Welcome 100 and Miss Lydia Pickett Dining Table/Chair kits

Woo hoo, we hit 100 followers!  I'm not sure who the 100th person is, as Rosamargarita is still showing as the first icon, but then maybe Blogger isn't showing them in chronological order?  Anyway, welcome to you, 100.

A lot of my free time and energy was spent dealing with all the post-burglary stuff, but I did get some work done on my Miss Lydia Pickett 1/24 Dining Table and Dining Chairs kits.

I had already put these together a year ago before I started the build, but they were only undercoated as I didn't know what colour my kitchen was going to be (or if I was even going to have a kitchen as there wasn't going to be an LP 1/24th house).  The kits went together fine, all the laser cutting was very precise as usual with the LP kits.  Most of the LP kits, despite being laser cut, achieve a fairly satisfactory 3-D look through layering of different thickness of wood, but I think the chair legs are one of the less successful designs.  They don't look terribly convincing, and nor do the table legs.

I wanted a look that wasn't too matchy-matchy with the kitchen cupboards so I decided to try out a bottle of DecoArt Weathered Wood crackling medium that I had in my stash.  First I painted over a thin coat of Anita's Dusty Green, which is the colour I used on the shutters.  When that was dry, I painted on a coat of the crackling medium.

You can see I am not bothering much with the seat or the back inside the oval, as these will be covered by upholstery.

Once the crackling medium was dry, I painted over a coat of Tapioca, the same colour I used on the kitchen cupboards.  I have to say that it didn't work incredibly well.  I guess crackling works better when the surfaces are flat. The chair/table legs are so fiddly to paint that the crackling medium made the paint go blobby rather than cracked.  It worked better on the table although not perfectly.  Once it was all dry, I sanded off the worst blobs, and dry-brushed to touch up a few bald areas, and it looks fair enough. 

One important piece of information that I can't see included in the instructions, is that the printed fabric that comes with the kit is on a paper backing that needs to be pulled away before you can use the fabric.  Each chair came with printed fabric upholstery, an extra placemat, and a piece of batting, as well as laser-cut cardboard ovals for the back and front of the chair, and a laser-cut cardboard seat. 

You need to glue the batting to the seat and one oval for each chair.  I found I could glue all four seats and four ovals to just one piece of batting.  I prefer to glue to the batting, weight it to dry flat, and then cut out the batting from around the card.

After cutting out the back fabric panel, I glued it over the card oval with no batting.  I found it surprisingly hard to get the script in the fabric to end up straight across the oval.  Then I glued the oval onto the back of the chair.

There is a little skirt provided to glue around the edge of the seat.  The instructions are silent on whether or not to continue the skirt across the back of the chair, although it is long enough.  And there is no picture of the back of the chair provided.  I tried it both ways and decided it would look funny if the skirt was only on three sides, so I took it across the back as well.  That meant that I had to notch the back piece so that I could fold in the top raw edge just on the back of the chair.

The front oval, and the seat, are made the same way by gluing the printed fabric pieces over the batting/cardboard pieces.  Then they are glued onto the chair.  I could see in the picture on the kit that the edge of the seat cushion had been finished with a twisted cord, although the instructions don't mention this.  I decided to do a cord for mine as well, made from one strand of embroidery floss twisted back on itself.  I like it!  Now just need to do the other three chairs.

The table comes with a thin printed paper to glue around the edges, which matches the printed fabric.  There is also an optional table runner included in the same script fabric.


You can see the LP Chicken Coop cabinet in the background.  I didn't use the chicken-wire effect plastic as I didn't like it.  I need to get some china and glass to put in it, it's looking a bit empty now that the kitchen is getting more finished.

I wonder what the burglar thought?

Our four-day weekend for the Royal Wedding wasn't quite the relaxing break with lots of dollshousing, that I had hoped for.  We went away for two nights camping, and when we came back Sunday afternoon, it was to find that our house had been broken into.  So the rest of Sunday was spent dealing with police and insurance companies, and getting the broken window boarded up.

Although the thief had thrown around a lot of our possessions in the bedrooms, searching for valuables, and there were signs of searching on the ground floor, none of my dollshouses seem to have been touched.  Not even the Fairfield which was under construction in my bedroom, even though it was blocking access to a cupboard (which only had quilts in it, but the thief wouldn't have known that).  So I am thankful for that.  I can't help wondering what they were thinking, hyped up on adrenaline, quickly grabbing valuables, but finding cupboard after cupboard of craft materials and surrounded by a dozen or more dolls houses.  Not to mention sewing machines, yarn etc.  Probably cursing us for not having 'proper' valuables - if only they knew how much all of this stuff is worth!  But then I suppose it wouldn't be easy to sell.  They stole my son's Wii, his handheld game consoles, most of his games, and his savings, and some of my jewellery and my husband's watch, and both our laptops.  We all feel a bit unsafe now I think, and it will be a long time before we get our son to come camping again...

