Dollhouse attic fireplace

I wanted an old fireplace in the attic that looks as if they refurbished it while updating the old home.

 I used mat board, card stock, and wood glue. I sanded the mat board to get my curved edging.

I cut off a piece of jewelry finding for the accent.

I used a little wood filler for the paper edges and then sanded.

I mixed light-grey and black acrylic craft paint and painted the inside black.

Layering card stock makes a nice thick rail edge. The bars are painted wire. I placed them in with Tacky Glue on each end with tweezers and pushed them behind the rails.

 I printed my tiles and glued onto mat board with Mod Podge.

I created the grout area with a ball stylus.

Coated with satin varnish. Just a little at a time so the ink wouldn't run.

I'm diggin' it!

Give it a try! With each one you make they will get better and better. This one was my first...

1st Victorian fireplace

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Dollhouse windows

Hello! Okay here we go. I have managed to get the Kinfeld windows figured out and will share how it all happened.

Keep in mind I tend to only use what I have on hand so you may prefer other materials.

I cut the windows all the same size when I constructed the dollhouse.

First, I trimmed out all the holes with a sharp blade so they were even.

Then I glued in strips of card stock to get a clean edge.

When I went to buy the acetate from the craft store I had asked the framing guy where it was and he showed me. I then asked if he had anything thicker. He inquired what I was using it for and I proudly said for dollhouse windows and waited for his response. As we all know there is always a look of confusion when we admit our mini addiction. Haha

So he paused, smiled and asked if my dollhouse was expecting hurricane weather. I was impressed with that come-back and we had a good laugh. 

I thought I would need it thicker to fill the window depth, but as it turned out it was perfect as is.

So I cut it with a utility knife and snapped it apart easily. Then framed it with mat board strips and Tacky Glue.

I used that piece of square balsa to be sure things were even. The heavy sharpening stones are great weights to be sure things dry even. I have so many great tools left behind from my father and those are some of them.

I used spackle to smooth out the corners and sanded them.

Then I painted just the tops of the frames with white paint. Because I used mat board that was once actual framing mats they were already white on the inside. I had a large stock of these so they came in handy.

I glued a strip of card stock to the top of one and bottom of the other and painted that as well.

For the window locks I punched four 1/8" holes and glued them together. Then I cut a long thin strip and cut it up for the base. Then I cut triangular pieces and glued them on top for the latch handles. This was a really quick process that gave the illusion of a window latch!

Next I framed each window hole with painted matt board trim.

To make the corbels, first I drew out the shape I wanted on mat board and cut it out.

I then traced that pattern over and over on very heavy watercolor paper. 

Then I cut strips of balsa wood to the length and height of the corbels. 

The first corbel above is the wood and paper.

The middle is after the spackle has been applied and smoothed by running the pallet knife on its side along the corbel to outline the shape of the paper.

Once fully dry, I sanded it and painted them. This one is shown right before sanding.

To workout any final rough spots I used plastic wood paste over the corbels with my palette knife. 

This stuff is nice. I have always use wood putty, but recently I grabbed this by accident. I was going to exchange it because it looked too runny, but realized it was nice to work with. I scooped out some and made a pile on scrap paper and in just a few moments it became like putty. I smoothed it over the corbels that had imperfections. Let it dry and sanded it.

After I painted them I gave them all one last sanding.

Then I cut window sills for all the windows from mat board.

After gluing up the corbels and caps I touched up with more paint.

I tend to multi task and work in short intervals which is great when you have to wait for so many things to dry anyway.

So far so good I am really liking how this is coming together. My goal is to have the house move in ready by Thanksgiving but we shall see!

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Dollhouse roof

I must admit I was very nervous about constructing the roof. I had no idea how I would get that curve or how I would make all of the rooms square up to the top. 

So I decided I would just tackle one problem at a time. 

The first task was to add a 1” ledge all around the exterior of the house. If I would've had foresight I could have just made the attic floor 1” wider too have it stick out. But hindsight is 20/20.

The next step was to determine the lowest height that the exterior attic walls would be. 

(Tower top still to be built on the front square section.)

After studying photos of houses with this type of roof I held poster board pieces of paper to the edge of my ledge and to the point on the exterior attic wall where I thought the curve would stop. 

I traced that curve onto a piece of paper that I placed against the tower in the corner with a pencil to get the shape of the curve. 

Then I cut that shape out to use as braces and each brace was glued on with wood glue. (See exposed section above)

Then a piece of poster board was placed over the braces so I could cut the corner down to determine the corner curvature were two roof sides would meet.

While I had the curved roof dry fit, I traced the window holes and cut them out. 

Finally the poster board was glued onto the braces with one pin slipped in the middle of every brace. 

After that I needed to determine the degree of slant I wanted it to be up to the flat part of the roof. (Sorry I don't know all the correct terminology for roof sections.)

Above, in the center front there is a piece of board for a support beam. This will be a tall square beam with a half circle table attached to it and two stools placed under it. A fun way to add a support beam.

I drew on graph paper to figure out how large the flat area would be at the very top of the house.  There was some erasing and refiguring before I got to where I was happy and where my angels would line up. 

Then I cut my interior walls and cut the angles along them and cut out all of the slanted pieces and dry fit everything together. 

I had to make that left side tiny room with the flat roof to make the angles work because I just couldn't figure out how to  make that part of the roof slanted to meet the other slanted sections.

Once I was happy I took everything apart.

I wanted the inside slant and ceiling to not have large gaps so I glued on watercolor paper under each piece and gave the main flat ceiling a slight lip with that paper so that the slanted pieces would lay on top of that lip and cover any gaps between the pieces. 

I also used water color paper as wallpaper.

I used pins, nails, hot glue, and wood glue to secure everything. 

Then I cut mat board for ceiling trim at the top of the walls. I got really lucky that the board matched the color of the water color paper perfectly!

Uhoh! Don't worry, he has fallen out twice before. He's not the best builder, but is a great climber.

There are a few thin gaps here and there, but I am impressed with how nice it turned out, a perfect studio apartment space for the eldest son. The right will be a future craft room for mom that will be full of storage from moving in for a while. The left room with exposed wood, still needs to be treated to look old. This will be a small storage area for over spilling boxes of holiday decorations.

Now on to making the windows!


Original roof drawings:

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Vee Siding

I decided to go with a vee siding effect for the Kinfeld. So I hand-cut the siding strips from a large left over inventory of matted frames. After gluing one onto the exterior base I placed another strip, thin side against the house, to space the next strip so the gap in between would always be the same. There were only a few spots that got a little wonky, but overall I am happy with the finished look.

I was suppose to move onto the roof once the siding was down, but was too eager to see it painted so I mixed up a sample latex paint I got with some older paint I used in my actual house hallway. The original sample I purchased for $3.00 from Home Depot turned out to be a bright green when it was in the shadows or in certain light. Very strange.

So I cut it with some light grey-blue latex and it was perfect! A nice grey-green.

 

Then I needed to see the white trim against that pretty green! So off I went to A C Moore with my 50% off coupons and bought some sheets of thin wood. I cut the strips to size, sanded, and painted them. A little wood glue and I was a happy girl. :)

Sorry my pics don't quite show the true color because I tend to work at night and the light isn't so great.

Now on to the roof! I will post all the details once I get a little further. It has been a challenge to get the curvature correct, but I am now on my way.

Thanks for stopping by!

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