Library - furnishing

 The rug came from My Tiny World and as usual I have removed the pesky fringe.

The desk is a particularly nice piece, very fine detail and simple, unlike most Jia Yi stuff.  Again, my apologies for not remembering the vendor at Miniatura and my being unable to find them with an extensive web search.  The drawers do open and will be filled.

The chair suffered a broken leg in all this mauling around but was fixed OK with a dab of wood-glue and gel superglue.  This is a Jia Yi  piece made specifically to go with the desk

I am fairly sure the library steps also came from the same vendor but it doesn't look like a Jia Yi piece.  I have a very similar House of Miniatures kit but obviously I had a bout of laziness at some stage and decided to buy a ready made.

So, as you see, there's not much furniture to share or chat about in the library.  You haven't escaped ........  you can expect screeds of photos and words when I come to dress this room.

Library

This should really have a subtitle of  The pedants guide to 'stuff'. 

Painting needed for the library was just the ceiling.  I tape the front edges of the boxes when doing this and press down really well so the edges finish paint free when the tape is pulled off.

Here is my third order of the same three pieces of (pricey with postage charges) Les Chinoiseries wall paper.  First lot went in Dalton House, the second lot went in the cardboard fiasco but I was grimly determined to have this paper for the library.  I even have matching fabric and red silk for the drapes.  They never got made for Dalton and (obviously) can't be used in the room box.  So to just get three papered walls mostly covered by book shelves is an expensive fixation. Enjoy every little inch you can see here.

I like to cut wallpaper from the bottom up.  The thinking behind this is that if I trimmed the top edge to remove the name strip and then measured for the strip of paper I would end up with two edges cut by me both of which may not be all that wonderful.  In the main that wouldn't matter if was a bit wonky because generally the edges will be covered by coving and skirting.  By using the bottom edge as an already cut edge I have just saved myself one lot of cutting (times three on all three papers) and I have an absolute guarantee that the pattern will all run perfectly in line around the room.

I make a thin card template of the height of the room, lay that on the paper in three or four places marking the top, remove and join up the marks using a yardstick.

Wallpaper prep - left to right - wet flannel to keep wiping sticky hands clean, dry soft cloth for dabbing paper in place, border adhesive, dry flannel to dry hands after cleaning, ruler, sharp scissors of a good size to get lengthy cuts, paper scorer for any folds needed, propelling pencil

Et voila one painted and papered library.  

The Dalton House library had one of my trompe l'oeuil effects behind a partly open door but there is no way I have room to replicate that here but I still wanted that central door.  Little did I know what a kerfuffle that would be.  I contacted and ordered (in turn) from three of my trusty suppliers for the usual flat back false door that I used in Dalton house attic apartments back walls.  First one came with a stupid back frame which needs the hole to be cut to set it in.  Double whammy - no way was I doing that.  Second one the same but this supplier said the factory in China who had made the perfect false doors had changed hands and in the process changed the design on this door.  She has contacted them and there is a promise to change back but clearly that will take an age.  Meanwhile I had a conversation with another vendor who makes his own stuff and was assured his were flat back.  They are but I am too fussy.... they are a rectangular piece of routed MDF so the wood quality is not good and I like a separation between frame and door.  Nothing for it but to do a cobble of my own.  Firstly breaking down a normal opening door kit and removing the pin, paint, add door furniture and stick to the wall.

The usual framing is then too thin to go around the door and look right.  Luckily I had two sets for some reason so they were trimmed to size as they were slightly too tall without the threshold piece in place, and then glued back to back to make the required thickness..

Door frame added and it all looks OK.

I miss the clever trompe l'oeuil effect and the figure walking through the door but I have to keep impressing on myself this is not what these boxes are about they are simply mementos of work done and hold things I don't want to part with.

The light went in next.  This was a straightforward centre of the room light and there are no lamps to add to this room.

