Fireplace with chimney breast

In Womble Hall, there will be many fireplaces. They will all be different. When I was a beginner, I bought a fireplace front because I thought I would never be able to make one. I was so ignorant I didn't even know that fireplace fronts are - well, fronts. That they need a proper fireplace and a chimney breast. At that point I just added a black background.

After I had renovated the fireplaces in the Tudor house and especially after I had made a proper inglenook I had a leftover front which I decorated and used first in the art gallery and then in the Georgian house. I made a slight imptovement on a plain wooded fireplace, I have also made a half-scale fireplace. In other words, I have had some training as a fireplace-maker. What is the correct word for fireplace-maker? There must be one.

What I haven't yet made is a proper chimney breast, and now is the time. I will have to make chimney breasts for the existing fronts, but I also wanted to test an idea I got when I was at B&Q pinching wallpaper samples. I found this one and saw immediately that it was fireplace material.

Making a basic fireplace is easy. I used two jenga blocks from my endless supply and an unidentified bit of wood. Then I glued on bits of the wallpaper. I took pictures of every step because it was interesting to follow the improvement.

In the last picture in particular you see clearly the difference between left and right. I wanted to use the curved pattern from the wallpaper, but it was too large. I may use it elsewhere.

Now that the front was ready I needed a chimney breast. I made it from hard foam which the dollhouse parts came in. It's terribly crumbly, but it's easy to cut to shape. I glued the whole thing onto a piece of card, which also provided the back of the fireplace. I had to correct my earlier mistake: the horisontal decorations had to go all the way on the sides of the chimney breast.

As I started painting the inside I noticed that the foam created a very interesting stony effect. Therefore I collected the leftover crumbles and glued them onto the back.

I haven't decided which room this fireplace will go into, but I wanted to test it with wallpaper. This is just some bits I had from a previous project.

Now I needed a hearth. First, I had to add a bit of card as a base. I should have cut it when I made the back, but I hadn't, so there wasn't much I could do about it. But this is a moment when you are glad you have saved all those plastic lids. I cut a lid in half, and it was just the right size. 

Then of course I painted the hearth black, and here we go! The fireguard is from the old Victorian house and made from a metal belt. I guarantee that it is one of a kind! The fireplace set is made from paper clips and clock hands, and the coalbin is from an antique shop. 

I also wanted to test the whole thing in a room. As I said, I am not sure which room it will eventually go into, or whether I am going to use this wallpaper at all, but anyway: 

Mind, this is all white-tacked, and obviously only one wall and half of the floor is done, and I am not sure that the floor and the wallpaper go well together. Or maybe they do. Maybe I will have this wallpaper in this room. Now use you imagination. Richly decorated ceiling and an ornate chandelier. Two wall lights. Heavy matching curtains (there is a clever way to print on fabric). It's going to be a most gorgeous room. Come back soon.

Mirror frames

This is a very simple project. I always buy small cheap picture frames, and today I found some good ones at a flea market. 

These can be used both for pictures and mirrors, and I needed some mirrrors for my Georgian house. I use tin foil for mirrors, and for a period house it's just as well that they are darkish.

My usual problem with heavy frames is that you cannot fix them with blue tack or sticky dots. But these frames had fixture for standing which I used to attach a piece of wire. 

This is what it looks like in the interior:

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Making a fancy door

The entrance door in the Georgian house is non-standard, so there is no point in trying to buy anything that would fit. I had painted it brown on the outside, following the descriptions in dollhouse books, but on the inside I wanted something more interesting than plain white. I once made doors in my Victorian house, but it was long ago when I was just starting my life as a miniture-maker and didn't have enough materials, tools, experience and imagination. Nevertheless, I studied those old doors and thought I would paste some wooden strips on the door for depth effect. And then I had an idea. I am sure I had seen it somewhere.

I cut three frames with increasingly larger opening, from plain white card, recycling last year's student handbook.

Then I pasted them upon each other and added the internal panels with three layers of card. I used an envelope clip for door handle.

Here it is in the interior. I think it is one of my most beautiful creations. Now I must finish the bow window and make the door posts.

