My Miniature Village

It's finally happening! I'm planning out my village in my basement where 3 of my houses live. Okay yes I'm a packrat, and hubby is too. We've been in this house for 20 years and several floor layouts as our needs have changed. We have downsized on furniture and moved some of it up to first floor. This has opened up the space in the basement. My workspace for my dollhouses is to the far right of this space, the other side of the room.

We have this modular desk set that fits into a corner and then has side pieces. Its long been vacant, collecting stuff and dust, as we have moved away from computer towers to laptops and offices now in our extra bedrooms. I removed some modular shelves the desk had for monitors etc and it will now be housing my dollhouses!

I got a board cut at HD today and bought wool/felt from Joann's and have placed the board on the space. My plan is to put my Thornhill on it. Not sure if it will go on the angle or on the side. I can add a second desk end on the right  - we have one more. Since the Thornhill opens on the sides and very front, I don't need access to the back, don't need a turntable. I want to do some landscaping, but on the sides it will have to be short shrubs, so I can still open the sides. There will finally be room for the steps!

The Seaside Villa Bed & Breakfast has its own turntable table, so I don't think I will move it off that.
The third house is my French Country - I haven't made any real decisions but I may keep it on the TV cart.

A work in progress, as they say. The file cabinet will be moving and boxes/tables will be gone of course.

French Country Kitchen

Finally am moving to complete the kitchen! I have not had a true plan for the cabinets, and have several from M&R Miniatures that are waiting for me to finish and place. 

Time to finish the ceiling beams (to match the ones I have in the other wing - the library) and crown molding there. These are now done and I'm working on furniture and cabinet placement. I also need to decide on lighting and purchase/install them. 

Here's some photos from most recent to several days ago as I pondered placement.

Here's my inspiration, from a customized French Country Manor. Of course mine will not have that fancy crown and ceiling roses as I have beams. 

French Country Embellishments

Sometimes a break from this hobby, or in particular, this house, spurs new ideas and breaks me out of the 'can't make a decision' mode. For a year or more I have procrastinated/agonized over certain things that really shouldn't have been that big a deal.

Things like staining/painting the 2nd floor stairs, and ordering more ribbon for the same stair runner, and stair rods...at least the supplier for the ribbon still had some. As for stair rods from Mini Mundus, no go. I ended up with Clare Bell ones, which I found out were easy peasy to install and I prefer the more antiqued finish. (Now I have to decide whether to buy more for the 1st floor stairs and redo those).

Then procrastinating about how to apply crown molding to 3rd floor angled ceilings. This has perplexed me and I've gone several ways to purchase various products. The angle of the ceiling to the wall in the two end rooms is the challenge. Stiff crown molding will show a gap. I debated about several flat moldings, and this week ended up putting on a faux embossed flat molding.  

This turned out to be so easy that I kicked myself for agonizing over this for so long. I'm pleased with the results! It adds just enough elegance and finishes the ceiling edges nicely.

Finished stairs and mullions

The mullions are all painted and installed, both sides of windows and doors. It too some trial and error to get to the best process to downsize each (paint caused them to swell a bit). Sanding each edge 8 back and forth strokes was the sweet spot. I was nipping off a tiny bit with exact knife but that wasn't consistent. 

The 2nd floor stairs are also completed, stain and paint, fretwork and carpet runner. I'm awaiting the stair rods this week for the final step. Lots of painstaking taping so I could paint the risers but it was worth it in the end. My hand isn't steady enough to do by hand. 

Happy to finally wrap this up. I do need to glue together the stairway bannisters to their cornerposts and place them into position. 

 

Stairs

The 2nd floor stairs and railings have needed staining for years. They now have the base stain on them. These stairs will need the risers painted white so it matches the other staircase. You can see I started with the top stair riser.

The stair embellishments I bought, which were brass photo corners, have been painted and applied. I am pretty happy with them. I plan to add them to the 2nd floor stairs when they are finished. I may have to buy another strip of ribbon for a runner to finish this set of stairs.

Mullions

I've been spray painting the mullions for windows and doors. I knew I needed adhesive to attach them to because they are so lightweight. I started by using blue tape, and that is labor intensive both in laying out the mullions and in removing the painted mullions. 

I rooted around and found low tack spray adhesive - that is the answer! Spraying on cardboard, and attaching mullions, spraying them and then quickly sliding them off onto parchment paper. 

I've attached mullions to several windows and all doors. Feels good to get this time-consuming work done finally. The rooms look truly finished with the mullions!

Bathroom

I finished the flooring in the bath, applying it to cardboard so that it would sit smooth. I also finished the chair rail and wainscoting.

You will notice I have lights here - these are battery powered lights. I still may try hardwiring some lights I have directly to the ceiling where there is tapewire. I think the wiring would be hidden.