Coming together

My bay window arrived today!  Thank you, Judith of 'In Some Small Way' for sourcing it despite the volcano.  So this weekend, which is a long weekend here in the UK as Monday is a holiday, I can bash the window to make a window seat similar to the Pickett Hill (PH) house.  And then I can start final assembly of the house. And if you have come to visit my blog after reading about it on Judith's newsletter - welcome!




Meanwhile, I have been wallpapering.  I started out with the MiniGraphics 'Williamsburg' mural wallpaper that I ordered from Australia.  This is a 1/12th scale paper but I played around with it a bit to find the best placement for my doubleheight room which was c. 9" high.  I found a layout which gave me some nice trees in the right places, and I'm pretty pleased with it.  i think it is going to look ok with the 1/24th scale furniture because the figures in the scene are almost life size for that scale.  So it will be like Trompe d'Oeil (fool the eye) artwork.

I apply my wallpaper with ordinary household wallpaper paste:  I buy the paste as dry flakes and mix up small quantities which I keep sealed in a jam jar.  It lasts for months.  I apply the paste to both the wall and to the paper with a sponge brush, let the paste soak into the paper for a minute, then smooth it onto the wall with my fingers.  I wait until it is bone dry, then use a sharp scalpel to cut out the window and door openings.

I applied pale blue stripes to the boy's bedroom, pink stripes to the girl's bedroom, duck egg blue diamonds to the attic bathroom, and pale green with daisies to the kitchen.  This is all scrapbooking paper that tones with each other and luckily looks ok with the mural as well.

I took the opportunity while the front wall is still accessible to build my front door.  I wanted a look similar to the PH front door which has sidelights echoing the design of the front door.  I built my sidelights out of coffee stirrers, and found some tiny beading for the cross struts.  My Grandtline front door is a different design to the PH door, so I placed my cross struts to echo the design of my own door.  I cut more coffee stirrers to be the moulding around the inside of the door. Then after taking these pics I painted it all in GW Bleached Bone beige. I won't glue it in until the house is assembled.

I need some help from my readers.  Eventually I will need to make the green shutters that are on the PH, but the pictures I have do not show the detail clearly.  Can anyone tell me if the PH shutters actually have louvred detail or slatted detail?  Or are they just solid silhouettes?  Thank you in advance for any clarification.