Minor Mansion Blunder

I was so excited to be working on the mansion again I jumped right in. Installed the crown molding in the conservatory. Usually I like to install the wallpaper first and then glue the crown molding over the edge of the wallpaper for a smooth finish. But this wallpaper had a design right up to the top that I wanted to keep and couldn't judge where to install it to ensure the crown would just cover the 1/64" border edge. So the crown got installed first. And of course this room had numerous corners and outside corners so I had to use all my brain power to figure out the appropriate angle cuts.

3 inner corners and 1 outside corner

Plus this crown molding had a longer ceiling side and shorter wall side which was another complicating factor requiring my complete focus and intense thinking. And I must have used all my brain power doing that since I then jumped right into wallpapering!

Crisp, neat wallpapering job!

So happy all my lines are straight

And once I had the paper glued to the walls and admiring my work, thats when I realized: I never installed the coach lights on the exterior wall! It was supposed to be glued on the outer wall, wires passed thru a drilled hole to the inside, wires pressed into a routed channel to the floor, wired, and then all that covered under the wallpaper that I just installed! Oops.

There is supposed to be a hole and coach lights here. Oops.

So I panicked. Removing the wallpaper will be a whole ordeal now because glue was dried and I really didn't want to scrape the paper off to make a channel for the wires. Can't cover any wires or repairs inside with a painting, furniture, potted plant, or anything because the opening for the stairs is right there and I can't block the stairs. Was creating an elaborate fix involving widening the doorway, routing a channel across the exterior wall to the doorway, filling it with the wires and putty to cover the wires and then repainting the exterior to hide it all. At least two weeks' worth of work.

And then my mother said, why don't you just drill the hole now and wire it inside and re-wallpaper over the wires? Duh. Why do I always make things more complicated than they need to be? 

So that is what I planned to do. Except I couldn't find my coach lights. Took a few days going thru all my stuff in the basement to find them. (Turns out storing all your miniatures in various Tupperware buckets, baskets, boxes, and bags is not a very efficient organizational system when you need to find something.)

But I finally found them, drilled the hole, wired it in to the electrical system, and wallpapered over it. Took about seven minutes.

Wires under electrical tape

Used a piece of scrap wallpaper to cover the repair

It's not perfect. I still see the bump from the wires which should have been hidden into a groove I should have routed in before any wallpapering took place. But it wasn't as complicated as I was making it to fix. And most people won't notice it once all the plants and furniture are in the room. (And mom, in her infinite wisdom, has suggested a servant's bell pull be installed there which would be an appropriate accessory to the room and a good cover for the tiny bump.) Now I can continue moving forward on the project instead of getting caught up in an elaborate repair job.

It's working!

Measured and cut the flooring. Now to install the chandeliers....that I can't find. That is the problem with putting my miniatures in a "safe spot". Back to the basement to search thru boxes and buckets again (would find them hours later inside the mansion in a room on the opposite side of the dollhouse)...

Flooring is a simple wood floor since it will mostly be covered by a rug

Loving this room so far!

Finally found the chandeliers! I put them in place (but they are not wired in yet). Probably won't get a chance to install them in permanently before my friends visit because I'd like to fully focus on the foyer and butler's pantry that I should have finished last year (that was last year's goal). But for now, here is the conservatory:

Deep burgundy red chandeliers that coordinate nicely with the wallpaper

With rug in place, although still in it's plastic

Not sure if I will keep that rug or go with a smaller one. I will ask my friends for their opinions when they are here. I am so excited for my friends' visit motivating me to make such vast progress on my mansion these last few days! Can't wait for them to see what I have done so far!