Hi everyone here is the newest miniature creation I have completed. I'm calling it the 200 year old French Chateau House. This is the house a lady I used to work with had been wanting me to redo for her for awhile now. Her dad build it for her over 40 years ago. I spent the past couple of weeks redoing the very 70s looking house into a rusting home with lots of paper clay and my new antiquing solution I mixed up with denatured alcohol and black ink. I also surprised her and decorated the inside and added all the furniture and decorations as a surprise. I figured I just had all the furniture and lighting stuff lying around from other projects so ill give them to someone who would appreciate them. I couldn't leave the house Naked inside. I had a small budget to work with and I didn't want to go over that for her. It made me so happy to see the smile on her face today when I dropped it off at her office and the memories of the house her dad had made for his daughter. The interior is far from perfect, but I used everything I could find around the house and in my junk boxes. I found 10 sheets of decorated paper which I used as wall paper and some thin sheets of wood to make baseboards and lots of extra lighting I tore out of extra projects. It was the biggest job I've done yet, most of my miniature houses are half the size or less. I tried to take lots of step by step pictures of the house being transformed into what my mind imagined when I first saw the house. Have a Wonderful February Everyone! Big Hugs for Valentines Day! Stan
This is the Original House Linda wanted me to redo. I have to admit I was horrified to tear apart her dollhouse her dad made her. I didn't want to take away any sentimental attachment. But I kept telling myself it will be the same house, but just a different look.
I think I spent around 6 hours or more adding all the greenery to the outside. I cant count how many burns I got from the hot glue gun. I do know I had a whole day of watching Love it or List it, the house redo show on TV while I worked on the greenery.
My favorite thing on the exterior is the 2 cracks that developed in the paper clay when it dried on the left side of the front door. I think it looks like the bricks actually cracked through over 200 years of aging.
Linda wanted a red door and I think it turned out really nice. It took around four coats of paint form the base coat of white, the black, then crackle paint, then the to coat of Red, then sanding it and scraping off paint to give it an old old look. But after so many coats of paint the door wouldn't close and had swollen from the wetness of the paint and the layers of paint and one side of the doors original glue un adhered itself and had to be reglued. I had to tear the door apart and cut almost 1/8 of an inch off to make the door shut. But it finally looked pretty good.
I also tried really hard to re- incorporate pieces of the old house onto the updated house. Such as I re-added the 2 window planters, which were also antiqued with painting black then painting with crackle paint then painting white. Plus I also reused the old 2nd story balcony the original house had which I made into a smaller balcony, but I had to make some new railing for around it since the original railing wasn't to scale. Plus up close the 2 wood post holding up the new balcony I really like how the cracked painted turned out very small and detailed up close.
Since electrical lighting was a last thought on the house I ran the wiring down the inside of the walls and covered the wiring with some thin wood strips ontop ot the wall paper.
Another one of my relaxing things to do when completing the interior is when I make the model bathroom furniture. I've made quite a few of these bathroom fixtures and it is very relaxing for me.
This is the point I just finished shingling the rood, which I usually dread. I like shingling the roofs of my houses but hate the time it takes. It took around 6 hours to hot glue on all of these shingles as fast as I could go and I'm pretty fast, and I was standing the whole time. But it wasn't so bad. I had to stay home this night since the 2 gentlemen I take care of both got that darn stomach flu and I couldn't go play Friday Night cards and had to stay home and take care of them. So once all the cleaning was done I spent all night standing and gluing the shingles down while taking care of my 2 guys.
It took me awhile to decide on a shutter color. I ended up deciding on Black thinking it gave the house a more elegant formal look.
I also like this dark grey look of the house at this point, it makes it look abandoned and haunted. It could give me an idea for future projects if I would remember it.
The brick stamp I made out of nails for a electric nail gun compressor, I just bend the already glued together nails into the size I want and then hot glue them into the square shape and add a stick with more hot glue. I like using these nails since they are very thin.
Then time for the fun with stamping out the paperclay I previously laid on and glued on.
This is when I had just painted the house with my antiquing solution of denatured alcohol and black ink. Sorry this picture is out of order and I cant get it to move up this page.
Laying on the wood strips which I will be adding the paperclay into the center of each section.
The house after I replaced all the new windows and door to make the house look more realistic.
The house after I stripped the exterior.
The original House
The original interior.
