Saturday, February 24, 2018

Plinth box, architrave, dado

The post title sounds a bit like a counting rhyme, doesn't it?  That's one of the things I love about building dollhouses.  You learn things about all kinds of things. Like architectural terminology.
Meanwhile, back at the dollhouse, the cat has left the room.  Not surprising really.  Mrs Smithi from next door came to see what all the banging is about. 
Her full name is Brachypelma Smithi, she's a mature 12cm (5 inch) tarantula, and the loveliest neighbour one could wish for.  Quiet and tidy, a dainty eater, and she's very handy with a thread!  
After she shooed the cat out, she took her time inspecting every corner of the master bedroom, which is the room in the dollhouse I've made the most progress with. 
I've finally decided on a colour scheme for the house.  Blue.  Blue is one of my favourite coulours.  When I found the chiffon blue paint, all my decorating ideas fell into place.  It is a soft and restful colour, and so pale as to be nearly white.  I can use it as the unifying colour in every room. 
In this room, I've made true Victorian tripartite walls.  Wallpaper found on the Internet, rescaled and printed, goes below the dado rail.  Chiffon blue along the middle, and white above the picture rail and on the ceiling.  I haven't painted ceilings and finished cornices yet, need to figure out the electrical wiring fist.
Apart from painting walls, I've been very busy with wood strips.  The skirting boards and door frames are made of strips from the original Del Prado house kit.  They were marked 'roof beams' but I guess I'm so immersed in kit bashing now that I can just use what I like, wherever I like.  The dado and picture rail is made of square and half round pieces of bamboo window blind.
I neatly circumvented the need for mitred corners around the door frame, by making an architrave over the door mantle.  
 I think it also looks much prettier than the original house plans.
Around the bay window, I built a casing with wood strips.  I was wondering how I'm going to make the seam where the window joins to the house look neat.  A casing to hide the join is such an elegant solution. 
You will notice that around the bay window casing and door frame, I made plinth boxes with the skirting board.  I did have to mitre the corners for these, but it was worth the effort.  It makes the whole room look so much more complete. 
Henning criticized my decision to paint the skirting boards white, and not leave them the natural colour of the wooden floor, but after looking at lots of pictures on the Internet, I decided that either would be correct, and painted skirting boards go well with all the other painted rails in the room. Shortly after Mrs Smithi left, the cat started spraying corners to stake his claim to the room.  Seems like nothing around here is mine, sigh.

I am so happy with this room now, and I've already started work on the hallway, where I'm adding Dutch blue.  In the next few weeks I need to tackle the staircase, and electrical wiring.  I've never worked with either of those, so I'm doing lots of research in my free moments.

Wishing you a happy weekend!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Note about Mrs Smithi:
Tarantulas do not commonly live in South African homes, thank heavens!  Mrs Smithi is a pet tarantula, a terrestrial species from Brazil.  She is not poisonous or aggressive.   Tarantulas make the best pets ever, for so many reasons.  They are quiet, clean, and fascinating to watch.  They need very little care, and can be kept in a small space.  Mrs Smithi lives in a terrarium next to the armchair where I sit to read.  She's very good company.  I thought that people who keep spiders are creepy, until I got my first one, and fell in love!




29 comments:

  1. The pale blue is great for the walls! It's so fresh and brightens up the room. I like the wallpaper very much too!
    You did a lot of work, it looks really good :-).
    Mrs. Smithi is a lovely lady :-). Spiders are so fascinating, I admire how they make such beautiful webs!
    Happy weekend to you too :-).

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    1. Thank you! Yes, it's been a while since my last post about the house. I try to work on it a little bit every week. At the moment I'm at a stage where many decisions need to be made, then it always goes slower.

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  2. Love, love, love your photos, and I will seriously take your word for it that tarantulas make wonderful pets. Mrs Smithi is elegant and strikingly hued. Frankly, she’s a bit of a disconnect with your build, but who am I to judge? :)
    Obligatory I-met-a-tarantula-once story: My daughter was doing a semester-abroad in Costa Rica, and I went to visit her for a week. We were hiking at the end of the day in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which is situated on both the Pacific and Atlantic slopes of the Continental Divide of North America (which is amazing in and of itself). We were resting on a log bench, enjoying the cooling temps and long shadows, when a large brown tarantula came strolling out of the undergrowth. It made its way from patch of sun to patch of sun on the trail, then investigated our shoes and a little puddle of mud from a spilled water bottle. Thrilled by this visitation of an ambassador of the cloud forest, we watched it disappear on the other side of the trail. True magic :)

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    1. What a wonderful story, Nancy! New World terrestrial tarantula species are my special interest. They are disappearing from nature at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, they are not very adaptable to changes in the environment. At present, I'm raising babies from 20 different species. One day, I hope to be able to contribute to the breeding stock that will repopulate tarantulas in the wild.

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    2. O_O
      Wow, Megan, that is so interesting! "Hi, my name is Megan and I build miniatures and raise tarantulas." I would love to hear more about this. Do you write about your tarantulas publicly? Please tell more!

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    3. Nancy, I've been working with tarantulas for a while now, but this is the first time EVER I've publicly adimited it. Not even my friends knew. Not that they would be too surprised. An introduction to Megan could easily read something like: "My name is Megan, I believe in unicorns and taxidermy." I know that a lot of people have prejudices against spiders, so I thought I should keep my fascination within the group of people who share it with me. But I'm starting to realize that tarantulas need more ambassadors. They are really just endangered small furry creatures. Being quite isolated here in South Africa, there are not many opportunities to meet face to face with other tarantula keepers. Tom Moran in the US (www.tomsbigspiders.com) is one of my mentors, I'm active on a few online forums, and I meet up with the few locals I've met whenever I can.
      Now that the ice is broken, I might mention the tarantulas in my blog posts from time to time.
      What strange habits/creepy hobbies do you have that we don't know about???

