LAND'S END revisited

LAND'S END
revisited

The last time I worked on this project,
 it was to decorate it for Christmas in 2015.

and it was still decorated for Christmas in 2019.

Last week, after months of angst and indecision,
 I decided that rather than start a brand new project, 
I would make an effort to finish this one, 
so I hauled it down from the shelf and immediately began cleaning it out.
I had only completed 2 rooms in this Denise dollhouse kit, 
before I'd lost my motivation and shelved it, 
even so, cleaning it
was a bigger job than I'd originally thought! 

It took me longer because
for the past 4 years, I had been using this dollhouse for storage.
Periodically I'd toss anything 
which was even remotely related 
to the sea, into it,   
so there were lots of forgotten minis to rediscover 
as well as
 to play with all over again. 
★★★
I used an old paint brush to sweep away the worst of the dust, 
or else 
I just blew on it Real Hard!

Some of the surfaces required a good scraping off 
 of the old sticky wax and/or 
the hardened Blue Tack adhesives.
As you can see,
the living room adjoins the kitchen.  
Currently, the kitchen window wall is removable and I just might keep it that way, enabling me to get into the back of the house, later on.


If you wish to refresh your memory 
(as I certainly needed to do),
take a quick look at a couple of  
 'IN PROGRESS' 
Land's End pastposts.
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2015/06/whats-in-name-hbs-denise-kit.html

https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2015/07/lands-end-living-room-hbs-denise-kit.html

As usual,
everything is held temporarily in place 
with FRESH Blu Tack 
until I get closer to the end of this build and glue it all down.

★
THE WAY I WORK

One of the reasons it takes me SO LONG to build anything, 
is because I'm constantly putting all of the accessories in BEFORE the space is actually finished. 
I do this because it allows me 
to better envision who's living there.
So- everything goes in, then
I take photos to see how it reads, 
then everything gets removed until the next phase; then everything goes back in again; I take more photos to see how it really looks; the I take everything out again .... etc. etc. 
It's a habit for me, as well as being therapeutic and I've been working this way forever! 
I tell you this because 
I had the entire room set up without the electricity, then I took a lot of photos and realized that I was wasting my time unless I could actually see the rooms lit, and if there was enough lighting, 
and if it  was 
 visually balanced. 
Once the lights were turned on,
further in and out adjustments needed to be made since the shadows along with the lights, 
became an important player within each room. 

All the lamps for this post are temporarily hooked up to a strip of tape wire tacked onto the outside of the house.  
I have long  lengths of white wires running behind the sofa and across the threshold of the front door. 
It's not very attractive so I shot around it. 
Later on I'll be drilling holes through the floor and running the wire underneath the house and out,
 but since this is a temporary arrangement, 
will do for the time being. 

★
And Speaking of Lighting:
The 2 wall sconces over the fireplace
gave me nothing but GRIEF for 2 days straight! 

First the right one would work, but not the left; 
then the left one would work but not the right; 
then neither one of them worked!  

Yesterday, I was FINALLY able to get both of 
the wall lamps 
to STAY LIT 
 at the same time! 

So GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE 
who REFUSE to take NO for an answer!


Having lights over the fireplace made a BIG difference to the room although 
I muted their brightness a little 
by brushing on a Clear Matte Top Coat nail varnish
over the plastic shade AND over the light bulb. 
This frosted them just enough to tone down 
some of the glare and made them 
easier to photograph.
★
THE FIREPLACE

Beginning in the Living Room and the dressing of the fireplace mantle:
a clear plastic vase is filled with a bouquet of  dried curly 'branches'
( plant roots )
which I'd lightly dry-brushed with white chalk paint.
I love the freeform look of them!

Back in the 1990's I used to collect
miniature folk art.  
It was really popular, and I have quite a bit of it.
My plans at the time, were to build a rustic 
American Country Style House
which was all the rage 25- 30 years ago.
Well....
It's 2020,
and I'm kinda over that trend

however
I hope to make use of as much of my country collection as will comfortably fit into this cottage without scuttling its Nautical theme. 
What I've got so far is
 a healthy dose of American kitsch mixed with lots of seafaring cliches 
so if it looks a wee bit busy to you- 
it's done on purpose!

The oval mirror hanging over the mantle
was 
 formerly attached to a Victorian chest of drawers.
I removed it from the body then
turned the mirror sideways and hung it on the wall with a chain.
The wooden folk art apple on top of the stack of books, is a red painted wooden bead with a toothpick stem and green paper leaves.
The little wooden house to the right of the vase,
was also painted to look like folk art. 

I think I bought the sailboat about 3 years ago at
the Seattle Show.
The  wallclock is a button glued to a wooden ship's wheel from a local model builders store.
Below you can see the "frosted glass" hurricane lamp shades,
 formerly novelty baby shower milk bottles from the dollar store.

