Miscalculation

Did I say in my previous post that I had made zillions of mistakes? Well. I have just discovered a big one. Remember the gentlemen's smoking room I was so proud of? It looked great, didn't it? And didn't I say that the rear room didn't matter because it wouldn't be visible? Well, it depends on how close you look.

The other evening I switched off all lights in the 1:1 room and switched on all lights in the house, including the flickering flames in the fireplaces. A professional might take a picture that does it justice, but believe me, it was stunning. I was particularly fascinated by looking through the windows. It was really intriguing.

Until I came to this lateral view of the rear room behind the smoking room:

This would never do, would it? Maybe one in a hundred guests would bother to have a look, but it would certainly be an inquisitive child who would notice and comment.

With a deep sigh I tore everything down and was back on square one. 

The lateral view through the side window revealed the open stairwell, the unfinished wallpaper, the wrong panel colour and the absence of proper moulding. In each case it was perhaps no more than a centimeter. But it looked untidy.

First of all, I had to close the stairwell. Because there would be no heavy objects there I simply took a piece of card (old document folder) and covered with self-adhesive shelf lining.

This time I didn't take any risks. Yes, only a couple of centimeters would be visible laterally, but it's easier to cover it all.

Then I painted the dark green panel. I should have removed the paper from the wall, but that was an overkill so I just painted over it. Then I added simple moulding, just unprofiled balsa strip and coffee stirrers. I didn't bother about the cornice although if you look very, very, very carefully through the side window you may see a glimpse of an edge. I don't think even an inquisitive child would notice. 

Now it was time to think about how to attach the book case to the wall. It so happened that I was reading a post in one of my Facebook groups about someone fixing something with velcro. I have a roll of velcro that I bought six years ago and only used two millimeters to make a toothbrush.

What a brilliant idea! Why haven't I thought about it before? I am sure there are more things in the house than can be successfully fixed with velcro. Whoever mentioned this on Facebook, you have the credit. Although I would never trust just velcro so I also used a screw to hang the book case on - it is made from a picture frame and has a hook.

I also put a painting on the wall. It is one of the first paintings I made, many years ago. It will be visible extremely laterally, but it adds hugely to the effect. You get a sense of vast spaces inside there.

Here is the result so far, although there is still moulding to be added.

Seemingly, this picture is exactly the same as in the old post. "Spot five differences". But the most important thing is that the lateral view is now correct. Welcome, the inquisitive child!