Door Frames, Great room panelling and Library Carpet.

Hello everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend.

I finally put together the door frames for the 1st floor! I needed to get them installed so I could start work on baseboards and panelling.

Because the first floor is 14 inches high I wanted all the doors openings to be 8" high by 4"wide, and each one has an opening for a stained glass transom on top, about 1 3/4" high.

I started by gluing the basic frame together out of 1/8" bassewood and then I added the decorative molding, corner pieces and plinth blocks. To make sure everything was at exact 90 degree angles I used the best tool I could find...Lego building blocks.

 They help get perfect angles and then you just have to wash them in hot water to remove any leftover glue .
I then added miniature quarter round molding in the transom section to hold the piece of stained glass..eventually!

When they were dry I painted them according to the room they are meant for.

The next BIG project was the panneling in the Great Room. I cannot tell you how painful this was for me. The deepest part of the Great Room is 34 inches . I had to litterally get into the room to attach the moulding strips...I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she drank the "Drink Me" bottle!

Don't laugh! I'm 6 foot 2 and I was like this for over 8 hours today! It was like a sick form of yoga!

I started by gluing the bottom and top strips to the wall, as always with The Ultimate glue and drops of gel super glue. I then glued on the vertical molding strips using lego blocks to keep them as straight as possible.

Then came the long, long task of cutting the horizontal pieces.  Again I used Legos to help keep the pattern accurate

When all was in place,  I added the baseboards, decorative molding to the top of the panelling, and a picture frame molding strip at the top of the room.

I can now work on the columns and the arches that will seperate the game room area and the drawing room area. I took a break in the afternoon and went to a fabric store to look for curtain material. I found a beautiful red velvet fabric I thought could work in the Library. I got home, glued it onto my illustration board subfloor with spray adhesive (this is about the only time I use spray adhesive. I have had much trouble with it in the past. I loathe the stuff)

I love the look of the carpet with the wallpaper and think it will look quite good with my mahogany and black leather furniture, but I'm just not convinced it's exactly what I want...I'll leave it in for a week or 2 and make my decision then.

I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes...I'm just too tired to go over the post tonight.
Have a great week everyone!
Giac

Attic staircase step by step, Great Room Floors and Loggia

Hello everybody,
I hope everyone is well. I have been juggling 3 projects at once and am finally making some progress.

Many miniaturists seem to be afraid of making staircases from scratch. I actually think they are quite easy, if not a little time consuming. I already put up a post about the grand staircase, but this time I thought I'd give more accurate directions and pictures for the attic staircase. It is simpler, but the directions and the style of the staircase are the same. Here is the picture of it after faux-finishing, but I still have to add the wood strips to create panels.

The first step was to cut each step in 5/8 " MDF. Mine are 3 1/8 inches wide by 1 1/2" deep. I also cut the platform where the staircase changes direction. Once these were cut and sanded, I started gluing them together using wood glue and a drop of gel superglue. The gel glue eliminates the need for clamps. I glue them so that each step wil be 3/4 of an inch deep. I made a jig to make the process go faster.

Since the staircase will eventually get panneled, I added a spacer on the side of the steps, which you can see in the picture above. Next, I used spare wood pieces to make a support for the staircase. I then cut out pieces of illustration board for the walls under the steps and glued all in place, again with gel super glue and wood glue.

Next, I apply nosing trim to the top and the sides of the steps.

Once the nosing strips are in place, glue on the corner posts and the handrails. Let them dry properly because this is the main structural support for the balustrade. When dry, cover the steps and both sides of illustration board with acrylic gesso (if you only cover one side of the illustration board it might curl a little).  When that was dry, I painted everything with a base color, in this case, antique gold.

The next step is to add the balustres. I started by painting them with the base color. Before gluing them in place they have to be adjusted to fit. I cut the top of the balustre at about the same angle as the handrail, then I cut the base shorter to fit. The handrail I used has a groove to help hold the balustres. I attach them by putting a bit of wood glue and gel super glue on the bottom and top of each, slide them into place and hold them about 25 seconds for the gel glue to set.

When all is dry, I mix a little oil paint and liquin and brush on the walnut faux-finish.

The second project I worked on was the Great Room floor. I did it the same way as all the other wood floors, finishing it with dissolved shellac flakes, then covering the whole floor with wax.

I will attach the wood floors shortly, but not the columns. I made them to support arches and linen fold panels, but the room is very deep and if I glue them now I won't be able to comfortably apply the wood panels to the back walls.

And last but not least, the Loggia. A loggia is a covered porch , usually with one acces. I made mine off the dining room with a master bedroom balcony above.

I started by cutting an mdf bottom and top pieces and some 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" columns and foundation pieces

When that was glued together, I cut out the low side walls for both levels and the castellation pieces for the top. Finally I cut out steps and arches to complete the design

It will eventually be finished like the rest of the house, in red brick and beige stone detail.
Sorry, this was a long post. I hope you all have a great day and I look forward to following your projects.
Have a great week,
Giac

Entrance Black and White Marble Floor

Hello all,
I just finished the marble Floor for the Entrance Hall.

The floor was easy to make, but rather time consuming.

As with the firplace mantels, I strated by painting the illustration board a base color, let it dry 30 minutes, then took a wet sea sponge, squeezed out most of the water, dipped it lightly in the second paint color, then sponged it on making sure I turned the sponge to keep the pattern random.

When that was dry, I sponged on another color, very similar to the one before

When that was dry, I used tooth pics to create the veins. I looked at pictures of black and white marble online for help

I let the paint dry overnight, then I sprayed on 3 coates of clear glaze and let that dry for 24 hours. I then rubbed the marble down with a 0000 steel whool.
The next day was cutting day. I cut the black marble into 1 " by 1/4" tiles, and the White marble into 1" x 1" and 1/4" x 1/4" tiles using a metal ruler and a sharp utility knife.

