Fastidious Floral Fairytale Fireplace

I got a little sidetracked and engrossed on something which was completely unplanned for the fairytale treehouse, and it took all week. Surprise! Surprise! 😜

I had intended to work on getting the balcony assembly installed. In fact, I earnestly started that goal by attaching the flowering vines to the balcony posts. 

Repainted vines from last post.

Flower vines wired to balcony before filler flowers were added.

I even filled in empty areas with supplemental mulberry roses and buds. All was going well...

After mulberry roses filled in.

Until I put it in place for a dry fit. Then I began to ponder whether I needed more vines adorning the panels or if there was enough going on on the posts. What about the structural beams holding the balcony up from the first floor? Maybe just green vines there? Yeah, but despite it being two weeks since I ordered them from the Etsy shop, they hadn't even shipped yet. So, I put that decision aside and carried on with the dry fit instead. 

Dry fit with wall and floor/ceiling to decide placement of fireplace.

I had questions about how the girls' fireplace wall would tie in to the balcony. I had always intended to have a railed portion so that you could look down into the great room, but on which side? The balcony or the back of the treehouse? The wall, being a couple inches short, would need to slide one way or the other. In order to know for sure, I had to look at the actual wall, floor and ceiling in place - not just imagine it. Once I saw it in place, my ideas for the fireplace began to bombard my brain. From past experience I know to seize this kind of creative momentum, lest my ideas float right on out into the nethersphere, never to return. So, the balcony got put aside once again until my vine order and solid ideas for it are at hand.

As per my M.O., I designed the structural pieces of the fireplace in Design Space and cut them with the Cricut Maker. Straight cuts? Cheap chipboard? Yes, please! I covered the kit's wall with scrap paper leftover from the girl's cubbies. Because the kit wall is only 1/8" thick, to give a more realistic chimney feeling, I also made a chimney breast, covering it with another scrap. The fireplace itself has a top, a hearth, a back, double layered front, and sides. To the inside, I added egg carton bricks in a herringbone pattern, just for fun. To detail the fireplace, I had a few packs of resin column fronts with an artichoke frieze. They were the perfect size to flank the firebox. Dresden appliques adorn the front, edges and sides.

While the fireplace assembly was drying, I worked on the fire basket. I made a log holder with firedogs out of kraft card. 

No need to point out anything salacious about the firedogs. Believe me - Russ already has. 🙄 

Resizing things down to 1/12th scale doesn't always translate well.

Double layer firedogs, log basket, bracing.

Layers glued to create thickness and detail.

Bent, assembled and painted.

It's always a perfect fit when you make it custom, lol!

For the fire, I placed a half water bottle cap (it's translucent so the light comes through) under the fire basket/log holder and placed a red LED chip light inside. Like the Log Fire With Glowing Embers tutorial, I surrounded it with glowing "ash". I used hot glue to make Sharpie colored orange/yellow translucent flames to go between the wood logs, but it didn't work out as swell as I'd hoped. I need more practice and patience. At least one of the glue strips worked as intended - it almost appears to be flames due to the other three chip lights under the logs.

At this stage I had the fireplace assembled to the wall, toned down with washes, aged with washes, added trims, put the fire logs in place, added sconces and of course - installed a mirror. But it still wasn't nearly finished yet!

It had to be adorned with flowers. A swag above the mirror, a swag on the mantle and then a vase with buds just popping. The carousel horse is pot metal painted with gold to tie in the mirror frame. Accessories will likely evolve later as I switch my concentration from structure to accessories.

Testing the lights.

With the room lights off.

And at the same time, there were also flower vine valences created for the girls' cubby windows. Fairytales are full of flowers, especially fairytale treehouses!

Alice's Bed Cubby

Goldie's Bed Cubby

But fireplaces need other things, too. Not just pretty things, but useful things. I wanted to make a fireplace screen for the girls and I was fairly certain I could find something to make them from this hoard of mine. Sure enough, I had a set of six half scale chipboard gothic windows from Alpha Stamps. 

I applied Fast Grab Tacky Glue neatly to the back of three of the windows, then placed them on top of some very thin acetate from Cricut Chipboard packaging. Once set, I carefully cut around the edges. Then, to solidify the panes, I filled in the windows with Crystal Clear Gallery Glass.

Once the Gallery Glass was clear and dry, I glued the other three windows on, sandwiching the acetate between them. Then I wrapped them in 1/8" kraft card strips to smooth out the edges.

