Beach house Part 7: finishing the trim

So, now that the walls were up, the wainscoting could be finished in the corners.  This was fiddly work and my stir sticks were difficult to cut straight.   

But I managed to get them in there...

Then the baseboard and chair rail were added.

Again the mitre shears were amazing at cutting the little angled edges.

My chair rail was a leftover from another project and was stained a lovely color... that sadly did not suit this room.  I tried it out first but had to go ahead and paint the pieces white.  

And it was done!  

Next:  the roof and lighting!

Beach house: Part 6 -- putting the walls up!

Finally the big day arrived when the walls could be glued together and the room would actually become a standing structure!!  I was very excited!

Although there is a 3mm lip around the floor, gluing the sheets of 3mm wood together didn't seem to be sturdy enough so luckily in my stash of leftovers from my Greenleaf house I had these corner strips.  I could reinforce the corners with these. 

First I colored them with the Goldenrod Prismacolor marker and then cut and glued them to the side walls.

Then the walls were put together!  I needed four hands (thanks Mom!) and they came together quite well.

The wall with the big window has a slight warp inward so I tried to get it as flat as possible again the corner piece.  Ah well, there's a very slight wave.

And then the third wall was added!  A room, finally!  All the days of piece work came together and it felt wonderful!  

Ta-da!

Next:  Finishing the wainscoting, baseboards and chair rail.

Beach house: Part 5 -- the wainscoting

 

Some parts are more tedious than others, like painting a lot of little sticks.  These are stir sticks and I needed almost 90 painted white for my wainscoting.  I did them in three bunches.

I also did the baseboards, painted white.

Before gluing the walls together, I cut and glued on all the little boards.  Again, the miter shears were essential.  This one is the "Easy Cutter" from Midwest Products Co. and is super easy to use for straight and angle cuts.  

And then it was done!  Here are my walls!

To complete the back wall right up to the edge, I glued on the strips over-hanging the wall and then used a knife to cut away flush to the edge.  Now I only have to fill 2 small slits to fill once the walls are glued together. 

Next:  gluing the room together!  

Beach house: Part 4 -- painting and installing the windows and doors

 

So this is where I was so far:  the needle felted backdrop mapped out and started, the walls with the door and window openings cut out and the roof selected.  

Next:  the doors and windows!  But first, a little set back:  I broke a corner of the shelf!  Just the underside (presswood) but still, I'll have to be more careful when I install the needlefelt blanket.  Glue, some clamps, a bit of sanding and we were back in business!

The windows and frames are all painted white for the inside of the room.  This was a bit of a fussy task, to make all the edges nice and clean.  I used an acrylic, but I think my paint has gotten a bit too old.  Anyway, it turned out fine.

 Blue painters' tape is great for holding little things down.

It was a thrill to install the window and French doors and finally get to see what it really would look like.  WOW!  The intricate "wrought iron" window insert turned out really nice!  And the doors?  I have always wanted French doors in my real house so these are really satisfying.  

Instead of the thick acrylic that came with the windows from Vio, I used a thin acetate sheet.  This fit the width of my walls better.

I should mention that, just like in real life, shims were needed to make the doors and windows fit the holes.  

The outside frames were made using 3mm square sticks.  Instead of stain (I hate the smell and mess), I used a Prismacolor pen in "Goldenrod".  This way I got a nice weathered look and didn't have to wait very long for the ink to dry.  

I left the hardest window for last, the big curved one.  I wanted this double window to open (even though there isn't enough space to open very much) and it came with hinges but they were too big, so luckily I had a set of Classics "H" shaped hinged which were narrow enough to attach to the frame.  (These came from an amazing shop in Meaford. Ontario, called Georgian Bay Miniatures.)    

As with the French doors, attaching the hinges required patience and a steady hand.  And then, of course, the windows had become too large with the paint and fit too tightly so I had to cut a slice off of one window (and repaint it) to make the two panes close properly.  Ugh!  Of course a cut like that is never as nice as the original but I think I'm the only one who will see the difference.

Oh, but it is so worth it!  Here's the third wall!

So this is what it looks like so far:
  

I'm very pleased with how it's coming together and am excited to start the wainscoting next!

Beach House: Part 3 -- the walls

 

Building the beach house/room started with cutting the three walls down to size.  This proved to be terribly difficult:  nothing would cut this wood!  These were 12 x 12 inch sheets of basswood and I tried a utility knife, an X-acto knife and various coping and hand saws.  I even got new blades!  Wow, I managed to make the 3 cuts I needed but it was very hard and I couldn't see how I'd be able to cut out the doors and windows.

