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.