The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 9, Finally! Voila! - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

Voila!!!

 Well, after a few family challenges and a week in Denver, I finally finished. How happy am I! This little place will house some of my porcelain collection, as you will see.

6 months to complete after a 6 months in storage! A lot of interruptions but we just persevered!

Open open open...

...open open open

Love that hinged roof. Glad I decided to do it!

Doorwall detail

The Parlor....

The Kitchen...

The Bedrooom...

Bedroom stair railing detail.

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Now the best part, and always sooo longgg in coming! Furnishings!

It was difficult finding all the porcelain in the same 3/4 scale, or at least close to it. And of course I used brass colored pieces to round it out a bit.

Furnished Parlor...

I hope to get some more artwork for the sides of the ceramic stove but some things just take patience (and money!). I think my kakelugn came out pretty well!

The porcelain sofa and chairs look so comfy. Woulda thought??

I love the round picture, so you get a better view of it.

Yes, the side table is a door knob. Pretty clever huh? I didn't do it but I'm glad I bought it!

Furnished Kitchen...

 Must have a place to relax and have a good read while tending to dinner!

Remember, the staircase does come out for easy play!

Furnished Bedroom...

I was so lucky to find the little porcelain sleigh bed and wash stand.

The little wood stove is a salt shaker. I think the salt is still in it!

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Well, I hope you enjoyed my tour of the little Larrson experiment! I know it doesn't exactly copy the Larssons' house in any way, but I think it has a bit of that character. And now it gets to sit next to it's sister, my Barton Tudor!

BTW, I purchased the next in the RGT Children's Choice opening front dollhouse kit collection, the 333 Franklin Street brownstone. Let's see, I have to paint my front room, that'll be three months, have to go to Denver again, another month, and... Geez! I should be done with that one too in another year!!

Cheers Everyone!

The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 8, This and That and All Those Little Things - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

Well, it's coming to where I can see the end!

Now comes all the little finishing up things that you can't wait to finish. Not that shingling a dolly roof is a little thing. Especially after dyeing, salting, coffeeing, and bleaching all the little shingles in a hot sink bath. Yuk!

Railings

But first to finish a major piece, the railings. I can't remember how many little rails I punched out of the, I call it "splinter pack", that the kit has, and sanded each one. I waited to paint the railings until I had them glued up. One set for the top, one for the middle and a couple for the door.

I filled the groove in the top and bottom rails with wood filler, sanded and then painted.

The Roof and Shingles

Like I said above, the shingle dyeing was a journey all it's own. First the shingles were too dark, then too blue. I tried everything I could think of from my clothes dyeing days; salt (that just set the dye darker than I wanted), rinse, vinegar, rinse, strong strong coffee and it's grounds (soak soak soak, stir stir stir) rinse and finally some bleach and the final rinse. They sure did end up having a weathered look and now that they are on I very happy with them. My neighbor thought I was a nut however as she watched me. All I needed was a big wart on my nose and I'm sure I resembled a old wicked witch!

The back. Only a row and a half of shingles to go!

Altered Chimneys

I decided to make the roof part that was supposed to come off for access to the third floor, hinged instead. I just don't like major dollhouse pieces that come off only to possibly be misplaced or accidentally slammed onto dolly furniture! In the instructions the little block chimneys are used to hold the the removeable roof piece onto the home. So now that I won't be using them I have to have chimneys of some sort! Just the thing to try those cool rock stencils you see advertised.

My hubby cut me up some chimneys and I painted them a dark gray with some craft paint. I them peeled off the grout lines of the rock stencil and applied them.

I just had to get an idea what they would look like on the side of the home, especially since I just stained and polyied the sides for a more furniture look...

Gee! I hope I'm not gonna be sad I didn't leave the chimneys just like this!

I mixed some black craft paint with some drywall compound and had at it applying it with a paint mixing stick. I then removed the grout stencil, which was a bit tricky and messy, but I think they turned out ok.

Right: Drying. Love the variegation in tone.         Left: scraping the compound off the back after a thorough drying.

I'm still a quandary whether to touch up the color and how am I going to apply the chimneys to the sides????? Oh well. I'll figure out something!