There has been much switching around of various lights from room to room.  This is not unusual in this mini game as I am never quite happy with the range of lights available to us, but this seemed to be the least worse for a library atmosphere.  The Dalton House room was fitted with down-lighters (can lights) in front of the shelves and had a system to control the humidity and temperature of the room to help preserve very old books. 😂

Just a reminder to test each time you do something with a light - is it working OK before you start?  Still OK when wires threaded through and light glued in place?  Still OK after extending the wires if you need to?  It is easy to do  -  just press each wire (after splitting in two and exposing the copper wires)  on to the terminals of a nine volt battery.  Not easy to see here but I am pressing one wire on on terminal with my ring finger (left) and then touching the other terminal with the other wire (right).

The wallpaper went in well and there is no nasty gap in the join of ceiling to wall, plus this is a modern room so I decided against coving even though it was all painted ready to go.  It brings too much distraction into the room where I want the shelf contents to be the focus.

So it was just a matter of cutting four small bits of skirting,

The skirting and shelves are not glued in place yet as I want to dress the shelves first to save me fiddling around inside a room doing it.

Here is a reminder of where this room began having been gouged out of Dalton House.

 

Library - paint for shelves

 Sadly, when I went through my stuff - moving everything to another rejig of my work area - I discovered that most of the paint and glue had not survived their three years holiday.  I was particularly concerned about finding a match to the already painted shelves for the library.  They needed touch ups and the new trim for the top edges needed painting.  My memory of doing Dalton House was that I mixed several paints or at least let down the colour with some white every time I painted a wall or piece of furniture, so the paint for my shelves could, quite literally, be totally unique.

One paint which had survived the stash was a tester Dulux called Melon Sorbet.  The name seemed very familiar so I whooped with the expectation that was the one I used.

I tested a little on a hidden section of the shelving and even let it down with some white but it clearly wasn't in the same family at all.

The brain is a totally weird thing for sure - days later and for no particular reason I decided the paint had been one from The Little Greene Paint Company and called Eu de Nil.  These are super nice quality paints.  £4 a sample tin but no postage and a good size.  

As it turned out getting this sample proved ridiculous - I ordered it, it never arrived, I chased it up, two emails not answered, I phoned them - said they would UPS a replacement that day - that never turned up either,  another phone call and another UPS replacement promise.  Fortunately that one arrived.  It took a month from order to arrival!

Having said all that, I don't want to deter anyone in the UK who might be looking for lovely quality paint in a nice quantity for your projects.  My previous experiences with them have all been excellent.  

Elf had sent me a trim for the front edges - sadly they had run out of the one I had originally.  after much deliberation I decided against it.  The previous top trim had served two purposes - trimming the edge and making the shelves reach the ceiling.  These shelves of course had been made by Elf to fit the dimensions of that room.

the library being built in Dalton House, showing ceiling height shelves

These room boxes are taller so that wasn't going to happen and the new trim was a bit 'fancy', so I decided to just sand the front edges and touch up along with the dints.

The dents along the sides were from using a screwdriver to lever out the shelves which I had judiciously super-glued to the library wall in Dalton House - they would never need moving!!  They positively screamed damage when set against the side walls.

I am really not good at filler of any kind.  Having tried on real house walls many times over the years and pretty much left them looking as bad as they did pre-filling, just a different 'bad',  I decided there was no reason to fiddle about with it as I probably wouldn't succeed whatever I did.  It was a case of stick a blob on every dent and then sand down best I could.

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the front edges were sanded smooth from where the trim had been ripped off (right photo).  When painted they came up OK (left photo).

After sanding and painting even the sides looked presentable.

How lovely to have straight walls to work with.  This is just a dry fit.  I am now off to do the usual routine of paint and paper and trim and 'electrocute a box until it becomes the library.  At least there are no more chimney breasts to do.

Library - re-assemble

Grrr, aaarrrgghh and similar expressions.  This re-assembling the shelves turned out to be a job I eventually had to walk away from before I had anywhere near finished.

