Myrtlewood Manor

Status Update

2010-04-09T10:50:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! I know I've been quite absent of late, and I've really missed working on minis and keeping up with all of your great projects. January and February are always my busiest months at work. I thought I'd start working on my minis again in March, but a beloved pet was diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma and, while he seems to be doing really well on the chemo, the emotional rollercoaster of caring for and worrying about him has left me a bit uninspired, I'm afraid. I've also been working a lot in my garden (here in Houston, Texas, spring and fall are the primary gardening times; few dare to do so during our hot, humid summers) and on a few projects around my real-life house (I painted the walls and installed a chair rail in my guest bedroom - a LOT more difficult to do in real-life than in miniature, lol!). In addition, my laptop has finally bit the dust, so I'm unable to upload photos for the time being.

Notwithstanding all of my excuses, I am planning a return to minis in the near future. I'm attending the Chicago International miniatures show next week and taking a workshop (my first show and workshop!), so I'm certain I'll return from that really inspired and with lots of ideas. I'm really looking forward to the show and workshop (and seeing Chicago, as I've never been there before). I'll try to take some photos and post them here (assuming I am able to either resuscitate my laptop or just buy a new one). Are any of you planning to attend?

See you soon!

What I've Been Up To

2009-11-29T03:57:00.002-06:00

Hello from Cairo! My husband and I are currently in the middle of a three-week trip to Egypt and Israel. Since I like to keep this blog strictly miniatures-only, I've created another blog to journal my travels. If you'd like to visit it and see some photos, click here.

We'll be back in a week or so; I can't wait to catch up with everything you've all been up to!

Foyer Walls

2009-11-13T11:50:00.009-06:00

Here you can see I've built a wall for the foyer.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
Actually, I built two walls at the same time (and the assembly-line process really helped speed things up a bit). Here's the other one:

Here's an overview shot for some perspective.

The front door will be in the wall near the bottom of the photo. To the right is the doorway to the dining room, which I'm almost finished with. To the left is the doorway to the parlor, which I've not yet begun. Toward the top of the photo is the ballroom. Eventually, there will be a grand curving staircase in this foyer, leading up to the second floor.

I'm pretty excited about the crown molding I created for the entry. I used some leftover molding I already had for the top portion and some quarter-round for the lower portion, but for the decorative molding in between, I used some braided trim I bought at the fabric store. This what it looked like prior to painting.

And this is a detail shot of it after painting it.

This first time, I glued on the trim before painting the entire piece, which was a bit of a mistake. It took a long time, and probably about 10 coats of paint, to get in all those nooks and crannies. Next time, I'll paint the wood backing separately, and then maybe dip the trim in paint to get it all covered before assembling it. If that works better, I'll let you know.

Dining Room: Pocket Doors

2009-10-25T13:30:00.001-05:00

When I decided I wanted double doors leading into Myrtlewood's dining room, I didn't know exactly how I'd design them. There isn't enough clearance on either side of the doors - they would block the staircase if they opened into the foyer, and would interfere with the cabinet doors and furniture if they opened into the dining room. After mulling this over a bit, I came up with the perfect solution - pocket doors!
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
Installing pocket doors required me to tear out some of the framing I'd already erected, so I put it off for a while, but I've finally finished them. I built the doors out of prepurchased panelling and door frame molding, although I did have to do some modifications to get the top panels sized correctly.

I rigged up some window frame molding I had lying around to create an upper track along which the doors slide. Here's a picture of it from the back (as you can see, I haven't started on the foyer walls yet).

Of course, once I painted everything, the doors didn't slide very easily at all. This is the same problem I've had with the windows, but I think I've found a solution. I used a bit of Slip It Sliding Compound (purchased at Woodcraft) to lubricate the track, and the doors slide much more easily now. I'm definitely going to use this stuff on the windows, too.

