Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

Behind Closed Doors

A closed door that WON'T open is something that I find to be Very annoying, Dear Readers, even though I am aware that the Illusion of Another World behind a door that is Closed can be very useful and Intriguing. I wanted that Illusion of More Space in my Cupboard House, and so I planned to put a door to "Nowhere" at the back of the Entry Hall just to suggest that there was more house behind it. But once I had put the door there.... I just Could NOT stand to have it glued shut forever! And since there really was NO ROOM beyond the door... I decided to paint a "trompe l'oeil" room behind the door...... so that when you open the door......

It APPEARS as if there is a room beyond......

That you could ALMOST imagine walking into.......

But really, if you look closely, or at the wrong angle....

you can tell it is just a painted wall!
Here below you can see the painted wall without the door frame in front of it....
(and the hallway partition is also removed....)

And here is a closer view of the painting......

Just so you can see all the faults and rough spots......
It is painted directly onto the back wall of the Cupboard.......

And a small panel of plywood the same thickness as the Hallway walls

has a cutout for the door frame to sit flush against, so that when it opens.....

There is a tiny amount of depth to the space behind the door.......
which only adds to the illusion....!
Such a silly little Hidden detail.... as the door will be Mostly SHUT.....
But I LOVE it!

On another note.... you May remember that I left you Hanging in Uncertainty about the level of Detail I was going to use for the Dining Room Floor! I got Very distracted by the Holidays..... but I DID manage to complete the floor! When you saw it last it looked as follows..... I had started the edges and then got entangled in the possibility of complex patterns..... and knowing NOTHING about the pitfalls of such patterns.... I Jumped in and let the pattern take over.....

I am Pleased and proud to say that I did NOT give up!

I made the pattern work for the Whole floor!
And THIS is what I ended up with..... it may be Unconventional.....
But I still think it is quite Handsome!

Here you can see it with the walls in place......

And Clarence even came to inspect the workmanship!

(I think he is wondering what is Taking SO LONG...!)

He has to make sure the Doors are Working too......

As soon as he was done with the Inspection.....

I was able to put on the dark Walnut stain....

Which I think just makes the floor so Gorgeously Dark and Victorian....

with that mysterious pattern shining through.....

I will ALMOST be sad to cover it with a carpet......

WHEN I get around to the Carpets.....

Which could be Quite a while.....

So I'm Really GLAD it is so Handsome in the meanwhile......!

I have also made a START....

a VERY Rough and Hesitant start on the Fireplace.....

It is going to be an elaborate marble fireplace surround.....

which I am making out of wood and sculpey.......

more details to follow........

But MEANWHILE, I have suffered a Setback on the Ceiling!

I had glued the elaborate decorative molding to the ceiling around the painted central section...
You can see it below as it was just after I put up the wallpapers...

And here is a closer shot of the ceiling right after assembly.....

back in the Humid days of August...

while Hurricane Irene was drenching our world......
You can see how smooth the gilded papers are.......

Well, the other day I heard a loud "THUNK" coming from the Cupboard House..... and upon investigation I found that a whole section of the ceiling trim had simply fallen off the ceiling!!! The carpenter's wood glue that I had used simply let go!

The air is Extremely dry here right now...

and the ceiling is made out of a large thick board....

so a good deal of shrinkage seems to have happened.....

Just LOOK at the wrinkles in the Gold paper!!!!
This is Really a Bit SHOCKING!
But Really, it is probably a GOOD thing to have it happen at THIS stage of the building rather than later on when it is so much harder to fix......
But I am become aware that I have to learn a LOT MORE about GLUE!!!

And Hopefully, NOT all the Hard way!

Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

Back To Building

Floors Continued

Before I got SO Distracted by Halloween, Dear Readers, you might remember that I was working on the Cupboard House hallway, painting the wall murals. Well, I realized that in order to complete the wall murals and attach them in place, I really needed to have the floors completed first! And having had Such success with the egg carton bricks and REAL mortar in the Kitchen..... I thought I should continue with this method in the front hall.... only THIS time I wanted to make "marble" floor tiles from cardboard! I have read many other blogs where people use this method quite successfully, so I thought it was time to try it myself!
So I pulled out some sheets of cardboard.... the kind that is the backing for pads of paper..... and painted the "marble" patterns in the colors I wanted to use. In this case the floor would be black and white squares with accents in red and green. I really was very quick with the painting because once it is all cut into small squares the pattern looks quite realistic with a minimum of detail to the "graining" of the marble.

Here you can see my painted cardboards.

Next I cut out a plain piece of cardboard in the shape of the Hall floor and drew the pattern on it to guide the placement of the tiles.

And here I have begun to attach the cut squares to the piece of cardboard.
I left a small gap around all the pieces for the mortar to fill.

And I worked around the circle where there will be a "Compass Rose" as another reminder of the years Clarence spent at Sea......

Here you can see the beginnings of the Compass Rose......

And the Compass Rose Completed....

And here is a closeup of the Completed Compass Rose, Mortar included......

And the whole floor completed....

but not yet in place in the house.....

Here it is glued in place in the Cupboard House.....

forgive the dark NIGHT Photo......

Oh Dear.... an even Darker and Gloomier view.....

(It is so DARK here now.....!)
I will have to get some better shots for you soon......
But I am VERY pleased with the way it turned out!

And I have also started to work on the Floor of the Dining Room of the Cupboard House! This floor is to be a dark stained hardwood floor of the type so common to Victorian Houses here in the States. They were rarely made in any fancy patterns because they usually were covered in beautiful plush carpets! So I started to attach the "woodsies" which make lovely hardwood boards. I started by gluing several perimeter rows around the room. I figured that once the small corners by the chimney were filled in I would just complete the design in simple rows. But then for some reason I decided to get a little fancy in those corners....... and now I am not sure whether I should continue with the plan to have a plain floor.... or make a more elaborate pattern to continue what I have started!

Here is a closeup of what I did.... just put a couple of "vertical" rows with the "horizontal" ones...

And here is the other side..... where I realized that because the woodsies are NOT all the same width..... the pattern on one side was larger than the one on the other and I had to carefully adjust it so both sides would look the same.......

Here is what it looks like right now.... with a stand-in for the fireplace........ and me not able to make up my mind! Should I torment myself to build a complicated patterned floor that eventually will just be covered in carpet? And if I go with the plain model.... will I always regret NOT taking the opportunity to explore the fancier floor? Will I build other houses where I can make elaborate floors, or is THIS my opportunity? Am I the only one out there who torments themselves like this?

Decisions.... decisions.....!

And meanwhile.... lest you think I have FORGOTTEN it...

I AM still working on the Great Hall floor tiles for my Castle!

I am getting closer and closer to having enough tiles painted and sealed to begin the process of attaching them! But here again.... I have to decide whether I am going to use real Grout or not....

The tiles are really irregular in size and thickness.... and they are much thicker than the cardboard tiles that worked so well with the grout. I think I am going to have to make a small test sample to figure out what works best.....

But meanwhile, as you can see... I still have a ways to go......!

Back to Building!