From This to This

A few years ago I bought an old frayed purse that looked like Petite Point needlework.  It was very fine work and once I cut the purse up into pieces, I discovered that it was some sort of machine made faux Petite Point instead of the real thing.  So when I unearthed a kit for a very fragile "French Provincial" type double seater settee with a horrible piece of plain blue cotton material for the padded seat, I thought if I painted it gold, it would go in my new Drawing Room box. Once I'd glued the pieces together and sprayed it gold, it needed a better seat that what was provided so I went hunting through my boxes of fabrics and laces and voila!!  the purse from about five years ago......it was perfect in scale and colour and the stitching didn't fray.....too easy!!
 So here is the BEFORE photo:

and here is the AFTER photo:

I couldn't be happier with the finished product and it will look great against the right hand side wall of the room box between the two garlands of ribbons and flowers.

Dolls house Drawing Room Box

This morning I finished the Drawing Room/Living Room/Lounge Room box and it has really thrown me because it is much "posher" than I originally visuallized.  I think it is the French Provincial wallpaper that started it and a wooden fire place surround that a friend gave me that finished it off. The fireplace was in two pieces with a piece of quarter-round missing from under the mantelpiece and a piece of cornice missing from the top edge and it was painted plain white. The missing bit of quarter-round was replaced with a tiny piece of satay stick shaped to fit and the piece of missing cornice at the top was replaced by a little section of picture framing sanded and mitred to fit. I painted it with three coats of "Antique White" acrylic paint then used some gold coloured stick paint to brush onto the carvings and the frames on the top half with my finger. The paint looked pretty smudgy inside the frames so I used scraps of patterned wallpaper for the side panels and a piece of the plain wallpaper for the large central frame.  We had a bit of a catastrophe with the mirror though because we didn't wait long enough for the glue to set before putting the back and sides together with the ceiling and floor.  The mirror slewed sideways so this morning I was prodding and lifting with the blade of a Stanley knife to lift it from the wall.  The frame came off then I could lift the glass mirror from the backing paper.......whew........then I had to scrape all the lumps and bumps from the wallpaper and peel off as much as I could.  Finally, a new square of wallpaper glued to the wall, then the glass and then the frame before leaving the box on it's side for hours until I was sure that the mirror was stuck fast and straight!!
Scary but it is OK now, I can relax.

But, the furniture that I planned to put in the room box doesn't work anymore.........I have kits to make for comfortable sofas whereas now I think the room needs more fancy, gold, French-type furniture.  I always reckon that each room-box develops it's own personality and this one really galloped away without me!!! I can see that I am going to have to spend some extra money on this room.........a chandelier will look good too and a large picture in a gilt frame in the large open space of wallpaper on the back wall. I had no idea that the room would turn out this well, I have been left behind by my own Drawing room box.  Please disregard the tiny flecks of wood still on the carpet which are left over from when my husband drilled a hole in the wall for the plug from the "light-up" coal fire in the grate to go through. They will be cleaned up ASAP and the top raw edge of the box will be covered with a strip of the plain cream wallpaper. The sides of the box look as if they are curving inwards, believe me, they are straight - it is an optical illusion!!

Children's Room Finished

I have finished the children's room apart from the bedspread on the boy's bed.  I have tried knitting a plain blue one (rejected), crocheting a red,white,blue,yellow one (rejected), crocheting a plain cream one (rejected) - none of them look right.  Something will turn up, a knitting or crochet pattern or some fabric and it will be perfect.

In the meantime, all the toys are finished including a home made spinning top from two buttons, a bead and a broken mini drill bit; a counting frame made from scrap wood, wire and beads; a bucket and spade made from from a thimble and a toothpick and a pull-along duckling made from play-dough.

These kids are thoroughly spoilt with a toy-box each full to overflowing, toys on the floor and toys on the shelves around the walls.

This is the girls half.  She has a pretty pink/white/mauve striped crocheted bedspread and  a frilled valance.  Her toys include a bucket and spade, pull-along duckling, clown doll, Amish doll, spinning top, counting frame, miniature metal tea-set, rabbit, clown and blocks.

This is the boy's half.  His toys include the Golly, teddy, drum, toy soldiers, yacht, three miniature horses, a vintage toy train, box of tiny shells, kite and another teddybear.