Showing posts with label Stairs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stairs. Show all posts

Wednesday 13 February 2019

Entrance hall, floor and stairs....

Hello again a bit more progress this week in Dalton Manor, painting the balusters and newel post and developing the staircase. The entrance hall has a lot of work needed to get it looking authentic Georgian and this week I have been researching Georgian interiors and have come up with an idea for the floor in the entrance hall.
In grand houses they were normally floored with marble tiles and although you can buy the dolls house equivalent in specialist shops it can be quite an expense. You can of course also buy the floor paper sold in dolls house shops but I wanted to make my own floor.

Here is how I made my tiled floor.


First of all I made a template of the floor so that I had an exact measurement to work with. Next I decided that 1 inch squares for the tiles was the size I needed, 1/12 scale to a real sized tile.
 I used a craft punch to make the tiles from pearl card stock and silver marbled heavy duty wallpaper   ( a freebie sample from the DIY store ) next I marked the centre of the floor and laid the tiles diagonally from that point. I used UHU glue which is the glue I always use for most of my craft work it will stick almost any material and gives you time for any adjustments that you need to make.


the craft punch 1 inch square

the finished floor you can see the silver sheen

staircase in situ not finished yet 

the free wallpaper sample


Also today I painted the balusters with another coat of white acrylic, the nails in the bottom are just to enable me to handle them and stand them in polystyrene while they are drying


the handrails were also painted mahogany

I cut up some metal filigree corners to make some faux plaster work for the side of the staircase as you will see in later photos they were primed first and painted white to resemble a plaster finish





side of staircase showing the faux plaster and the marble column under the stairs

balusters painted with white acrylic

A busy day for me today so much so that I forgot to have lunch........I get so engrossed in what I'm doing and I really wanted to get that floor done today. Tomorrow I may install the balusters and handrails or depending if the postman brings my parcel, I might lay the hardwood floor in the drawing room. Till next time


Veronica


Tuesday 29 January 2019

The Dalton house

More progress made this week and a lot of painting. Another coat on the windows as I wasn't happy with finish and I still might put on a coat of eggshell mainly because the emulsion is soaking into the MDF and is not as white as I would like.

I decided to make the Morning room/ Drawing room Wedgwood blue, I have seen a room like this with the white panelling and it looked lovely. At last some paint on the walls but still a long way to go.

 Next the ceilings were given 2 coats of white emulsion and so far they look fine, which led me on to ceiling roses.  I can buy these online and I have looked at them but decided to have a go at making some.


 At the moment I need 10 so I started looking for supplies in my craft room.  Firstly I found some air drying clay and using a fondant rolling pin I rolled out enough to make 3 to start with.  I used a rubber stamp, a cutting die and various little tools in my Dremel tool box. I made two different sizes as the attic rooms are a bit smaller the large ones would have looked out of place.  They look okay so far so we'll see how the are when dry. These will be painted white.

The Stairs
I wanted a longer bottom stair so I added a small piece of MDF and shaped it with the Dremel once it's painted you wont even notice it was added, and I decided to turn the stairs, this enables me to fit a door underneath on the right which will be the door leading to the stairs to the kitchen in the basement....which is not there yet but it's in the plan......


Before

 After


 A few coats of paint later.  The idea is to have a white marble staircase.....that's if it works out.  I have always loved these stairs in Georgian houses so my house just has to have them. Another coat of white and then I will try the marbling effect, fingers crossed it works out.  Now I have to get Newel posts and banisters.
 

A busy few days and I can definitely see some progress now but as I said there's still a long way to go and my head is buzzing with ideas.  Stop by soon for more updates on the Dalton House.

Veronica