Dining In Style

In my personal philosophy of dollshouse creation, there are five stages to the process.  First is Construction, second is Decoration, then comes Furnishing followed by Ornamentation and finally there's Population.  I'm very pleased to be able to say that stage two of this house is now, at long last,  finished and I can now move on to the next stage; Furnishing.

 But before we move on to stage three, I'd like to share some photos of the lights.  The main house is now positioned on top of the basment, so for the first time you can see the whole house with all the lights working.  There are concealed bulbs in the hallway behind the study over the staircase and another over the basement stairs.  The kitchen has a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the dining room has two candlearbra adapted from identical chandeliers.  The rest of the lights were all hand made, that's why its such a shock they all work!

And now for stage three!

 The above photo is how the dining room looked last week.  Lovely wallpaper, grand fireplace, but otherwise just a table and chairs whacked in the middle of the floor.  All the remaining empty space has now been filled in.

Either side of the fireplace is a pedestal, each displaying an ornamental vase.  These came out of the pre-renovation house.  On the back wall behind the table is a low buffet/chest of drawers.  I know a higher display cabinet showing off the best china might be more appropriate, but that would block off a section of the wallpaper and, I think, ruin it's effect.  I kept all the furniture as low as possible to leave the scenic vista in full view.

 In the back left corner of the room is a small chaise made to fit the space.  The shaped legs were pre-bought, but the rest of this piece is entirely from scratch.  I think I should have curved it out more to be wider at the back, but I still love it.  It's upholsetered in a light blue silk dupion and the seats of the dining chairs have been recovered in the same silk to match.

 In the front left corner is a three tiered dessert stand.  Yes, I know the upper tiers are crooked and I will fix them.  Each tier is made of a plaster ceiling rose.  This gives the underside of each level a wonderful decorative feature.  The flat tops of each will eventually be covered in a myriad of delectable desserts.

I still need to add a rug to the floor, something in a soft blue I think, and lots of food, cultery, glasses, etc, but would you care to dine in this room?

Next door in the Hall, not much has changed, except that the pieces of, well, junk that had been hanging around has been cleared out.  The two tables and chair are all the furniture there will be in this room although I will be adding a feature in the middle of the floor that I'll build as part of the "furnishing" phase . . . . .

Working on furniture for the study has been a much harder task.  There are about three essential items to fit in this room; a desk, a wing chair for reading and a free standing circular bookshelf.  Using a sample chair, a round table and an assortment of desks and desk sided objects I have tried arranging and rearranging these items in the room and have come to the conclusion that they just won't fit.  The problem is the desk.  Once you add a desk, regardless of size, shape or position the room instantly looks awkward.  Can you have a study/library without a desk?  I'm thinking at the moment that I may have to!

One final piece of furniture for the week is this chest of drawers.  I bought the kit from the very first doll, bear and miniature fair I ever attended.  It was the only fair that I ever saw a good range of DIY items and the only time I have seen House of Miniatures kits available in Australia.  If I knew how rare these things were, I'd have bought more way back then.  As it is, this kit has been siting largely forgotten at the back of the cupboard since then.  I found it while rummaging around in search of furniture for this house and thought it would be perfect for either the bedroom or the nursery (probably the latter).