Old Farmhouse Room Box

I seem to be doing projects that are a little different from my contemporary style ;-)
But I seem to have friends who are fond of different styles than me. And this box is for Anja in Greyton, Cape Region South Africa.

She lives on the country side in a small village and is into spinning and weaving since a long time. When I visited her a couple of months back, she gave me some of her finer weaves and asked me to do a room box with a spinning wheel for her.

So, this is the progress I have made so far, using poplar plywood 6mm for the box.

Deciding on the color of wood dye was not easy... here making sure
that the weights will keep the wall panel straight while drying

I decided to do the walls and floor first and then only assemble the box.

Used trimmed popsicle sticks for the floor, glued them right on the floor but used weights and all.

Sanded and polished with walnut wax.

And then came the typcial walnut cabinet that one finds in every farmhouse here in Switzerland.

Used walnut stain/glaze (all in one, in German it is called 'Lasur').
Love the color but it turned out a little busy.  Ah well..

The locks are in the making. I have an ambitious vision ...
I will use a plotter for the key plates and am talking to someone in Etsy about the keys.

Today was the big day where I could hammer all this together! YEAH!!

Ceiling in the making...

Just wanted to share the with you. The piece of white wall is for the tile stove to come...

Hugs, Marion

P.S. I have my son staying with me after a knee operation (accident kite-surfing) and I kept him busy making miniature CAD drawings! Great way to pay for his food and lodging 😏

Once I have printed and painted them all, I will show them in my Shapeways shop.

Entrance finished!

A month has gone already since my last blog entry! Enjoying outside was further up on my list than working on the house - but I did finish off a few things...

The advantage: it gave me a bit of distance from it all and I suddenly knew how to furnish and decorate so that it looks realistic.

Decided to use modern coat hooks and wall lamp as a contrast to the door

Look, I just unpacked the shoes home from Patricia Santi!
Tried to make the sneakers from Pepper - but that was even extremely fiddly.
So I settled for espadrilles...

It is the door from Pipi that makes it all so magic!
And all my baskets now found a home ...

And Francisco's lamp looks perfect on this commode.
Please note the electrical socket ... ;-)
(Staircase not attached yet - hence not straight)

New table lamps I made! My passion....

a lamps, of course...

with wood

with beads

with stone

Pictures for the lounge

Did the flooring on the upper floor using balsa strips - ready for decorating now

and I filled the dresser shelves

Does anybody have an idea how to make the tile roof (spanish barrel type)? The plastic sheets look terrible and real clay tiles are going to be too heavy. Gratful for any ideas..

Marion

Working with Versi Flags Flooring

After all this I am now highly qualified in laying tiles!

And I have to admit that I had to rip out the entrance area again after I messed it up with the grouting... grr. But it was only a question of patience - and having enough spare tiles ;-)

I got them from MinimumWorld and they are great because one side is sandstone and the other slate - so, one has the choice. I opted for sandstone inside.

I drew some lines to help me keep the directions.After trying a number of glues, Pritt stick worked best and was least messy.


Once dry, I did NOT varnish them but spread polyfiller on the entire surface - covering everything with a VERY fine coat.

Just to immediately wipe it off with a damp cloth. Looked as nothing was left ....

... but after 4 minutes it shows that a thin white film remains. Perfect because I wanted a more homogenous look - without this 'whitewash' the floor seemed to busy.

Weights come in handy as well...

I made a test to see what varnishing the floor would do - and it showed that the white did disappear somewhat. So, I left it unvarnished, even though a little shine would have looked great as well. Can't have it all!

Here what it looks when all is dry. In the background under the newspaper hides that great door I got from Pipi Turner! Fitting it without a door frame meant that I had to polyfill around... will show you once I have it perfect.

Take care

Marion