Finished up the final floorboards for the drawing room.

Then I took a good hour going through all my dollhouse supplies, rediscovering what I had, organizing everything on the shelves and searching for my floor plan, which I finally discovered on the last shelf. So I used the plan to cut out a ceiling for the room.

Placed a few pieces of bedroom furniture on top to see what that would look like.

Added the walls back in for the sitting room to the left, with a piece of matte board laid on top for a ceiling.

Which makes the side of the house look like this for now.

Then I painted the subfloor to the sitting room in black and took away one of the wall panels. Which makes it look like this.

I know I’ve debated having that extra wall section in or out before and I still haven’t made up my mind. The view is better without, but you miss that feel of the octagonal tower. I might leave it open down here, and add the last section on the next floor up for the music room and for the tower room on the top floor.

For now, be well.

Ever since I started building this house, I’ve wanted the drawing room to have the same sort of stenciling as the room in this photo, which I found somewhere online.

Lately, as I get closer to working on the walls and ceiling of the drawing room, I’ve been dreading having to recreate this design on the computer. But this past week I was pretty sick with a cold, and one evening, as I was unable to do much of anything else, I was browsing old wallpapers online to get some inspiration for other rooms on the house.

Bradbury & Bradbury is a company that makes reproduction wallpapers from the Victorian period onward, and when I was perusing their site, I came across the most wonderful surprise. Here are some of their wallpapers / ceiling papers:

It seems whoever decorated this room got their wallpapers from Bradbury & Bradbury! And this means I don’t have to recreate the whole design from scratch!!! Can’t tell you how excited this made me.

But before working on the walls and ceiling, I needed to finish the floor. So I worked on that yesterday and today, as I recovered from my cold. First the left quadrant:

Then I finished the trim around the fireplace.

And then the final quadrant.

The floorboards are finished except that middle section, which I will do next time.

So here’s the drawing room so far.

While I was sick, I also ordered some more furniture to fill up the room, so those should be coming soon.

Good night.

Kept going with the floorboards this evening.

More than two thirds of the way done with that center section. Here’s the result so far.

The little red toy plane is on the table because my two-year old boy was looking at the house this afternoon and he said, “I live in this house.” He pointed out that his room (the nursery) was upstairs, as was his bed. He said he goes downstairs to the kitchen to eat at the kitchen table in the morning. And that he plays with his toys in the drawing room. So we put a toy there to make it real. I love that he’s starting to really enjoy the house.

Good night.

Started making wider floorboards for the middle of the room. They look a  little big for a modern floor but I think they’re similar to the wide planks often used in older houses, so I’ll go with these.

Worked my way up the other side of the room also, as well as the trim up the side of the right wall under the cabinet.

Took a long time to get all the trim around the fireplace correct.

I’d forgotten just how much time it can take to complete what seems to be a simple task. But here’s what I’ve done for now.

Seen from a better angle and with a temporary ceiling placed above the walls, I think the effect is quite nice. At least I hope so.

When I get done with the other corner of the fireplace trim, the rest should go pretty smoothly.

Until then, good night.

Back to the floorboards this afternoon.

It took a while to match up the floor trim pieces correctly so the pattern was continuous when it was straight.

Made it most of the way around and realized I needed to do the middle before I did the right wall trim, to make sure everything ended up parallel.

Stained everything but left parts of it unglued for now.

Wasn’t sure I liked the middle floorboards going lengthwise like that…and thought they might be a bit too narrow for old floorboards. I’ll try wider boards next time, but for now, I tried them at a different angle just to see.

Not sure I like that either. Here’s the lengthwise look again with furniture.

And here’s a third possibility I like better…I’d divide the middle floor into four quarters and do each quarter on a different angle.

Well, I’m still not sure what to do and I think wider floorboards might be better. So I’ll sleep on it a little. Good night.

I went to the Philadelphia Miniaturia show this weekend and it reminded me, among other things, that I had this beautiful house to work on and that I had been neglecting it for much too long. Furthermore, I picked up some amazing floor trim at the show, which would work perfectly in the drawing room and would solve my trim-making issues.

So then it was back to cutting floor boards, staining them, and gluing them in place.

When I got to the back of the room, I realized I still hadn’t glued the walls in. Which also meant gluing in the little bridge-like rails the pocket doors would slide on..

Gluing the side wall in place…

And then the back wall. There’s a little gap on the right back corner. That will get filled with wood filler soon.

I continued the floor trim around the back of the room.

But then it was time to go. So here’s the drawing room so far.

I had forgotten how calming it could be, working  in this miniature world. Soothes the soul.

Be well. Good night.

It’s been a little while since I’ve had time to work on the house, but tonight I started on the drawing room floor boards.

I had bought a couple stain pens and cut the tips into a point to make them smaller in order to do the detail work on the floor trim. But the stain just bled across the wood when I used them.

So I tried marking the wood with an x-acto knife first to make an edge for the stain. It seemed to work pretty well.

I might keep trying this way or I might find some other way for it to work. I could always use felt tip markers instead of actual stain…

Next I started the long and tedious process of measuring out floor boards for the outside of the room and then staining them.

Glued in one line of floor boards in the bay window area.

Then a second line.

Next I wanted to do the first set of decorative trim boards with a dark line down the center. The dark brown stain marker I had bought wasn’t dark enough to contrast well with the medium brown, so I tried with a black felt tip instead.

I think it shows up alright so I’ll continue like this next time.

Oh, and I bought a second chair for the sitting room next door and a display cabinet for the drawing room. Still need a lovely console for the left-hand drawing room wall but I haven’t found the right one yet.

Good night.

Last week, I finally found the perfect drawing room furniture! I’ve been searching since I abandoned the drawing room a year ago, so I was awfully happy to find these.

Now I just need to finish the room around it.

Last time, I had made the walls on each side of the chimney too narrow. So I pried the old walls off and made new ones.

I think the proportions are more realistic now.

Then I started painting the sub-floor black so the cracks between the floorboards show up better.

I also did the area behind the fireplace…

…so the inside of the fireplace works now.

The wood of the back stairs which I had stained but not finished last year is looking rather dry and dull, so I experimented with a bit of Danish oil on an extra piece to see if I liked the effect. I’d like the area to look polished but not shiny and varnished since those are servants stairs, after all. I’ll see how it looks after it dries overnight.

Finally, I drew up a small scale version of a pattern I might use for the drawing room floor.

I like the trim but I suspect the middle will look too fussy in this small a scale, so I modified it a little.

And that’s all I had time for tonight. Be well.

I had a few details to fix in the drawing room tonight. First, I needed to add a patch to the side of the bay window, since I had decided not to put a wall there.

Even though the kitty-cat seems rather upset about the leftover cracks, they will be covered up by the floor boards and by the wood covering the front of the room openings, so no one will see them.

Then, since I had decided to raise the windows by half an inch, I needed to cut a new bay window wall, cut an opening in it for the window and add studs.

I then propped that wall up where it belongs.

Next, I needed to create a chimney for the fireplace. Cut out the walls:

Glued them together with supports:

Placed it against the wall. I’m not sure if I made it deep enough…I may need to redo this next time.

Finally, I decided the fireplace mantel was too black…

…so I highlighted the details in gold.

So here’s where I am so far. I don’t seem to be getting as much done each evening as I used to, but at least I’m advancing…

Good night.