Backtracking a Little Bit

Happy Spring!  Woke up today to an inch of new snow on the ground with a whole foot possible tonight!  Oh wells, best just not to think about it --right?-- and dig in on the Bedchamber...

Because I changed my original plan and hung two chandeliers downstairs in the Library instead of one, I had to make a whole, new plank floor for my Bedchamber.  But this gives me the opportunity to show you how I wired the chandeliers, since Elga and Fi are on that subject.  (Sorry the photo is so blurry --I had to take it, one-handed)!  Anyway, as you see I made small trap doors over the chandeliers and routed out a shallow 'junction box' to house the wires in case something goes awry --as it often seems to do.  The traps are hidden under rugs and I like to pretend my dolls are in constant peril, LOL!  Ray gave me the junction box idea back when I started wiring my first room, the Entrance Hall, its checkered, marble floor can be glimpsed to the bottom left. It's worked out great in all the rooms, so thanks a bunch, Ray!

And now, the fun part!  after cutting the illustration board to fit all three walls (and doing several, careful 'dry fits' to make sure everything lines up), you can start decorating.  I always start with the 'back wall.'  I papered the illustration board panel with my toile wallpaper, which I'm absolutely coo-coo for.  It was completely worth the six, long weeks I waited for it! I like to use Super 77 Spray Mount from 3-M for my wallpaper but I know some of you hate it!  Here's a little tip: instead of cutting the paper to fit the panel, wrap it around the panel and secure with white glue in back.  Not only will the paper never peel away, it finishes the visible edges off beautifully.  The moldings are from the Lawbre Company, the skirting is an inch wide and makes an elegant statement in an otherwise plain room.  The cornice, also from Lawbre, is a classic egg and dart design.  I hung a picture frame molding about an inch and a half from the top of the wall and here is where I started the wallpaper.  This leaves a nice, wide frieze at the top of the wall, which I decided to leave plain.  Less is sometimes more!  I already showed you the lovely door surround I made from bits of scrap.  And I can never resist playing with artwork even at this early phase: the silhouette portraits are vintage 1950's pieces from an old, dismantled dollhouse.

The 'plain' wall across from the fireplace will have the bed placed here.  Unfortunately, the skirting was ot long enough to make the span so I will have to do some filling and sanding at the joint. I use gesso (a mixture of white paint and white glue) for filling gaps.  Here's another important tip: don't glue down any moldings permanently until you have dry-fitted them first --slip all your walls into your house and mark in the corners with a pencil where the moldings butt together in the corners.  Make sure they match up precisely before gluing anything down! You will be constantly putting in and pulling out your walls --don't expect to get it all right in one try.

Here's the fireplace wall, under construction. The window seats are simply trimmed and I tried to unite all the different elements: windows, seats and mantle into one, cohesive composition  I ran out of cornice in the upper left and so had to order another length!  Don't you just hate that? 

I remembered to take a photo of the hearth, under construction. It's all just illustration board and card bricks.  I paint it up in scrumbled shades of grey.

It's all starting to come together!  Here, I slipped the illustration board panels into the carcass of the house for another dry fit.  Lookin' pretty good in the 'hood! I don't glue the cornice in til the very last thing because you want a tight fit with no gaps. The floor needs a few more coats of lacquer, some joints need filling and touching up...and then I can tackle the wiring!  

ONLY A COUPLE WEEKS TIL THE CHICAGO SHOW...I"M GETTING SO EXCITED!!!

Spring Will Be a Little Late, This Year

...And yet, your intrepid Reporter is pretending that spring has sprung,  nevertheless busying himself with all the mundane, hum-drum tasks put off all winter --like cleaning!   Still freezing outside?  Who cares?  Crank up the furnace, throw open the windows and let in some fresh, albeit frigid, air!  Still a slushy layer of ice on the patio? (with a whole winter's-worth of frozen doggy-doo on top)  A quick sweep of the shovel will take care of that.  Yes, I know it's too early to hose it all down --Damn it, I DON"T CARE-- it's getting damned hosed, dammit!

And that rag-tag, sofa slip-cover that I've been meaning to redo forever?  It's getting DONE.  NOW!  WITH PIPING!

