Chateau Conservatory - morphing into a room

I made enough arches for the kitchen and the conservatory, as they have the same cathedral ceilings. I've changed my mind several times about wallpaper for this room. I chose a Les Chinoiseries paper that has muted florals. 

First up was mimicking the adjustments to where the walls meet the ceilings - building up the outer edge just a bit and attaching the inner roof/ceiling, filling the gaps. It meant removing wood strips along where the ceiling meets the walls. These were 1/2" square strips of the room's length and were intended to support cross-ceiling beams. I had forgotten the fun of prying out nails, sanding, filling, and priming. I had to re-route some tapewire in the process. The lighting would be similar to the kitchen so it would need a path up to the very top, and then out to the roof. 

The wallpaper went up like a dream, as has been my recent experience with Les Chinoiseries paper. Once the paper was up, I attached the arches, and the lighting. The Ray Storey lights I used in the kitchen are no longer available as he has retired. I got similar ones from Lighting Bug, though they are smaller. I also have 3 LED can lights in the peak of the ceiling to add more light. Those are really hidden but provide more ambiance to the room. 

The Sue Cook corbels - they got held up for months. Just as Sue shipped them, the Royal Mail had a cyber security attach and everything leaving the country got halted. They have now finally arrived and are now on my to do list.

Update on Chateau Kitchen Floor

 The kitchen floor that I made using Les Chinoiseries wallpaper tile came with a border attached and I couldn't decide if that border would be too much so I had cut it off initially. I had also glued it to a piece of thin white acrylic, which I thought would be more sturdy than the posterboard I had used with some tile that I had played around with early on. 

Subsequently, I went back to it and decided I needed to use a better base - the glue was coming off of the acrylic. Turns out crescent board is too thick and I went back to a bristol board I'd used in other houses. So next was figuring out which part of the border (or all of it) I wanted to use. I ended up using the smaller border. It's probably not a big deal, because most of it is covered by cabinets. 

Success with Chateau kitchen

 Finally I pulled it all together today! I'm very pleased with the results and have a sense of satisfaction. 

I knew I had to spray paint the new arches, and went on the hunt for low-odor spray paint, as it's 30 degrees here in Chicago. I landed on PintyPaint  (comes from Spain) - I researched it and wanted to buy local, so I could work on this week while I'm off from work. Turns out JoAnn carries it so I scooped up 2 cans and started. At first, it seemed a bit strong, but I opened the windows a crack and had the fan on. It's dry enough in 30 minutes to do another layer.  I got a nice soft white that is matte. 3 coats and it was perfect. 

Hanging the  Ray Storey chandeliers was a challenge, I had to ensure the length of chain was the same for both, and I scrounged my old jewelry and patiently attached them. Needed to drill a bit up in the peak to ensure I could feed the wire through to the exterior roof. 

Gluing the Sue Cook corbels, the custom arches and the Unique Miniatures trim...all coming together. It's been a long time coming and I've invested lots of time (and money) into this room, and I'm happy it's done. 

Chateau kitchen arches

The arches have been cut, glued together (3 layers) and painted. I'm now ready to glue them in with the flat decorative trim between the corbel brackets. I have a week off and would really like to wrap this up. Need to install the 2 hanging lights too.

Workspace organization - Ikea cabinet

 My Cricut needed a better home than the old desk I had it on. Let me set the stage a bit. My main dollhouse miniatures workroom space is in the basement where I have the main storage cabinets including some Ikea cabinets.

When I got the Chateau dollhouse, I had to find a home for it in a different space than in the basement, since I wasn't going to work on it right away. So I located it in a 2nd-floor bedroom, which is where I do my real work - what I do for a living (I work from home). 

As I started to work on the Chateau, my need for tools, etc., came with that. It's not very convenient to have to constantly run down 2 flights of stairs to grab sandpaper or glue. So I have had a dual-use room for the last 2-3 years. I've improvised with some old desks that we no longer use (I do use some of these desks as my dollhouse miniature village in the basement). So my old desk housed my network equipment and printer and became the temporary home for my Cricut. 

