House restoration: basement

With the attic restoration done, I went three levels down to the basement. I know it probably doesn't make sense, but the basement also looked like it didn't need a lot of repair, and I was eager to have as many rooms as possible finished. Actually, there is some logic in getting kitchens done before anything else.

There are two kitchens in Womble Hall, as in any mansion with self-respect: best kitchen and working kitchen. Best kitchen is just for show; it is never used to cooking. It displays fine copper utensils and other implements that are never used. Best kitchen at Womble Hall is full of objects, a mixture of handmade and bought, and I keep adding to it.

The scope of damage was tolerable, mostly mouldings.

But of course the cutlery in the cupboard got muddled.

I am very particular about proper order of cutlery in my 1:1 kitchen so I spent some time sorting minicutlery with tweezers.

Then I put in most of the furniture and utensils. The greatest challenge was the shelf next to the stove. Everything else I could fill with pots and pans before inserting into the room, but for this shelf I had to reach into the room. A good deal of patience, and the show kitchen is done.

The working kitchen was miraculously almost fine, except for a broken window and a few tiles missing from the floor.

The window was easy just to press in gently. I found the tiles in the far corner and glued them back. I made this floor many years ago from air-drying clay. Today I would have done it from egg cartons, which would have been easier and neater. I think I will replace it some time, but not now. It looks fine. 

The stove was slightly broken.

It is handmade and easy to mend. And putting it back was also a good moment to see the room before it was filled with stuff.

When I opened the box marked "Kitchen, small things", I realised that it contained a mix of objects from all basement rooms, therefore it would make sense to deal with them at this point. The pantry looked fine, just a few broken shelf legs. And the mouldings had got unstuck.

It is very difficult to work in the pantry because it is so narrow. When I put in my hand, I cannot see what I am doing. When I first built it, I used tweezers to put stuff on the shelves. I like moving things around so I don't glue them. I considered taking out the shelves to mend, but it felt too complicated. I just glued on the missing bits.

The entrance looked relatively fine.

One chain on the ceiling light has gone off, but I cannot do much about it now because it is attached from the floor above so I will deal with it when I move on to that room. I cannot fix it as it is, again because the room is too narrow.

The door into the rear corridor was jammed, and when I managed to open it, I discovered that the back stairs were broken.

 

This will be very difficult, not to say impossible to mend, because the rear corridor is sealed off, and I cannot access it without dismantling the whole basement. Of course I can just close the door, but it would be a shame because it is such an interesting feature. The corridor is also visible from side windows. I have no idea how to go about it.


Meanwhile, I took everything out of the box marked "Kitchen, small things", contemplating the sheer scope of objects I have in the basement alone.

Most of these I made from rubbish or upcycled. Here are some close-ups.

I was so overwhelmed by this sight that I sat still for a while, staring at it, not knowing where to start. If I hadn't had two destructive felines sharing my living space I would have left it until tomorrow, but my options were either find a place for every object or pack them all again. Guess what I chose! And it wasn't that bad at all, just as in full-scale (which I went through recently). Once you put every item where it belongs, it doesn't look crowded or messy.

Here is the working kitchen, just like it was before. The cook and the kitchen maids are happy.

 

There are a couple of details missing that I will hopefully find in another box of "Small things": two antique tin shelves where all the pewter stuff will go (which is a mix of expensive antique and painted plastic), as well as a set of servant bells. There may be other items scattered in various boxes.

Here is the pantry, full of goods.

 

I have considered gluing everything on with glue dots, but will wait a bit. I have recently attended a course in making miniature breads, so I may want to replace bread, cheese and pies that I made fifteen years ago. It is amazing how our standards rise. Fifteen years ago I was proud of my breads.

Finally, the entrance. As I said, the lamp will be mended later.

This lower entrance is used for deliveries, this is why there are so many food baskets. I still feel upset about the broken stairs, but now much I can do right now.

And not to forget the fronts.

I could never understand why people might NOT want to decorate the fronts. There is so much interesting space to be added. In this case, all the utensils to be proudly displayed.

Anyway, now the whole basement is in relatively acceptable shape. Relatively, because there is some work on the exterior to be done, and the wiring has either to be mended or removed and replaced. But I feel I have made clear progress.

To be continued.

House restoration: nursery and servant quarters

The next room I repaired after the big disaster was servant quarters. Once again, my step-by-step posts from two years ago proved helpful.

There wasn't much damage to this room so I only had to glue the torn wallpaper.

As with the guest bedroom, I only put in things I could easily find in my storage boxes, so the numerous details are still to be added.

Next to the servant room is the nursery. I love this room because you can add as many details to it as you please.

