Bedroom

 The bedroom didn't really throw up any particular differences to previous rooms.  I painted the ceiling and papered the walls.  I could have written two thousand words on papering, so be very grateful for just a couple pf sentences.  It was something of a nightmare.  Obviously I had used this paper before and, as soon as I began, I remembered it.  Thin (nicely printed) from Dolls House Emporium and super stretchy when wet.  Nightmare trying to cut the right size to fit the space as there was no way to guess what size it would be when wet.  In real life and with good quality paper you can paste the paper, lay it to the wall and  gently mark  a crease where you need to trim.  Not with this one.  You pretty much get one go at laying it down before it wrinkles and rips.  Enough said!....   oh yes. and it arrived squished and crumpled.

There is no coving in this room as it is a modern room.  

Next to go down was the carpet.  It is always best to make a template for flooring, especially if you have any doubt about the room being a perfect rectangle.  Mine was close enough really but I was having a girl guide be prepared day.  To make a template -  take any old paper and push into the shape of the area and then cut to shape.  I usually have a roll of reduced price real life wallpaper as its a good size for this but as I had run out I just used two A4 sheets of printer paper sellotaped together.  

Not sure if you can see the writing in this photo.... I mark up a corner to remind me which way is up (or down) when I come to use the template.  There is nothing more annoying than cutting the flooring and it doesn't fit because you forgot to flip the template and remember which corner was which.  Yes, I have done that!  Lesson learned.

As you can see there was only one good straight edge on the fabric (across the top).  The template is flipped on the back of the material and drawn round and cut out.  

The top right corner has now become top left on this reverse side of the material.

I used double sided sticky tape to lay it down.  it is important to get a good front edge so i put a line of pieces along there and press the carpet edge in place.  It is then gently rubbed back a bit at a time, removing the protective strips of tape as I go so it doesn't catch anywhere i don't want it to.

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the skirting isn't down.  I confess to a not real life cheat when it comes to carpets - they go in first and the skirting goes in after.  That way It saves the anxiety of having to cut and lay a perfect piece as the skirting with hide any 'wrong' edges.

In this room's previous incarnation it had two doors - one from the apartment and one going off to an en suite.  I am pushed for space so it only gets one door here and that was reluctantly.  I may have mentioned that flat back false doors have pretty much disappeared.  I did source a couple but I am not happy with either.  One is too chunky and they are both just routed from MDF and pretty coarse looking.

I di resign myself to one of them eventually.

The idea seems to be growing

The idea of a few room boxes seems to have grown.  The original idea was to (re)make half a dozen of the rooms from Dalton House.  This immediately changed into five of the Dalton rooms and a brand new large Elf kitchen project as I couldn't rejig the Dalton one into the room box space.

I wanted to do it after giving up on making miniatures so that I could save (and display) some of my favourite things.  How I wish I had known this would be the plan when I first began this game as I have sold and given away some lovely pieces over the years that cannot be replaced.  Take note newbies out there - hang on to every little thing because you never know when you might want it again.

I have decided the planned music room needs enlarging - it needs to be wider - so it will now occupy a shelf to itself.  This demanded a rejig of the boxes on the shelves and this led to a box vacancy.  I felt the bedroom might be the modern room to fit in that space as it is probably the least contrast to the  Georgian style rooms around it.  Whilst deciding all this it seemed a shame that the simple bedroom was getting a reprieve whereas the more interesting Rec room and the Hive (my workroom) would be effectively 'binned'.  They are now in play.  Six rooms will now become nine.

Most of these will need to be set out in a different way as the dimensions of the Dalton House rooms and the measurement of my boxes are not the same.  I am suffering particularly from lack of depth.  If you go down this route any time be very determined as to what size you want your boxes to be and buy the cupboard accordingly.  I could have had a deeper 40cms Billy which would have been spot on but the whole point of my getting rid of the house was to give me more space in my office (now also my workroom) so the 30cms compromise was the right decision for me.

This had led to a bit of a struggle.  The rooms, as they were originally, have become fixed in my mind and  seem immutable.

So, more challenges ahead and a longer project than I thought.

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There may be a bit of a pause here for a couple of weeks or so.  My daughter and family will be staying with us prior to moving into their new home a few houses away so I am not likely to be playing minis for a while.  👏