Yes, it has been a virtual hive of Real-Life activity chez moi...I shan't rest until every last cobweb and dust bunny is banished from my sight! Of course, all this frenzied, dreaming of spring-induced OCD-ness means that life at Merriman Park has come to a bit of a stand-still.

Until yesterday, that is, when a long-anticipated package from the Lawbre company finally made its way to my doorstep. And so work on the Bedchamber can finally continue...

Hey! Anyone else going to the Chicago International miniatures show later this month?  Drop me a message if you would like to catch a cup of coffee, or something!

Inspiration, Ceilings & Doors

Thanks a bunch for all the encouraging comments!  They are like a tonic for my soul.  You see, I tend to go rather into a tailspin this time of year, what with the weather in these parts being so incessantly and relentlessly drab, dismal and drear --not to mention harrowing-ly cold, cold, cold!  Your intrepid Reporter almost forgot that he started his beloved Merriman Park in the first place to keep himself from committing hari-kari with an enormous Minnesota icicle. (Talk about Seasonal Affect Disorder)!  I could snap one of the frozen daggers off my ice-dammed eaves and end it all right now, darlings, but then my mini bedroom would never get finished...Quelle tragédie!

So instead, I'll spare you the histrionics and get on with the decorating...

I am often asked where I get my inspiration and ideas from and the answer is:  I have no clue!  I think my mind is sort of like an gi-normous sponge that sucks up anything and everything that has to do with architecture and design and so I have a catalog, of sorts, stored in my head that I can readily reference.

The most tangible inspiration for Merriman Park is undoubtedly my now dog-eared copy of The Thorne Rooms, which has somewhat become my 'miniatures Holy Bible!'  Before starting any room, I inevitably revisit this sacred tome.  To me, Mrs. Thorne was, and still is, the Gold Standard of Miniatures.

Seeing the Thorne Rooms at the Chicago Institute of Arts for the first time is what originally made me decide to build Merriman Park; and so revisiting the source inspiration helps keep me grounded and  'on point."  (I am a Gemini, and we Air Signs need these sorts of crutches to stay focused)!

If you're like me, books, magazines, movies, plays, blogs... all provide fodder for future projects. 

Once I get a few ideas in my head, I'm ready to plan the room.  Sometimes, I'll draw up detailed plans...

...But most of the time, I have such a clear picture in my head that I don't bother with a drawing.  In the case of my Master Bedroom, I'm forgoing any renderings for that reason.  All the rooms of Merriman Park are similar in their basic lay-out in that they're all rectangular with a door on the 'back' wall and with a fireplace flanked by two windows on each side.  To liven things up a bit, I varied the mill work in each room, adding arches here and wainscot there, and in the Master Bedroom, I decided to include built-in window seats

My plan (such as it is)! in place, it's time to begin...  I don't know why, but I always seem to begin with the  ceiling --I guess you have to start somewhere!  As you probably already know, I use illustration board panels, cut to fit the walls, floors and ceilings of my rooms.  I apply the trims and moldings, wallpaper, etc to these panels, and then install them into the room.  The advantage to doing it this way is that you can work on a flat surface instead of trying to reach into your little dollhouse room.  And the panels hide all the wiring, too!

After cutting a panel to fit my ceiling I penciled in where the fireplace chase hits. My plan for the ceiling is pretty straight-forward: a beautiful ceiling rose from Sue Cook Miniatures centered, and a simple molding to frame the room.  I penciled in where the moldings were to go by measuring 1 1/2 inches from the wall all the way around.  The moldings are cut with a mini miter box using forty-five degree cuts at the corners.

 Once everything is glued down, I use 'spray gesso' as a primer.  You can get it at an art supply store.  I use spray paints whenever I can because it doesn't leave brush strokes --and it's really fast! Now is the time to sand down any rough spots and fill any small gaps with gesso, applied with a small brush.

Then it's a few light coats of what I have begun calling 'Merriman Park White,' which is simply an off-white spray paint that I used in practically every room.

All ready to install  --just pop it in!  Much easier than trying to fit all those little pieces onto the actual dollhouse ceiling!

