Welcome to my life . . . .

This is a blog about my passion: dollhouses and miniatures. This particular blog was started to follow my miniature dream: to create a Victorian Mansion. But work on my Mansion is slow. Very slow. Sloth slow. Ice Age glacier movement slow. Why? Because I am easily distracted by other personal miniature projects (I have 50+ roomboxes and 15 dollhouses in various stages of incompletion) and because I work for a miniature shop and am often up to my elbows in miniature projects that aren't mine! So, I thought, some artists work in a particular medium (woods, watercolors, clay, oils, etc.), I work in progress . . . .

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

World War II is Done! (Part 2)

This house is just too cute!

BEFORE: Beaten up and showing her age.
AFTER: Cleaned up and restored to original colors.
When we sanded the red and some of the white off that the customer had painted on as a child we discovered the original colors underneath!  When we mentioned it to the customer she did recall the green trims and light green steps so she opted to have them repainted back to whatever we found under the white and red.

The interior was straightforward.  Clean up, touch up, remove faux wood contact paper floors and replace with real wood floors, remove wallpapers from top back room and from under stairs on bottom floor and wallpaper those areas with new papers.  Once work started customer decided the Living room would look better with all the walls papered and the dining room (and living room) would benefit from some trim to make it look more finished.  And I think the trims did make it look fresh and crisp!  I'm glad the customer added those little extra work orders at the end: I love how it turned out!

The faux wood contact paper floors were to be
BEFORE: Needs some TLC.
removed and replaced with real wood floors.
The bottom checkered floor was to be cleaned. But even after cleaning, the red/cream flooring was still looking dingy and old.  So we discussed options with the customer and she opted for wood flooring in that lower left room too.

The lower right room (dining room) was only getting a floor replacement at first.  But then customer decided she wanted that room to look more elegant so per her request we added white trims to that room.  I think it really added a fresh and crisp look to that room.  Such a simple fix completely changed the look of the room!

AFTER: All cleaned up!

Matching the paint colors was the hardest part of this renovation.  Several trial and error mixes were tried, but in the end I think we did a decent job of matching the 65+ year old paint colors:

BEFORE: White paint drips on the foundation.

 
AFTER: Matched the back ground paint color to blend the spot.
 

Some more before/after photos are in our "2014 Repairs & Construction" photo album on our facebook page:  Happily Ever After's Facebook Page!

I hope you enjoyed the World War II British P.O.W. dollhouse as much as I did!



2 comments:

  1. Hello Lori,
    You did a fantastic job. the house looks great and it is terrific that a piece of mini history was saved. Well done.
    Big hug,
    Giac

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  2. Thanks Giac! It was so much fun to work on this house and with this customer -- I will miss it!

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