Going For The Gold....

 

Nano House and Nanny's Room.....

The Last you saw of The Nano House, Dear Readers, I had just completed the Tiniest Pagoda Bed Ever, and realized that it might require me to raise the ceiling of the room the tiniest bit in order to fit the pagoda top without squishing it! The solution for this problem is the same as the solution for this problem in the original Tree House bedroom.... the ceiling needed to be "domed" to give the top of the bed enough space. And for the Tree House bedroom, that ceiling became a "coffered bossed and gilt wonder of its own (you can read all about it int he archives... waaaay back in the 2013 season) which of course, means that the Nano House bedroom ceiling needs to suggest the similar features with out copying slavishly. So for starters, I needed to carve away the underside of the ceiling framework...

 

 Here you can see that piece of wood with

 the shape to be cut away already started. 

The wood itself is 3/16 inch x 3/8 inch stock... 

the same as I used for the Tree House Library shelving. 

It is sturdy but not too thick. 

But I had to be careful that my "dome" remained

 fairly shallow so as to not weaken the wood too far.

 

Here is the rough cut with the piece removed.

 

Here you can see it has been sanded,

 (as best as I could for such a tiny piece!) 

to smooth out the imperfections and 

emphasize the shape of the central oval. 

 

Here the ceiling has been painted 

prior to testing the fit with the bed in the room...

 

Which, if you look really carefully, you can see 

the bed does not quite hit the ceiling!

 

Next step... adding the gold trim! 

Here I have glued on the finest gold thread in my collection... 

to outline the oval shape, as was done

 with the Tree House Bedroom ceiling.

 

And here the second gold edging has been attached.

 

Here you can see the ceiling in place on the Nano House.... 

and yes, the gilded trim is visible 

if you look up at the right angle! 

(The tree House has this same problem, 

those ornate ceilings are hard to see!) 

And because the ceiling looked good just like this,

 I decided not the add more details. 

This was enough.

 

And as for the Nanny's Room, Dear Readers,

 it has been a while since we paid attention

 to that lovely painted ceiling!

 

You might recall the Cherubrats that adorn the cloudy sky

 and are looking curiously down from above! 

And because this ceiling resembles the one in the Dollmaker's Studio

 where I used that very elaborate gilded trim for the cornice,

 I wanted a similar effect in the Nanny's Room, 

only it needed to be smaller and quite a bit more "refined" in style.

 

Months ago I had painted a regular small piece of trim with the gold paint....

 but it needed the addition of some form of three dimensional decoration. 

Then I remembered a string of small beads

 in a delicate rosette arrangement that

 someone had given me as a teenager... 

those Hippy years, you know,

 and they were somewhere

 in all my accumulated supplies...!

 Yes, I found them!

 They would make just the right sort 

of decorative swag glued onto that gold wood.

 It was a slow process to get them glued in place...

 one swag at a time.

 

And they just fit the length of painted trim I had already prepared...!

 

Which then needed several coats of primer....

 

And then the gold paint....

 

Three coats of the gold paint to achieve

 the level of brilliance desired!

 

And then trying to see how it would look against that ceiling.... 

(All the walls and the ceiling are still not attached

 for the Nursery and The Nanny's Room.... 

they wiggle and fall down at the drop of a hat!) 

But I think the look is going to be just what I wanted... 

so now it is just a matter of cutting to fit the mitered corners....  

and testing in place....

 (Hold your breath)

 

Aahhh.... That is what I was looking for.....!!

 

Although I still have to cut and fit the other sections... 

and test it with the bed in place and the candle lit.... 

but I do believe it has just the right amount of decorative detail! 

 

Oh, yes, Dear Readers, we are 

looking up and Going for the Gold 

in the Nano House and the Nanny's Room! 

Tree House Nursery...

 

Looking Up... 

Every Now and Then, Dear Readers, I have to stand back and take a good look at the Tree House project in relation to its close neighbor, The Folly. It is so easy to get absorbed into the minutiae of building the current room or current door or current ceiling and forget that it all needs to work together with the Original Property! It has gradually grown tall... nearly to the height at which it Must Stop before it outgrows the land it stands upon. Yes, there will be one more floor... the Attic level which will be mostly a "Studio" and "Storage" place. And the inevitable upper branches of the tree itself, of course. But I constantly need to rein myself in and keep the spaces "realistic" at least in terms of how a tree should be shaped. That said, every time I do step back, I notice another small detail that needs attending to! In my haste all those years ago, (I freely admit I have been "winging it") there were many parts I just didn't have all figured out... so I just rushed on by and left them for later. Much later! Chief among these tasks were designing the method for keeping the opening wall doors closed. 

 

The Tree House leans gracefully out over the little brook (intentionally!) and thus the front wall is slanted and all those doors just love to open all by them selves! A couple were fitted closely enough to the opening that friction held them shut... but for the most part, not. And at some point along the way... I don't remember when, I decided magnets were the method... but how and where the magnets would be placed was already a problem of afterthought... no, not even tiny magnets could be inset into the doors... because they would have to meet the walls too. I came up with a method after much thought... and that is to put the magnets near the opening and a wire loop on the door itself which could then be bent to touch the magnet for closure. The wire loops will eventually be disguised as stubs of branches so they look "natural" sticking off the tree trunk. You can see in the above picture, the closer wire for the Kitchen door has finally been attached. And I slowly added closers to most of the so far completed doors, some of them requiring much fidgeting and finagling. In particular, the Little Loo and the Dressing Room were quite the challenge!

