Thursday, January 17, 2013

Hiding Wires



Tying Up Loose Ends......

You May remember, Dear Readers, that it was AGES ago that I began to try to complete the wiring for the Lights in The Folly! The difficulty is that this kit has Very Thin walls! There is no room to bury the wires in channels cut into the walls themselves, and so I am having to be sort of Inventive with ways to conceal the wires and still end up with lights where they would be most practical and realistic! I have decided that this is a step that has been delayed long enough, as all the rest of the decorating depends on the lights being in place. There are still several lights I have not decided where they will go.... particularly in the kitchen.... but I have decided to at least Finish the ones that I do have in place!
For the Upstairs bedroom I have made a very Bohemian Style ceiling fixture out of a jewelry piece... a Silver bangle from India.... and you can see (in the picture above) it is attached in the topmost peak of the roof. I ran the wire across the wall inside the peak and will hide it inside the roof edge over the stairway....
where you can see it here still dangling loosely....

It is really difficult to get pictures of this... 
so you will just have to use your imaginations....
Eventually it will run in a channel down the edge of the kitchen wall..... 
I haven't finished this yet!
But I did hide most of the wires for the Sconce in the Book Nook.....

I forgot to take pictures of the process.... 
but the wires run down under the decorative wood trim below the light.... 
and come under the window beneath the baseboard trim. 
See... you can't see the wires! 
They will also get hidden in a channel along the kitchen wall... 
and so reach the plug strip in the cellar below the house!

For the rest of the upstairs lights, 
the candle in the bedroom nook, and the wires for the Porch light, 
I have run them through the wall into the bathroom......


Where I have had to hide them under the baseboards running around the bathroom walls......


Here you can see the wires where they come through the wall....

And here the baseboard on the right side is in place,
 and I have started the process of trying to glue the wires in place neatly enough that they can eventually be covered by the baseboard.... 
which I have carved out on the back side to accommodate the thickness of the wires....

I glued them one wire at a time... one section at a time.... 
taping them in place until the glue dried...

And even this way the thickness of the wires is such that I will have to gouge more out of the back of the baseboard for it to really fit snugly.....

I will also add a section of baseboard over the wires at the far end.... 
although with the sink and tub in place they are hardly visible!
The overhead light in this room (when I decide what sort of light is needed...) 
will run down the roof panel the same way the Bedroom light does....
But already it is looking So Much more organized!

And while I was tying up loose ends.... 
I decided that the time had come to bury the wires on the Tree House too! 
I probably haven't shown you what a terrible mess the wires were on the back side of the Tree House...!

Keep in mind that the Tree House is run on battery powered LED's which means they have polarity and so it is very important to keep the red wires and black wires separate! If they touch... they blow the bulb... and I am NOT replacing any of the lights in the Tree House! So I have been treating them VERY Carefully while I try to figure out just How and Where I am burying their connections!!! These kits from Evan Designs are Wonderful and very easy to use... and it says you can join up to ten LED's on one battery. I have used nine LED's so far in the first three rooms of the Tree House... so I decided it is time to fix this circuit grouping in place. The lights for the next rooms will go together on another battery and it will need to be kept separated from this first circuit so no wires can get mixed up in the wrong circuit.!
I started by deciding that the red wires and black wires needed to all meet up at the base of the tree in two separate spots.....

Of course, it is really difficult to see these clearly...... 
but I had to shorten the wires that were close to the base, 
but still leave enough length to manipulate them and twist ends together securely.... 
And because the wires from the higher rooms would not reach the base junction spots... 
I decided to join them together higher up and run single wire extensions down to the base joins...... 
Here you can see the upper wires joined together before I added the extension wires....

And I have carefully covered all the junctions with shrink tubing..... 
which you can see here below before the shrinking.....

And here it is  with the wires all joined..... 
I have taped them in place with masking tape 
which will all be covered with more paper mache when the outer layer of the Tree is built.....

And now for the Really big question.... do the lights Work...???


YES!!! They do!!!
All neatly connected to One battery pack.... 
with long lead wires so I can adjust them later...!

And The Folly Too....

The wires have been covered with a piece of cardboard to make the surface of the bed nook.... and in the corner where they go through the wall they are painted brown to camouflage them! There is an outlet in that corner too in case a table lamp is needed as well....
And when the lights are on....


It's starting to look ready to finish decorating .....


I've made some real progress.... 
But there is still a ways to go with hiding all the wires!
Just a Little Tying up loose ends....!

15 comments:

  1. What a genious you are Betsy! All those small lights connected and they work...!!! Fantastic work! The Tree House looks like a fairytale, I am curious to see how it will show at the end.
    So the wiring in the Folly was quite difficult, I didn't knew those walls are that thin! You solved the problem geniously. Now you can turn on the lights in the evening and enjoy ;)!
    Hugs, Ilona

    ReplyDelete
  2. With the lights on every miniminimini space looks charming, Betsy!
    Great ideas how to hide all the wires and I am sure you will find even mmore of them - mean the ideas, not necessarly the wires,lol.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How glad I am to read this, it is just where I am with the wires holding up the real fun - decorating!
    It is good to know others are struggling on behalf of lighting.
    It is so worth the effort though.
    I like your name - The Folly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Betsy,
    Great work with the wires. I can imagine it must be a lot of work and thinking to hide them with the thin walls but you are getting the job done. Once again, your miniatures are wonderful. i just love your style and the decoration choices you make. Everything looks terrific and I swear I couls spend an entire day just looking at your collection. Keep up the incredible work my friend.
    Big hug,
    Giac

    ReplyDelete
  5. My, this was really interesting to read... and you really did it - you tied your loose ends, in a perfect way. I love the way both projects look when lighted, that candle-light in the nook is a great idea!

    Greetings
    Birgit

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice job! I know what a bear wiring can be! :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing how patient and persistent you are. I shall think of you when I do my wiring. When?!! Hahaha, who knows? I have everything I need just waiting and waiting and waiting!

    ReplyDelete
  8. my goodness that's a lot of work! :) thanks for sharing your ideas I found it very useful and informative :)

    Love
    marisa

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow Betsy you did a great job hiding all those wires, the glow is magical

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great job hiding those wires. I may have to be doing that soon and you gave me some great ideas! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very well done on getting to grips with the wiring. It's all looking very neat now.

    I thought about tidying up the back of my Hambleton Hall but that's as far as I got after looking at it all!

    The properties look marvellous all lit up like that. A job well done!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Betsy,

    this is very ingenious work. To hide all those wires must have taken a lot of thought and effort. Well done on the final result!

    ML Fi Xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, I wish the wires in my houses were so neatly tucked away as yours! Well done!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. There is NO WAY I could ever have tackled that wiring! Great job, Betsy it looks perfectly magical!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am a little lost on how I should light my Junkyard and the current project. All these wires are so tricky. Seriously considering using the battery operated LED lights.

    You have done a great job, Bets. I love how you fit a light in as many spaces as you can find. I am that way too.

    ReplyDelete