Almost...

Hopefully my next post will be the last, the finish, the reveal, of the Carl Larsson Experiment. We'll see!

The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 7, the Doorwall, Last Of the Inside - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

That big doorwall. Keeps the dust out but adds another wall, front and inside, to complete. This will be some of the last of the interior decorating. Finally!

I hope I have enough paper for the 1st floor. Had only three sheets for four walls. I've decided too not to trim out the inside doorwall with the wainscotting used on the other walls on the two floors. A lot of work and there is no side trim like on the RGT CC Tudor to take up the added thickness to have the door hinge and latch properly. Geesh! I guess it will be more like the old dollhouses of yore, where the inside walls are all tricked out but the doorwall interior is more meager by comparison. Still, there is a lot to plan out.

Planning and making the trim. Trim and door stained, polyied, finger rubbed with silver craft paint and polyied. Boy! Am I crazy!

I had to make some side edge strips out of 1/32" thick wood to cover the edges of the wallpaper and take up the space between the crown moldings and the 1" corner blocks' space when the door is closed.

Papered and initial trim applied. Made do with the leftover wallpaper. Insert above the door says,"Happy Little Home", in Swedish (I hope!).

When wallpapering both floors I applied the paper as a full sheet, and carefully sliced out the window openings. Was just faster than making a template.

After waiting for some trim I didn't end up using, I finally finished the 1st floor of the interior doorwall windows...

Inside looking out before the back is put on.

The upper floor papered and finished so the whole kitten kaboodle......

Even though no wainscotting, I think it looks pretty good. Now to the exterior railings. Getting close!

The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 6 Windows, Tricky Tricky - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

Sorry for the long silence. The Holiday Season took a chunk of time and I've been dreading the assembly of the RGT Town Hill Road windows. But I have to see how the windows fit and work before I can start the interior decoration of the door wall. The instructions are a lot to be desired at this point.

Beveled Windows

These little windows are one of the nice architectural features of this dollhouse. Little beveled jewels, if I can pull them off.

Geez! How many times have I read through these instructions???

The instructions make for a tricky process, and after thinking about it, I've decided to modify their assembly by installing the frames directly onto the the outside wall itself, then the jambs and sills to them, to get the correct bevel and have that bevel supported as the glue dries. The instructions have you assemble the windows frames on the table, and then mount them to the wall. Seemed flimsy at best and might make for questionable fitting when installing on the doorwall window openings.

Painted frames, pre-glued to door wall. Side bevel jambs ready to be fitted and glued.

The larger second story window was another bit of thought. There are two jambs that bevel together to make the center jamb, and the instructions didn't give any guidance for that. I used a thin dowel and centrally glued it to give the center jambs something to glue to.

Dowel glued for support of central jambs. Stiles to be fitted in at tops and bottoms.

Windows glued up front and inside. Time for filling and sanding and more painting!

At least I know now I can trim out the inside windows any way I want!

Gosh! When will these windows be done already!!

The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 5 Stairs To Up There - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

Stair Assembly

I think this kit must be pretty old, as the stairs are an assembly job, not like the RGT Tudor, which had solid stairs that needed no assembly. I'm glad these stairs came this way as I wanted them to be almost like a ladder, so you can see through them, into the kitchen. I left their kicks off, to achieve this effect. I also left them unattached to the home, so they could be removed at will for easier play. Like I play with my dollhouses! Ha!

I've used a piece of wood to clamp the sides of the stairs onto, for even spacing when I glued the treads on.

Not So Tall Walls

Well, I got my inspiration for the top floor, at all places, K-mart. Between a matching placemat and runner, I have the "wallpaper" for the small room. The embroidered print is a little bigger than what I would normally choose, but I thought, if I was painting a room like Carl Larsson, a large design might be fun!

 

 

Stairs To Up There

Now I've got all the interior sides done and the stairs and their opening all trimmed out. As you can see I can hardly wait so I put a few pieces in the kitchen, so I can enjoy my handiwork. Love that gold porcelain pooch!

The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 4 Kitchen - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

Kitchen Dreams

The kitchen of this endeavor is where I hope the Larsson emulation will shine. I don't think I can get too folksy with a kitchen!