I had some challenges just putting pieces back together as there were lots of breakages, splits and cracks which needed fixing, such as the one in this back panel.

.... but this was nothing compared to the ultimate challenge yet to come.  After a while of gluing and fiddling around I got the four main pieces looking OK.

... then the nightmare began.  I had forgotten completely how fiddly and frustrating it was when I first made these to fit the shelves in.  It was so, so, annoying.  I considered putting in tiny battens to attach them to but realised I would have to accurately cut 3 tiny pieces of wood for each of 24 shelves and it would probably not look all that nice.  I am also not convinced it would help with sticking them in place any way.

It has to be a tight fit for all three sides to make contact and it certainly that, so just getting them in the place is a nightmare.  Where to apply the glue? When you have 'sorted' that, the pig of the task is how to  make sure they are level horizontally and from front to back.

I had assembled all the 'frames' ready as shown in the above picture - all except one, which didn't have its side or top on as I was waiting for some damage to dry.  Needless to say I then discovered a much easier way to do it.

With two sides open I could put the shelf in place easily gluing two edges and could even use a square edge to set the shelf so it was level in all directions.  Grrrrrr  This will help with just four but leaves me with twenty others to do.  I had eight in place by the time I had to walk away.

Next day I managed to get the shelves in by applying a bit of nous combined with brute force.  First dot the where the shelf will go with a few tiny dot of Superglue gel.  Then put the shelf in above its location diagonally, taking advantage of the space.

Then, taking much care, flex the shelf a little so it is now short enough to get into its place before settling it in

 

I made that sound easy.Eventually though I had all four pieces reassembled. 

They need a top trim to neaten the front edge again.  Although looking at them now I am wondering (if the paint I got proves to be a good match) if I might not bother with adding the trim.  I think I could sand the edges smooth and touch up with paint and maybe add a picture light over each section.

Or cabinet lights?  I can't decide which would look the best and work the best.  I welcome any help here from anyone who has used either.   Mmmm on consideration the fastening plate is probably bigger than the front edge of the top cabinet trim.... another grrrr.  

So, a couple of tips from this week's adventures:

• when gluing fiddly pieces together:  use wood glue, not too thick, and let it go off a bit so it is more tacky and the big secret to success is to put occasional tiny bits of Superglue gel - apply with a toothpick here and there to give instant grab
• try always to look at your work as model making and not real life in miniature.  I just didn't see the leaving a side and the top off solution because, in real life, you build your cases and then add your shelves.

  

Library - disassemble

This was the very nearly finished library in Dalton House before it moved on.

I ripped it out in hopes of re-using it for a room box.  Sadly there was a lot of damage.  Three back panels split and the cornice trims around the top took a beating.  There were bits and bobs of other splintering and, of course several sides and all the shelves fell out.

I had already experienced a similar event with the two kitchens I thought I could retrieve and reconfigure into anther room box kitchen.  I quickly discovered that was not going to work and have ordered a completely new flat pack from Elf.  With that in mind I almost immediately gave up on this room and would have binned them; luckily I dashed off to make dinner and that was it for that day.  The following day, with closer inspection and fresh eyes, I could see possibilities.

Let me just say, by now I had a spread out heap of assorted broken and unbroken pieces.  The first task was to try and properly assess the damage by roughly sorting into a right hand set of bookcases and a left hand set.  It was a heck of a 3D jigsaw puzzle.  The pictures you see here were taken some time later and have quite a bit of re-assembly in them so they don't look too bad.

Having done this I could see that if I can get things to glue back together successfully and be able to get some more trim from Elf and be able to match the paint, I might be on to a winner.  Any repairs, with luck, will be well hidden by books and boxes. 🙏   There are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes going on there.  

The lesson to be learned from this little epistle is:  if you ever intend to dismantle anything for re-use, taken a gazillion detailed 'before' photos of how it was and as you dismantle put the pieces down in a logical order.