Walls

Big and Small.....

I Truly cannot say how long it has been, Dear Readers, since I did any Serious work on the Folly! It figures so often in my pictures of sunlight playing in my Doll Worlds, and I have come to accept it's incompleteness while I work on my other more Exciting projects. But I have for a long time been aware that the Kitchen needed attention! The only furnishing in there have been the almost finished stove and the not at all finished, but cute, hutch! It is such a small space that I have never been sure I would be able to fit in a refrigerator.... but I have always known it would need a sink! And not just any sink! It would need to be small and old fashioned... (this house was built in the Nineteenth Century after all), with a slightly elegant feel to it, not really rustic at all. I have watched others make their own sinks with great success... and was beginning to think I needed to make this myself. Then I came across the perfect little sink at the Sturbridge Fair! 

(Yes, I did not show you ALL the Treasures I bought at the Fair!) 

When I got it home, It Fit Perfectly! 

And then I began to think of the Tile backsplash it would require.... 

as it had no backsplash attached..... 

And that was when I noticed the Coaster under my Tea.... 

one given to me Ages ago by my Dear Friend Ewa.... 

of The Sunny Hours blog.....

She sent me a gift package with these coasters and many other little things... 

and I have always thought these coasters should 

find their way into one of my projects...!

So I propped it in place behind the sink......

and it Fit Perfectly!

(Thank you, Ewa!!!)

Then I thought there should be wainscoting 

below the tile backsplash.....

Beadboard wainscoting...

Because All the old Victorian houses I ever saw 

had beadboard wainscoting in the kitchen!

I would need to start with the mopboard at the bottom....

Then I found a piece of trim in my piles of stuff 

that was already painted the right color....

 

And was the right length for both the mopboard and the chair rail at the top...!

Once they were glued in place 

I began to cut woodsies to the right length......

And glued them in place between the rails!

The woodsies have enough of a bevel on their edges 

that they mimic the beadboard paneling, 

but they don't actually have a "bead" along the edge. 

These will be barely visible in the end, 

so I am not bothered by that small imperfection.

As for the "Tile" backsplash.....

I took the coaster and trimmed the sides back 

to eliminate the curve at the corners,

And marked the grid of the tiles with a pen.

I then used a ball stylus to press an indentation along the lines....

this is to mimic the grout lines.

Because the coaster is just varnished paper 

I did not want to cut into its surface.

Here you can see the grout lines painted white....

I did spray the surface with varnish between the black marking and the white....

And then again to seal the white too....

I think it looks like perfectly dirty old grout!

Of course, by now it is so late at night 

and the picture is too dark to see well.

But in the morning.....

With the Sun shining in....

I think it looks Perfectly Lovely...

And almost as if it has always been there!

You can even see the "texture" of the individual tiles!

 I am sometimes amazed at how things will 

suddenly come together to make the perfect result...

when I had no idea how it was going to work when I started!

But that was not the only wall I was working on, Dear Readers!

I also decided to wallpaper the inside of the Stairwell 

on the spiral stairs in the Tree House....

And it is a good thing I did! 

Because in the process of making the pattern for the wallpaper....

I discovered I had not yet glued the cardboard wall in place!

It is now glued....

I used the same glittery paper that I used in the Library and the lower stairwell.

I still need to make the window for this door... 

and add the latch and magnet.....

But I think it is just about time to attach the next floor above! 

So I can get going on Those Next Walls, Dear Readers!

Big And Small!

Wainscoting For the Kitchen

You may remember, Dear Readers, that when I painted the kitchen of the Lovely Old Dollhouse a very bright yellow, I also mentioned that there was no need to worry about the brightness being too much as I was planning on adding wainscoting which would mellow the effect of the bright yellow. Now, the wainscoting as I was envisioning it was another of these projects that was giving me plenty of reasons to procrastinate! You see, all the wainscoting I had made so far for the house was of the "Panel" type commonly built in the Colonial style homes. But the wainscoting I was envisioning for the kitchen was going to be the more modern Victorian Era type known as "matchstick" or "beadboard" paneling. It was made of narrow strips of wood with a vertical beaded edge, creating a very striped appearance. Typically it was taller than the older Colonial style of paneling which went only to chair rail height, or about 30 to 36 inches from the floor. The matchstick paneling was more commonly as tall as 4 feet from the floor. The idea was that the kitchen of the Lovely Old Dollhouse would, naturally, have been "modernized" in the Victorian Era! They would have added a wood burning or coal burning cast iron stove in place of the open hearth cooking still in use during the Colonial times. And they would have added the paneling and cupboards that were coming into fashion at that time. So I was going to have to figure out how to MAKE this beadboard paneling! And what to make it out of! And how precisely detailed it would be! And even before I could make it, I would need to finish the trim around the window and doors....... so you can see that there was LOTS of room for procrastinating! And then, just to distract myself from the wainscoting, I went and started building the Castle Dollhouse! But I did not forget the wainscoting, and as is often the case for me, the project was "brewing" in the back of my mind the whole time I was doing other things. So when I finally did start the project this spring, it went together much more smoothly than I had ever imagined it would!

Here you can see the kitchen with the freshly painted YELLOW walls!

And here you can see the window trim and the completed REAL window in place!

And the sink which was just like the one in my first apartment!

Here I am test fitting the cabinet which will be over the sink.......

Now, I know you will agree that the wainscoting needed to have that same not-quite precise look of the rest of the woodwork in the Lovely Old Dollhouse. (Quite frankly, I think that is one of the things that adds that undefinable charm to this house - the home-made not quite exactly to scale woodwork!) I debated in my mind for a long time about the type of wood to use - should I go with very thin plywood and cut the ribbing in it... or should I use more of the wood my brother had made for my "dollhouse lumber" that had been so perfect for the rest of the wainscoting...... or should I try some other type of method altogether....... ! I was worried that the dollhouse lumber stock would not be enough to do the whole job as there were only a couple of pieces left. And I was not sure how well it would go together as the pieces needed to have the grain of the wood running vertically rather than horizontally as they were for the rest of the wainscoting in the house. That meant the paneling would be made up of sections 2.5 inches wide and nearly 4 inches tall. At long last, I decided that the only way to tell if there was enough of the lumber was to make an exact plan of what would be needed! (Some people would save themselves a lot of trouble if they would learn to do this BEFORE they waste a lot of time fretting....!) So I measured the spaces and figured out how many sections I could get out of the lumber that remained......... and was I ever AMAZED when the amount of lumber was EXACTLY enough to do the job!!! So I cut the sections to the right length - about 3.75 inches - allowing for a narrow "cap rail" at the top. I carved narrow grooves in the panels to approximate the look of the old beading - don't look too closely as my "carving" is a bit irregular! Then I stained the pieces the same "Old Pine" color as the rest of the kitchen woodwork. (Of course, I did not remember to take any pictures of all these steps!)

Here you can see the panels roughly set in place before the top rail was added.

I still have not added the bottom mop board to the paneling....... but here it is with the top rail and the cabinet in place...




I sure LOVE the way the morning sun streams in that window! And even though the mop boards are not done, someone has the mop out ready to go!

I could not be happier with the way the kitchen wainscoting turned out!

It is EXACTLY what I was envisioning!