 

There was so little room for the magnet

 and it needed to work for both doors. 

The wire positioning was hard to figure out....

 but I got it done!

 

Believe me, this has been a long time coming! 

And while I was thinking of doors and closings,

 I decided it was time to get the doorknobs on

 the Nursery and Nanny's Room doors.

 

These are made using a large-ish clear bead,

 I am not sure of the size, and a small brass nail. 

I pre-drill a fine hole and add glue 

and push the nail in with my pliers. 

 

And the reverse side...

 because these little doors do open and close!

 When they are open you need to be able 

to see the doorknob on the other side.

 

Of course, The Nursery level is still

 too incomplete to attach the closers... 

the walls are still not attached,

 only the hinged opening wall doors are in place.

 

But when all the walls are carefully propped in position 

and the ceiling (The Attic floor) is temporarily removed,

 we can get a great bird's eye view of the two room's layout. 

 

And while I had the ceiling removed,

 I figured it was the right time to stain and paint it

 in preparation for the eventual top floor construction,

 which even now has to be taken into consideration

 as we complete the Nursery level.

 Everything is so connected!

 

And if you know me at all,

 you can probably predict what happened next... 

a blue sky appeared...

 

 

and clouds formed around the edges ....

and then the cherubs arrived.... 

 

But wait.... 

those looks distinctly like little rodents.....!

 As well they should in a house inhabited by Rats! 

 

And in the middle of the night I realized

 I had painted them from the wrong direction!

 The Nanny's Room opens on the side of the Tree....

 

The angle was all wrong for the Cherub-ratling

 on the side opposite the door 

as you can see when testing in place.

 

 I needed to get my viewing angle right!

 

 

Here you can see the adjusted Cherub-ratling.

 

And while I was doing the ceilings, Dear Readers,

 I wanted to test the Nursery ceiling... 

how would it look if I added the leafy paper to the ceiling too?

 And constructed a "trellis" of branches....??

 

I liked the look right away,

 so I added the same paper scraps

 to this ceiling as are on the walls.

 

In fact, I love the way it looks... 

even before we build the trellis part! 

And while I am finishing the papering... 

I realize that the inner side 

of the outer opening wall frame 

still needs attention!

 

 Both the Nanny's Room and the Nursery frames

 needed the matchstick paneling added.

 

And I started adding the trellis structure..... 

more of that rope twist that looks a lot like woody vines or saplings.... 

along the coving of the ceiling and the corners of the walls.

 

And the bunkbeds wall too.

 

And here this opening side door frame is also papered. 

This is not technically necessary... 

the only way it could be seen once the ceiling gets attached

 is from the bunkbeds windows....

But I will know it is there!

 

This is the interior view with the outer opening door closed...

the frame will be firmly attached to the tree

 and you will not be able to see this view.... 

but the Ratlings will! 

I think it makes the bed-nook so much cozier!

 

And that is as far as I got, Dear Readers, 

Opening and closing doors 

and dreaming about ceilings... 

But I think things in the Tree House Nursery

 are finally Looking Up!

 

Gilding The Lily....

Or Rather The Vine.....

Garden Season is upon us, Dear Readers, so once again, much of my Time over the weekend was consumed by my RL Garden. Hard work digging more beds and uprooting a thousand tiny baby Tree Seedlings... but so worth it in the end! And thus my mind is preoccupied by Flowers and plants and Growing Things... so is it any wonder that it overflows into my Mini World? To begin with, I added another flower to the Tiny stitching on the bed curtains.....

It is very difficult to get a close-enough shot of this.... 

I put the thimble in for size reference...

(You can poke the pictures to enlarge them...)

I dug out my lighted magnifier to stitch with and it helped speed the process!

But there is still a long way to go....

 

And you may recall that I said the Domed ceiling for the Bedroom was not yet done...

Well, I was not at all satisfied with the central panel decoration.... 

So I started over.... 

(only the central panel!)

 

 Even though it is inverted from the other panels (they are sunken and it protrudes)...

I felt they needed to look more similar... 

so I cut an octagonal frame section and painted it gold 

and outlined it with the golden "roping"...

 

And added a single inverted flower "Bosse" in the center.

That looks Much more like what I wanted!

But we are not done, Dear Readers... 

At this point I had to make another one of those Difficult Decisions....

To stop here and always wonder if my idea would have been a good one....

or to go one step further and just trust it would be what I imagined....

I had to give it a try... 

 

I am not a big fan of Straight lines...

I LOVE the sinuous shapes of vines, and I Love my gardens a little over-gown and wild....

and had imagined the sections of the coffered ceiling as if they were carved with vines...

I had to glue them in place to even see how they would look....

(Because they kept falling off when I tried using tape...!)

And we had to test it in place....

 

 

It gives a sense of the effect... and since I have started.... 

I must glue them All in place... 

Oh, My! NOW we are getting there!!!

 

And can we see it in place now?

This is NOT easy to photograph!!!

But you can get a sense of the Vines growing overhead....

As if they were continued from the walls.....

Only Gilded instead of painted.....

 

Maybe a little closer...?

That is Much more like I was Imagining!

The ceiling is Nearly Done now....!

And while Some of you might think it is Definitely Over Done.... 

I think I made the Right decision this time....

Gilding the Lily...or rather the Vine!