Update on lighting

It's taken a while but I'm finally ready to fit the lights in the main house. Yay !!! A few pics of some of the lights that I have added crystals to. Can't just have plain lights......Georgians loved their bling especially on their lights and furnishings so I'm enjoying adding the crystals, it also saves me a whole lot of cash doing it myself.  To buy a crystal chandelier for a dolls house is around £140 plus...yes I'm not kidding so I have saved myself a small fortune :)

 Three main chandeliers top left morning room, top right main staircase. bottom dinning room.

Dining room in the making

Single candle sconce with added crystals

Double candle sconce with mirror

Single candle sconce with added crystals

small chandelier for bedroom with added crystals

small chandelier for study or library with added crystals

More lights to be added to the top floor as and when they arrive, I will update when they're here.

I'm off now to try and fit them.........more updates when that's done.

The Basement and Lighting

Hello again at last I'm back on the build, it's been a really busy month with holidays my Son's wedding and my Granddaughter's Communion, and card orders with absolutely no time to craft at all, so a lot of time to make up.

Today I am building the basement for Dalton Manor it should have been straight forward but because I am adding it to the main house there are a few adjustments to be made and the fact that I am changing the front from a pavement to a garden is going to take a bit of working out too.

 For starters when I build it without the pavement the front drops about 6 inches so I need more stairs to go up to the front door. I have emailed Dolls house direct and ordered more steps so hopefully my plan will work . In the meantime as the house is still upside down I can't fit the basement on yet. When I am finished doing the coving and ceilings I will turn it.

This section goes in front of the basement, this will be the garden at the front of the house and stairs up to the front door

It will be extended at the front (I can use the pieces that were meant for the pavement to extend it) and be grassed. Not sure if it will be a formal 18th century garden or a walled garden but that's further down the road. In the meantime I also have the lighting to start as well.

I now have the transformer and lighting terminals so I can crack on with some of the internal lights but I still need quite a few lights including another 2 or 3 chandeliers , which are not cheap....so I will fit what I have and get the rest later.

 You might notice that they are candle lights, that's because the house being Georgian in the late 1700's they had no electric lights and only used oil and candles. I would like to keep the decor as authentic as possible.

Another update soon when I have the house right side up.

Ceiling panels and mouldings, chimney breasts

 A further update on the ceiling panels that I have been working on. Above is the first floor stair landing with the panel and ceiling mouldings in place. This is the ceiling where the crystal chandelier will hang. No skirting boards fitted yet as I have to be able to get under the floor covering to install the wires for the lighting so the skirting boards will be one of the last things to be fitted in the house.

This is the ground floor entrance way ceiling panel and the mouldings fitted here too.  There is only half a ceiling here as the staircase is open to the first floor. It's quite difficult to get photos of these areas. as the house is still upside down at the moment, so all the photos have been rotated to view them as if the house was right side up, or I could just have stood on my head lol.

Above is the morning room ceiling panel and chimney breast, mouldings will be a little tricky in the rooms with a chimney breast as I have to mitre the corners around them so they will take a bit more time more updates on that next time.

Above is the Dining room ceiling panel and chimney breast, same applies here these two rooms will be done at the same time.

Below photos showing how the chimney breasts were made.

That's it for today,  hopefully I'll get some time to work on it this week. I still haven't made up the basement yet and won't have time now 'till after our holiday and as usual I will post pics when I do it.  Bye for now.

Drawing room floor completed....

Finally managed to get the Drawing room floor looking the way I want. After trying out about six stains I am now happy with the colour and the finish. Don't think I'll be able to duplicate it though for the other rooms as it has so many colours on it and I decided to wax it with oak furniture wax and it came up brilliant. Really pleased .

Now on to the Dining room ....got it started today so should be done by next week

I had a dummy fix of the chandelier just to see how far down it hangs looks amazing.

Next week I will be building the basement, I need to see the whole house together before I go forward with the lighting of the rooms. That's a big job and really expensive too so won't happen for a few weeks yet but I can go ahead with the build anyway.

The basement will be changed from the original design as it is meant for a town house and doesn't suit a country house, a few changes to the front to make a garden instead of a pavement but that's further down the line. So many ideas running through my brain. I'll update again when I have the basement built and the dining room floor completed.

The crystal chandelier and more entrance hall work

I was determined to have a feature chandelier in the house but when I saw how expensive they are I decided to buy a plain 6 arm one and add the crystals myself using my jewellery stash. I recon I saved myself around £90 pounds, .......yes I'm not joking ........the cost of a miniature one is as expensive as a full size one. Here is how I made it below

the plain 6 arm brass candle chandelier 

I hung the light on a jewellery stand while I was adding the crystals. I used fine gauge jewellery wire and gold coloured jewellery findings

 a selection of various size crystals

 The finished chandelier I love it so much and can't wait to hang it in the gallery area of the stairwell

Before I can put the light in the stairwell I have to finish the upstairs railings and also need a window on the back wall. I.ll update you on that part next week.

I have inserted a wall in the entrance hall and added a door to give the illusion of a staircase down to the kitchen in the basement.  The wall and door have still to be painted and then I can add the cornice and skirting and any other trims.

The wall was cut from 5ml foam core board

the space before

and after

How it looks now with the door in place, still to be painted and trims added

A bit wobbly looking on the right side but its only just placed at the moment so not permanent yet it will be removed again for decoration and then set in place properly.

I will update again next week with the railings in place and hopefully have the wood floor stained and finished in the morning/drawing room, busy week ahead.

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