I painted the frames with a Krylon Gold Leafing Pen, then filled the other side of the glass with more Gallery Glass.

I added some purple and green polka dots with the Sakura Glaze Pens. To attach the window panels together at the correct angle (so they'd fit on the hearth), I sliced 1/8" quarter round in half, making it 45 degrees instead of 90 degrees. Then I glued each half to either side of the center window. When that was dry, I attached each side window. Sorry Betsy - hinges and chipboard do not good bedfellows make. 😊

I also painted a set of fireplace tools and added a basket of logs. The fireplace wall is ready now to help me make my railing side decision.

And it is ready to install into the girl's room.

After flooring, of course!

Unfortunately, my real life house could really use some fastidious focusing. See ya in a couple weeks!

xo xo,

Jodi

P.S.A. On Blogger Issues:

Sometime in mid 2022 the comments I leave for others on their blog posts were mysteriously disappearing, even days after they had been posted - I saw them post! After many searches, I finally found a thread that confirms that I am not (crazy) the only one this is happening to, and a reason for the mystery. Apparently, if your comment disappears from someone's blog, it has to do with their spam filter within the Comments section of their blog. So, it is ultimately up to the blog owner to resolve - nothing you can do.

If you receive comments saying this is happening on your blog, go to your blog dashboard and click on the Comments page. You may see the comment there which has been spontaneously marked as "Spam" for unknown reasons. You can manually approve the comment.

If you don't see the comment, click the question mark symbol at the top right of the page to tell Blogger about the problem. Apparently, they will reset your spam filter which eliminates the problem, at least for a while.

Some others have reported the cause as security settings on specific browsers or a need to clear your cache. Because I have also been unable to backup my blog content since last summer (stalls out and does not save), as well, I suspect that as things are broken in Blogger, they are just no longer being repaired. I hope it is not the case, but I recommend you look into Google Takeout to protect your work. I have mine scheduled to automatically export quarterly and they send my backup files to my email. If ever Blogger ends or starts to charge for hosting, at least we'll have our archives to decide what to do with them.

Autumn's Pantry: Structure & Lighting

Once again, I didn't intend to create such a long post! But fair warning: what follows is the chronicle of a full and productive mini week nonetheless! I'll start with a photo of the end in case you have better things to do!

I began by cutting the Lexan (polycarbonate) for all seven of the windows, as well as the shop's top. You see, Carlson kits do not come with acetate (except for the door). I have used this material in the past and just love the 1/16" thickness and the ease in cutting it, provided you have the scoring tool. It takes me about 44 passes with the scoring tool, and then I can snap at the score line and finish off the last couple passes with my Xacto knife.

Here I am testing the fit. In this type of window, a pretty perfect fit is the best outcome. The second photo shows me sanding down the really snug areas.

All cut!

Now for the trim. I used 1/8" x 1/16" basswood, painted on all sides. I created a frame around the outside of the windows and affixed them with regular Tacky Glue. Tacky Glue isn't always reliable on acetate, but on Lexan, it attaches securely.

Next I installed the windows using wood glue (because of it's runny constancy) as caulking where the frames met. I have a small glue applicator bottle with a 1/32" tip. This allows me to apply a bead of glue to the seam, then run my finger along to smooth and remove excess just as you do when caulking a real life sink. Once the exterior was dry, I cut and installed the interior trim pieces in the same manner. A coat of careful painting did the rest.

I was really looking forward to the next step - making the stained glass windows for the small upper windows on the front of the shop. Once I had sample pieces taped in place, though, I didn't like them! They only served to block one of my favorite features looking in through the front - the arched upper shelves! Because I was so prepared (bought supplies) and so excited about doing them, I did go ahead and play with some techniques. I will share all of that in a later post.

Now, with that decision behind me, it was time to regroup. I turned my attention to finishing up the structural elements. I made up and installed the wall that attaches the bay window section to the main section. This is just two pieces, wall and header, of 1/8" basswood sheet ripped down to size then glued in.

I kept thinking that in a completely enclosed project like this, the windows had to look really interesting from the outside. This niggled at me for a couple days and then I realized: I needed a shelf to create window displays in the bay! So, I traced the dimensions onto some more 1/8" basswood sheet and cut out an inch wide  shelf. I attached 1/8" x 1/8" basswood strips to recess into the window wells so there wouldn't be any gap.