I've been admiring Sherrill's craft room and her use of Ikea Havsta cabinets and bit the bullet and bought one a few weeks ago. Today I got down to business and put the one I bought together. It of course took me longer because I did a few things backward but it's finally done. I'm very happy with it! I love the nice wide size and the narrower depth of the cabinet. 

It also helps to hide the things I now have inside - printer paper, Cricut supplies, a color printer...and some mini tools. I still have to clean and organize the closet in this room. It's become a catch-all for more mini supplies (wallpaper, tools, furniture I will use in this dollhouse). But that's for another day. And please ignore the mess around my actual desk, I have to organize the old desk on the left or get rid of it. I will probably get rid of it too, but right now my rolling drawers slide right under it and it does provide an additional surface to be able to set up my cutting mat for wallpaper.

New Cricut Maker 3

I decided it was high time to step into the tech world with my miniatures. My attempts at making an arched ceiling beam for my vaulted ceilings from basswood sheets for the Chateau haven't been going well. My dear husband stepped in and made a much better version using basswood strips and a pre-shaped arch I found. These took him hours and are much more uniform than my attempts. I sanded and painted them...and was getting ready to install in my kitchen. 

Not too fast...the wallpaper in the kitchen just wasn't cutting it, and the flooring lacked umph. I found some fabulous tile paper from Les Chinoiserie that was originally for a bathroom and it was calling me to use it in the kitchen. So I got that applied to a base and then found another Les Chinoiserie paper for the walls...and I'm in love! 

Now to get back to the arches, well it hit me...Cricut can cut thin basswood. We had actually thought about it a few months ago when hubby was doing the 2nd version using basswood strips. Bit the bullet and got it last week. We spent the week on and off, he did the SVG, and then I did some test projects learning Design Space and using the Cricut to cut them. We did a trial on paper, then on cardstock veneer, and then finally on the 1/16" basswood. I'm doing the happy dance!

Here's the floor, wallpaper, and the old arch beam - while I consider the choices...before:

Now the paper is installed, and the flooring laid (I'm really grooving on it!)

First test of the basswood. 

This is when I realize the bottom horizontal is all the way across, unlike the original design. Still....I love it! This is only 1 thickness, and the idea is I will glue 3 of the 1/16" pieces together. 

Final version - and I'm now printing 3 on a 24" sheet. Just ordered more wood. I also decided that I will do the same arches in the other wing - the conservatory. 

Chateau Foyer gets new look

The Foyer wallpaper I chose originally - I had my heart set on the panel effect and spent a lot of time (and $) in finding the right paper, and then cutting the pattern to a narrower repeat (because the room was not all that large). I was pretty happy with it...but it had seams that were more obvious than I liked. And the outside coach lights stopped working, not even bulb replacements would fix that. 

So I bit the bullet and got more coach lights and found a fabulous deep elegant wallpaper from Les Chinoiseries. The crown molding in that room was different than the LR and DR, since I didn't have enough of that molding. But I really wasn't happy with the one I ended up using. So, it all came out. The new coach lights went up, and I wired them to the subfloor instead of the wall. This way, if the connection goes wonky, I can lift the floor and re-attach the eyelets. 

The wallpaper went up like a charm, and it dramatically changed the mood...its so rich and elegant. As I was installing it, the idea of using a dark/wood look in a crown started to form. I had purchased some Unique Miniatures crown molding I had used once before in another house. For some reason, once upon a time, I kept a small cutting of that molding and had apparently applied a stain/paint wash to it. I stumbled upon it in my stash, and it was just staring me in the face!

Before:

Visualizing new paper

Paper up, and old crown sample I found that I had previously stained/washed - looks rich!

Completed paper

Staining the crown

And final effect!