Feeling Rather Nautical!

Over the last week I have finished the furniture for Robbies room in Pickett Hill. It has a distinctly nautical feel with a boat bed and lots of toy boats. I had built the bed a while ago but have only just got round to adding the bedding. Now I could just dive in and snuggle up.

I have also made the book to go on the bedside table. The Betterleys are so wonderful at adding these lovely little extras, I know I say this every time but they never fail to amaze me!

I have added the little blue crates to the cubby.

Here is everything spread out. The toy boats, the pirate ship, the game boards and the board game boxes - which of course Robbie never puts away properly! Also there is always lots of drawings lying around the place.

I love the beautiful map on top of the play table.

Some more photos of the bed just because I love it so much!

Couldn't you just pop your head on that pillow and fall asleep?

Later in the week I will put these things into Robbies room in Pickett Hill - then I can decide where to put his bedroom door. Then I will share the photos of the finished room.

Whilst I was in the sea-faring mood that I got from doing Robbies room, I thought I would show you an updated picture of the Sea Shanty. When I had finished the exterior I felt that it needed something extra on the left hand side of the wharf. So I ordered another pack of lobster kits and a lobster. I have now made these up and added them.

There's the sneaky lobster!

As you can see having lobster traps on both sides of the wharf seems to balance everything out that little bit better.

My next blog post will be the Artist Studio which is also for Pickett Hill. It is all finished and just waiting to go in!

Sea Shanty

I have almost finished the exterior of my Sea Shanty. The only thing left to do is I think a few more lobster traps on the wharf. This has been so much fun. I have really enjoyed 'landscaping' this project.

Here is the front of the Shanty. There is a beautiful wisteria growing up the front.

The fisherman has just popped in and left his hat on the doorstep.

I love the lighthouse mail box.

Looks like lobster for tea!

Lovely tiny little shells.

This lobster is trying to escape!

...beside the sea

I have finally got my sea just how I like it. The Sea Shanty kit came with the 'how to' for achieving this look. Karen gives great clear instructions with photographs, and Judith had added her own 'tips' sheet like she usually does which helped a great deal too. It is a fabulous way to get sea for your miniature.

Anyway here is my sea....


All I need now is the beach!!!

I have also painted the wharf and the steps. I haven't totally decided if any more painting 'touch ups' are needed to give the wharf the look I would like, so the Shanty isn't glued in place yet. The photograph has given it a rather 'red' brown look. If you look at the close up of the steps further down it gives you a better idea of the actual colour.

Here is a close up of the steps.

Not far off from being complete now. I am SO looking forward to adding my seagulls and seashells.

Sea Shanty

I have done plenty on my Sea Shanty so there are loads of photos!

Firstly I painted the exterior with a grey/blue colour.

Here is a close up of the shingles pattern, it felt very flat and 2 dimensional.

I asked Judiths advise about the 'flat feel' and this was her advice:

"It needs brushing with some Matt varnish but first put some dark brown in it - enough to get into the cracks to add dimension. Then wipe over with a rag."

So I followed her advice and got just the look I wanted. The depth doesn't show up so well on the photos but trust me it is a whole load better than it was.

The next thing I did was paint and put in the doors and windows.

Here you can see the windows from the inside as well as the internal door that I have put in-between the bedroom and the bathroom.

I glued the internal door slightly open as I felt it looked so much better.

I glued the front door closed, we don't want those sea breezes blowing in on a winters evening!

The bathroom window is a lovely oval shape.

The shutters were the next thing to go on.

I love looking through the windows and seeing the stairs.

I then realised that in my eagerness to get the internal stairs in I had not thought through how I would get the internal window trims in! oops! So I decided that I would be better off building and painting the trims beforehand so that I only had one piece to manoeuvre. I cut the pieces using a mitre box and then glued them together on my lovely little magnetic glue jig.

..and then painted them.

I then very carefully glued them in place using tweezers. Hey presto!

Here is the back with all the trims in.

My thoughts then turned to the roof. So I built the porch, painting the brackets to match the windows and the underside to look like weathered wood.

The roof is corrugated plastic sheeting. I wanted a weathered copper look, so I painted them a bluey green and then dirtied them up by dry brushing some brown over it.

Here is the roof from the back.

And a close up.

I then glued the plastic roof sheeting onto the porch and glued that in place. So here is a photo of how the Sea Shanty stands now. I am really pleased with how it has turned out. It has taken me almost a year of deliberating over colour choices for this project, I really needed it to be right for me. I am so glad that I waited until I knew exactly what I wanted because I am thrilled with the outcome.

Now its onto the Wharf and the sea itself......

Stairs for the Sea Shanty

Lots more progress on the Sea Shanty today.

The beams are finally in the bedroom. I have to put my hand up and admit that I cut them incorrectly at first and had to piece two of them together but I think I have managed to hide it quite well!! The ground floor ceiling beams are also finished .

You can see the stairwell trim is in, I decided to use wood stain for the trims at the back. The next photo shows a close up of the stairwell trim.

Then I needed to build the stairs to go into the stairwell! As I mentioned on a previous post I had decided to do the risers and sides in cream and then the banisters and treads in wood stain. Here are a couple of photos of the stairs being built.

Then I built the railings and glued them in place at the top of the stairwell.

The stairs were then ready to go in with their banisters all attached.

The final piece of trim to go along the top floor edge is supposed to be cut so it fits either side of the stairwell. But I tried it both ways and liked the closed in feeling so that when you are looking at the top floor you can look down the stairs and it feels more real. So I went with keeping the trim in one piece and am really pleased with how it has turned out.

You can see from the photos that the trim for the ground floor is also in. So things are starting to look good! I think my next step will be to paint the exterior shingles. Now I only need to decide what colour to paint it with. Lets hope that it doesn't take me as long to decide as it did for the interior decor!!