The next step was to cut a subfloor in illustration board to the dimensions of the room. because the tiles are not perfectly square, it was important to have guide lines on the subfloor to make sure the pattern was as exact as possible. I took out some graph paper with 1/4" x 1/4" squares and glued it onto the subfloor. Next, starting with the very center of the room, I glued the tiles in place with a regular glue stick.

The glue stick works well. I put the glue on the subfloor and on the back of the tile. The bond is strong, but it takes a while to set so you can move the tile a bit to aligne it properly. I covered the floor with a piece of mdf and books to wheigh it down overnight.

The next day it was time to grout the floor. I like to use regular drywall spackle, the stuff that is used to fill small holes in the wall. With my finger, I went over the spaces with the spackle and tried to get into all the cracks. Then, I took a damp sponge and went over in circular motions to take off any excess spackle, and go over with a dry cloth. You have to make sure you don't apply too much pressure because you will push the spackle out of the cracks. The final step was to go over it with a steel whool, whipe it down with a damp cloth, and check the fit.

All in all, from start to finish, this floor section took about 16 hours of work. Thank God it's finished.

Foundation

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.

I just finished working on the foundation. As I mentionned in an earleir post, because the house is so big I built the structure in 5 sections. To make sure they line up properly I wanted to build a wood foundation on which the 5 sections wil sit and be held in place by dowels.

I decided to use 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" pieces of wood for 2 reasons:
1. The house is 8 feet long and will sit over several modular dressers. I wanted wood thick enough so it would not sag or warp.
2. I read online that 1 sheet of 5/8" MDF weighs 96 pounds...this means my house now weighs about 527.5 pounds, and I still have another floor and the roof to finish, so I needed the foundation to be strong.

My father-in-law Tom helped me to set up the modular furniture and get everything level. We then measured out the wood pieces we needed. I started by gluing the beams together and holding the pieces in place with clamps and masking tape. To make sure it was strong I wanted to add screws, so I drilled 1/8" deep holes the width of the screws heads so they would not stick out.

When the glue was dry, my husband Jo and I placed the house sections (definetely a 2 people job) on the foundation and drilled holes through the mdf and the wood foundation. The dowel will be glued to the foundation, so if I ever need to move the sections it will be easy to aligne them when I put the house back together.

The wings of the house stick out past the foundation I made, but I wont correct this until I've attached the front opening panels to the house. When they will be in place I will build the rest of the  foundation to be flush with each wall.

 I've also been working on the floor for the Entrance Hall and finishing the columns and arcade for the Great Room. I will try to finish the floor this week, and the columns soon after. Post will follow shortly

Have a great week,
Giac

Finished Music Room and Dining Room Floors

Hello all,

I just finished the floors for 2 rooms. I haven't stuck them to the House structure yet as I still need to let the shellac dry properly and then add a coat of clear wax.

Music Room

 Dining Room

Finishing the floors went well. AS I mentionned in an earlier post I used shellac flakes dissolved in 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol. When the wood boards were glued onto the illustration board subfloor, I sanded them with 80 and 120 gritt sandpapers. I applied a coat of shellac (I used Garnet color shellac flakes), let it dry 30 minutes, then gently went over it with a 0000 steel whool. I repeated these steps 3 times. The shellac goes on easily, but you have to work very fast and not go over your strokes. A few times I did just that and there are marks on the finish, but since I wanted the floors to look old it worked out very well.

I also finished the Dining Room floor. For this room I purchased miniature parquet sheets and glued them onto an illustration board subfloor and then finished the same as the music room floor with Shellac. The dining room floor took about 30 minutes to put together whereas the music room floor took 3 weeks (I usually work on my miniatures one day each weekend and maybe 1 or 2 evenings a week). Doing the detailed floor from scratch was much longer, however one must take the price into account: The music Room floor (20" x 36") cost about $45.00 versus the Dining Room Floor (16" x 20") which cost about $135.00.

Music Room Floor

Hello everyone,
I just finished planning and cutting out the music room floor.

The chevron pieces are not yet glued into place. The octogone in the center will be a marble medallion. This is the second floor I make for the music room...

 I had originally cut pieces for this floor which included a round marble medallion and less intricate design.

When the time came to glue everything down I applied the contact cement to the surfaces of my subfloor (illustration board) and the individual pieces of wood flooring. I had never worked with that glue before and I usually work in my basement. I had no idea the fumes would be so strong. I tried to bring the pieces outside into my shed quickly, but it was windy and some pieces flew over and landed on my subfloor, glue side to glue side, and they were permanently bonded in the wrong place, so I had to start the floor over. In the end it was a good thing because I'm much happier witht he new floor.

I also tested the shellac on 2 seperate pieces of flooring. The wood strips on thin cardboard warped, but the wood strip on thin cardboard glued onto illustration board with contact cement didn't. The picture below shows both test pieces with 3 coats of shellac.

I will be gluing the music room floor down permanently this week, and hopfully applying the shellac...in the shed this time.

Flooring Update

Hello all,
We've been moving furniture around our real house so I haven't finished my first wood floor yet. The floor is for the music room. It will be a chevron pattern floor, 20 inches by 36 inches deep.

 In the middle of the room, in front of the fireplace, I'm trying to create a faux-marble medallion with a pattern of roses. I tested the shellac finish on a test piece of flooring, and the results are very promising. I will try to have a new post by Sunday evening.

I just want to thank those who left such nice and encouraging comments about my work and everyone who is following me. For some reason I can't leave comments to anybody, either on my blog or anyone else's...the computer...my eternal Nemesis!