Playing in the woods

After so many many hours admiring all your wonderful parquet wood floors on your blogs I was itching to have a go myself but things have to be done in order. I had to have sufficiently progressed with the floor layout and doors and base boards to be able to make a Template to work on. 

I have bought over this last year quite a lot of wood veneer in different colours but for this dining room end of the drawing room I realised that with the floor being so far back from view and low down on the ground floor it was not Worth really doing anything complicated.

My third sample test after doing two in card for the fit and size was done with 100 year old oak veneer bought in a recent car boot sale / yard sale.

As you can see the 'open' grain of the wood didn't look to scale and was a bit messy for my taste.

I worked on a base of 350 gram kraft card which is rigid enough not to bend but still thin enough to not add height to the floor.

I knew that I could use stain, filler and wax to get it right but having so many other alternative woods to work with it was pointless.

Missed a few photo but the method and design are the same. I chose a fine grained light colour wood veneer from a German Supplier ( ? ) didn't note the wood type. I made a plain strip surround to enclose the parquet pieces laid on the biais of course. Here it is sanded down ready for stain. I used an alcohol based 'Palissandre' stain which is redder than walnut but deeper than dark oak. 

I then gave it a coat of matt varnish, rubbed it down and waxed it up with antique wax to a nice realistic shine ready for a good layer of dust later !! 

 

Here it is glued down, not perfect but for my first attempt, not too bad.

As I just showed you the finished floor I cannot leave without showing the rest of the room instead of doing a second post.

I had decided to make this dining end in a slightly different style from the drawing room end just because it was fun. Here you can see the hutch/dresser dry fitted in place and the back removable window all fixed in place. The door still hasn't been given an extra piece to fill in the lower gap yet.

I was so nervous about glueing in this paper as there was not going to be a second chance. I made a Template for the wall then another in tracing paper to lay over Alison Davies lovely 'English countryside' scenic paper in order to choose the best sections given that the window bites into the scene. I then dry fitted the paper once cut and went to lie down and do some breathing exercises!

I had no idea how to glue, what glue to use etc and of course should have asked the lovely Alison but in the end I gave the wall a coat of slightly diluted wood glue to seal it which I usually do with wallpaper paste on a real scale room. This stops the wall drinking up the glue from the paper too quickly. I even papered to the left where the hutch/dresser would fit later.

Alison's papers are very heavy duty so they don't Bubble or wrinkle when glued.

A dry fit to make sure that ever millimetre has been sorted out. I also gave the base mdf floor a little stain around the edges before laying in case there would be any gaps, rather silly when no one will see the floor from above but just being finnicky as usual.

I made the ceiling cornicing plain with no added decor as the room is busy enough. On seeing the walls papered I decided to do a 'sky' painted ceiling in the end of the room, never of course to be seen! I add that the ceiling height is lower here than the other end. There will be a chandelier, two wall lights and a couple of lamps in the drawing room but I didn't want another working ceiling light over the dining table. I am going to just suspend a non electric light or candle chandelier in a garden theme and set LED spots into the ceiling. The lovely Tony from 'Miniature Treasures' gave me his contact for LED lights 

https://www.smallscalelights.co.uk/

Jennifer Smith the owner is lovely and you can explain what you need and she will make it up and the cost is very fair indeed. I wasn't sure if I could run LEDs and 'normal' dollhouse lights off the same circuit but it's all 12 volt, just the LED set up before the junction is slightly different because the wiring is one way and cannot be crossed.

More on the ceiling later.

To finish I wanted to show off my car boot/yard sale purchase of 100 year plus wood veneer from a lovely old man who saved it from his old boss using it to light his fire he had so much!

There is a mix of oak, walnut and mahogany, I paid 20 euros for the whole crate, enough wood for a lifetime. He said that he would call me when he found more. I have stored it flat weighed down with heavy books for the moment.