House of Firsts, Room of Seconds

I'm flying along with Tilli's house.  All three floors are assembled and decorated and the exterior cladding is in place.  There are a lot of "firsts" for me with this house; it's my first 1/24th scale house, the first house I've cladded with weatherboards, the first house I've adapted to include dormer windows and believe it or not the first house I've done with a proper bathroom.

The weatherboard cladding is made of thin balsa wood cut in strips about 1cm wide and glued onto the walls so that each strip slightly overlaps the one below it.  In the middle of each side wall is a chimney.  The chimneys are made of solid blocks of balsa wood with cavities carved out to create recessed fireplaces in the rooms.  The thick, solid wood helps to keep the thin foam walls straight and sag free.  The wood was covered in pollyfilla into which a random stone pattern was made with a toothpick and painted stoney grey.

 At the moment, the front of the house does look a little odd, a little unbalanced.  This is because I decided the positions of the windows based on how the furniture was arranged on the inside rather than how it looked outside.  Hopefully once I add a porch/balcony onto the front and make windows and doors to fill the holes it will look better.  The roof has been adapted to include three dormer windows, two in the bedroom and one in the bathroom.

 Inside the house is progressing well too.  Each level was wallpapered before the house was assembled.

 In Tilli's bedroom on the top floor I used a floral fabric as the "wallpaper".  The floor is made of more balsa wood.  A sheet was cut to the size of the floor and then I used a ball pointed stylus to press lines into the balsa to give the impression of separate planks.  Dots drawn with a lead pencil give the impression of nails holding the boards down.

The bathroom next to the bedroom is papered in the same fabric with white wooden panelling on the lower walls.  I bought a "1/24th scale" bathroom suite to go in here.  As you can see in the above photo, it's basic, but adequate although the sink could stand to be a fraction higher so Tilli doesn't have to bend to wash her hands.

The bath tub is a different matter however . . . .

Tilli may be able to clean her feet in that, but to take a bath there's no chance.  I'll have to use some clay to make a built-in bath along the back wall, one Tilli can actually get all of her in at once.

 For the middle floor I bought some sets of Avon furniture that was going cheaply on ebay.  It's a fraction small for 1/24 scale, but then so are the rooms it's going in.  the study is papered with some striped wallpaper that came free with a DHMS magazine years ago while the bedroom walls are covered in more fabric.  The floor in both rooms is covered in a buff carpet.

Between now and Christmas I want to finish Tilli's house and one or two other small projects and organise myself to start my next "big" project over the Christmas break.  The first of those other small projects is a roombox bedroom to display the very lovely, very pricey bedroom furniture I bought for Preston House, but didn't use.  Would you believe that at the moment no one seems to make a room box in kit form?  The exception here is the Dollshouse Emporium, but theirs is very small and very over-priced.  I had to buy a ready built room box which isn't ideal for two reasons, first the postage cost of a built box will always be higher than a flat packed room and second, the built box will be more likely to be damaged in the post than the flat packed. 

Still, at least now I have a roombox and have started working on it.  It's been patched up where it got banged about in the mail and given a coat of sealer.  I pulled out the fancy chinoserie style wallpaper that I also bought for Preston House and then decided not to use and instantly decided it looked wrong with the furniture - too fussy.  So out came every other paper I have and eventually I settled on a grey-green scrapbooking paper with a pale medallion pattern.  I've always envisioned pink sheets/covers on this bed so the question now is, what colour flooring to use . . . . ?

Buff Carpet. . . . . ?

Cream Carpet . . . . . ?

My favourite, Green Carpet . . . . . ?

Or wooden floorboards, maybe with a fancy rug?

 Hmmm . . . . . What to choose?  I like the green carpet the best, but is it too "butch" for what is otherwise a very feminine room?