I hope you are all doing well and are happy. Thank you for your great feedback on my last post. It is always so wonderful to get hear from other miniaturists. I am afraid I have no new miniature work to share. Our real life bathroom renovation has taken over our lives and I have not worked on miniatures since my last post, but I have been working hard on the plans for the renovated South wing. Before we talk about that I promised to post about my Christmas presents. Once again I was spoilt rotten.
Christmas Presents
I got this black and gold Grand Estate Cabinet from Bespaq. I think it looks perfect in the Tudor hall.
Lastly I got a Bespaq Elizabeth chaise for the ballroom.
I am very lucky that Jo always asks for a list of the miniatures I want and he and our families get together and choose from that list.
That is all the miniatures you will see in this post, the rest are my plans and sketches for the new wing. I apologize if this is boring for some, but it's all I have done.
Ballroom
The new ballroom will be much more Georgian in style. the room will measure 32 x 38 inches and be surrounded by a 5 inch deep colonnade. My biggest challenge, since the door from the Entrance of the Manor is not centered, was figuring out how to make the room symmetrical.
The left wall will have 2 doorways. 1 will be the way in from the entrance, the other one will be a fake door to balance the room. In between the doorways will be a dolphin fountain from Sue Cook. The back wall will have a fireplace and the right wall will be mostly windows and French doors. The piano will go in between the central columns on the right wall. All the architectural elements in this room will be by Sue Cook. Here is a look at the left wall:
The walls will be blue and all the molding and detail will be white. In the next drawing you can see the back wall and the side view of the colonnade.
The yellow on my drawing was supposed to be gold detail. I had one leftover piece of the cornice I will be using and put it on the drawing, but I think I might just leave all the detail white, no gold. The blue rectangle on the top left corner is the paint colour I chose. I thought of putting 4 Versaille chandeliers in the room, but decided instead to keep the 2 I have and get matching sconces instead so as to light the colonnade well.
Library
The new library will be the same size as the ballroom. I was afraid it would be too big and planned on splitting the floor into a library and a loggia, but since the house sits in the corner of the room that was just an invitation for spiders to settle in so I decided to lose the loggia. Here is the New library:
It was inspired by the Thorne Rooms French library and the room boxes made by Ray whitledge and Scott Burgess. I decided to split the room in 2.
The back area will be a step up. It is a huge room and I am not sure how I will furnish it...I am thinking of a large central custom made table about 5 x 8 inches with a marble top and thin drawers for maps all around. The entire room will be faux walnut and I would like the furniture and drapes to be dark green. The marbled fireplaces and white cornices are also from Sue Cook.
Chinese dining room
I am taking full advantage of the larger section to make all the rooms bigger. The Chinese tea room will now be bigger then the Great dining room on the ground floor, so I have decided to make it a dining room used for important dinner parties...though I feel bad for the staff that will have to carry the food up 2 flights of stairs to the other side of the house. The room will have a 12 inch table which will seat 12.
The room will measure 17 x 24 inches and will be 10 inches high. My original inspiration came from the lacquer room at Monplaisir Palace but were very square. Instead of my square chinoiserie panels I will try to make more ornate lacquer panels within the rectangular panels on the red wall (I hope you understand with the drawings).
Countess's bedroom
I tried to fix this room so many times but now I finally have a design I love:
I want a much more Neoclassical look for the room. Poor Sue Cook will be so fed up with me before I am done. I will use her carved pilasters to frame the windows and doorways. I will make the left wall thicker so as to create recessed windows, I have moved the fireplace to the back wall so the bed will be in the middle of the room, and I will top the room with a Georgian frieze and cornice. I fell in love with the Anastasia bedroom by Bespaq, but it does not have an armoire or large dresser so I am thinking of making closets on each side of the door to the earl's bedroom (right wall).
And that is all my friends. I hate to make a post without miniature work, but the planning has taken all my free time. I hope to start actual work on the new wing by the end of May. Right now I am still refining plans, working on my real life bathroom for another month, and I am saving up for the large order I will be sending Sue. The Montreal miniature show is this month and I might post after that. I have given myself a very strict budget for the show because of the new wing renovations, but I have a habit of losing control at the show...help!
Until next time, which might not be for a while, thank you all for following my adventures and also thank you for sharing your wonderful work and ideas through your blogs...you are all a great source of inspiration.
All the best and great big hugs to everyone,
Giac