That finished, I thought I'd try something a little more fun, so I turned my attention to the door surround. I do not own many fancy tools or gadgets, but by using stock moldings, strip wood and a mini miter box, you can come up some fancy designs of your own.

My design is based on classical motifs, you can find examples everywhere and once you see something you like it's all just a matter of breaking it down into parts.

I started with plain strip wood going around the door frame and then outlined it with stock panel molding.  I found a teeny, half-round molding about the thickness of a toothpick and use it to outline the inside of the door frame.

Sitting on top of this is a block of wood, about 1/4" thick.  I wrapped a dentil cornice around this block and used 'Victorian skirting' as a shelf on the very top. It's all smoke and mirrors: simple forty-five degree cuts but once everything is glued up I think it looks as good as my expensive, 'bought' surrounds.

 Well, that's about it for this week. We're supposed to get even more snow tonight for St. Patrick's Day --last year it was an unseasonable 80 and I was in flip-flops and shorts...Ugh!  California is looking better and better....

  

Bedroom --the beginning

Hello there, remember me?  So sorry to have neglected you, darlings, but we have been dealing with some 'real life' issues around here...thus, the long absence.  I'm trying ever so hard to get caught up on all your blogs so please bear with me!  And I'd like to welcome my new followers and send a big thank you to Tina from Just A Small Thing, who wrote the absolutely sweetest things about me recently on her weekly blog focus.  Really, I'm still blushing --and pink is definitely not my color! Check out her blog for yourself.

I fear I have done hardly a thing on my latest --and last--  room. Yes, you read that right: I am on the very last room of Merriman Park!  This will be the Master Bedroom. 

It's been a long haul.  And coming to my last (but not least) room stirs up some mixed feelings.  Of course I am completely thrilled to finally draw this project to a conclusion...after all, it's been three years in the making.  Oh, how I must cover my lips with my hand and suppress a wry titter, as I recall believing way back then (when Merriman Park was but only a rough sketch on the back of a paper napkin) that I would have the entire house finished by the end of that first winter!

The sketch that started it all...

Well, we all know how that naive notion turned out!  ...But while I am happy to finally be galloping toward the finish line, I have to admit the idea of completing Merriman Park makes me just a little --sad.   

Ugh, lets not go down that road, shall we? 

I have ordered many of the new components for the bedroom and they are now finally starting to trickle in.  Today the fireplace mantle showed up from Braxton Payne Miniatures.  It's pictured leaning against the wall in the first photo (above). I chose a simple design that seemed appropriate to a bedroom and I like it much more than I had anticipated.  The detail is very fine.

The wallpaper came a few days ago after being on back-order for a whole month!  I was afraid I might have to chose another pattern but I'm glad it finally showed up.  I lovz me some toile de jouy!  

I thought that, since this is my last room and since people seem to enjoy seeing how I put things together as much as seeing the 'finished product,' I would show my working process from start to finish.  So her is the blank room, just waiting for a few more bits and pieces to arrive and then we can get started...

Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you all have a great week!



 

The Reveal

I just spent a lovely, snowy, three-day weekend working on the finishing touches of the Library.

I had hoped for a sunny day to take the photographs, but if I waited for that I'm afraid it might be May or even June before you see any!  I'll eventually have my photographer friend over to snap a few decent shots but until then you will have to put up with mine.

One of my favorite new additions is the red-shaded lamp on the desk which I picked up at the local dollhouse shop, Little Enchantments. It throws just enough light to catch the desk's painted detail.  The built-in bookshelves are all filled with books and objet d'art.  I'm afraid I did not make the books --they are all bought-- but I did add a little gilding to their spines with a gold pen.  Eventually, I would like to have books that have printed pages, but for now, these will do...

I also 'color blocked' the books and think they look neater than when I had them just thrown in willy-nilly.  Not sure if they would have hung a little painting on the shelves like this, but I happen to like that effect --so there!  I received the little steps from New England Miniatures right before I got sick a couple months ago and sort of forgot about them.  But here they are!  Hey --check out the gold piping on the back of the chair!  I made the piping from embroidery floss on my Krazy Cords toy!  (Thanks for the tip, Catherine)!

