Christmas in July!

So weeks upon weeks ago I mentioned that I was super excited about my plans for my friends for their Birithmas (Birthday and Christmas gifts combined).  (First Blog Mention of Friends' Birithmas Gifts)  I finally got certified to operate the laser cutter and was able to print out my designs!  So not only will my friends get their gifts, but I am making one of each for myself, AND later on this summer they will be available for sale in my store (Happily Ever After)!

I grabbed a pile of plywood and threw it in the van...

And after a morning at the laser cutter machine I left with my pile of cut wood:

So I had both roomboxes for my friends cut.  Now to assemble and decorate them!

My Texas friend is getting a New York Shop Window Roombox decorated for Christmas (based off of photos she took while on vacation in NY City last year with her mother).

Inspiration for one friend's gift: a New York Shop window decorated for Xmas

But, as is typical with me, I dream big.  Why settle for just one shop window when there are so many cool shops in New York?!?!  Hence the New York Shop Windows Roombox was born!  I designed it to have 3 sides of shop windows and the 4th flat side can be left against the wall while it is on display or you can attach it to a turn table and finish the 4th side off.  Here's how the roombox will be available for sale:

Left Side

Right Side

Here's how I finished off the various sides for my friend:

Large Shop Windows

 The two large shop windows on either side I just sprayed with textured stone fleck spray paint.  The interior dimensions are 6" deep by 12" wide by super high (14" tall I think it was).

In a Tiffany's Style Motif

Some Lawbre and Unique Miniature Appliques added interest and elegance to this blue and white painted shop.  I also think this side would look neat decorated for a Gucci shop or Coach hand bags!  Cakes or chocolates would work in those little windows too! The window openings are approximately 2" x 3" for the smaller side windows and the center window is 4" x 4-1/4".

Flat back wall

I bricked the flat back wall with the textured brick paper by World Miniatures distributed by Miniature Corner and I added broadway posters to the flat 4th wall side; you could also add graffiti or a clothes line or a faux door into a non-existent shop, etc.  I don't like all that blank space above the poster (yes, there is that decorative brick strip up there but overall it looks empty).  So I am thinking about adding a framed banner above the posters about 2" high by 8" wide that says "Now Playing On Broadway" just to fill up some of that space.  We'll see how much time and energy I have over the next few months!

I created the poster frames so that the broadway posters could be removeable/changed out because I picked random plays that I would be interested in, but my friend might have some "favorites" she'd rather display.  So if she ever wants to change them out she just pushes the plexi and poster up through the slot in the top of each poster frame:

Here's a video of the overall view of the roombox as I am finishing it for my friend: Video of Roombox.  It still needs it's electrical installed and I am finishing one of the large window shops to have the red velvet walls to match the photo that inspired it all.  Then Verde and some gold sparkle lions will go in that red velvet showcase.  My friend has silver knights and we've contacted Tish of Versailles Dolls to make us a doll similar to the one in the real life shop window.  I'll slowly decorate that shop window over the next few weeks when/if I have any time.  Maybe once the kids go back to school....

Now for my second friend!  She lives in Michigan and she is not a shopper (unless it's for minis or candy!).  So I didn't think she'd get excited by NYC shop windows.  She is a unique, spunky gal and I wanted something that would reflect her personality.  And when I saw these photos while surfing around the internet, I knew I had found my inspiration:

Main Inspiration for Other Friend's Gift

Works as a restaurant too!  Wonder if they serve sushi...

Love the coral reef out the windows

So I designed a "shark tank" roombox for her!  Since I started finishing the NYC roombox first, I have not had time to decorate the Shark Tank yet.  I only have it dry fitted together.  I will start playing, er, I mean, working on it in August!

Dry Fitted together

I was so excited about the "bubble" supports that I played with my own shark in the tank:

Swimming overhead

Passing by the large picture window at the end of the room

I don't know if my friend will turn this into a bedroom, a restaurant, or an underwater poker game room/bar.  But this design would also work as a room looking out onto a lunar landscape (or out onto any planet's or solar system landscape) or as an igloo room to stare at the northern lights like they have in Finland:

Go ahead and google "Finland hotel to view Northern Lights"!  It's pretty cool!

I am so excited about these roomboxes!  I hope you are too!

Hope they look up! (video near end of post)

I have moved up to the Lady's Sitting Room and Bedroom.  I have drapes being made for these rooms so I really ought to have them finished by the time my curtains are finished later on this year!  Walls have been papered (although one wall is removable so that I may access electrical wires so that stumbling block did cause some delays as I tried using 1/4" thick wood (too thick for my doorway passage trim), 1/16" Styrofoam product (too flimsy), and finally I settled on a 1/16" thick wood (has some warping issues but I'm hoping it will work ok once doorway trims are in to securely hold the edges of the wood in place).

Ceilings were papered and painted white.  And I picked this medallion (#887) by Lawbre...

...mostly because I liked the fact that the electrical ceiling canopy hole was pre-drilled in the center!  It was a bonus that I also happened to love the design on the medallion!

But white medallion against white ceiling paper doesn't excite me much.  I do love the design on the medallion and it's not really noticeable.  And given that the Victorian ladies entertain their friends in their sitting rooms, I knew they would have thrown gold up there to attract some attention (i.e. show off to their friends).  So on went the first two layers of gold....

Two coats of gold are painted on to various detail parts.