I wasn't sure what hardware I'd use; all the standard dollhouse hardware seems to consist of doorknobs, and what would be the point of doorknobs on sliding doors? But then, in the woodworking section of my local Hobby Lobby, I came across a package of clasps. I think their actual purpose is to be used on wooden boxes, but one side looked a lot to me like a door handle. There were four in a package for US$1.49, which is a lot less than what dollhouse stores charge for their doorknobs. I had to cut off the ends and file them down a bit, but I think they work perfectly for these doors.

Let me know what you think!

I'm Still Here

2009-10-18T21:17:00.001-05:00

Well, it's certainly been a while since I've posted! I spent several weekends working on the dining room windows, then taking them apart, redesigning them, putting them back together and taking them apart yet again. I despise them now. I think I became really uninspired for a while because of those silly things.

Anyway, I think I've finally figured out how I'm going to finish them, but I've lost my energy and patience for them for a while, so I've turned to other projects until I feel like tackling them again.

Here you can see the draperies I've made for the dining room. They were a lot of fun to make, and have kind of reengergized me and renewed my creativity. Please ignore the partially-finished windows behind them.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
I've learned from lots of online reading that the best fabrics to use for miniatures are silk and 100% cotton. My favorite place to shop for small-scale cotton prints is my local quilt shop. They have so many adorable or beautiful scale prints that my difficulty lies in choosing between them all!

Now if only I could find a similar source with a huge variety of tiny trims and laces! I can dream, can't I? (By the way, if you happen to know of such a place, please, pretty please, let me know.)

These were so much fun to make, I've been designing miniature draperies in my sleep the past several nights. I do so wish I could just snap my fingers and have the entire Manor built, so I could spend all my time working on the fun stuff!

One-Year Blogiversary

2009-08-28T20:47:00.003-05:00

Today it's been a year since I started this blog and the building of Myrtlewood Manor. At the time, I just wanted an online site to journal the building process. I never guessed there were so many of you out there doing the same thing! Over the past year, I've had the opportunity to meet (online) and be inspired by so many fellow miniaturists. I've really developed a lot creatively and technically, and that's thanks in no small part to all you kind folks who so generously share your miniature endeavors and techniques. I look forward with eager anticipation to each new post by all my new friends.

Year 1 Progress Report:
In the first year of building, I've managed to build the base, frame the first floor, brick the front porch, complete all the floors on the first floor, build all four walls for the dining room, and build a wall of bookcases for the library. When taking breaks from construction, I've built some furniture from kits, as well as tried my hand at a number of other accessories. I've also worked out most of the color scheme for Myrtlewood, which was not easy given my indecisive and perfectionist nature, and amassed quite a few of the fabrics, paints and wallpaper I'll need to decorate the various rooms.

Grand Plans for the Future:
Since the planning stages, I've estimated the building of Myrtlewood as about a 10-year project. In Year 2, I hope to complete the library, the parlor and the entrance hall and tackle the wiring. In Year 3, I plan to build the kitchen and butler's pantry, the music room, the ballroom and the grand curving staircase in the main hall, as well as install the ceilings and light fixtures for the first floor. Years 4 through 6 should see the completion of the second floor, as well as the building of the grand front porch with columns and some work on the exterior of the Manor. In Years 7 through 9, I plan to complete the third floor and start work on the roof. Finally, I'll use Year 10 to finish the roof and exterior of the Manor, as well as any final interior or exterior finish work still needed.

Whew! After all that, I figure it will take me at least 10 years to make all the furnishings and accessories. And then? Well, I can't think that far in advance, but if I'm still into miniatures in 19 years, I'm sure I'll be able to come up with some other project to tickle my fancy.

Oil Paintings

2009-08-12T09:29:00.012-05:00

Okay, I know I'm supposed to be working on the Manor, but these were very fun to make and took very little time (and I do need something to do while waiting for paint to dry, don't I?).
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
These are just printed from my large file of saved images of art. I think these particular images came from Christie's site. I like to use lesser-known or unknown works of art, because I don't want it to be immediately apparent that these are fakes.