Here's a shot of the fireplace side.  I have a lamp shining through the windows because it's so terribly gloomy outside in real life...but it's always sunny at Merriman Park!

Still having 'issues' with these chandeliers (grrr)! & I may replace them!

I added a fire in the grate of my Braxton Payne fireplace.  A fire in the Library is always so cozy, don't you think?  I was going to place an ormolu clock on the mantel but I figured with the grandfather clock standing just a few feet away it might be a little redundant, so I placed some tulips there instead. A touch of spring in the dead of winter.  Wish you could better make out the figurines on the mantel shelf.  They're 'vintage Japanese' totchkes I found on Ebay.

Now, I have to show you a closer view of the portrait hanging over the fireplace:

Mrs. Nathaniel Allen (1763) by John Singleton Copley

No doubt Mrs. Nathaniel Allen would have been labeled 'a handsome woman' in her day.  Her curious, life-sized portrait hangs in the Minneapolis Institute of Art and remains one of my favorites, perhaps because she is the very image of my friend, John Brewer. 

Mrs. Nathaniel Allen 1763, or Mr. John Brewer 2013? 

To the best of my knowledge, my friend John does not have a secret penchant for eighteenth-century drag.  His family came to this country in the nineteenth-century by way of Germany and Norway, so there is scant chance that he had an ancestor who frequented molly bars in ye-olde Colonial Boston.

And yet...there hangs this portrait...his portrait? Hmmmm...

I shrunk down an image of Mrs. Nathaniel Allen --(or my friend, John)-- whoever it is!  Anyway, I shrunk it down and over-painted it with Mod Podge, using a tiny brush and trying to mimic the same strokes as the artist.  Once dry and framed, it is difficult to tell that it is not a 'real' miniature oil painting that cost hundreds!  (Thanks, Ray, for the tip)!

I like how the painting's cool tones bring the similar colors of the hallway beyond the doorway into the room.

Well, I do hope you like the Library.  Of course, there are a few more odds and ends I would like to add here and there but you know how it is...is a dollhouse room ever completely finished?

Have a great week, everybody!

Curtains & Crown Molding

The thing I most love about this hobby is that one minute you're shooting sawdust everywhere and generally making a huge mess and the next minute your working with sumptuous, silk fabrics!  First of all, here are my 'finished' curtains:

I ran back to the bead store and picked up some brass jump rings, which are the perfect thing for hanging miniature drapes!  They're simply stitched on to the pleats.  There were a few tense moments trying to finagle the rods through the tiny eyelets and around the fireplace chase, but thankfully, it all worked out in the end. (I have to run some more starch through the curtain fringe --it's sticking out a little, LOL!

In front of the window is the sweetest little globe I received for Christmas --thanks, Greg! I LOVE it!  It came from Masters Miniatures in England.

As you can see in the above photo, I STILL have not installed the crown molding.  Someone asked me this week how you cut the pieces of molding to fit the corners and so I thought I'd show you, before they are all glued in.

First of all, I always mark my crown molding with little 'X's across the top side, which will butt against the ceiling.  It's very easy to get mixed-up because sometimes the molding looks pretty much the same up-side-down as right-side-up! And it is quite upsetting if you cut your molding up-side-down when you only have enough to go around the room once, with no mistakes. (Not that that EVER happens to me)!

I always start with the 'back' wall of the room.  This happens to be the easiest  --just measure the length of the wall and cut your molding to match.  Use straight (ninety degree) cuts. (above) You can make the cuts with a miniature miter box if your molding is wood and less than a half inch thick.  My molding is a little thicker than that (and it also is made from cast resin), so I used a normal-sized, power miter box just to speed things up a tad.

Next, we'll make the first corner cut.  For this cut, you need a coping saw. (below) You can pick one up at any hardware store and they're not too expensive.  Make sure you get some extra blades!

 It might help before we continue if I first show you the next cut.  This is how the corner joint will fit: (below)

 See how the angled edge will fit on top of the other piece, like a little puzzle? (above) Here's how to do it...

