor don't work: the battery for the servant's entrance went out, and the wires for the Egyptian Bedroom are disconnected, because I have quite mustered the courage to fix them.)

It's a lot more subtle in real-life, because I couldn't manage to take a good photo of it. If you can see any white liquid - it's glue, because I was to impatient to have it dry before I took the photo. I was too busy, unfortunately, to get photos of the back while I was constructing it - but I have a shot that will hopefully show you how I made it (ish).

It was constructed of a base made out of wood (elevated on cork board), and five pieces of wood covered in painted sandpaper. I have no idea what the material is supposed to look like - maybe some sort of metal. I'm just glad it lights up!

That's where the fireplace will sit - the firebox will slot into it. I had to glue the wall in at a certain angle, so it would free up more space, so the firebox won't sit flush to the wall, but luckily nobody will see this! The little pieces of wood are all parquet just waiting to be sanded and stained. Now, a couple of posts ago I mentioned the servant's entrance, and because I hadn't taken any photos of it, I had to use an old one. Luckily, I took some photos of it today.

There's a full on shot. A bit over grown and grubby - I suppose the inhabitants of the house are more worried about the war then manicuring the exterior.

Originally, I was going to use a pediment above the door - made out of fancy marble,but it looked too plain and not green enough (not a very good explanation, what I'm trying to say is that it wasn't wild enough for me), so I used an awning - that clearly has seen better days because the mold is creeping up on it!

One of my creamer trash cans in the top photo - I took the idea off of otterine.com (sorry I can't attach a link, you'll have to copy and paste that into your web browser, but my link system on Blogger just doesn't seem to be working). I love Brae's work - she makes everything look so real! I didn't use spray paint (I don't like the smell), so I just used a couple of coats of Metallic Silver paint. And, of course, some rust and dirt spots!

I've been working on some vines for the exterior by the servant's entrance - I want it to be thin and scraggly at the bottom, but lush at the top. So far I have finished the vines for the facade of the nursery, and the one in the picture above is for the exterior of George's Room. Also, I just realized it's almost fall! For some reason, this photo of the scullery in my dollhouse below seemed autumnal to me - so I will use it as my closing photo!

Signing off. . . for now!