Saturday 18 November 2017

A couple of purchases and starting fitting the kitchen

I have spent literally months trying to find a light with a fan like I have in the Rec room.  They don't turn up often and when they do they seem to be on American sites (Ebay included) this means the cost has been well over the twenty pound mark and as much as about forty pounds.  I wanted it but not that much.

One iPad and settee night I went on the usual trawl and for some astonishing reason found this on Maple Street Dolls House and Miniatures.  It is a site I sort of know but for some reason had never pinged in my searches before as having 'a light with fan'.  Not only did they have one but it was only £5.39 plus postage and came in a couple of days.  Whoops of happy could be heard in the land.  I am sharing this in case they have something you thought you couldn't find??????


It looks huge here but that's just a perspective thing, the scale is fine.





Another very considered purchase was this not too lovely corner sofa.  I knew it was low quality but it is the size and shape I want.  I had already looked at tons of mini sectional sofas all at daft prices and they would definitely need recovering and were mostly too big for my apartment space. 

I have already bought several very nice (expensive for me) retro pieces of furniture for this room but when I put them in place they looked far too OTT for a (mature) student flat.  My landlady is not that generous.  That said, a white corner sofa might still suggest a case of style over substance. Not at all practical. So, it may end up being recovered charcoal grey especially  if I can't tidy up the bits and bobs that need doing.  Think it also needs better/taller legs.  It is covered in a very, very thin velvet like material, so there are a ton of loose bits.  I am hoping a soft brush and some fray stop may improve it.  You can find it in several places but my favourite vendor had it cheaper than anyone else and it was here the next day, good old  Elf miniatures




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Off we go on the process of getting the kitchen units in place.  


trims painted and ready to go

floors - two coats of satin varnish rubbed down before and in between

wallpaper template of kitchen floor

double sided sticky tape ready

kitchen and sitting room floor laid down

this is why I always use coving - I hate those gaps

I needed a silver escutcheon for front door lock.

The entrance to the flat is of course an interior door in the house but it would still need a (privacy) lock.  I thought a straightforward key lock would do rather than a Yale like we have on the front door of the house.  I started with brass escutcheon, covered it with silver pen, snipped out and super-glued it on the door.


coving in, door in, floor in, ready for units

sad face
I spent a lot of money getting the wallpaper for the sitting room and the tiles for the kitchen all the way from Australia and now I don't like it.  I was expecting flat mat wallpaper and a gloss card (maybe even embossed) printed tile.  I received all the same A3 size glossy paper for both.  I don't want shiny wallpaper and I do want thicker and embossed tiling.  

I tried scoring a strip of the tiles to emboss it a little.  The strip on top has been scored by me but it doesn't look substantially different to the flat piece underneath - so that's not the answer.


In real life I never have tiles in the kitchen - I can never find ones I want to live with for years and can never decide where to stop and start them - guess what - I am having just the same issues in small world.

I show you how it all turned out next week.

Glum mini person......




6 comments:

  1. Hello, Marilyn! Thanks for the detailed stories. To read you is very interesting and informative. I make many mistakes when I do minis, but I do not have the courage to fix them. Hugs, Julia

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    1. Hello Julia, I will return to this area and fix things some time, just now I need to leave it alone. M

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  2. HI Marilyn
    Although your post began on a HIGH note, it has ended on a Low one. :(
    I know the Anticipation and then the Disappointment of an order not being Exactly as you'd imagined it would be, but I also know about your Resourcefulness so I am hoping that by next week- All's Well that Ends Well.
    Meanwhile, all the progress which you've shown, looks GREAT to me! :D

    just a quick tip I'll pass on regarding paper being too shiny: photocopy it, or just give it a light going over of acrylic matt spray/ or hair spray which removes the shine as well as helps to protect the paper.

    I'm looking forward to seeing the FINAL RESULTS of your apartment kitchen, and I can hardly wait! :D

    elizabeth

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    1. Thank you hugely for the hair spray tip I will definitely try that. As you say right now I seem to be in the doldrums with the project. M

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  3. Hello Marilyn,
    It is such a shame that you were disappointed with the tiles and paper. Is there any way to spray over them with a matt product to dull the shine? It really is too bad because they are lovely. I am glad you found the fan and the sofa is lovely. On the one hand I agree it might be too designer and upscale for students, but on the other it might be a hand me down...maybe you could just age it somehow to look older?
    Big hug
    Giac

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    1. Elizabeth has suggested hair spray to flatten the shine on the wallpaper so I will give that a go for sure, cheap and easy is my kind of solution. I am going to put the sofa to one side for a while and come back to that and this whole floor after having a a little play with this and that elsewhere because I think once something is 'not working' for me I am best to walk away for a while. Marilyn

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