I hunted online and was lucky to come across this lovely accessory for the Dremel:  a mini circular saw!  I bought it and a Dremel even though I really don't like power tools.

But I was desperate.

So with safety glasses, clamps holding the wood and everything secure, I zipped through my walls!  Yeah!  I definitely need practice but for now I had my windows and doors cut out!

The half-moon window, however, I had to cut out by hand.  I used the X-acto and spend at least 30 minutes slowly cutting through the wood, using the window glass as a template.  It was worth it:  the glass fits perfectly.

And so I had my three walls!  

The outside was then primed and painted a nice, inviting yellow... I used leftover paint from our kitchen!  The interior was painted a sky blue, leaving the last 5cm or so with no paint so the wainscoting will glue on better.   (This paint was leftover from our bathroom.)  

I tried to leave an unpainted 3mm around all the holes for the frames to glue on better, but this proved to be a mistake and I had to make quite a few touch-ups where there wasn't enough paint.  I wouldn't bother trying to do this again.

I got a really helpful tip from this book, The ABC's of Dollhouse Finishing.  Instead of using sand paper, try a piece of crumbled brown packing paper and rub it across your surface.  It was enough in this case to smooth everything down, with no dust!   

I hadn't really thought much about the roof except that I wanted as much light as possible and thought to use plexiglass.  I love the idea of lying on the floor on a blanket, a dog (or two) curled up against my side and looking at the stars!  Or watching the rain fall... 

Mom and I brainstormed and started looking at my collection of picture frames, mostly bought at thrift stores.  We came across this perfect one, a frame with an insert for four smaller photos!  Wow!  Four skylights!  It's slightly smaller than what I need but a strip of basswood will fill the gap.  

Next:  setting in the windows and doors!  

Beach House Part 2

Before the fun could begin, I had to lay out the land.  I used foamboard and built up three layers so the house will be a little higher than the beach.  Also I wanted the pond inset a bit so I could naturalize the area around it.  The house is on a 12 by 12 board that can be slid out if need be, also making it possible to take it to a show (just in case).

This project truly proved to be a house of cards:  every piece affected every other piece.  The walls had to fit around the floor, the doors had to fit into the walls and rest on the floor, the windows need to fit over the wainscotting and also leave room for the pictures I wanted...  Change one thing and it domino affected everything else!

So first I laid out the floor tiles and glued them down to the wood sheet.  Now I had something firm to work with!   I needed to cut only 2 pieces:  this proved to be quite the headache and my cuts were ragged-edged.  Luckily my baseboards will hide the edges so I was okay!

I then decided to add a 3mm spacer to allow room for the wainscoting and baseboard so as not to obscure the pattern along the edges of these lovely tiles.  

Next I laid out the garden and pond.  I wanted 2 chairs to be out there so I needed to place the pond to allow for a sitting area, and room for my 3 weasel sculptures.  

A 7 inch tall stone wall will surround this little garden, to keep the blowing sand out and provide some privacy and shade.  Foamboard provided the base to which I will glue the embossed stone paper, but the pattern repeated too frequently on the paper so I ended up cutting it into strips, shifting the design up and down so no pieces are alike.  

Wooden "posts" will hide the seams.

Next:  the needle felted backdrop!  I used a wool blanket because it's nice and stiff and almost stands on its own and is the color of sand.  Mom had the brilliant idea to attach loops to the blanket with little dowel pieces and put them through the little gap all around the shelf to hold it up.  

It worked really well!  

There was a lot of sky to needle felt... a lot of sky.  I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of the thing and luckily had a eureka moment!  I could get a prefelt in blue and safe myself a lot of work and time!  Fibrecraft came to the rescue and I purchased a sky blue 1/2 metre which turned out to be just the thing!  I had a blue sky without a sore hand and thumb!

Then the fun part:  pulling out all my colors and choosing the fibres to create the beach of my dreams.  

Ah, the colors and textures!

For the sky, I used a Romney braid from 3dogknits called "The Blues".  I pulled and cut the colors I wanted from this plentiful braid, placing the darker shades over the land and lighter, more hazy shades over the water.  

I also mapped out the beach sand and shoreline.  Now it was time to move the whole thing onto the big table and save my knees!  

It was at this point that I realized my lovely French doors had swivel hinges and would not be able to open the way I imagined.  So I took the doors apart (cutting off the threshold to do so) and put on wee brass hinges so the doors now will open all the way like real doors.  Also I added pretty little lever handles to the inside of both sets of doors (they only came with handles on one side).

Next:  the walls!