Hardwick Hall Attic....

Fidgety Bits......

It has been so long since I last worked on Hardwick Hall, Dear Readers, that I couldn't even find the posts that last showed the attic in it's partly completed state. So I have no idea what you recall about my plans for this part of the property! The above photo shows the attic in it's most recent incomplete state, with the temporary styrofoam fireplace and the unfinished stairs and windows. This is a "Witchy" house, so I have allowed my decor ideas to develop way past what a real House would find acceptable. But at the same time, I have tried to stay true to some of the architectural norms for houses of this era. One of my favorite features of many "Victorian" houses is window alcoves with window seats built in.... and this attic has three alcoves just begging for built-in window seats! Also, while this kit did not come with any "Cupola" for the top of the roof, there are many houses in my town where there are lovely cupolas, so I decided to add one to the top of this house. Since I was adding a cupola, I had to add the stairs to the cupola.... hence the spiral staircase.....

I apologize for the dark night-time photos.... 

it is an eternal problem to get good pictures at this time of year!

Here you can see the attic without the fireplace and chimney... 

while I am trying to calculate the best position for the stairs 

to access the tiny cupola floor platform......

Which you can sort of see here with my cardboard 

floor mock-up sitting across the rafters...

It is a complicated geometrical problem... 

where to start the bottom stair so that the bottom step is accessible 

in all the clutter of this room 

and the top step lands at an angle where 

you can step off into the tiny cupola floor! 

(And don't forget there also needs to be "head clearance" on the way up!)

The answer is it's very very tricky... but doable!

The spiral has to start just off center below the cupola floor.....

which happens to be right at the side of

 the stairwell from the floor below... 

and right behind the only place 

the fireplace and chimney would naturally sit 

(based on where the other fireplaces in the house are located... 

because I get hung up on that sort of realism)!

And some of you might recall that

 the poor placement of the original kit chimney in this attic 

was one of the first things I had to change about this design!

The top photo shows you the mock-up

 of the fireplace in styrofoam that I have been using

 to determine placement and size options

in relation to the stairs and cupola.

I think the fireplace can only go in this spot beside the stairs... 

but that ugly styrofoam mock-up has been bugging me for ages!  

The shape is all wrong for this room!

So I started to build a better hearth....

With more elegant lines... 

similar to the two other hearths in this house,

 but fitting for this room... which is to be 

the "Book Room" or "Reading Room"... 

the gathering place for the Witches... 

the place for researching spells 

and even brewing the odd potion or two!

There was an awful lot of fidgety cutting and fitting 

of that arched surround.... 

because my original cut-out is a little bit uneven too!

 

But I am getting ahead of things, Dear Readers.... 

First, I had to start on the alcove bench for the back of the room....

because I have realized that this area will have to be all finished

 before any of the "foreground" pieces are completed!

 

So I built a simple fitted platform....

 

 Then stained the wood

dark walnut to match the rest of the trim.

 

But I must test the look of the new hearth....

I am Loving how it echoes the window shapes!

Once the alcove bench is in place, I can start on all the fidgety trim.....

 trim that will cover all those ugly joins in the alcove...

And it is a weekend during the day 

when I can actually get some photos that you can see!

It was quite challenging to get the trim

 notched correctly to fit behind that arched "beam"....

(Don't look too closely please!)

And the facing pieces on the angled part.... 

which covers the worst of my gaps.

The vertical section will end up being covered 

by the built in bookshelves...

I am just waiting for the lumber to be delivered!

And then we simply must get an idea of how the curtains will look....

A Beautiful velvet that is a shimmery blue and green...

And I will also use it for a cushion on the bench...!

I know this is a dark room....

 but I love how this velvet adds 

to that dark mysterious feeling!

Meanwhile I am also continuing to work on the fireplace.....

It will eventually be painted to resemble carved stone...

Just testing it in place.... 

with the back wall section where the chimney will go

 up through the roof at an angle 

so it doesn't interfere with the cupola in the center.....

And testing the placement of the spiral stairs for "clearance issues"....

It clears with millimeters to spare!!!

I know.... you could barely see the bottom of the stairs...

 here I have shined a spotlight on them...

 because it is night-time again!

Well, it feels like a huge amount of progress, Dear Readers, 

but all I really did was cut a lot of fiddly little pieces of wood 

at odd angles and glue them in place!

But I love how the Hardwick Hall attic is developing!

And before I forget... 

I promised you a view of the finished Christmas Card....

So here it is Dear Readers, my attempt at rendering in two dimensions 

that which I spent much of the year rendering in Three dimensions!

 The Secret Christmas house is drawn at actual size... 

I traced around the building onto the paper!

The card is 8.5 inches by 11 inches, 

watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor board.

Yes, those big claws are my attempt to draw my own hands full size!

(And you might notice that the Secret Christmas House is Still Not Done!)