I have put together the basic carcass of the dolls house shop. It looks a bit weird since there are no stairs just yet.
I have decided just to paint the interior at the moment. If I decide to add decoration to the walls, I'll need to see where the wall shelves will go. I thought I'd add a bit of plasterwork to the ceilings. The room height is only 8 inches which causes a few problems, the first of which, is the lights. If I used a ceiling rose the lights will be too low. My idea was to add a bit of fancy plasterwork and I found these at a fair.
By far the easiest way to attach them to the ceiling was to glue them down flat. So the house was turned upside down to make this process a whole lot easier.
I now have the first two floors, floored. I can't do the rest until I get the lights for the 2nd floor.
Simple wiring - at the moment!
The first two floors now have lights and the flooring has been laid. I am not yet sure what I will do about lighting the top floor. If I add ceiling lights I will have to go through the roof and then have to camouflage the routed lines. I might add lights to the back walls in the stairs but they will just go straight out through the back.
I have just been staining and varnishing the doors. They will be the next addition. I haven't added any coving or skirting. I am not sure if I will add these but I will have to decide where the units will remain before I do that. The fake white furniture was what I really wanted in the ladies side of the shop. However, the back wall is the only place these will fit. This is due to the fancy ceiling mouldings I have used. It is too near to the edges of the room, thus preventing the taller furniture from being able to fit. I wish I had found that out before I did the ceilings. I will just have to make some furniture to match the brown stuff, and I can paint it white. I am disappointed about that. Lesson learned.
I had the idea of putting in doors with a window in the top floor. One is for the 'Manager & Accounts' and the other for dressmaker and alterations, or similar. I then thought it would be nice if I could make a frosted (shot blasted) design with the words incorprated. Funnily enough, one of the dolls house magazines arrived with a tutorial on that very subject.
The materials were straight forward enough apart from Glass Etch Spray. It didn't say what make. I searched for that phrase and 'Humbrol' came up. However, I couldn't find it listed on their web site. I emailed them but they do not have it in their listing. It seems that they do not supply it any more. There are other makes but they become very expensive.
I decided to try putting some acrylic white into the sprayer I have. It worked OK but I feel it is too white. here is a trial piece. It is not glued ito the door since I am going to try something else.
It doesn't look too bad in the photo but I still feel it is too white. I might try adding a tiny bit of grey to the paint and adjust to a very fine mist.
Since leaving this at the point where I was going to add grey, I had a bit of a brainwave. I thought I would try varnish with a tiny bit of paint in it. One of these, 'middle of the night' moments! This morning I searched for a medium I knew I had found before, which could be mixed with paint etc. I did find one at Hobbycraft but it was out of stock. I have actually had this before, where their online store was out of stock but I found the product in the actual store. So I phoned the nearest store. Luckily the lad who answered knew exactly what it was - he had just stocked that display up. They did indeed have one and he put it aside for me.
I put some in the aeorsol and added a tiny bit of white paint. Here is the result.
This has had two fine coats. The backing film is still on the reverse to protect it. The peel-off stickers will now be removed to reveal the result. I have inserted the first one into the door and I am pleased with the result.
You need to be VERY careful not to scratch off the paint when removing the stickers. I have to admit that the clear glass with the stickers looked rather nice but they would eventaully peel off again.
I have just been staining and varnishing the doors. They will be the next addition. I haven't added any coving or skirting. I am not sure if I will add these but I will have to decide where the units will remain before I do that. The fake white furniture was what I really wanted in the ladies side of the shop. However, the back wall is the only place these will fit. This is due to the fancy ceiling mouldings I have used. It is too near to the edges of the room, thus preventing the taller furniture from being able to fit. I wish I had found that out before I did the ceilings. I will just have to make some furniture to match the brown stuff, and I can paint it white. I am disappointed about that. Lesson learned.
Shot Blast Window Glass
I had the idea of putting in doors with a window in the top floor. One is for the 'Manager & Accounts' and the other for dressmaker and alterations, or similar. I then thought it would be nice if I could make a frosted (shot blasted) design with the words incorprated. Funnily enough, one of the dolls house magazines arrived with a tutorial on that very subject.
The materials were straight forward enough apart from Glass Etch Spray. It didn't say what make. I searched for that phrase and 'Humbrol' came up. However, I couldn't find it listed on their web site. I emailed them but they do not have it in their listing. It seems that they do not supply it any more. There are other makes but they become very expensive.
I decided to try putting some acrylic white into the sprayer I have. It worked OK but I feel it is too white. here is a trial piece. It is not glued ito the door since I am going to try something else.
Since leaving this at the point where I was going to add grey, I had a bit of a brainwave. I thought I would try varnish with a tiny bit of paint in it. One of these, 'middle of the night' moments! This morning I searched for a medium I knew I had found before, which could be mixed with paint etc. I did find one at Hobbycraft but it was out of stock. I have actually had this before, where their online store was out of stock but I found the product in the actual store. So I phoned the nearest store. Luckily the lad who answered knew exactly what it was - he had just stocked that display up. They did indeed have one and he put it aside for me.