Developing the Georgian house

After the succesful completion of the plastic house I felt I was in the right mood to return to my Georgian house, or Chippendale house. It was originally meant to display the beautiful set of Chippendale furniture, but once the rooms were decorated, I didn't go back to finish the exterior or to decorate the front doors on the inside, and it spoiled the impression. Anyway, I started by finishing the front and painting the side and back walls and the roof.

I know the quoins (corner stones) are not quite right, but there is no way I could paint half-stones neatly enough. I decided to paint the roof to begin with; I may cover it with tiles later. I used a red hobby paint that turned out awful, so I diluted with with water with some brown paint added to it, which produced tolerable results. At least the house looks somewhat finished now on the outside.

Then I turned to the front doors. I had painted one of the windows earlier, just to see what it would look like, and it doesn't look good at all. 

But first I had to decide whether I would use paint or wallpaper. I know my limitations, so I realised that I would never be able to cut neat wallpaper around the windows; therefore I decided to paint. I used Brian Long's excellent book The Authentic Georgian Dolls' House for colour guidance.This is what I ended up with:

My next concern was what to do with borders and how to separate the two floors. For the latter, I used a dado rail, and I painted the upper border white and added a cornice. As usual, I take the step-by-step pictures because only then you see how each step makes a difference. You don't see it with simply the before and after picture, at least, not in a larger project like this.

For the opposite door, I chose a different colour scheme, and again, the rail and cornice make a neat finish.

I still need to decide what to do with the side borders.

Fireplace makeover

It has been a while since I made something for the Georgian house. There is not much to add there, but the bedroom needed a freplace, and I had one from a set of plain wooden furniture.

This is what I made with it: I painted the inside and the base black and the front, white. I left the top as it was, because it was quite common with wooden tops, and it looks nice. I considered decorating the front, but decided that in a bedroom it would most likely be plain (I have a ornate one in the drawing room). I glued a piece of lace on the fireguard and painted copper. I made the fire in a technique that I have used for all fires, with some variations. I built a log fire with twigs from the garden and covered with tiny bits of red and yellow-golden ribbon, shaking them to make it look natural.

Here it is in its room. As always, just a tiny improvement makes a huge difference.

 

Chippendale cabriole chairs

This kit didn't come with my original bargain from ebay.I bought it from an online shop as I was buying supplies. This is not an x-acto kit from the 1970s, but a modern one from Mini Mundus in Germany. They have most of the x-acto miniatures, but not all of them.

  

As usual, I stained the bits first. But for this miniature you have a sand the legs. And sand. And sand. Because they have to be round.

 

The instruction sheet was as good as in the x-acto kits, but the paper was new and crisp, not old and yellowish. I started with the seats, which was easy, but then came the alignment. I had to do it several times before I got it right.

Assembling the back was also quite a job.

Gluing on legs was not as difficult as I thought it would be. That is, after I had figured out which side should be on the outside.

Arms were easy, but needed som  parience because glue had to set before you could continue. In this pictures you see clearly that the stain I am using is too pink. So I used another coat, and then varnish.

The fabric provided with the kit wasn't particularly inspiring.

 

I rummaged through my materials and found a bit of creamy satin. Even though it doesn't have a pattern I think it fits better. I took this picture to show how the final detail makes a huge difference.

 

Here are the chairs in their room. I am not sure they will be in this room, but so far this is the best way to dispay them.

Chippendale wing chair

For this project I didn't have any instruction sheet, and somebody had started it and left unfinished. If I hadn't made the sofa I wouldn't have had a clue how to make this chair and what all the templates were for. You might think there is no big deal upholstering a miniature chair - try it next time!

  

The person who started on this project had assembled the legs and apparently given up on upholstery. The smaller templates were torn so I had to make my own. I wasn't sure it would work, but it did.

I knew how to make the sides since it was more or less the same as the sofa: first the edges, then the inside, then the outside.The bottom and the cushion were also easy.

 

But then the trouble began because I couldn't figure out how to make the back, and the sofa instructions were not helpful because it was a completely different construction. I sat for a while staring at the bits. I know I made it wrong because there was a template left so obviously I missed at least one step. But nobody will ever know.

 

The chair and the sofa go well together, but I am not sure what else will fit in this room. It feels crammed. Even though it is correct scale it feels that the firniture is too massive for the room.