Attic: Morning Room and Sewing Room

Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing well. First of all, thank you all so much for your kind comments on my last post. It really means a lot to me. Real life renovations have been keeping us very busy, but I did manage to make a little time for Dewell Manor. Yesterday I finished the 2 first rooms in the attic floor, the Morning Room and the sewing Room:

Morning Room

Morning Room

Morning Room

 The Morning Room is over the dressing Room, so the windows next to the fireplace look over the sea, and the other window on the opening wall panel will overlook the Rose Garden. Through the back door is a hall and the Nursery door, so the lady of the house could sit here and play with her children early in the day. Through the door facing the fireplace is the sewing room, so she'll be close by for morning fittings.

Sewing Room

Sewing Room

Working in the attic was an interesting challenge. Contrary to the 2 main floors, the structure went up before I had envisionned the rooms. Originaly the attic was going to be storage space and the morning room was going to house the electrical elements. So after I realized I would be wasting a lot of space, I decided to rework the attic floor and started making holes in the wall.

The Morning Room is in front of a window in my real life living room, so I wanted to add some windows to take advantage of natural light. I was going to make 2 small dormers, but in the end I decided to open up the side of the roof and add a section so that the fireplace in this room will line up with the chimney for the Dressing Room and the Kitchen underneath.

First I cut out the opening

next I added the back wall with the window openings and the chimney. This bump out will be finished in brick with battlements which will add to the castle-like look of the building

I used mdf for the back window wall, and illustration board with lumber strips for the sides of the bumpout. I figured cutting the mdf and getting the angles perfect was not worth the effort. Everything, inside and out, got coated in primer.

When the bump out was built, I painted the walls and  I made a false ceiling for the room. This hid the larger lumber I used for the roof structure.

I cut illustration board to the right size, then glued leftover pieces of Mdf tot he back so the ceiling would be solid, and most importantly it would minimize warping. I also used small pieces as supports

When it was dry, I used screws and glue to attach the support pieces to the roof structure. Now the ceiling was solid.

The next step was fix the bottom half of the walls. I don't like angled walls that go to the floor, so I cut illustration board to just about 4 inches high, then, using leftover mdf pieces for support and strength, I glued them all around the room. This was I have walls to push furniture against. When that was primed, I wallpapered.

The next step was to get my components ready. I made the windows and doorframes, faux marbled a Braxton Payne fireplace and faux finished all the lumber and baseboards I would need.

The first step was to finish the ceiling. I put the structure upside down and started gluing the lumber in place.

Ceiling beams and spacer

The first pieces I glued down, always using gel super glue and the Ultimate Glue, were to cover the gaps where the illustration board walls met the angled mdf roof panels. Next I added the cross beams. I decided how many beams would look nice and cut a spacer to help them all line up. When the ceilings in both the Morning Room and Sewing Room were done, I flipped it over and started work on the floors.

I was concidering making simple wood floors, but when I went to test fit the illustration board subfloor I realised , because the walls were angled and I had the nook to contend with, It was impossible to position it in one piece. I cut a 1 1/2 inch strip of the subfloor and added a border detail where the  section would meet. 

The final step was adding baseboards and lumber to the bottom half of the wall. If you look in the picture with the caption "Ceiling beams and spacer". you can see that the wallpaper was cut in sections instead of gluing around the room in large sheets. This made it easier to work with the angled walls, and all the gaps would be covered by lumber.

On this floor, only the Nursery and Bathroom will have doors. This way, you'll have a better view of the "hidden" rooms and hallways. And here are the empty rooms

And that is all for now. It's funny, but the whole time I was working on the attic rooms I was afraid they would be tight. I only realised how big they were when I put in the furniture...clearly, I'll need more pieces to fill the rooms.

 This might be my last post for a while. Jo and I are going on Holiday June 5th and will be back the week of the 20th. I'll make sure to catch up to all your blogs when I get back and keep working on Dewell Manor.

I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm incredibly touched and thank you for your support. I apologize if I don't respond to your comments, but I have to chose between responding to comments or visiting your blogs to keep up to date.
Also, a big thank you to those who chose my blog for an "Inspirational Blog" award. When I get back from holiday I will pass the award on and share 5 habits of mine. Be afraid, be very afraid.

A big hug to all of you, and keep up all your great work, you are all a source of great inspiration.

Giac
aka Honey Badger