Some New Furniture

I've just returned from a mini break and had some time to wander around antique and charity shops.   Here are a few of my miniature finds.

The bookcase and columns are destined for the chateau.  The hoover and fire for the 1950s house and the sideboard, for one of my art deco houses.

Current Project - The Chateau Roof

Previously the house had a paper roof which I removed and replaced with tile effect MDF roof boards.  These come in strips and once cut to size are easy to glue in place and paint.  I painted my roof with grey water-based paint and will distress it by rubbing in a top coat of black paint.

The original roof

The new roof.  Haven't tackled the chimneys yet, that's a job for another day.

My New Purchase - The 1950's House

This is a cute vintage house that I purchased from ebay.  Apparently it was made by a carpenter from plans in the 1960s for his daughter and has recently been brought down from the attic.  I plan to rescue it and make it shine again in 1950s style.  The house is 1/16th scale as are most vintage houses.

\Paper flaking off, door missing.  I love the paper in the downstairs room, so if possible I'd like to save it.

Garage door missing, back door missing and several windows.

 Roof hatch needs replacing and I have one set of railings from some part of the house.

More doors and windows missing.

Overall though, it's beautifully made and I think will be gorgeous when rescued.

The Chateau Salon - Part 3

I've been working on various items for the salon over the last week.  To complete the panelling I've made some dado rails.  For this I used strips of adhesive flooring and covered with self ahesive borders, mine come in packs of three from Poundland.  I then gave them a coat of white chalk paint and top coated with gold.

The borders in progress with some help from the cat.

Borders in place.

I also experimented with making a rug, using a piece of fabric and more sticky borders.  After painting with several coats of cream emulsion, remove the stickies so the original fabric shows through.  It creates a delicate pattern.

I've undercoated the following items of furniture with white chalk paint and then a top coat of emulsion.  (please note that the clock in the final photos is still in undercoating phase).

A Dollshouse Emporium plastic coated piano and stool (not shown).

  

The clock I inherited somewhere along the way.  The chairs are resin and were originally green and brown.

I've added gold detailing to the fireplace.

And this is what the room is starting to look like now.  

A Quick Makeover - A Past Project

This was a quick makeover project I did on a poor house that came as part of a job lot and nobody seemed to want to buy from me.  It was a shame because it was a cute little house.  I decided to give it a spruce up just using bits and bobs I had around at the time.  Below is the house when it arrived.

First I gave the outside a coat of Annie Sloan's Country Grey chalk paint and the roof a coat of grey undercoat.

Inside I played about with the layout and in the end decided on no stairs at all.

Using spare wallpaper samples, I decorated each floor and then in the sitting room, added an adhesive border which I painted gold. The floor is sticky back plastic attached to card cut to size.  Decorating in progress.

 Now that I'd opened up the sitting room, I wanted to add in a fireplace, so I used some toy building bricks and cardboard to create a fireplace shape and painted the mantle in Annie Sloan's Old White chalk paint, and the cardboard back plate in black acrylic.

I also decided to add in faux doors, so using lolly sticks, glue and cardboard, I cut out door shapes and frames which I glued together and painted. A paper fastner or a bead make a good handle.

And Finally, you can see the decorated interior with the faux fireplace and doors in position.  I cut some lace and glued it to the windows.  Much nicer now!

Externally, I gave the house a quick rub over with Annie Sloan's dark wax to create a distressed look.

And that completes a quick, low cost makeover.  I'm pleased to say that his house was snapped up quickly when it went for sale.

Current Project - The Chateau Salon part 2

I now have most of the component parts to start pulling the salon together.  Today I will be attempting to lay the flooring.  This is self-adhesive wood strip which you buy in sheets.  However, I'm advised that it does not glue very well, so I will add an additional layer of glue to keep it in place.  Also it is one plank to short of the width of the house (how annoying is that), so I'll need to add in extra strips to complete the floor.

I've decided to add in french windows to the back wall for additional interest and these are unpainted inexpensive examples,

After painting these with two coats of cream emulsion, they have been velcro tabbed to the wall, so that I can insert pictures of a garden behind the panes.  The panelling has been glued in place and at the end of today, this is what the salon looks like.

Current Project - The Chateau Salon

Recap, the salon will now be located in the large ground floor space.  I plan to split the walls into a wallpapered top section and a panelled bottom section.  To create the panelling I used mount board, cut to size with smaller squares glued onto it.

I then gave it a coat of white chalk paint and a top coat of cream emulsion, see below.

For the wallpaper section, I've used a lovely cream and gold paper which I cut in half and stuck to the walls using PVA glue (Poundland PVA is great for this task as it is already very thin and watery).

Ready for the flooring to be cut and glued into place and the panelling added.

Since every french salon needs a fireplace, I am using this plastic one which came with a collectible magazine.  However, I don't want it to be dark so I gave it a coat of chalk paint and a top coat of cream emulsion.

The fireplace after painting.  Later, I will add gold detailing and a top coat of wax.