The frames were very cheap; I can't remember exactly what they cost, but I think it was around US$3 for both. They were sort of a dull gold color all over, so I "antiqued" them with some burnt umber paint.

Once I'd sized and printed off the pictures, I texturized them to make them look more like oil paintings. I'd read about a gel medium you can paint over a print to give it texture, but it was late at night and I was impatient to try these out on my wall. So I experimented with Aleene's tacky glue. Using a small brush, I painted the glue right over the prints using short, choppy strokes to build up texture. I'm quite pleased with the results, and happy I saved myself some money, too. I won't be buying that gel medium after all, because glue works so well.

Dining Room Wall 3

2009-08-09T20:49:00.006-05:00

As you can see, I've completed the third wall for the dining room at Myrtlewood Manor.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
You may notice there are small spaces in the corners and that the moulding doesn't quite match up in each corner. I haven't permanently installed the walls yet (it's much easier to make minor adjustments while I can still remove them); once I do, I plan to correct these imperfections with wood filler.

I still have to install the windows; I've been working on them but they may take another few weeks to finish. Painting all those little parts can get a bit tedious. I find myself taking frequent breaks, which means that my progress has been quite slow. I'll post more pictures when I finally complete them.

Mahogany Chippendale Secretary

2009-07-15T20:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a little secretary I finished recently from a kit.

I just love these House of Miniatures kits; they go together so nicely and the end result looks great, I think.

I've been piddling around recently, working on furniture and accessories rather than building Myrtlewood. The truth is, I'm mostly building the Manor to have some place to display my furniture and accessories. But now I'm going to crack the whip on myself and get back to my construction duties. Sigh.

Pedestal Tables

2009-07-11T15:18:00.010-05:00

I found these beautiful egg stands on Amazon - about US$8 for two - and thought they would make really ornate pedestal tables for Myrtlewood's ballroom.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...

These are made of some sort of metal and a very nice weight; I guess they have to be heavy enough to hold the marble or stone eggs they are sometimes used to display. They were a little too shiny right out of the box, so I used some burnt umber paint to tone them down and age them a bit.

I made the "marble" tops from polymer clay.

I made two of these for the ballroom. I also bought a few ostrich egg holders; they're shorter but wider around. I haven't decided exactly what to do with them yet - maybe an entrance table or a chess/game table? Let me know if you have any ideas.

New Arrival

2009-07-08T19:05:00.001-05:00

A month or so ago, I had a birthday, in celebration of which my mother sent me a card and a check. Now, normally I very responsibly (and boringly) just pay bills with birthday money, or save it for some future use. But my mother specified that I was to use it to purchase something for Myrtlewood Manor. And it's not nice to disappoint one's mother, is it?

Mom, I know you mentioned that I should maybe buy a working clock (and I do want one of those eventually; just haven't figured out which kind yet), but I've had my eye on something for a long time that will remind me much more of you.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...

This is a Heidi Ott working sewing machine, which just arrived in the mail today. The little treadle pumps up and down, turning the wheel on the right and causing the needle to move up and down. There's no place to actually thread the needle (which isn't all that sharp, actually), so it won't actually sew (so maybe "working" is a bit misleading), but I just love all the moving parts.

I also bought the matching bench, which opens for storage. I think this machine and bench are a lot like the ones my grandmother had when I was little, at least I remember being fascinated by the "secret" storage in the bench.

Thanks so much for my birthday gift, Mom! And, because I got this on sale, I think I still have nearly enough to purchase that clock, too, once I finally figure out which one I want, that is.

Status Update (and I've Been Tagged!)

2009-07-07T18:45:00.001-05:00

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I'm having major computer problems. My laptop decided to stop recognizing my profile quite suddenly one evening. Apparently, there's not a lot we can do aside from saving all the information on my computer, then wiping it clean and starting anew with a new profile. So I've been organizing and saving as much as I can on an external drive. We're still working through the various problems, but I think I've finally figured out a workaround so I can get back to posting.