Anyway.  I did do some work on the Fairfield kitchen in the week, and a bit more today, so I will blog about that.

Before I do, I would like to welcome Rosamargarita, who I think is the 99th follower.  One more and I will have 100 people who are interested in my little Greenleaf conversion.  I am really grateful for the interest and support that you are all showing, and it definitely motivates me to keep going.  There are weeks when I know I would procrastinate and not do anything, but then the thought of having nothing to blog makes me do something.  Which is good.

Accessorising

This week I was adding some accessories and finishing the final cupboard unit containing the refrigerator.  I have said before that I find this the hardest part.  If you spend three hours building a house, you generally have a lot to show for it.  Three hours painting kitchenware doesn't get you much at all!

I had a set of shiny silver kitchen pots and pans, and a set of kitchen tools.  I added a couple of tiny turnings to be salt & pepper shakers.  I started out by painting the 'plastic' tools in Citadel Foundation paint (available from Games workshop) in Astromicon Grey.  Then I painted the inside of all of the pots in Games Workshop Boltgun Metal which is a dark silver.

I like the Games Workshop paints which are acrylic and go on well over almost any surface.  They aren't cheap but I am lucky as my DH and DS both collect and paint models, so we have lots of pots of paint.  Although I have to be a bit sneaky about using them.




I painted the outside of the pots and pans, and the Tiny Turnings, and the handles of the tools, in Citadel Foundation Bleached Bone (which surprisingly is lighter in colour than normal Games Workshop Bleached Bone.  After I took this picture, I gave them all a coat of clear nail varnish to make them shiny.

I put some glue in a plastic lid, and placed in all the kitchen tools.  You can still see the wet glue in this picture but it dried clear.  See what I mean about hours of work disappearing - you can't see most of the tools now!  It looks fairly realistic though, just like my real utensils jar in my real kitchen.

Then I started gluing in groceries, cookbooks, and some jars I had bought earlier.  It was easier to fill the shelves of this cupboard before I glued the cupboard to the wall.  None of these groceries are terribly convincing in high resolution digital images, but they look ok in the kitchen to the naked eye.

I decided to put the pots and pans in the corner shelf, where they would be on view, and handy for the cook working at the island stove/hob, plus near the ovens.  I stuck the pots and pans in first with Tacky Wax, then painted and glued in the lasercut railing around each shelf.  The railing was the final bit of the original kitchen kit from Judith of In Some Small Way.  It's a nice touch, but I had trouble getting it to fit evenly around the shelves.






Bashing the fridge cupboard

You may remember I am using a refrigerator that is a fridge magnet, plus a cardboard cupboard from Petite Properties.  I started the conversion by gluing in some padding pieces of wood between the hinges of the refrigerator doors.

Then I glued on the cardboard cupboard.  First I trimmed off the front edge of the top and bottom pieces so they were more flush with the doors.  Then I glued it on flush with the front of the refrigerator.

Then I glued on some padding pieces of thin wood on either side of the cupboard, so the sides become flush with the top and bottom pieces, and with the sides of the refrigerator.

To complete the illusion of a fitted cabinet, I cut a piece of thin wood into a side piece, and top piece, and glued them on.

I added a thicker piece of wood in an 'L' shape along the top edge, and glued on some mitred cornice, in the same way that I completed the other kitchen cabinets.  You can see that it now looks like a cupboard, although it has come out slightly taller than the other units.

To finish, I gave it three or four coats of 'Tapioca' to match the other units, and glued in the acrylic panes that come with the cardboard cupboard kit.  I also painted and glued on the same handles that are on the rest of the kitchen.

I glued in the last of the groceries, onto the shelves of the cupboard, and then glued the finished unit into the corner of the kitchen.  Now I just need to fill in a few pieces of skirting, and the kitchen is more or less finished.  Just needs two stools for the breakfast bar and of course more accessories.

Cabinets installed

I had an extra day to work on this as we are having a four-day weekend in the UK for Easter, so I spent a pleasant few hours in my bedroom listening to podcasts while I worked on the kitchen.

Before I installed the cabinets, I wanted to trim out the room.  I framed the door openings with 1/32 by 1/4" wood, painted to match the cabinets. I also glued a short length along the top of the bay window to hide the wobbly edge of the cutout.

Then I added coving around the edges of the ceiling, again painted to match the cupboards.

At long last I could glue in the upper cabinet / oven cabinet combo.