From the outside

I really wanted the front door to actually function in this build, so I got out my hinges and said some prayers. The stars were smiling on me, and I've never had an easier or more successful time installing hinges! Can you guess what the first entry in my gratitude journal was that day? :O) In a later photo you'll get to see it opened. I just can't stop testing (playing with) it!

The next task was not as friendly. You see, I wanted the windows to have awnings, but I wasn't really sure how to make them. I Googled but couldn't find an actual awning pattern. I settled for some patterns that had the scalloped edging, then used my PC to edit them a bit. Then I imported the best image into the Cricut Design Space and made not only the awnings, but the valences for the interior of the shop, too. It took me four tries, six sheets of nice scrapbook paper and a new blade to get them right. I used a polka dot pattern for the interior/underside and a striped paper for the exposed side. I left them on the sticky mat to help hold them in place while I Mod Podged the two sides together. Once dry, I applied the Mod Podge to each of the sides, letting them dry in between.

I wanted to see if something really simple would work, and it did! In design space, I took the original scalloped edge image and welded a rectangle to the back. For those that have no idea about Cricut terms, I'll just leave it that I adjusted the size so that there would be a .75 inch scallop, a 1.25 inch awning, and a .25 inch strip to adhere to the structure. I made each awning fit the windows with a .25 inch overhang on each side. I used basswood strips in matching sizes to help me fold them evenly, then I attached above each of the windows using Fast Grab Tacky glue. 

The valences inside just show at the top of the windows.

And the exterior awnings. Look Ma! No hands or bracing!

Oh, and here is the Lexan installed in the roof.

I had to make a final decision on how the front of the shop would not fall over. #$%& Gravity! The blue tape just doesn't complement the aesthetic I'm trying for here! Not being able to find my pack of magnets was all I needed to push me in the direction of option two: Having a lip on the ceiling piece to keep the front in place. But that had me thinking about what kind of things were going to be in front of the wall, as in landscaping. In order to get a good visual on that, I had to decide on and make the landscape board. I just happened to have some 12" x 24" x 1/4" birch plywood. Since I decided on a base of 13-1/2" x 18", I simply had to cut down my piece of plywood and laminate a 1-1/2" strip to it. No matter what I put in front of the front wall, as long as I leave a space for it to slide to the right for removal (which won't be often), I'll be okay.

The next goal I wanted to achieve for the week was to get the lighting completed. I went through my stash of lights and found some I thought could work. There will be a total of 7 interior lights, 2 exterior lights by the front door, and space to add at least two additional landscape lights. These were all purchased for other projects back in the days when I did not plan my spaces so well. Lucky for me, now I have them to use in the shop! Somebody up there has my back!

Shiny gold fixtures just weren't going to do, so using two coats of burnt sienna, a glaze/real brown pouncing, then another burnt sienna/glaze pouncing I made them rusty.

Great way to hold drying light fixtures.

I had to find a way to run the wiring for the chandelier, A beam seemed like the obvious choice for a structure with a clear ceiling. I used some leftover channel molding to run the wire through to the right side wall, then capped it off with a piece of 1/16" trim. To accommodate the chandelier's ceiling cap, I laminated 3 round Woodsies to each other (for thickness), cut them in half, then added a half to each side of the beam. To balance the feeling in the store, I added sister beams on either side with support beams attached to the walls underneath.

I thought it might be fun to add the sconces to Deb's favorite wall shelves (how adorable is her half scale garden!!!). That meant I had to stop and make up some leafy plants to fill them. Hello 1:00 AM! Can somebody please explain to Woodson that when you go to bed at 1:00 AM you get to sleep until 9:00 AM? Not 6:22 AM!!!

The next challenge was: How To Conceal The Wiring Coming Out The Side Of The Shop? The answer: More channel molding done in a way that looks intentional. I may add produce posters to the upper boxed frames.

And how about the wiring coming from the front exterior lights? To keep the ceiling/roof/top removable, these have to be attached to the ceiling/roof/top and be unplugged from the power strip as needed. Another channel for wires, this time with stripwood.

And what does all this look like from the back? Additional "Final Tidying" is on "The List". Kind of looks like a spooky tree. Hey! There's an idea!

And after all this work, do they work?

Yeah!!! They Work!!!

And I hope everything is working right for all of you, too!

xo xo,
Jodi