The little American Flag draped over the top shelf
was a decorative tag on a 'T' shirt which I removed and then glued onto a thin brass rod.

The side chair with the coral upholstery,
was originally going to be used in my future 
Bohemian House 
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2019/10/bohemian-rhapsody.html
 That project is still at a distance, 
so the coral chair may as well live here in this cottage by the sea while it waits.

The fireplace has a "fire" inside made from a 
Double Red LED cell powered light 
from the Dollar Store. 
I covered the housing with orange felt; red and neon orange acrylics; red glitter; and thick black acrylic "lead' paint for the carcoals. 

Here's the post which outlines all the details:
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-lands-end-christmas-2015-for-joyce.html

★
THE BOOKCASES

The bookcases on either side of the doorway,
were 4 skinny ones which I double stacked. 
I packed them with books, magazines, and 
various odds and sods and their arrangement is 
pretty much the same as it was in 2015. 

A quick peek into the kitchen
but more on that in my next post

After looking at the photo above
I wonder now why I didn't make an horizontal recessed shelf for above the door? 🤨
 I still could- but will I? 🤔
The ceiling is an old wooden placemat I found at the thrift store.  
I'd used wooden placemats before in  
 Villa Leone
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2019/02/rub-dub-dub-tub.html

When I found this one a while back, 
my plan was to sand it down and paint it white, 
although the warm natural wood is growing on me the more I look at it
hmmm? 
something else to ponder🤔

The shelving on the right is still a bit of a mess
with a lot of touch ups yet to be done

The wagon of British Soldiers was made by a Canadian Artisan whom I've lost the name of 
If I find it I'll make sure to update this post! 
★
ON THE SOFA SIDE of the Room

The lamp is a brass NI GLO brass lamp base 
with a unrelated silk shade from my stash.
The large yacht print on the wall 
was used to visually connect the blue wallpaper with the high wainscotting which I installed to compliment the high backed toile sofa 
(a cherished birthday gift )
from Janine
https://minworks.blogspot.com/


fyi
the wainscotting on the right side of the room, was was made twice as high  
 the wainscotting on the fireplace wall 
yet the differences between the two walls 
doesn't appear lopsided at all!

The taxidermy seagull under glass, flew in
and has made itself at home! 

On the sofa are some assorted throw cushions 
The "E' cushion was a gift from 
my dear friend Pam Grant from decades ago.  
I made the coral red cushion along with 
the blanket throw draped over the arm; 
the slouchy floral cushion was a giveaway prize which I won a few years ago from Margaret at 
Petit- Parterre
http://petit-parterre.blogspot.com/

On the tea table is a volume of MOBY DICK beside a basket tray draped with a laser cut linen doily by Jean Day.
http://daydreamminis.com/jean_day.htm 
I've included my Sam Dunlap teapot, with matching cup and saucer, and a single yummy biscuit on the side made by Jodi! 
https://my-miniaturemadness.blogspot.com/
Actually, Jodi sent me a full mini box of these delicate little cookies but the entire box was too big for this small tray, 
so I took out only one cookie, 
and will be saving the rest 
to eat later in bed- HaHA! 

And while I'm on the subject of Jodi,
the next time I post my promised up-date on 
Villa Leone,
 I will be pointing out quite a few more of the Wonderful Treasures I was blessed to have received from this Multi-Talented Miniaturist~
so stay tuned!  

To sub-divide the living room into 2 sections and downplay the strong horizontal lines in it,
I turned the drop leaf writing table at a right angle rather than up against the wall.
It is the "writer's corner" and has a lamp, a thermos. picture, paper, and fountain pen, an old fashioned typewriter and a vintage rotary landline telephone; Old School all the way!
A painting of a man fedora is
a good reminder of those old school 
newspaper reporters as in the movie
"My Girl Friday".

One day I may find a better looking vintage typewriter but if I don't, I'll still be happy with this one.  I like it's low profile and it's chunkiness.
★
AND NEXT TO THE FRONT DOOR...

Coming around full circle between the front door and the fireplace
 is a vintage rusty milk can storing 3 fishing poles.
On the floor in front of them are
a pair of worn out fisherman's boots 

The fishing poles were purchased from
Miniatures. Com
along with some of their 'American' food items displayed in the kitchen, 
but that's for next time.

But until then,
and so you can 'see' what's not been going on
in the other half of Land's End

there's still NO back exterior wall...

there still NO interior bed and bathroom walls 
and there's still NO roof!

but there's still LOTS of Chaos!

'Shiver me timbers and blow me down!' 

  
           LAND'S END- has been revisited

 ★★★ ★★★

elizabeth