Thursday, November 29, 2012

'Fabulously Small'



I stumbled upon Monique's blog Fabulously Small today - if you haven't seen it yet be sure to take a look.

Amongst other things, I love what she's been doing with old clock faces and watch parts, this creation is one of my favourites from a post dated 26 July 2012.


As an added bonus she's having a giveaway to celebrate 100 Followers, so be sure to visit before the deadline of 17 December.

Images are by Monique and sourced from her blog. 

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Hallway and stairs - done!

No further progress to report on the bathroom for the moment - I've turned my attention back to the hallway, kitchen, dining and salon which are located above the ground floor Brocante. 


The wallpaper is a single sheet with lines scored to create the look of wallpaper strips typical of old papered walls.  The fake 'edges' have also been lightly stained with tea to create a more aged look as this wall is 'subject to damp'.   In old houses the edges of the wallpaper strips often yellow with age, especially if they become damp from time to time.  Tea was also used to create the staining intended to mimic more serious water damage. 

Stairs in


Balustrade added 


Stairwell wall in place, completing the hallway


There are obviously major issues with cracked plaster on the exterior of the back wall of this house, particularly the left corner - over the years the constant damp has caused the plaster covering to fall off exposing the lath underneath. Emily is going to need to sell a lot of goods in her Brocante if she has any hope of affording repairs! 

The stairs were made using instructions in Lea's book*  Le Grande Livre de la Maison Miniature. They're not the best piece of work I've ever done but most of the staircase will be invisible once the walls go in, and it was good practice.

I have to make a small diversion from this project now, I'm participating in Caterina's International Christmas Swap and I have to complete my swap gift for Terry and get it in the post, it's got a long journey ahead all the way from Australia to Italy!

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PS - Lea's book* is written in French.  However, the illustrations are very clear so it's possible to follow the instructions even if you don't read French.  Occasionally I do type a sentence or two into Google translate just to check on something I might be unsure about - however sometimes the translation is very amusing and not much help at all! ;)