At first I though there wasn't much damage to it, just torn wallpaper and some minor damage to the floor.

 

On closer inspection, however, the door surround was broken.

It was difficult to mend because it was hard to reach. When I built the house, I worked as much as possible on flat surfaces, including inserting doors. This door, I remember, was particularly stubborn, but at least I didn't have to fix it standing on a stepladder, reaching to the farthest corner. It will never be perfect, but it wasn't probably perfect to begin with.

Then I glued the wallpaper,  made some improvements on the floor, and while I was at it, I painted some edges that I had neglected three years ago.

With the nursery, I believe I have found more or less everything that should be there, an abundance of toys and books. The only thing still to be done is hang the bookshelves. And a couple of children are still evacuated in the country, but the room is now ready for them to return.


To be continued.

Disaster inspection

As some of you, my dear readers, already know, my large Victorian house, Womble Hall, was badly damaged during relocation from the UK to Sweden. It's too late to complain because it has been in storage for almost a year, and even if I could get compensation, the damage is done, and no money can replace it. I am particularly frustrated because the movers packed chairs and tables in layers upon layers of cardboard, while they transported the delicate dollhouse without any protection at all! But there is nothing I can do about it, so I am pretending that Womble Hall was bombed during the Blitz and has to be restored to its former glory. The former glory, by the way, is this:

On the outside:

And this is what I got out of storage

I considered sitting down and crying, but it wouldn't be of much help. This house has cost me more money in kit and material than I am prepared to confess, as well as about 2000 hours of work so I am grateful I got it over in one piece - well, almost. I anticipate the repairs will take many, many hours, and I will take it easy and enjoy it just as I enjoyed building it before. Maybe I can make improvements. Maybe I can re-decorate, as they would have after the Blitz. On this positive note, some closer inspection. It is much, much worse than it looks. The lights do not work of course; several windows are smashed, floors are broken, wallpaper torn.

One of my cats immediately discovered the perfect hiding place. This is a classic: cat in a dollhouse. Something from a horror movie.

I have now barred the front door with a piece of cardboard because he did some further damage in the room. I can't imagine how this huge cat can squeeze through the tiny door - and turn round! Cats are amazing.

It took me weeks to approach the house because I really didn't know where to start. I then decided to start from the attic because it seemed the least damaged. I couldn't be more wrong, because that's when I discovered that the roof has gone off. It's a miracle they didn't lose it altogether. So I removed it, but I know I won't be able to put it back on my own.

 

Two dormers are falling off, two window sills are missing, the ceilings are torn, and on the outside tiles are missing. That will be the easiest to replace. So far I have put the roof away in my store room, safe from the cats.

Then I stared at the attic for a long time, again not knowing where to start.

 

I decided to restore one room at a time, so that when I have done one room I will see the result. This is how I worked last time round, even if it meant that I had to remove objects from rooms every now and then. And I decided to start with the room that seemed in need of least work, the guest bedroom on the right.

More than two years ago I wrote a series of blog posts showing the various rooms in Womble Hall, which will now be very helpful in restoring them. Here is the guest bedroom, although I have made some changes, including new fabric on the canopy.

As I said in that post, the floor in the guest room is still made from self-adhesive paper, admittedly in a sophisticated pattern, but my intention was to replace it with hardwood at some point. I considered whether this was the right point and decided against it. It takes about 50 hours to make an interesting floor for a room this size, and at the moment I'd rather use these hours to make more repairs. When the house is fully restored, I will make new floors. I know this probably goes against common sense, but I do want to see the house in presentable shape soon.

So I did some cosmetic repairs: glued on wallpaper and mouldings that had got off, straightened the floor, and that was it. I think the room is inhabitable now - apart from the roof of course. The beam is hiding the light strip so it will either have to be mended or removed. I suspect that lighting technologies have developed since we wired the house four years ago.

Also against common sense I put back as much of the furniture and accessories as I could find in my storage boxes. The four-poster was also slightly damaged, but it was easy to mend. I will have to remove everything when it comes to putting back the roof, but meanwhile there is one room at Womble Hall where poor residents can live, and there is even a portable heater to keep them warm.

To be continued.

Plastic furniture upcycling

My recent acquisitions of cheap plastic furniture include these items:



All are used, some heavily used, some broken, and none is a valuable vintage object. My new obsession with chalk paint demanded that these things be upcycled into something more interesting. Decide for yourself whether I have been successful. I will show before and after pictures, with occasional comments.

You cannot see it very well in the picture, but the paint created a nice fabric effect on the bedspread.

I will replace the mirror, which was crooked anyway, with a real mirror sheet.

 
I had nothing against the fabric, but I had to remove it, and it was glued firmly and couldn't be saved. I am not sure this is the best fabric, so I may replace it later.