A few weeks ago, I was tagged by George the Miniguy, who has an amazing blog detailing the various houses he's built. If you haven't had a peek, you really, really should. His craftsmanship is remarkable and his houses and furniture are stunning. According to the rules of the "tag," I'm supposed to pick six other blogs I find interesting and then name six things that make me happy (whoever came up with this was quite the taskmaster, wasn't he/she?).

Being late to the party, it seems as though lots of other blogs have already received this tag, so no one I'm going to mention should feel obligated to do this again. Here are my "six":
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
Sans, at Dollhouse Diaries, does amazing things in miniature with seemingly very little and comes up with the most hysterical stories about them. Sans, if you're not using creative writing in some way professionally, you definitely should be.

Ara's Addams Family Mini-Mansion is coming along quite nicely, and I suspect she's having a ball dreaming up all her fantastical and slightly macabre creations. I was a big fan of the Addams family when I was younger (I even dressed up as Morticia one year in high school), so I'm a little envious she came up with this idea first!

Ara's also working on Bentley Manor, where she'll stage a Clue murder mystery. I love, love, love the idea of this and cannot wait to see what she comes up with.

Check out all the lovely minis over at O Mundo de Zaphia. The blog is in Portuguese (I think), but the beautiful pictures require no translastion.

Visit the English Tudor Dollhouse All things Mini is building. I love the realism of the entire house, especially the kitchen.

Christine at Dandelion Fair makes the most adorable little creatures with the sweetest expressions. Puppies and tigers and bears, oh my!

Now, for six things that make me happy:

1. My family and friends
2. My garden in the spring and fall (in the summer, it's a jungle!)
3. My fluffy furbabies, who like to "help" me in the garden
4. My local hardware store; I have become a toolaholic
5. Homemade macaroni and cheese
6. The miniature blogging community (that's all you guys!), who help me to feel not quite so all alone in my enjoyment of this hobby

Inspiration: Real-Life Southern Plantation Houses

2009-06-21T16:18:00.004-05:00

I'm currently experiencing technical difficulties with my computer and thus can't post pictures of anything I've been working on lately. While my computer guru (aka my husband) sorts through my computer's various issues, I thought I'd post a few pictures of my inspiration for Myrtlewood.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, Louisiana:

Houmas House, Darrow, Louisiana:

Dunleith Plantation, Natchez, Mississippi:

Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina:

Belle Mead Plantation, Nashville, Tennessee:

I have long been enamored with these southern beauties. When I decided I wanted a dollhouse, I knew it would have to be a southern plantation house. There just aren't many kits out there in this style, though, which is one of the reasons I decided to build my own. My plan is for Myrtlewood to look very similar to the first three homes pictured above, except that it will have columns and porches across the front only, rather than all the way around (wrapping them all the way around would greatly impede access to the interior, unfortunately). At some point, I'll try to post the plans I've drawn up.

Hopefully, my computer will be "cured" in the next week or so, and then we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Globe Makeover

2009-06-07T16:46:00.014-05:00

I've been having a lot of fun lately taking inexpensive, mass-produced miniatures and remaking them into miniatures with a more unique look. Here's a globe I finished recently.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
Here's the gobe I started out with - I bought it for US$6-7 on eBay.

Now, to me, this piece looked much too modern for Myrtlewood, so I had to "antique" it a bit.

First, I carefully took everything apart and stripped the finish off the wood. Then I restained all the wood and applied a satin finish. This by itself greatly changed the look of the piece.

I replaced the gold bead feet with mini casters. I absolutely love these little casters! They made their first appearance on my cellarette, and will probably find their way onto several pieces in the future. If you want the piece to roll, be careful to apply all the casters facing the same way. While they actually roll (which I love!), mine at least do not swivel, so they must all face the same direction.

