Chessington Plaza "Library"

Hello my friends!

     I spent last weekend and this one starting the "Library" for my Chessington Plaza structure and thought I would give you a preview of the work so far.  The room components are all in their "raw" stages right now as I like to prep many things before assembling them.  Those of you who know my work are aware that I have used "illustration board" for interior walls for many years.  It is the "drywall" of all my rooms. I prefer the double thick hot press variety and find it a great base for finishes, wallcoverings, and fabrics.  My plan for the rooms of this converted structure is to use stripwoods like "studs" in the walls. I will be running wires for sconces, picture lights, and lamps in the space between my wall boards. To make this all work it is necessary to decide up front how the furnishings will be laid out.  More about the electrics when I start to install the walls.

     My partner Scott drew patterns for my floor for the library using our "AutoCAD" program. This is an amazing drawing tool that we use for all the rooms we design and build.  The floor I chose to do for the library is an interlocking herringbone pattern of cherry wood.  I decided on a slightly larger scale than I would normally use after seeing a wonderful floor in a French Hunting Lodge in Veranda magazine. Part of the drawing can be seen below.

Floor Patterns

     You can see from these patterns that I am planning to do a "Versailles" parquet floor for the "Salon", "Sunroom", and "Dining Room".   I have long wanted to do this kind of floor and this structure seems to call for it.  I will be following the instructions from two of my favorite books, "Magnificent Miniatures" by Mulvaney and Rogers, and  "Le Grand Livre De La Maison Miniature" by Lea Frisoni.  I have read and re-read these books many times.  These talented people have two distinctly different styles, both of which I love! So wish me luck........"Versailles Parquet" requires many hundreds of cuts.

     Last weekend was spent doing the "Herringbone" floor and applying strip woods to the walls to create the "Paneling" for the library.  It took a day and a half just to make the floor. The picture below is of one of the walls with strip wood and base paint applied. 

     This is how the process starts for the panelling I am doing.  Those of you who know my friend "Giac" from "Late Victorian English Manor Dollhouse" will be familiar with this faux technique.  Giac did a stunning job of wood graining his staircase, Greatroom walls, Library bookcases, etc.  Well done Giac!  Scott and I offered this process in a Miniature Collector Magazine "how to" a few years ago and we have seen some wonderful results from our friends who have tried it.

     I found a color of "base paint" at The Home Depot that I am now using.  It is "Behr" flat and the color is (300d-4) High Plateau.  This is a great color for undercoating to achieve a rich warm brown wood color.  I have base painted everything I want wood finished with this color.

     These items in the picture above are what I use to get the wood color I want.  Liquin Original is a paint medium for oil base paints.  I use it with "Burnt Umber" and "Burnt Sienna" for most of the wood that I do. Sometimes I add a tiny bit of "black" to deepen  the color.  Ok.....here we go.

     I start by putting a small amount of "Liquin" on a paper plate along with the oil paints.  Touch the tip of your brush in the Liquin, not too much, and then pick up some of the umber and sienna paint.  Start blocking in the paint and don't worry about the grain pattern at this point.  Cover the entire area.  Now pick up a tiny bit of umber and starting at the top dragging your brush in the direction you want the grain to go.  Wiggle the brush, lightly pounce the brush, just don't lift it off the piece. You can come back and add more color or change the grain pattern if you are unhappy with your design.  Liquin requires 24 hour drying time, sometimes longer, and if you don't like you efforts, wipe it off and start over!

     Here is the progress on some of my "Library" walls.  They are still rough because I have not added any of the decorative trims that will frame all the openings and I have not "antiqued" them or applied the satin seal that I like to do.  Later on that, when everything is finshed and ready to install.

More "Faux" strips

     So that is it for now!   I won't have time to work on this again until next weekend and hopefully I will have some of the walls trimmed out for you to see.  Hope you all have a great week!

     One last thing, hopefully you made it this far.......I had a problem with my comment section last week. It simply stopped working..... I resolved it by going into my blog account, then Design, then comments section, and changed my comment settings to full page, this fixed the problem for me.  Some of you should know that your blog comment section is inaccessible to me though,  my friends "Catherine" and "Irene".  I cannot get your comment section to appear.  I have been watching your work though and enjoying what you are doing.  Catherine I love, love, love, LOVE the French Townhouse!  Irene, What new have you got up your sleeve that I hear a "tease" about?

     Take Care All!

Chessington Plaza Update! Floor Plans Decided

Hello my Friends!
 First, welcome to the new people who have decided to follow!

As I said in my first post this building was a "gift" from a miniaturist friend of mine many years ago.  My friend decided that she was not going to do the interior so I was the lucky recipient of this totally untouched space. It has been a naked box that I have looked at, thought about doing, but just did not get around to because it is not my "dream house".  So, I have been inspired by you good people who are doing such amazing and creative houses.  This structure is a square of approximately 33" with a bumped out section center front of 4 1/2" by 11".  The first, second, and third floors are not as deep as the ground floor spaces. So while this building looks huge it offers very small space for rooms of size.  After much agonizing over the plan, my first one was scrapped (nod to Simon) and I came up with a new more viewer friendly design. I will be starting with the Library on the first floor left side.   Floor Plans below! 

This is the first floor located above the Shop Spaces on the ground floor.  The arrows indicate the opening panels on the house and how the viewer will actually look into the space.  Most of the windows of this structure are on the sides,  so the openings you see on the bottom of the drawings indicate "windows" 

       Second Floor featuring a  Grand Salon, Sunroom, Dining Room, and Butler's Pantry

       Third floor houses a Master Bedroom, Dressing Room, Master Bath, Guest Room, and Child's Room.

      This plan is far from being a "real life" layout but I have designed it to have lines of sight through doorways and windows that make you think that the hallways actually lead to the other spaces.

       I hope you might be intrigued with this and watch as it unfolds.  I am not a "purist" when it comes to decorating, and my goal is not to try to re-create period rooms.  I will be doing this with a nod toward French style, but with my modern live for today look.

        So stay tuned!  This will be a slow process as I have to earn a living first...............bummer.......

Hope you all have a great week ahead!