I put some in the aeorsol and added a tiny bit of white paint. Here is the result.
This has had two fine coats. The backing film is still on the reverse to protect it. The peel-off stickers will now be removed to reveal the result. I have inserted the first one into the door and I am pleased with the result.
You need to be VERY careful not to scratch off the paint when removing the stickers. I have to admit that the clear glass with the stickers looked rather nice but they would eventaully peel off again.
Just a bit of 'clamping' to glue the door on.
One finished door. Of course the 'Manager' has to be first.
This shop is not supplied with window glass and no back window trim. If I put window glass in, it will be proud on the inside. I will have to make internal mullions etc to hold glass in place. The door has now way to hold galss either. This was a disappointment with this shop.
The colours for the main windows.
Roof has been painted and lead flashing added to top. (it's not visible)
STAIRS
STAIRS
I didn't like the mdf 'lumps' that came with this kit, so I have made my own. I have decided to add a 3 step turn to the very bottom stairs. I dont like to keep things simple! I cut the stringers, risers and treads. Since the back of some stairs will show, I decided to add some mouldings to them. I routed my own moulding. I did do all three straight flights but only need two showing. I did this so I could choose the better two which will show. The worst part is now lining up the spindles. There doesn't seem to be any simple way of doing this.
Stairs showing the various parts and construction. The stair with the turn isn't here since I hadn't made it.
The stairs are now in but by no means perfect. I am STILL arguing with myself about not putting in skirting boards. I felt that if I did it for the stairs, I'd really have to do it in all the rooms but then the shop units would not be flush to the wall.
I am glad I made the bottom ones with a turn. The stairs that came with the kit were straight and I don't think they would have great. I will trim the edge of the landings since I don't think they look nice just left like this.
STAIRS
I have, at long last, got around to painting the cupboard which was made for the shop to stand on. I still have the side walls of the house to add some paint to.
The windows of this shop had no glazing. Inside there is no trim for around the windows. I stuck some perspex sheets over the windows but it looks awful as it sits proud of the surface. I will have to make some architrave for them.
The shop front windows are the same. I have had a few thoughts about them, but since leaving it for rather a long time, I have a new idea. I had stuck the glazing over the windows with a plan of adding a raised 'floor' in the window. After all, things would not have been placed on the floor itself back then (whenever then is) hence the glazing stopping just below the window. I cut the glazing to cover the whole of the windows since there was nothing to cover the surrounds. I didn't like it since you could see the glue.
Here was my original glazing for the window.
Since I wanted to make a painted surface over the window, I had to remove this glazing. I decided to use thin wood and make it exactly the shape of the windows. I cut it out fractionally larger, applied it with a little double sided tape and sanded the arches to match. The end windows are VERY close to the front ones and leave very little room for the thickness of glazing and wood, so I had to use thin wood. I could have used card but I would not have been able to sand that to make it fit well.
These two photos have had the glazing removed. It doesn't matter about the paintwork since it will be covered over. The detail one shows how close the end window 'hole' is to the front window. There was only about 4mm space. Because of that, I had to do the side windows first .
The first piece of wood cut to size and the aperture has been sanded to match the window.
The side windows have the glazing and the wood 'covers' glued into place. The main front window has been put in for size. The thin wood only comes in 4" wide sheets so I had to make joins. I had thought to make the joins down the side of each window but the join would have been large and more difficult to join. By doing it at the width of the wood, I had less of a join and saved wood too.
Before I stuck the wooden pieces in place, I painted them. The picture, right, shows the back side of the wood. I painted a little bit around the edges because the glazing will sometimes show a little of the other side, especially if you use thicker glazing. This just an 'in case' procedure. It's too late when you can see some bare wood and it's all glued in place.
Above are the completed windows. Where there were very small gaps, they look enormous in the photos, I filled with light weight filler, sanded and painted. I am not concerned with the paint on the floor since it will be covered with the next section.
The windows of this shop had no glazing. Inside there is no trim for around the windows. I stuck some perspex sheets over the windows but it looks awful as it sits proud of the surface. I will have to make some architrave for them.
The shop front windows are the same. I have had a few thoughts about them, but since leaving it for rather a long time, I have a new idea. I had stuck the glazing over the windows with a plan of adding a raised 'floor' in the window. After all, things would not have been placed on the floor itself back then (whenever then is) hence the glazing stopping just below the window. I cut the glazing to cover the whole of the windows since there was nothing to cover the surrounds. I didn't like it since you could see the glue.
Since I wanted to make a painted surface over the window, I had to remove this glazing. I decided to use thin wood and make it exactly the shape of the windows. I cut it out fractionally larger, applied it with a little double sided tape and sanded the arches to match. The end windows are VERY close to the front ones and leave very little room for the thickness of glazing and wood, so I had to use thin wood. I could have used card but I would not have been able to sand that to make it fit well.
These two photos have had the glazing removed. It doesn't matter about the paintwork since it will be covered over. The detail one shows how close the end window 'hole' is to the front window. There was only about 4mm space. Because of that, I had to do the side windows first .
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