Then I got creative and decided to redo the globe itself. To maintain accuracy, I can't have a modern-day globe in an 1880s library! First I searched out antique globe gores on the internet, resized them on my computer, printed them, cut them out, and carefully glued them over the top of the globe. The result was too horrible to photograph. The paper would not lay flat against the globe, and the more I fiddled with it, the lumpier it got!

I finally chucked the whole thing and started over with a 1 1/4" wood ball, which fortuitously was just the right size. I drew on all the continents by hand and then painted them. This was a laborious process that I do not care to repeat, but I think the end result looks nice, and I'm glad I did it. To me, the globe looks a lot more Victorian, and isn't too recognizable as the modern piece I started with. What do you think?

Books: First Attempt

2009-06-02T23:15:00.007-05:00

In the comments to my last post, a few people asked how I was planning to fill all the empty shelves in my bookcases. Realizing this was a sensible question, I decided to try my hand at making miniature books. These are my first attempts.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...

I plan to eventually use many different materials and make lots of different sizes of books, so I should have a lot of variety on these shelves. I'll probably buy some, too. I have a lot of shelves to fill!

Library: Bookcases

2009-05-27T19:43:00.004-05:00

I'm taking a break from the dining room for a while and working on the library at Myrtlewood Manor. As you can see, I've built a wall of bookcases.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
I didn't build these entirely from scratch; I started with some unfinished bookcases I purchased on sale for about $6.00 each.

I added baseboards, plinth blocks, fluted casing and crown molding on the top. Then, because they were only 7" tall and I wanted them to go all the way up to the ceiling, I built the extensions on the top. For the top, I tried to mimic the construction of the bottom bookcases; it's not exact, but pretty close. I cut the arches using my scroll saw, and it is evident to me that I need a LOT more practice with this tool. It took me several attempts to get those arches even.

I'm still trying to decide whether to add cabinet doors to the bottom two shelves of each bookcase. It would involve working with those fiddly little hinges again, but it might look really good. Let me know if you have any thoughts either way.

I plan to add a brass rail about 7" up and build a ladder that hooks over it and rolls along the length of the shelves. I'm still trying to figure out how to do that, but I have some ideas.

Thank You!

2009-05-20T21:31:00.008-05:00

I just wanted to offer a belated thanks for a few awards I've received:

Thanks Marlene!

Thanks Sans and Ara!

I'm so honored ya'll think my blog is cool, because I think you both have two of the coolest blogs around!

I think I'm supposed to award this to other blogs, but I'm not sure how many (Sans did 10; Ara did 3), so I'm just going to try to pick blogs it doesn't appear to have been awarded to yet:

First, to Teresa at Inside the Mind of a MiniMadWoman. Teresa's relatively new to the blogging world, but I've been a fan of her work for some time now. Check out her adorable houses, including Pennethorne Manor (my favorite!).

Next, to De, at De-Lightful Minis. She sometimes does several posts a day. I have no idea how she manages to be so productive!

Then, to Marlene, over at Somerset House. She's working on an 1820's townhouse, among other projects, and I just love her attention to detail!

Finally, to my sister, Amanda, at Amanda's Adventures in Sewing. Her blog's not about miniatures, but you should definitely check it out if you're at all interested in tailoring, fashion, shoes, witty writing or looking at pictures of cute girls modeling beautifully tailored clothing.

Dining Room Wall 2

2009-05-16T22:37:00.001-05:00

Here's the second wall I've finished for the dining room. This one took less time and went much more smoothly than the first wall, both because it's simpler in design(the only panelling occurs in the wainscotting) and because I think I'm starting to get the hang of building these.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
I purchased the baseboards, chair rail molding and assorted parts for the crown molding, but I built the panelling myself out of 1/16-inch basswood. I also built the pediment over the door. Note how it matches the pediments over the china cabinet and the door to the butler's pantry. I purchased those pediments ready-made, but then couldn't find a similar one in the larger size I need for this door, so I ended up having to build my own. I'm pretty proud of it, actually.