The desk was the right colour, but still looked like plastic. Upcycled, it looked like ancient oak.

This is the result of two afternoons. More to come.

From coffee pods to flower pots

Some time ago I visited a friend who used coffee pods to make coffee. I have heard about them, and I have heard that miniature-makers find them useful, but I had never seen one. My friend was utterly perplexed when I asked whether I could collect the used ones. I wasn't sure exactly what I could make from them, because they are different from milk containers, slightly convex.

But I was sure that I would think of something, and I was also eager to show my friend what a valuable contribution to my miniature-making she had made. So this past weekend I started exploring the potential of used coffee pods.

My first thought was buckets, like I make from milk containers. The bottom can be easily bent inwards, and it doesn't matter that there is a hole. However, they have large brims that don't look natural for a bucket. Flower pots was the next option, and although they are twice the size of a 1:12 flower pot, I thought they could be planters or larger tubs.I wanted them to look like terracotta, but I am not very good at mixing paint. I should have added more red. Still, I was quite pleased.

While I was at it, I also painted a nasal spray bottle cap that had been waiting for this transformation for a long time. It is more like a flower pot in size and in shape.

Then of course I had to make plants. First of all, I made a simple fern, using florist wire and tape and painting the leaves with a lighter shade of green for effect. Then I constructed a weird plant from plastic Christmas decorations, but as I was passing the kitchen to clean my brushes, I suddenly saw that I had a plant with exactly that shape of leaves. (It is not my plant, so I am not on friendly terms with it). It also needed some painting, and the result was, if I may say so myself, stunning. I don't know the name of this plant so maybe someone can tell me. After that, I made the third plant by cutting up a 1:1 plastic twig.

For the smaller pot, I made a geranium. I will not describe the process because I have done it before, but I can confirm that it took about six hours and that the twelve stems contain 240 individual petals curled while wet one by one. Since I don't have my punches at the moment, I cut the leaves from florist tape and painted a bit here and there for variety.

So here is the result of my weekend:

Last in the picture is another milk canister I made from an eye-drop bottle.

This was a hugely productive weekend, don't you think?

Small makeovers

One of the perks of being retired is that you have plenty of time. In the past few weeks I have been going to flea markets here and there - in a big city, there is always a flea market somewhere over the weekend. Some of my visits have been more successful than others, but last week I had incredible luck, interestingly, at two different stalls, and one seller clearly knew what they were selling while the other was just happy to get rid of stuff.

With the first seller, it was a bundle, and not everything was of interest (I don't need the horse and the cow), while with the second I picked exactly what I wanted. And I wanted plastic stuff to upcycle.

Stupidly, I didn't take a picture after I had sorted the treasure into categories, but you can see that there are many shoes. I once made a shoe shop for a friend, and with this pile of shoes I might make another one. Another large pile is combs and brushes and hair dryers, which begs for a beauty parlor. Sports, portable phones, food, kitchen utensils. Some things I found a place for at once, like the garbage bin that went into the garage of my Triang, the only dollhouse I have in my present accommodation. It's not period correct, but nothing is at the moment, while it really looks nice there. Some things fit in the Triang kitchen.

But otherwise I just had this enormous number of small items. I needed to start somewhere, and I picked some, more or less at random.

Mind, there is nothing wrong with them if you are a child and play with your dolls, and some collectors might be happy to include them in their projects as they are. But my challenge is to make them more interesting. 

Here is what I have done with them.

I would never be seen with a handbag like that if you paid me, but I have a friend who would love it. The jewellery box, I just painted over slightly, to make it look less plastic, and the notebook almost looks as if it were leather. The comb and mirror don't look exactly like ivory, but still better than before. Some items I need to explain. For instance, I wanted to make the coffee pot look like a traditional Kockums piece.

I studied the web carefully and found helpful images. I mixed chalk paint with hobby paint to produce the right colours. I had some paint left, and I had an extra lid, so I made a matching canister. I am not sure Kockums made canisters, but it doesn't really matter. I used eye-drop container.

I am particularly proud of the scissors, because they look exactly like my 1:1 scissors.

Similarly, I used my full-scale binoculars and iron to paint the miniature versions.

Side by side like this, you get a very good sense of scale.

I find this upcycling utterly fascinating. I do like making things from rubbish, but there is a very special joy in making ugly things more attractive and unique.

Finally, I dealt with the "silver" coffee set in which both coffee pot and sugar bowl lacked lids.

I once made a lid for a real antique tea pot (scroll down in the post to find it), so this was child's play.

Now the father in the Triang house can have his coffee, even though it is totally wrong scale and style.