Fifty Percent Success . . .

I'm having trouble replying to comments again.  If you have left a comment over the past few weeks, I haven't ignored you, I've just gone around in circles until I was too frustrated to carry on.  And Daydreamer, about that dark blue night sky ceiling?  Wait 'till I do the ToM's bathroom . . . .

Some paint has transformed the Wizard's Lab from a white mess into a stone chamber.  The polyfilla "stones" you saw last week were first sanded, then painted with a couple of coats of dark grey.  Successively lighter coats of grey were dry brushed over the top of this to create the stone effect.  The chunky brackets that support the shelf above the stone work were salvaged from Bellerose house when it was renovated last year.  The hood over the fireplace is one of the marvellous freebies sent to me by Lorraine of Fairy Meadow Miniatures last year.  The wall beyond the doorway in the back wall is covered with a bookshelf look printable paper from one of the free printie sites on the internet.  This hopefully gives the impression that there is a hallway lined with bookcases back there.

To fill the lab I've started knocking together some furniture.  The table on the left wall was made by the talented Angela Downton as was the small bookrest on the main table, while the remaining furniture is quite obviously hand made from balsa wood and assorted pieces of trim and beads.  And did you notice, this is the first room in the Tower of Magic that Chrysta (the first doll made for the ToM) actually fits into and doesn't clash with the colour scheme in?  I don't know if she's exactly dressed to work in the lab though . . . .

Meanwhilte the Master's Chamber is looking . . . . kind of like the tent of a carnival magician actually.  I'm really not feeling this room at all at the moment.  I don't know if hideous is too strong a term to use, but it sure is looking less impressive than the Lab.   The blue curtains were meant to break the red in a complimentary way, but they just look wrong don't they?  The colour scheme is supposed to be black, white and red with hits of blue (because green would look too much like Christmas) but I'm now wondering if I should replace the black and white wallpaper with something in blue and have a blue and red room instead.  Or do I ditch the blue . . .

The one thing about the MC that is fabulous is the fabric ceiling.   Whatever else you may say about this room (and please be a derogatory as you like for this one) you have to admit that the ceiling works.  It was created by cutting a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the size of the ceiling.  A piece of fabric was then cut long enough to wrap all the way around the edges of the cardboard with a few inches left over and slightly wider than the distance from the corner of the cardboard to the centre.  The sides of the fabric were sewn together to form a large ring and one edge was gathered to form a small ring.  This gathered edge was glued onto the centre of the cardboard and the remaining edge was then pulled over the edges of the cardboard and secured tightly.  A ceiling rose tidies up the centre.

I had hopes that adding furniture would make me like this room better.   If only I could find a way I like to arrange the furniture.  The two main contenders for arrangement are with the bed against the back wall as in the above photo or with the bed on the side wall as below.    Of course once I get the layout right, I then have to figure out what colour to paint/finish the furniture.

Yup, the Master's Chamber is one of those sorts of rooms that just refuse to co-operate.  Oh well, at least the Lab looks good.