The door leads out to the entrance hall. I was originally going to put double doors here, but I couldn't figure out which way they should swing; there just isn't a lot of clearance for swinging double doors on either side of the wall. Sometimes when I can't figure out how I'm going to do something, I try to forget about it and work on other things for a while, and then the answer just comes to me: pocket doors! They were quite common in Victorian architecture, and while Myrtlewood was originally built in the early 1800s, there's no reason her owners couldn't have installed pocket doors when renovating in the 1870s-80s.

Of course, now I have to tear out some of the framing and figure out how to build and install the doors so they slide in and out properly. Details!

Cellarette Redux

2009-05-10T13:24:00.012-05:00

Some months ago, I built a little cellarette from a kit. As I mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't altogether happy with the way it turned out. I spent a little time recently reworking the piece and like it a lot more now.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
First, I added some higher-quality hinges to the lid so it would open and close without binding. Then I added a lock to the front and built and installed a divider in the main compartment, similar to those I've seen in pictures of real-life cellarettes.

I beveled the top ege of the lid for an overall less boxy appearance. This little detail isn't very noticeable from a distance, but I think it makes a big overall impact nonetheless.

I found these adorable little casters (the wheels really turn!) and added them to each leg.

Finally, I lined the drawer with green "leather" (actually, just some scrapbook paper I have in my stash).

I think it looks a lot more realistic now, and that's one of my main goals in my miniature endeavors. What do you think?

Dining Room: Built-in Cabinet

2009-05-08T20:02:00.001-05:00

As you can see, I've finally finished the built-in china cabinet in the dining room.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...

I completed the shelves and cabinet doors weeks ago, and thought I was nearly finished with it. When I tried to affix the hinges, however, I ran into one issue after another. They really are fiddly little things; here's a picture of one of them photographed with my thumbnail:

I promise you, I do not just have huge thumbs! They really are that tiny. The worst part, though, was getting them to stick to the cabinet walls; I've now learned that even superglue doesn't always like to stick to paint. From now on, I will be affixing hinges first, and painting later.

Anyway, when something is really frustrating me, I've found it helps to take a break from it for a little while, so I spent the last few weeks working on a few other projects, which I'll post soon. Sure enough, when I finally got back to the cabinet doors, they didn't seem so bad after all and I finished in a jiffy.

Oh dear. It looks like Mary has started putting some of the family's tableware away in the cabinet. Don't you think someone should tell her it's likely to get quite dusty from all the construction to come?

Mary Moves In

2009-05-02T12:15:00.003-05:00

Meet Mary, the maid at Myrtlewood Manor (I seriously didn't name her for the alliterative effect, but it's kind of cool - perhaps I'll give all of Myrtlewood's inhabitants "M" names).
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
My husband is rolling his eyes right now, because I swore up and down (rather vehemently, I admit) when I was planning Myrtlewood that I'd never have dolls. I still mostly feel that way - unless they're very well done (read, super expensive), dolls tend to ruin the realism of a miniature scene, to me at least. Strangely, I don't feel that way about miniature animals, just people.

Anyway, despite my aversion to placing dolls in my miniature scenes, I was having a bit of difficulty visualizing Myrtlewood's scale: Is the dining room actually large enough to seat 10 people and have others moving around to serve them? Are these doorways tall or wide enough? How high up should I afix the candle sconces?

To aid in such visualization, I purchased a very cheap 1:12 scale doll off eBay. She was advertised at 5 1/2 inches, but when you add her heels and rather ridiculous hairdo, is almost 6 inches. That equals 6 feet in 1:12 scale, which is taller than most men of that time period! So Mary's a little taller than I bargained for, but that's okay - I didn't pay very much for her, and I figure if she fits well into a scene, it's probably close enough in scale.

Thus, Mary will be residing at Myrtlewood for now, cleaning up construction dust, and appearing in photographs now and then. Poor dear, I fear it may be several years before she actually gets a roof over her head, though.

