"Immaculate attention to detail"

Every time I wonder why I bother to make all the tiny details of my project as perfect as possible, I keep reminding myself about that newspaper article that made me so angry a year ago. Attention to detail is precisely what those decorators haven't done. But I won't repeat myself - read the post.

This weekend I have been working with details. Some of them I indicated in yesterday's post. When I started making the ceiling in the upper hall, including the ceiling rose for the chandelier, I realised that it would make sense to add the coving first, because the chandelier would be in the way. And before I moved on at all, I should probably fix the candles in the large chandelier. They were just attached with tack, and I removed them when I was working on the railing because they kept falling off. (I cannot take out the chandelier because it is attached in the sealed-off back corridor above). I knew the candles would go on falling off, and I needed to come up with a good idea about how to fix them. Unlike most of my candles, these are real birthday candles - not that I will ever light real candles in a dollhouse, but I had these rather ugly silver ones, so I painted them off-white. I had bought the candles in a charity shop for 30p because of the candle holders: miniature people make cups, goblets and other stuff with them. But after repeated attempts to fix candles upright with sticky dots, I took the holders, cut off the tip and put candles in them, as you normally do with candle holders.

 

My idea was that a holder would stay put better than a candle. But after a while it didn't look all that good.

Since I was multitasking I took down a sconce from a room box that I am dismantling. It goes together with a ceiling lamp I now have in the master bedroom. Let me tell you: it is worth while going through your own creations every now and then. The sconce was very clever, and I saw immediately that it was a solution for my chandelier problem.

Hopefully, gluing metal to metal will do it.

As I said, I was multitasking, and one of the tasks was door pediments. This is what I had in mind.

 

While I was rummaging through my numerous Very Useful Boxes I found another thing from the same shop. Another lesson to self: before embarking on any project, go through all your supplies. I had been saving these filigrees for ages, to make ceiling roses!

Just in time for the small chandelier in the upper hall, but I had completely forgotten them when I made the Adam ceiling in the smoking room! Shall I do it all over again, just to insert the rose? I think I shall. It will look so good.

Meanwhile, the coving I had painted was dry, and it was time to put it into the upper hall (before starting on the ceiling). It isn't proper miniature coving, but a 2 meter rail from B&Q for £1. In most of my rooms so far I have paper mouldings made from 1:1 embossed wallpaper. But for the front hall I wanted wooden coving for better effect.

I had to remove my pretty Victorian tiles because they sat just a couple of millimeters too high. It didn't really matter because I had to rearrange them anyway.

As you could have expected, while I was working on the back wall I happened to ruin a part of the railing. I should have made the mouldings before I made the railings. But then... and so on.

Anyway, here is the result of my immaculate attention to detail today, and I will continue tomorrow, so please come back. 

Internal doors

Since I won't be able to finish the basement for a while I have happily switched my attention back to the main house. There are several unfinished projects there, and many, many things I haven't even started on.

Today I spent the whole day on just two internal double doors. Which gives you a sense of how long various tasks take when you do them properly. I didn't take pictures of every layer of stain I used on the doors, but it took four or five layers before I was satisfied with the result, the last applied with a cloth rather than a brush, for a smoother surface. I then had some thoughts and even did some research on whether the door frames should be stained as well or painted white. This time I didn't consult my Facebook groups, yet followed the advice I received when I made the front door: I cut surrounds from paper and tested. There was no doubt that the surrounds should be white. I am almost out of white paint that has lasted me six years (2,5 litres bought for a 1:1 decoration), but managed to scrape the bottom to paint the frames, and here is the result:

Of course, the floor is not finished, there is no skirting, no threshold, the doors need door knobs, and more (the staircase is just fixed with masking tape and white tack). But one thing was clearly missing. Such fancy doors need door pediments. You can get a dozen different models on ebay, but I didn't want to follow the easy path. Not just because all these pediments are expensive, but mostly because, as you may have noticed, I like challenges. I have made pediments for single doors from air-drying clay, but this was much bigger, and after a couple of failed attempts to make a mould I gave up and instead rummaged through my materials. And this is what I found:

 

Swiss chocolate is delicious, but there are also some practical uses. Look at the detail that the arrow is pointing at. Do you see a door pediment?

I cut it out and pasted on a piece of white card:

 

Then I painted it with the very, very last drops of white paint, and here it is:

Since I have just saved £15 by this simple project I can buy more Swiss chocolate!