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  3. As you probably will know I'm also a big fan of blue, Megan, so I find your walls and the room beautiful. And you've also done a great job with the wood work!
    I'm absolutely not afraid for spiders, but your Mrs. Smithi is definitely not my cup of tea. Thank you for this interesting information about these specie of spiders. Despite all, I think Mrs. Smithi is a beautiful creation of Mother Nature and a very good photo model for showing your miniature room;)!
    Have a nice weekend!
    Hug, Ilona

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    1. I was thinking of you when I started painting the hallway with my Dutch blue paint, Ilona! It is not Delft blue, a slightly darker more muted blue, but absolutely beautiful. I might let Mrs Smithi loose in the dollhouse again some time, she seemed to really enjoy wandering around in there.

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  4. Your introduction of Mrs. Smithi to your dollhouse room, is an attention grabber for sure, Megan and far better than an 1:1 orange or an egg! ;D
    I love the way you have added the additional white woodwork around the windows and doors, which makes all the difference to a space looking finished or not, and white and blue is one of my favorite color schemes since it always looks Fresh!
    Keep it coming :D

    elizabeth

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    1. Elizabeth, I also thought a tarantula is a bit more dramatic than an egg, ha ha. I'm really looking forward to adding furniture to the rooms. When I get to that stage, I won't need props anymore to make the photos more interesting. Showing the hallway soon. Haven't seen a post from you in a while, wondering what interesting things you are up to!

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    2. Nothing really significant to report on my end Megan. Have hit a proverbial brick wall with the second floor of the villa which I'm slowly picking my way through. May be a while yet before I have a break-through, only time will tell.
      But reading about your long-time interest in Tarantula's has been very interesting Megan. There are always so many fascinating onion layers to people which is why we are always so interesting to each other. :D

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  5. I love your colour scheme. Can´t wait to see how you decorate the house, it looks so promising! I though Mr. Smithi was some kind of photoshop trick at first then I realised he´s real!! OH my, I´m not afraid of spiders but I don´t see myself having one, especially with my four cats, poor thing. But he is good for sure at showing your dollhouse around.

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    1. Thank you Alexandra! I'm eager to start making furniture for the house, but I want to get the doors on the front of the house first. The amount of dust here is unbelievable. Not to speak of wild spiders that move in without an invitation... ha ha!

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  6. Hello Megan,
    I think the color scheme is wonderful. I love the shade of blue you chose and I have always loved white trim in a house, both miniature and full size. It looks beautiful and Mrs. Smithy looks very comfortable looking around.
    Big hug
    Giac

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    1. Thank you Giac! I was thinking of your house when I selected the wallpaper. It is so lovely to have this cross-pollination of ideas on the internet.

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  7. I really like the improvements you made in the Del Prado house. I'm so sad, that I started my dollhouse long time ago. Now there are plenty of details that I should redo....

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    1. I learned a long time ago that one needs to finish a project and move on. With every single thing we do, we learn, and get better. If we keep going back and fiddling and fixing, then nothing new will be born! Sometimes, I like to look at the things I'v made and think, what a long way I have come! I'm sure you feel that way too.

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  8. I love this room Megan.. but the spider.. NONONONONOOOOOO!.. Hi, massive arachnophobe here *waves*
    I don't blame the cat I'd scoot out of their screaming and waving my hands in the air... lol... And the size of that spider in that room is the stuff of my worst nightmares! I'm sure Mrs Smithi is a wonderful pet for you, but I'm glad she's all the way over in SA. :D

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    1. Sam, a tarantula is actually just a small furry creature :-))))
      They are very cute once you get to know them.
      But don't worry, soon I will start furnishing the house, then I won't need such dramatic props to make my photos interesting.

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    2. Oh, post away about Mrs Smithi, as she is so far away, I can look on with morbid fascination.. I understand they are another of the worlds wonderful creations and as I'm sure you know, Australia has many spiders, poisonous and not.. I find them in the house all the time, scream and run away.. lol.. Even though they give me the absolute heebie jeebies, I just can't bring myself to squash them, so I leave the room. I've even been known to shoo them up the wall of the shower with a brush before I turn the water on. I would never knowingly kill one.. I just don't want them around me. My husband likes them in the house because they catch all the insects. lol. If I found a Spider the size of Mrs Smithi in the house though, I might move out permanently.. At the very least I'd have to call the wildlife catcher.. she and I could never co-exist in the same residence.

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  9. I see you already had a building inspector visiting your house on construction. ;O) It's fascinating to read in your comments how engaged your are with these fascinating species - it was nice to meet Mrs. Smithi for sure. You've made wonderful progress after the cat was shooed out and going for blue is never a bad decision.

    Greetings
    Birgit

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    1. Thank you Birgit! I'm having so much fun playing in the dollhouse, and just couldn't resist introducing Mrs Smithi. By now the cat has calmed down and I'm working on the halway. No doubt some spider will come check it out again in future.

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  10. Dear Megan, I love that Mrs Smithi chased the cat out of the room! I really think that the wallpaper you have used is lovely. - such a nice shade of blue and a pretty pattern.
    I’m having a great time this evening exploring mini blogs and I have enjoyed visiting you.
    Regards Janne

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    1. Janne, I have so much fun inventing little stories for the dollhouse. Thank you for visiting my blog!

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  11. Looks marvelous! I love the color combo. All the trim makes it very beautiful.
    hugs,
    Caroline

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    1. Thanks, Caroline. Coming from a master builder and colour co-ordinator, that's high praise!

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