Just gold by itself wasn't going to keep me happy so I had decided (before I even started painting the gold) that a light sage green and a pale pink were going on the medallion too.  Those colors would match the sage green furniture and the pink marble fireplace going in this room.

Added some very pale sage green around the gold bits.

Now that some green was on there, I wanted more gold...so I revisited some of the flowers around the edge with gold.  But I only gave them 1 coat of gold to make them more of a 10- or 12-karat gold instead of the deep gold color of the center design.  Victorian people liked to put various-karat golds everywhere, right?

Just needs a few touches of pink now

Will anyone ever notice the slight difference in the golds?  Probably not.  Well, ok, definitely not.  The only way is if I stand there and instruct them to notice it.  But I'll know. So I'm happy.

I needed a pale, pale, almost missed it, pink color.  But I didn't have any.  So I made some by mixing a darker pink with white and a touch of gold.

Making my pink

Now the Sitting Room's medallion is finished and needs to be glued up...

Finished

Just slight touches of pink...

I think it looks great with the Getzan chandelier and Bespaq furniture that's going in the room:

Now the bedroom medallion (as I get to that room next) will not have as much gold or color.  The bedroom is a private space.  Only the lady, lady's maid, and husband go into the Lady's bedroom.  No need to impress anyone.

Here is a video of this side of the mansion so far:

I love my remote control by Creative Reproductions 2 Scale!  (You couldn't tell that, huh?)  My biggest excitement about turning on the lights and video taping it was that THE LIGHTS ALL STILL WORK!!!  I haven't tested them in months (when did I finish the library?) and I have been moving the house around, cutting into the window openings to get windows to fit, and hammering on the house ever since (the top piece was attached by hammering nails into it; some electrical work involved hammering to insert some eyelets and ceiling canopies): all of which cause vibrations which could have undone my previous wiring efforts!  But it all works still!  No electrical issues so far!

My past mansion ceilings were fun, but labor intensive (Upper Library Ceiling Blog Post and Lower Library Ceiling Blog Post).  However, like this Sitting Room ceiling and the future Bedroom ceiling, I'm hoping to keep the rest of the mansion's ceilings a little bit easier to tackle.  Well, except the ballroom, dining room, and Gentleman's Game/Smoking room --- I have plans for those ceilings!.  Given how much time I spend thinking about my dollhouse mansion's ceilings, I really hope my dollhouse people look up!

Lost Cause to Realized Vision

The little Lost Cause dollhouse has it's new identity!  If you follow this blog, you already have read a few entries regarding this little house, including why I gave it the nickname of Lost Cause (First Blog Post About Lost Cause Dollhouse).  But now it is finished, so here's the recap:

First brought to us in sorry shape, this house needed some TLC:

Before, needing some TLC

Customer wanted to keep as much as the original as she could: her father made it for her when she was young.  But she wanted it painted white/green (exterior) and for the interior rooms to be painted the same colors as her real house.

BEFORE EXTERIOR

AFTER EXTERIOR

We sanded down to the bare wood on the exterior, repainted, and replaced the windows/doors/balcony (creating new ones using the same design her father had used).

BEFORE: BALCONY

AFTER: BALCONY

BEFORE: DOORS

AFTER: DOORS

Read previous blog entries to read about the reconstruction of the windows (First Blog Post on House) and the doors (Putting Hinges on Door).

The interior rooms had been previously stripped by someone else.  There were fragments of paper still on the walls that we needed to remove and many imperfections in the exposed raw wood.  After spackling and sanding and covering the interior with wallpaper liner, we were able to paint each room to her specifications and put down flooring:

BEFORE: KITCHEN

AFTER: KITCHEN

To read more about the kitchen flooring go here: Kitchen Flooring

We did not touch the tile work in the bathroom (seen below) as her father had done that and we wanted to keep as much of the original as we could: that's what gives each dollhouse their own personality and charm!

BEFORE: BATHROOM

AFTER: BATHROOM

BEFORE: DINING ROOM (that's our flooring sample in the front of the room)

AFTER: DINING ROOM

BEFORE: LIVING ROOM

AFTER: LIVING ROOM

I gotta give Mom props on this one: My mother decided the half stairs going from the landing to the second floor needed to be remade.  Someone else (not the customer nor us) had glued the half steps on upside down and there were glue blobs and wood filler in various places on the steps.  So Mom spent an afternoon cutting and fussing, and using the original steps as a guide, she created some beautiful (I think) replacement stairs...

BEFORE: Someone else had glued the steps on upside down and slopped wood fill all over the place

AFTER: Gorgeous steps!

BEFORE: Messy

AFTER: Is it crazy that I love them so much?!?!?

BEFORE: MASTER BEDROOM

AFTER: MASTER BEDROOM

We also added lighting to the second floor (customer will add battery operated chandeliers to the first floor once she arrives to pick up the house and see the full selection of battery operated lights we carry).  Hidden behind the ceiling trim we installed LED strip lighting.

IN PROGRESS: INTERIOR, with all remaining wallpapers, trims and window trims removed

AFTER: Bright and ready to display

 Overall the interior cleaned up rather well -- it's a colorful, cheery, warm home:

BEFORE: OVERALL INTERIOR (that's scrap of our wood flooring in the front of the dining room)

AFTER: OVERALL INTERIOR

This little lost cause is now a proud realized vision of the customer's dream!  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work on it!

AFTER: Little Lady is heading home!