I began with a little remodeling. The starting pieces are the Dollhouse Skylight Roof kit that was available as an add on to the original Asahi Tea House. There were 24 pains in the roof piece to begin with, but I wanted to continue the linear look of the front windows. I carefully cut out the unwanted mullions, sanded and primed the panels.
I plan to have some recessed LED lights in the ceiling, so I drilled the holes for those.
Because there is so much skylight, there is very little roof area left. I looked at many roofing options, but in the end, I decided I wanted something like a hot mop type of roof but with an asphalt texture. I painted a base coat of black.
Then, in a leftover plastic container, I mixed some pretty course sand with more black paint. I applied it pretty liberally, and after the first piece was finished I decided that I didn't really like the way it looked. Too thick and uneven.
Then I added a lot more black paint so that the paint to sand ratio was about 2/3 paint to 1/3 sand. This worked much better, but I am still not satisfied with the texture.
I brushed on a heavy handed layer of black paint only. This helped a little, but I still don't like it. Now I am out (I think) of black acrylic paint.
Options are:
- Apply a coat of dollhouse stucco to help fill in and even out the texture.
- Apply a coat of black latex satin that I have stashed away for furniture touch ups (I have several pieces of black furniture). Hope that adding more paint will help even out the surface a bit.
- Spray paint it in a lighter color.
- Live with the results (never gonna happen). Come to terns with my terrible idea.
- Order new skylight kits and start over. In other words, give up trying to fix it.
I don't give up very easily. Some call this stubborn, some call this persevering. Right now, though, I just need to back away and contemplate a while...
Any tips, ideas or sage advise is most welcome and appreciated!
BTW... The stain is doing great! No scum, no explosions, just a dark rust color and no sign there was ever a steel wool pad inside. If you do this, REMEMBER TO LEAVE THE LID OFF! Hope to get back to this experiment soon!
I share your pain. Experimentation can end in pain or pleasure it seems. I hate giving up too but black is such a difficult colour to fix plus you have the sand.......To be honest if it was me I would buy the whole thing again just to save time. They tell us mistakes help us to learn. I think mistakes have just taught me how to swear!! Good luck wherever your rabbit hole takes you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janice! I'm glad that I am not the only one inventing colorful phrases!
Delete2 thoughts. First, I would sand it down to really even it out. That way going forward with texture you are in a better place. Then you could do sand or just use a corse grit sand paper instead. I painted a 60 grit on my room box and it looked pretty good. If you do sand, might covering the roof with the sand and glue then painting it work better? It might be more even in appearance. It just might be the paint that is the real culprit here. I feel your pain though. Nothing worse then getting knee deep in without a rope.
ReplyDeleteOkay... Funny luck... I pull out the black latex paint because I figure I can't make it worse, right? I discover that the lid to my black paint was not properly closed, causing the paint to become very thick like two week old tapioca. I decide to give it a coat. Amazingly, it fills in the gaps and looks a whole lot like roofing tar! The only issue now is that it has a satin sheen. Maybe I'll spray on a coat of flat black Rustoleum and see how that goes... Or I'll go drown my sorrows on eBay...
DeleteThough unlikely, make sure you spray for a good few seconds on scrap before you spray with the Rustoleum flat. I've had it on 2 separate occasions (different cans, shaken well) make the finish hazy and white. Oh the words that came out of my mouth after that........
DeleteI get so mad at paint too! The hubs tells me that if I haven't used the can for a couple weeks, even if I've done the upside down cleansing spray, to pull off and clean the nozzle with a sewing needle or straight pin. He says there will be microscopic dried flakes in there and that's what buggers it all up!
DeleteHello Jodi,
ReplyDeleteNothing upsets me more then an experiment that does not work. I haven't tried it, but did you concider painting sandpaper? I am thinking of the super coarse sandpapers and wondering if it would work once painted? Just a thought.
Big hug
Giac
Giac that is a brilliant idea! I have seen that done before, too, and it does look really nice! Hindsight, right? I am trying to fix these roofs, mostly because I did not want to wait for another order, and I was not so confident that I'd be able to get perfect cut outs in the plywood if I replaced them. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I may be on to something!
DeleteA satin sheen that looks like roofing tar!? Sounds good to me. Flat black would have the look of an older established roof. I'm in favour of a lighter coloured roof, the sun in summer can really heat up a black roof and you have the skylights too. A light grey might look good, sort of Pacific Northwest cool!
ReplyDeleteI know! If everything else (window frames, front wall, wood stain) wasn't grey that would be the perfect solution! I spent yesterday working on an idea, if it goes as planned, crisis averted! Wish me luck!
DeleteSanding it down to get more of an even texture could work. Have you checked out similar roofs online? I mean on real houses to see what is normally used with a windowed roof? The other thing you could do is get some corrogated cardboard and spray paint it rusted silver and have a tin roof. It could glue down over your sand and black paint.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of the suggestions, Sheila! I sanded the hect out of them, and because of the rubbery latex paint, it really came out a lot better! I'm working on the rest of the roof trim now, and when done, I will spray it all flat black. I think this is going to work!
DeleteI usually use a stone texture spray paint to do that kind of roof finish. Funny about your stain, I was watching Ellen's Design Challenge on HGTV the other night and one of the furniture designers used the same vinegar and steel wool stain.
ReplyDeleteI love that idea, Cyd! I read Kat's tutorial on it a couple months back and have wanted to try it ever since! I did a bunch of sanding to flatten out the texture, and it looks a lot less splotchy and more realistic. I am working on the fascia and skylight trim, and hoping that once it's all a unit, it will pass. Wish me luck! Hopefully, I'll be posting about a victory after the weekend!
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