Panelling, Texas Belle Style

2009-04-15T22:22:00.003-05:00

In a previous post, I promised to explain how I achieved the panelling effect on the dining room wall I built. There are probably easier ways to do this, so please let me know if you've developed a simpler technique.

Texas Belle's procedure for tackling a project:
1. Decide you want to do something that you've never done before, don't know how to do and have no business doing;
2. Think, draw and research A LOT to come up with every possible way under the sun to accomplish it;
3. Figure out which way will be the most difficult and complex; and
4. Pick that one. And strongly advocate that everyone else do the same.

Click here to read the rest of this entry...
Still with me? Well, you've been warned.

Before we start, I want to note that there are several companies that manufacture 1:12 scale wainscotting, out of resin generally. None of these worked for me, as I really need custom sizes to fit between all of my windows and doors. Also, I want some of my walls to include matching panelling on the upper portion of the wall, as you see on the dining room wall and, as far as I can tell, that's not available commercially. Plus, I just derive a lot of enjoyment out of building most of my own stuff, and it ends up much cheaper, too.

Okay, let's get started. For this project, you'll need posterboard (I use 1/16 inch), 1/16 inch basswood sheets, and 1/16 inch quarter round molding.

I drew the entire wall out to scale on graph paper first, which really helped me to figure out where to place each panel (so they would be even with each other and ultimately visually pleasing) and the trim.

As I explained before, I built the wall out of posterboard and basswood sheets. All the white recessed parts of the panelling you see in the picture above are posterboard, and all the raised parts are basswood. I was able to use posterboard for the recessed parts because I painted the entire wall; if you're doing stained wood panelling, as I plan to do in the library, I think it would be best to use basswood for both the recessed and raised parts.

After trimming the basswood sheets to cover the entire wall, as discussed in my previous post, cut rectangles out of the basswood where you plan to place each panel. These holes should be aproximately 1/16 inch larger on all sides than you want the actual finished opening to be. Save the rectangles you cut out, because you'll use them to form the interior portion of each panel (and you might want to lightly label them in pencil, too, so you'll know later which one goes with which hole).

Once you've cut out the rectangles, you can glue the basswood to the posterboard. Then trim around the interior of each rectangle with 1/16 inch quarter round molding, mitered at each corner.

This is indeed a tedious process, but I find it doesn't require a lot of concentration, so I knocked out a panel or two each night watching the news. If you're like me, there will likely be some small spaces between the basswood and the quarter round molding because you didn't cut the basswood exactly straight. That's no problem, though, because they pretty much disappear when you sand the whole thing smooth.

Then take the cutout "panels" you saved and match them up with their corresponding holes. You'll notice they're now 1/8 inch wider and longer than the holes, because of the quarter round molding, so now we need to reduce them. I wanted about 1/16 of the recessed part of the posterboard to show around each panel, so - doing the math - I needed to reduce my panels by 1/8 inch on each side. Doubling that so I only have to make two cuts (one for the length and one for the width), I reduced each panel by 1/4 inch along adjacent sides (top or bottom AND left or right).

You could just center and glue the panels at this point, and that would probably look pretty good. I suspect I may be physically incapable of doing such a thing, however, as I was certain it would look better if I beveled around the edge of each panel. To bevel the panels, I simply held an emery board lengthwise along each side of each panel and sanded at an approximate 45 degree angle. This took a long time to accomplish, but is another process that doesn't require a lot of concentration, so I did it mostly while watching TV or listening to the radio. Once you've beveled each panel, just center and glue it in the corresponding opening.

I'll let you decide whether the extra time and trouble is worth the effort - for me it was, and I plan to bevel the rest of the panelling throughout Myrtlewood.

There you have my panelling technique. It's admittedly tedious and requires a bit of planning and measuring, but I'm quite pleased with the results. I hope it works for you, too.

