The Tranquil Nordic Retreat

Back to the Tranquil Nordic Retreat dollhouse now! 

I've been working on the interior.  The mantel, ceiling, ladder and chandelier.

Cami, the owner if this dollhouse, showed me a photo of a house with this painted ceiling. I decided to reproduce exactly because it was so pretty.  I painted the ceiling boards blue. Then I painted the scrolls.

I used  cream, white, light brown and dark brown paints to get the scrolls colors.

The fabric is also in place in the loft section.

I made the mantel.  The inside is a slat and plaster finish.  And I crackled the exterior.

The exterior has siding. This side of the house will have a a cream or white finish. I might sand it a bit to look older.

And this was the front and other side of the house before the paint.

Then a coat of gray paint...

a coat of white glue that I let dry for 5 minutes and a coat of white paint...

and now I wait for the paint to crack a little.

Still waiting for it to dry completely. 

Hart and Bear's Shabby Shop

I made a shop/shop keeper's cottage for Jen. It's called Hart and Bear's Shabby Shop. I made this house entirely by hand. No kit.  I use wood from Lowe's. I draw out a plan and cut everything out with my Dremel Trio.  But if you don't have all the cutting tools, do use kits. I did when I started out. You can customize any kit very easily. Even the cheapest kits can look extraordinary.  And it's a great way to teach yourself scale and how to make minis. 

Jen's style is very sweet and very romantic. Lots of roses, lots of lace, lots of cuteness. Easy! :)

The porch has a bike, clay houses and a box filled with old treasures. Notice there's a big sale going on!

The flower boxes are filled with moss and mulberry paper roses. There also pink Heather in there. I get the vines and Heathers from Hobby Lobby. I just look for things I can cut down to mini size.  The roses are online. Just type 'mulberry paper roses'.

I added a piece of molding under the porch. Extra cuteness!

Adding bunting banners makes a really big difference. It just ads an incredible amount of whimsy.

I always struggle to make my dormers straight. But I think I finally got it!  If you are a novice, you can buy dormers already made. The shingles are pine. 

Another chandelier on the side porch. Super romantic!

The siding is birch. 

A view of the pink underside of the porch.

And inside!

The shop keeper's bedroom is upstairs.  I made a dollhouse, half round table, chandelier and dollhouse bed/bedding. I painted the chair with a faux seat cushion.

It's a very romantic bedroom with the pink polka dot and roses wallpaper.  The 2 dog paintings are Jen's Bear and Hart.

Downstairs

There's a working fireplace.  I made more houses to put everywhere.  Another banner on the mantel. 

The armoire in the back is filled with fabrics.  The ceiling is covered with textured scrapbook paper.

I was going to make an all lace chair. But when I was looking for more lace for the cushions I happened to lay the chair on the pink check fabric. Instant LOVE!  Had to change my plans. I covered a whole lot of little books with printed papers from the internet.

I usually like to put beds in my shops. But it was weird having one bed up and one downstairs. I happened to have a stove left from my dollhouse vintage stove tutorial.   I tried it out and it occupied the space perfectly.

The curtains are a piece of white cotton fabric and one piece of sparkly sheer fabric. I rolled the end up. Then I sprayed it with a fabric stiffner. Hairspray works perfectly. Then I added pink and white baker's twine. Paper roses I made with tissue paper add a finishing touch to every window.

In the middle of the shop, I made a round table. The base is a wooden candlestick holder I think?? And the top is from another table I pulled apart. On top I put a bigger house covered with concrete. I wanted it to look like something for a yard- a bit rougher looking for contrast with the other smaller houses. I also painted the rug. I use a thick canvas used for book binding. 

I hope you all had your sugar fix with this super sweet house. 
Now I'll get back to the Tranquil Nordic Retreat in the next post. See you then!
hugs♥,

The Tranquil Nordic Retreat

I've done a little more on the Tranquil Nordic Retreat.  The loft,  "tin" ceiling are in. I did a "stencil" above the windows.

The "stencil" is actually hand painted. I didn't have a stencil that small. I sketched an oval and bow with a pencil and then use a linen colored paint over it. 

When the linen paint gets the pencil mark wet, the pencil line turns into a gray paint. It's a great effect!

Here's the "tin" ceiling. It's just hot glue outlining 2 different designs.  Then I painted the whole ceiling with a couple of coats of thick off white paint.

And the upstairs ceiling is done. Half will be covered with sheer fabric. And the other half will be painted with scrolling.
I've been working on lots of accessories and furnishings. I can't wait to put them in place. Tomorrow I'll show you a shop I made for Jen. 
Till then!
hugs♥,

Tranquil Nordic Retreat

I have done a little more work on Cami's special commission- "Tranquil Nordic Retreat".

After having put my plaster walls on 2 of the walls, I started the wood floor.  I use the skinny craft sticks, a wood cutter,  and your choice of glue. You can use wood glue, craft glue(my favorite is Aileen's Tacky Glue) or whatever glue you like.

 I work from one wall to the opposite wall going from the front to the back. The way to do wood floors is almost limitless.

Once I get to the last row I use a box cutter to trim the sticks.

Now it's time for color.

For my first coat, I used a brow based wash. I take brown paint and water it down. It has the same liquidity as water. Very diluted, yet it still leaves a wash of brown on the sticks while letting the wood grain show through.

Next, I did another wash. This time I used brown, black and lots of water. The picture above is what it looked like wet.

And here it is dry. If you want even lighter just sand it a bit.

On the other 2 walls I used corrugated cardboard(from the textured scrapbook paper department). I painted the cardboard taupe. Then I coated the taupe with a thick layer of white glue. I waited till the glue was almost dry and painted a coat of white over the glue. Only apply the white in one direction and ty not to overlap your strokes.

The result is a small crackle effect. 

The downstairs is starting to look pretty rustic!

Tranquil Nordic Retreat

My newest dollhouse commission is for Cami.  And the name says it all- a "Tranquil Nordic Retreat" which will be with the Shabby Chic Dollhouse as a base. 

 If you want to buy the book to show you how to build the Shabby Chic Dollhouse you can get it directly from the publisher Blurbs or from my Etsy shop Cinderella Moments.

I put all four walls together with the floor and framed the 2 side windows.

Then I used DAP's Joint Compound (bought mine at Lowe's)as my plaster.  To spread it on the wall I used an artist's angled spatula. It's in the oil paint section at the craft stores.

Once the plaster is on the wall, I smooth it as much as I can by dipping my spatula into a glass of water. Then glide the straight edge of the spatula over the plaster until you have smoothed it as much as you can.  If you want a museum smooth finish just use a very gentle grit sand paper. But for this Nordic look I will need it to be just a little rustic. So smoothing it down with a wet spatula will give me the perfect look.

I also did the back wall the same way. Sometimes I draw lines in the wet plaster to make fancy panels. But this house will need to have these 2 walls stay simple.