With a pencil, trace the outline of your molding onto the corner. (above) This is your cutting line.  You can use your miter box to remove the section up to the pencil line.  Then use the coping saw to remove the small bits up to the line.

Here's how the corner fits together.  (above) You can fine-tune the joint with a small file or sandpaper.  Any small gaps can be filled with Spackle, gesso or wood putty.

Make the other corner of your room the same as above.  If you have any 'bump-outs,' such as a fireplace chase, the corners are made by making two, forty-five degree cuts on the miter box: (below)

TIPS:

When cutting resin molding by hand, take your time:  the heat generated by the moving blade will start to 'melt' the resin and gum up your saw.

Do not try to make the 'coped cuts' in one pass.  Remove small pieces at a time until you meet up to the penciled line.

Buy extra molding in case you make a mistake!

Some of the fancier moldings (such as Sue Cook's) can be purchased with pre-formed corners.


And that, my dears, concludes our little lesson du jour!  (I hope it helped, Gwendolyn)...  Next time, I promise to have the crown molding glued into place!  But before I sign off, I wanted to thank everyone again for your kind words regarding my recent ghastly run-in with the shingles virus!  I am happy to report that all is well and I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for all your thoughtful, well-wishes! 

Library Progress

Work on the Library came pretty much to a complete stand-still while I was ill, but here I am again, faithful Readers, back from the dead,  fifteen pounds lighter and raring to go!  I even felt inspired enough this weekend to reupholster some chairs I received from Santa, as well as re-doing my aforementioned recamier.

The set of chairs are part of the Thomas Jefferson Monticello Collection and were originally covered in red "silk" (polyester).  Fortunately, when I purchased my wallpaper from Chinoiseries Miniatures a while back I also snapped up the matching fabric in 'real' silk.  Of course, I want to pipe the edges a la 'Krazy Kords' Catherine, but I haven't gotten around to that, yet!

The recamier I decided to re-do in a gold/red stripe from Renaissance Fabrics. (I think the fabric cost more than the sofa but it was well-worth it).

The curtains are made of the same stripe-y fabric.  So once again out came the fabulous Pretty Pleater!  I know that some of you have in the past  poo-pooed the Pretty Pleater, but I personally LOVE it!  Not only does the name itself make me titter like a little school-girl, but I find it so easy to work with.  And if you remove your curtains from the handy-dandy, Pretty Pleater apparatus while they are still a little damp and block your fabric on foam board, the results are a lot less 'tortured'-looking. 

Once complete, the curtains will hang from brass rings on a matching rod...but I seem to have misplaced the tiny hoops...oops! Back to the bead store!   I will then be able to finally glue all my wall panels in permanently. It seems that I cut my poor, neglected crown moldings ages ago and at long last I will be able to dust them off and officially install them!

I copied the design of the curtain pelmets from a photo I found on the internet...don't you love the fringe?  I made it from a gold ribbon --thanks to the advice of fellow blogger Jeffry-- just sliced a ribbon lengthwise in two and pulled out enough threads to form the fringe.  How easy is that?  (Thanks, Jeffry)!  I am trying to train the fringe to hang downward by combing them with a little starch on my fingertips.

Santa brought me the delightful desk and chair, as well as the grandfather clock and the library steps. I also am receiving a beautiful globe from Master's Miniatures (thanks, Greg)! which is still en route from England.  I have a pretty mirror on order that will eventually hang over the desk.  Really, all I need to fill out the room are some desk accoutrements and a few other odds and ends...

My favorite Christmas gift of all was a new harp for the Music Room!  Ain't she purdy? I can't believe all the little strings it has! I think I might pick out some of the harp's carving in gold, what do you think? 

I take that back...my absolute favorite Christmas gift of all was not going blind in one eye!  That little episode was kind of --scary-- I guess you'd call it...but I want to thank all of you who wrote or phoned with your best wishes.  It was very kind of you to go out of your way, (especially this busy time of year), to check up on li'l ol' me.  Now that I'm getting my mojo back, I look forward to catching up with all of you and all of your blogs...

Best Wishes for a healthy, prosperous and fierce 2013!

XO,
John