I found this awesome vintage wallpaper online from an Etsy store, Hanna's Treasures. Small print as wallpaper goes for a real home but perfect for a dollhouse. It's unpasted so I used Yes Paste to adhere it....

I'm debating whether to poly it or not, maybe a little gloss will give it a tile look.

I used large width bead board for the paneling, I just felt it had a better look for the kitchen than the smaller bead board I used in my Barton Tudor. After staining and polying it, I dry brushed some gray craft paint over it, to give it weathered blue color and polyed it again. The ceiling is another hand crafted paper I got from Paper Source.

Chair rail is added for a even top finish of the bead board panels.

Clamping is so important. That's why I've left the back off.

I painted the rest of the little fan panels yellow and cut them down to fit over the seams of the bead board paneling. I think it give the kitchen that extra folksy charm.

Maybe later on I'll add some shelves. We'll see! I did find some inspiration for the 3rd floor so onward!

The Carl Larsson Experiment: Part 2 The Sincerest Form Of Flattery - Real Good Toys 22 Town Hill Road CC2 Front Opening Kit

 

Inspiration

Carl Larsson is probably my favorite painter. His work has a ethereal, happy world feeling for me, with very lovely old world Swedish colors and timeless themes.

For this dollhouse I'm taking my inspiration from two of his paintings, "Old Anna", for the kitchen and "Cozy Corner", for the living room.

Old Anna - Carl Larsson

Cozy Corner - Carl Larsson

The 3rd floor, a bedroom, I'm not so sure about but I'm fairly confident that it's vision will come in time!

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The Living Room Process

My intent is not to take Larsson's art literally, but to interpret or invoke it's essence. Gee! That's pretty ambitious and presumptuous of me! I hope my collection of porcelain furniture will give the dollhouse that last, needed, Larsson spark, we'll see!

It took a while to collect all the elements for the living room (not to mention for the kitchen). The lovely wood moldings and bead board I have bought from my favorite dollhouse supplier, Manchester Woodworks, have been stained (Min Wax Provincial) and polyied. 

Prepping moldings and wainscoting from Manchester Woodworks

For the living room trim, I wanted to have a more subtle yet refined look, so I applied some silver metallic craft paint to those moldings with my finger and polyied them, again.

I've had this lovely metal trim that I've been wanting to use for so long now, and I think it suggests the quaint formality of Larsson's Cozy Corner living room:

I've chosen a hand made gold motif paper for the ceiling and busted into my stash of wee wallpaper to find some airy vintage MiniGraphics, "Lilly Pads", to use on the the walls.

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Of course one must put the floors to the walls to create rooms.  I primed the walls with a good interior primer, attached the floors (a more detailed description can be found in Part 4 of my RGT Tudor post, http://happylittleworlds.blogspot.com/2013/11/retrofit-kit-part-4-gettin-down-to_15.html) and left the back off, to have easy access in working on the walls.

Always apply your ceiling media to the bottoms of the floors before assembling. You'll save yourself a lot of grief!!

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Testing Finishes

 

I'm a big one for testing. Testing concepts of media with processes' does take time, but is sooo worth it. Here's my testing board to finalize the wainscot finish for behind the metal trim...

Left: Primed board with three test finishes under silvered moldings. Right: Testing with the metal trim.

...and then applying the final choice to the walls. It came down to applying the brown shoe polish first and then the white metal craft paint on top of that, all applied with my finger, of course!

Top left: Taping off. Right: Taped area revealed. Bottom: Base molding glued and clamped.

I was able to cut the metal trim with scissors, a big plus. Of course I made sure it was centered and applied it with E6000, a smelly, clear, bonding adhesive. A gentle touch with the tube on the back of the metal trim was in order. I clamped the metal trim in place and set it to dry overnight.

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Left: Wallpaper, metal trim and corner blocks applied. Right: Chair rail, ceiling and side moldings applied. Voila!

Well, I'm pretty happy with the results, fairly basic but charming I think. When the time comes I'll have to replicate this procedure on the back wall and the big opening front wall. Dang! A dolly contractor's work is never done!