Once the glue had set on the wall cupboard, I glued on the 'tile' paper - overlapping it right onto the oven cupboard. This paper was a cut-out from a magazine, and I sealed it with Decoart Multi-Purpose Sealer.

Then I glued the sink cupboard on top of the 'tile'.  To my relief the tiles line up fine with the countertop, and the tap is centred under the cut-away in the wall cupboard.

Then I glued in the dishwasher, and glued on an end wall which I cut from the original countertop that came with the kit.  I love this picture, it looks like you could walk right into the house.

Tonight I have spent about three hours assembling tiny little 'groceries' to stock the shelves with.  The colour printables of labels and boxes come with the kit.  The kit also includes some wooden forms of various sizes, including a dowel for the 'tin cans'.  I found that I had to use mostly my own wood scraps as the forms that come with the kit are either too thick, or not the right shape, for the printables.  It is incredibly time consuming, I feel like I have very little to show for my evening even though I managed to make about 30 tiny groceries. I took this in-progress picture about halfway through the job.


I may be going to the London Kensington dollshouse show, where I will have to look for some 1/24th scale wine bottles to go in my wine holder, and hopefully a couple of stools for the breakfast bar.


DS still hasn't painted the other little car for me, although I have asked several times (some might call it nagging but I just don't want him to forget  :)

Worktops

Still on the kitchen this week, although at least I made it as far as applying the worktops (counters) to the cabinets.

I cut up some leftover cornice from the kids' bedrooms and used it to finish the tops of the wall cabinets.  After I glued it in place, I gave it all a few coats of 'Tapioca' so it matched the cupboard.

Then it was finally time to tackle the worktops / countertops.  I bought the resin? granite-look worktop from a supplier at Miniatura, who told me it could be cut with a good handsaw or a sharp knife.  Um, no it can't.  Or at least, not in any reasonable timescale.  Several minutes of carefully scoring across the underside with various sharp knives, and my razor saw, produced a very shallow modest groove.  So it was into the attic and drag out my Unimat Basic which has a primitive scroll saw.  It made hard work of it, but did manage to cut a more or less straight line.  I was then able to clean up the cut quite well using fine wet&dry sandpaper.  As well as trimming the width, I trimmed off the corner above the corner shelf, similar to the counter in the original kit.

For the main cupboard, I again cut it to width.  Then to cut the sink aperture, I used the original counter from the kit to mark the opening - ensuring it was centred under my cut-out in the wall cupboard.  Then I used my Dremel multi tool to drill a hole in each corner of the rectangle, so that I could fit the blade of the Unimat up into the rectangle to cut it out.  The hole in each corner let me turn the blade to cut the next side.  I cleaned up the cut with sandpaper wrapped around a stick.

The sink came with the kit, and was made of clear plastic.  I carefully cut off the excess (but I wish now I had trimmed even closer to the 'sink') and painted the underneath in Games Workshop Mithril Silver.  I also painted the bent wire 'faucet' that came with the kit, and the two bead 'taps' in silver.  Then I glued them all in, drilling a hole for the faucet.

The Miss Lydia Pickett kitchen island has a nice gingerbread trim under the breakfast bar.  I cut up a Northeastern Apex Trim to make a similar effect on mine.

Now I just need some 1/24th stools for my breakfast bar.  I couldn't find any at Miniatura, so I may have to try building them which could be tricky.

My last picture is of my teenage son's contribution to the project.  DH and DS went to a modelling show on the weekend, where their goodie bags included this small metal car.  DS painted it for me in his choice of 'girly' colours, and I've asked him to do the other one in 'boy' colours for the boy's room.

I can't believe it's been a year

I've just realised that I missed my blog-iversary - it's now been more than a year since I started this project on 2 April 2010. So I'm either really getting my money's worth from the Greenleaf Fairfield kit in terms of hours of enjoyment, or I am just incredibly slow.  Or maybe a bit of both.  If I didn't have to work, and could spend hours every day on my dollshouses, then this blog would have been concluded a long time ago.  Sadly I live in the real world and have to spend five days a week at a desk in London, where I don't even get much time to read other people's blogs.  Sigh...

This week I have continued to apply the wallpaper and trim to my kitchen cupboards.  This is the oven cabinet with the microwave and oven glued in place.

There is far more wallpaper provided in the kit than you actually need.  So I decided to add some faux cupboards to the other side of my kitchen island by using some of the excess wallpaper.  I turned the unused trim from the refrigerator (because I am using an actual refrigerator) sideways, cut off the 'cupboard' and cannibalised the cut-off part to make uprights.  It isn't quite right as the kickboard at the bottom is disproportionately high, but you will only be able to see this side of the island by peering in the windows so I think it will be alright.  Better than a blank face.

