My Dollshouse - part 14 (and Xmas vignettes)

I am now more determined than ever to finish off this house so I can move on to other projects-in-waiting. However, as always I do get distracted a bit, and I am also putting together my old Christmas vignettes.  They have suffered a lot of wear and tear over the years, so cleaning and repairing was my first job. 

My Christmas kitchen is without a stove.  I am therefore putting a Phoenix kit together that I have had for years.  I have not yet done a kit in metal, only plastic or wood, so this is a different challenge.  

So far I have cleaned and painted a few parts, but ran into problems, because I have to of the same parts for the sides and this missing a hole for the oven door handle.  I am going to look into that and let you know how I went.

all the pieces

waiting to be painted

painted in matt black

As for the dollshouse, I am still working on the bathroom.  I have decided I want venetian blinds for the bottom windows.  The top ones I may give a 'frosted' look, but need to look into that later.  I thought blinds only might look a bit boring, so I have added window sills, similar to the ones in the kitchen.  I may have one blind down and one half-way.  Will need to see how it looks first.

window sills added

prototype in paper

the real deal done with photographic paper

Since 'real' venetian blinds are not possible, because if the fine knotting work I would have to do, I have separated the slats with beads.  The idea I saw on the internet, but a while ago and cannot remember where. I have opted for photographic paper again as it is shiny and makes the slats look more realistic.

In the meantime I am still working on the various parts of furniture and decoration in the batheroom.  I have now finished the privacy screen.  Next, painted and drying while I am writing this is the shelving unit. There is also the light to be finished off and a towel rack.

privacy screen in parts

privacy screen finished

I have worked hard over the past few days and the bathroom is nearly finished.  I have added a shelving unit and a towel rack. I wasn't happy with the way the shelving unit looked side-on so I covered the ugly slots with veneer and painted it in the colour of the unit.  So much better.  I decorated the unit with strips and other parts of card-making stickers. The same for the towel rack. I am pleased with the look. 

Shelving unit with white decorations

The side with the ugly slots

The sides covered with veneer

The towel rack finished

I have dug out items that I have had for years and that were made with this bathroom in mind.  The toilet came with the dolls house.  The toilet roll holder, the scales and the laundry bag were a few of the first items I ever made back in 1998 when I had just started.  The toilet roll holder is a working one. The kerosine heater was a workshop of the dollshouse club and was made with the use of findings and other little items after which it was painted in grey gloss. 

Net a few pictures of the (near) finished bathroom.  The light has come out a bit darker than planned, but it's passable....

Besides the blinds for the windows I can see I could probably add a few more things, in particular on the wall, but I will leave that for later.  I have temporarily run out of ideas.

My dollshouse - part 13

May 2015! That was the last time I posted on my blog, and that goes approximately for my other two blogs as well.  The good news however is that 6 years later I have taken up the hobby again.  So much has happened since, mainly travelling, which got in the way of my hobby.  Anyway, I am back and have worked on my Witch's Cottage as well as The Florist, so both blogs are up to date.  I have now moved on to my main dollshouse, which has now been 23 years in the making!

Bathroom

For a while I could not decide if I wanted to have a smaller bathroom and add a sewing room next to it, or would just stick with the big one.  As I am (and was) becoming quite bored with the project and want it finished I decided to do no more work than strictly necessary so that I can move on.

I didn't want to use the standard wallpaper, ugly pink faint idea of tiles, so I jumped on my computer and designed a tiled wall, roughly to the height of normal wainscoting. I printed the design on photographic paper and scored the outline of the tiles.  I have done this satisfactorily before when I built a kitchen in a roombox. 

One of the prepared tile panels

The original floor paper was meant to make the floor look like one big pink marble slab.  In itself not bad, but for me just nog good enough.  I cut it up into 'tiles' at 1/12th scale of our original floor tiles in the house and glued them onto paper.  I had a bit of a problem with the cutting. so they are not all the same size.  Hopefully it won't look too bad after I will have added grout, which I haven't done as yet.

No grout added as yet

Don't know if this bathroom cabinet is staying...

I have gathered the bathroom kits.  The cabinet with sink and mirror I had finished in the very beginning (some 20 years ago!?), as I had the bath and toilet.  The other kits I have discovered in an old shoebox and I will complete them shortly, most likely during club meetings.

Next I made up a container with grout and added a bit of grey and black paint to it to make it look more like cement. I have grouted the tiles and the floor is currently drying.

In the meantime I have finished the lamp for the bedroom and hung and connected it.  It works!

The bathroom lamp is in the making, but I used a bit too much of the glass paint, so it takes a while to dry properly.

A bit at a loss of what to do with the bathroom windows, I have decided to try and make venetian blinds.  The prototype is going to be made of paper.  If it works I will decide about the finished product. 

Hubby helped me with the jig to drill the holes in the slats, because I haven't set up my machines properly yet.  Don't forget it's been six or so years since I have been working on my dollshouses!

He made the template, and I have set up the drill and the drill stand.  I'm getting somewhere...