Ballroom Columns

2009-04-14T18:58:00.001-05:00

I plan for Myrtlewood's ballroom to be quite grand and, in keeping with its general Greek revival style, wanted to include columns marking the transition from the ballroom to the music alcove. I think I've seen some for sale on specialty miniatures websites, but I'm really trying to make as much on my own as I can (and saving money never hurts, either!). So I made these columns out of some wedding cake decorations, polymer clay and wood blocks.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
I found these Wilton wedding cake columns - four for about $5.00 - and thought they were absolutely perfect! They're only 7 inches tall, however, and a quick internet search showed they're the tallest Wilton makes. I needed columns at least 8 inches tall for my plans, so I decided to raise them using wood blocks. The blocks looked a little plain, however, so I decided to glamorize them a bit.

I used polymer clay and this nifty mold to create raised flourishes for the sides of the columns. This is a great use for scrap clay, by the way; I used up a fair amount of all the scraps I had from my marbling experiments.

As you can see, I simply glued the clay (after oven hardening) to the wood blocks, glued the columns on top and painted everything white.

This worked out so well that I'm considering ways to use polymer clay for other architectural embellishments at Myrtlewood.

Dining Room: Fireplace

2009-04-13T22:19:00.004-05:00

I've been really busy lately with family visits, work and springtime gardening, among other things, so I'm afraid I've been neglecting this blog a bit. I have managed to squeeze in a few projects in Myrtlewood Manor, though, which I plan to post over the next few days.

Last month, I finished a fully panelled wall for the dining room. This was my first wall, and probably one of the most difficult to make, but that's pretty much my personality - pick the absolute most difficult project to try first. (The easier stuff is boring, you see!) The wall was missing a door (into the butler's pantry), the fireplace and the built-in cabinet. As you can see, I've finally finished the fireplace.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
I added some molding to create the fireplace surround.

I created the interior of the fireplace from posterboard, braced with basswood, and bricked it using cardboard egg carton "bricks" and mortar.

I made the "marble" hearth from polymer clay and trimmed it out with 1/16 quarter round molding.

I think it turned out pretty well!

I've been working on the built-in cabinet to the left and am almost done; I'll post pictures of that once it's complete. It has cabinet doors on the bottom, and the hinges are a bit tricky to work with, but I think I've about figured it out.

Wall Building

2009-03-15T21:22:00.013-05:00

Before beginning construction on Myrtlewood, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to build the walls. My major goals here were to get as realistic a look as possible while keeping weight at a minimum. I thus settled on a construction technique similar to that of a real house: framing and drywall, using 1/4" stripwood for the framing and 1/16" posterboard as the drywall. I've now built my first wall, which I discussed in my last post. The wall is fully panelled, built completely from posterboard, basswood and purchased mouldings, and looks pretty realistic, I think.
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
First, I measured and cut out posterboard to fit the specifications for the wall I wanted to build. I cut out openings for the door, china cabinet and fireplace, and then framed them using stripwood. I used 1/16" basswood for the panelling, which I measured, cut out and glued onto the posterboard.

I developed a method for creating the beveled panelling on this wall, which I intend to use throughout the house, but I'll detail that in another post.

I made the plinth blocks (at the bottom of each strip of casing) myself from stripwood, but used purchased mouldings for the baseboard, chair rail, door casings and crown moulding. I'd like to think that I could create these myself given the right tools and about 100 years, but they only cost between $0.50 and $1.50 a foot (and I only need 4-5 feet of each to complete the dining room), so I consider that money well spent.

Once I had all pieces of moulding measured and cut, I glued them in place.

Now comes the tedious part. I spent at least twice as long sanding, wood filling, priming and finishing the wall as I did in the initial building phase. I used a coat of primer and three coats of paint, and I'll probably add another coat of paint just because I'm a perfectionist.

That's it! This took me about 2 1/2 weekends to complete. I don't expect most of the other walls to take me so long, because I don't plan on fully panelling the others or creating many more built-in cabinets. It's very typical of me, though, to start out with the hardest project first!