This is how much wallpaper I had left over.

I'm not going to be able to use the prepared cornicing provided in the kit, so I glued on a thick board on top of the wall cabinet which will act as a foundation for gluing new cornice to.

I added a spacer bar down the right side of the oven cabinet as it isn't quite wide enough for the alcove where I am putting it, then added a matching cornice-base to the top of the oven cupboard.  Then I glued the wall cupboard to the oven cupboard, forming an 'L' shape.

At this point, I tried everything in place to see how it was going to look.  I like it. The wallpaper in the kit suits the green wallpaper in the room, and the cabinets all look fairly natural and not like they have been kitbashed.  Whew!

I haven't painted the dining set yet as I am waiting until the kitchen is done before I decide on colours.

Then it was time to add the knobs.  These come in the kit and are basically tiny segments cut from a dowel.  The instructions recommend that you paint them by rolling them around in a puddle of paint, then rubbing excess paint off between your fingers.  I found it took two coats, and the dark sides of the cylinder were still showing but I decided to leave them as otherwise my knobs would be invisible against the matching cupboard.  I applied them with tweezers, dipping them in glue and then positioning them. I had to go downstairs and look at my real cupboards to see where the knobs should go.

Kitcheneering

Still working on the kitchen, which I'm sure doesn't surprise anyone. I've spent most of my time this week painting the cabinets and trim, using acrylic paint in 'Tapioca' colour, which is a slightly yellowish white.  There are so many nooks and crannies that it takes a surprisingly long time to do each coat.  Also, I found that there seems to be a bit more charring on this kit than on the LP kits, and it has taken a few more coats to get a clean edge.  Plus sanding lightly between each coat.

I also painted a coat of DecoArt multi-purpose sealer over all the artwork:  the wallpaper that comes with the kit, all the groceries and labels that come with the kit, the printed oven/microwave/stove that comes with the kit, some potential tiles that I printed from Jim's Printables site online, and some alternative potential tiles that were in a dollshouse magazine a while ago.  Although the sealer leaves a slight sheen and in a very bright light you can see brush marks, I prefer to protect the artwork so that I don't have to worry about ruining it if I get moisture onto the inkjet surface.

The hob/stove, oven and microwave will all make up the same:  you paint the edges of the provided wood square black, then glue on the cutout.  Here is my hob, pictured on top of the countertop that I am considering using.










The cabinets are all constructed in the same basic way.  I've made up one so far, and will work on the others this week.

First, you cut out wallpaper to fit behind the 'cupboard' part of the cabinet, slightly smaller than the trim piece so the paper edges won't show.  This gets glued on the cabinet.

Then you glue the trim piece on top, to give the illusion of doors.  There are knobs provided in the kit. It's very simple, but it is going to take me a while to complete all of the cabinets to this stage.

Kitchen kapers

This week I am still bashing the kitchen kit.  I'm almost ready to start painting now.

I cut the dishwasher down fairly easily, using a razor saw.  The only problem is that the door hinges protrude below the cut line, so I will have to snip off the tips of those.  Then the door will still open but it will fall off - but I could stick it open if I wanted to do a scene with the door partly ajar.

I assembled the upper cupboard as per the kit instructions.  You can see the wine storage shelves at the right. 

I assembled the right hand cupboard from the kit, which would normally house the sink, as per the kit instructions.  I had a little trouble with the corner shelves.  The instructions say to glue the shelves even with the right edge, so they protrude on the left edge (front edge) of the side wall. But when you glue on the back of the unit, it has grooves cut into it, to receive the back of the shelves.  If the shelves are even with the right edge, then the grooves will just be empty air and won't be supporting the back of the shelves.  I compromised and nudged the shelves so they were sticking out the back a little, to fit into the grooves on the back.

The Miss Lydia Pickett (LP) kitchen island has drawer and basket detail on the front side facing the viewer, which puts it on the wrong side for the imaginary cook using the kitchen. I'm tempted to do the same, so as not to just be presenting a blank wall to the viewer.  I might try to use the fridge trim (which I don't need) to create faux cupboard detail on the sink side of the island.

The pantry cupboard is made from 1/3rd of the original oven/pantry/fridge unit, similar to the way I made the standalone oven unit.  I cut new side pieces from the remaining third of the front and back of the original unit, as I am not going to make the refrigerator from the kit.  Oh, and when it says 'dry fit the shelves and then glue', it turns out the shelves have a right way up.  I was concentrating on centering them to fit into the cut-out in the front piece, and forgot to check that the trim piece matched the shelves.  It didn't because I'd glued them the wrong way up.  Luckily I was able to pry them apart later and do it again - I love tacky glue.

So now all the basic pieces are assembled, and I can start painting.