Conservatory Color

The Rutherford's Witch's house will get a conservatory addition. I am creating it out of 3 mirrors I bought from Michael's:

3 tabletop mirrors I bought on clearance after Halloween at Michael's

Creating walls for the conservatory

I popped the mirrors off the back and then cut wood walls for it. Wanted the conservatory to have a coffin type vibe so I cut 2 more walls (to make the room rectangular instead of square) and ordered windows from NightfallDesignsCo on Etsy to complement the big Gothic windows.

It still needs a lot of work but I rough-fitted it together:

Then I had a brillant idea: since the big gothic windows are made of metal, what if I filled in the top design area with Makit & Bakit crystals to create stained glass?  I had done something similar with clear Makit & Bakit crystals for my wizard's cottage, so why not do it for the witch's house?

Crystals that melt in an oven

Didn't know what finish may be on the metal framing so I wrapped it in foil, filling in the design holes with the different color crystals...

...and put it in my "miniatures-only; no food!" toaster outside (in case of fumes). Then babysat it for the 15 mins it needed to bake to make sure nothing caught on fire. 

Sat on my deck in the early morning light with my coffee staring at my toaster

They needed to bake one at a time for more than double the amount of time they were supposed to take, but I was happy with how they turned out even if it did take almost 2 hours of my morning!

Crystals melted into a smoother glass but there are still air bubbles and imperfections...

...but I still think they are fabulous and perfect for my witch

I spray painted the walls black and have glued some seam trims where the walls meet each other. Loving how the stained glass looks!

Beginning to come together

Conservatory may need a chandelier now to light up the stain glass!

Now to admire my work for the rest of the evening, paint the trims black, and then start to plan/construct the conservatory roof!

Artply Rutherford Renovation

First complication in turning my childhood dollhouse (First post about Rutherford) into a witch's house was my teenage self apparently superglued the upper cabinets to the kitchen walls.

Gotta saw the cabinets off the walls

Once that was taken care of, it was time to strip the wallpapers. I knew this task would take hours, if not days, because my younger self didn't know what she was doing. Walls were not primed, Elmer's glue was used instead of wallpaper paste, and papers were wrapped into nooks and crannies where now my slightly arthritic 50-year old fingers struggle to reach.

Closing my online shop, winter illnesses, my eldest's college graduation and wedding, and then my youngest's high school graduation caused a long delay in getting back to this project. But I jumped in whole heartedly and stripped the papers all out in one day:

Some rooms had been primed, others were not

Did not strip the papers out of the top right room cuz that wall is going to be removed

A blank slate...

Some rooms are still a little rough thanks to the Elmer's glue

Then it was time to start cutting into walls. I removed a section of the wall to merge the 2 rooms up top into a larger room for the witch's bedroom. I still need to cut a doorway out to the conservatory (have to construct that first) and I need a section of the wall to be removeable to better see into the lower right side for a seance room (but I'm not cutting that until I hear back from the Etsy lady who makes the windows I want to buy for this house).

So until I hear about the windows, I am focusing on the conservatory construction. Which will also impact the front yard: I want a graveyard in front of the conservatory. Do I add an entire front yard or just the conservatory and graveyard on the side?

House with rough draft conservatory and front yard board in place 

I am also filling in the stairs to make the lower right room better suited for a kitchen/seance room combo.

Open room with staircase

Adding a wall to the steps for a kitchen sink/fridge (oven/stove will go on opposite wall)

Entire house needs to be primed black and then painted (plum and dark green). But for now I have gotten a little distracted by the front yard (full graveyard? spooky tree? pumpkin patch?) and creating stain glass for the conservatory...blog about the stain glass coming soon!