Going Door to Door

Going Door to Door

At LAST back to my miniature world after travelling and looking after mum and then tidying up after my house sitters ! Then gardening, sewing seeds , trimming box topiary and tying up the climbing roses as we wait for summer to take over from spring with bated breath. 

I must add here that the realisation of what I have begun here is finally taking over my brain ! REALLY , a three story 11 roomed house, what was I thinking ! Well too late now to turn back so I must tackle things in order and get as much pleasure out of the process as possible.

At the back of the ground floor there is , if you remember , a door to the left that leads to the dining room end of the drawing room and opposite it is the door to the pantry ( now real kitchen ). 

Below is the double door to the drawing room that sits in the entrance of Ramsay House.

I wanted to carry on the theme of the lozange shape from these doors to the two back doors and the process for making them is the same. I began by mocking up the thickness of the wall taking into account the mountboard room lining , the actual wall, the void for wiring etc. I felt that I had to make these doors at this stage because they are not accessible without difficulty later on. The kitchen door is a variant with a real glass panel echoing the lozange shape. 

 I think that a glass door to a kitchen is a great idea in RL because you can see who is in before entering and it also saves on accidents. I had wanted to etch the glass with a pattern but as this door is hardly seen I thought it best to get on with other things.

After looking at dozens of 'whites and off whites' I had to make up my mind and decided on a F&B colour ( pricey ! ) then when shopping for food in our local supermarket I found a tin of LINEN color matt white and its perfect! I have a big problem with white, I think that it doesn't really go with anything but off or 'broken' whites are a nightmare because they can be slightly pink or yellow or green and this affects not only the light but all the other colours you put next to it. F&B have an amazing selection of whites but they are in Paris and I am here in the middle of no where and YES I am impatient so there.  

 The doors done and set aside I decided to finish the details on the lower stairs. I ordered a plain ceiling rose from our wonderful Sue Cook and a ceiling light from Microminiatures.co.uk. There was a height issue so the light had to be close to the ceiling , YUP as if anyone was going to bump there heads, really ! I did some wood effects for the treads and tried staining and varnishing but it looked gungy and not very realistic. I actually love painted stairs and as this is my house I decided to paint them to match the woodwork. Another of my préférences is for layered paint when you can see the years of overpainting but not many other people like this. Ramsay House is owned by a family who are not 'precious' about their home and just get on with living and not stressing about chipped paint and stained ceilings. I will build up the paint and then age it with darker corners and skirting boards and door frames and make it look lived in. 

 The paint you can see here is another supermarket matt white acrylic paint which acts like gesso and builds up layers that all need a lot of sanding, a LOT of sanding, my arms are dropping off. 

 I installed the lovely skirting boards from Houseworks and a chair rail on level with the door panel and a base panel of mount board to visually strengthen the lower wall. The way the house is built, no one will actually see this section or under the stairs but that is not a reason to get it right, right? 

 Here you can see the effect on the hallway floor with the door propped up. I now have to give it all another two coats of the LINEN colour and then sand and sand then age and varnish the woodwork as the paint is matt and I would like the walls to be matt but the woodwork to be satin finish. The walls will be a F&B blue grey color which perfectly complements the ochre and linen colours. 

 I hadn't realised just how much space I have in the hallway which is a good thing as it's the hub of the house. The fact that the Drawing room entrance is so close to the stair does bother me but I really wanted double doors to these ground floor rooms to make an impact. You can see how the white white colour is disturbing here against the ochre. People often make the 'mistake' of painting pure white but I suppose it's a question of taste. 

 Another subject, the drawing room fireplace. If you remember I got the scale SO WRONG and had to go stand in a dark corner for a whole day to recover from it ! I saw this Georgian fireplace at Sue Cook and realised that I could never do anything as good as this and Sue's fireplaces really make a room look special. The quality and detail are amazing ! Wow ! AND I can keep the hearth I made the oversize fireplace that this replaces which is great. 

 Here you can see just how much bigger my effort was against Sue's refined one. As with miniatures any difference is times 12 and it can easilly escalade. 

 For the pleasure, here is again the fireplace, thank you Sue for such speedy elegant service!