Project of the Month

Yes, I actually still do 1:12th scale...

One of my online clubs, Miniature Haven, is continuing our Project of the Month this year, with a slight change of format.  Last year we did items for a flea market stall, and the members who participated took turns each month choosing the type of object we made: eg, something from paper, something for the garden, something to do with sewing etc.  This year the variation is that we are each working on our own project,  so each participant decides in advance what project she (or he) will work on and wants to make an item for each month. This can be a flea market or a room box we want to finish or maybe even a house or shop we are planning to build. Scale is whatever we would like to build in. 

Again though, we have monthly assignments as a club, chosen in turn by members who are participating in the project, to make a room of the house the theme of the month.  This month's assignment is to make something for a (the) bathroom, whether it is accessories for a bathroom, furniture, tiles or structural details.

My nice house, Carrington Villa (pictured below, the lion is courtesy of Luke, our then youngest grandson) has been sitting there in our lounge room since 2006, only partly decorated and furnished. 

I commissioned it in 2005 as a retirement gift for myself, but when we took delivery I found that it had been painted throughout with white gloss paint. It is fully constructed naturally and all the timber in it is 100 year-old cedar which the maker (a retired engineer) cut to size himself, so I am a bit daunted by trying to paint over that white gloss, and I want to set it in the modern era so don't really want to wallpaper all of it.  So as usual when I come across something that has me a bit flummoxed I just stopped and went on with something else.  In this case I did buy most of the fittings and accessories for the bathroom, furniture for the living room, and also bought and made up kits and accessories for the kitchen.  But nothing is permanently fitted because I haven't painted it yet.  So this POM (Project of the Month) might just help me get going on it again.

Nice aspects of this house are that not only does it open with two doors at the front, but there is a side door and a rear door as well.  Here is the side door, showing the bathroom upstairs and the kitchen downstairs.

And here is a closer view of the bathroom, in its naked state ready to be painted and fitted with the things I have bought for it as well as some etra accessories.  You can see through the doorway into the upper hallway foyer, which contains a built-in linen room - a lovely touch that was a complete surprise. 

And here is the collection of furnishings and accessories I have so far for the bathroom:

I also have some packaging that I might use to make a shower, but I am looking for the shower fittings to go with it.  If I manage to do so that might be the object I make for the bathroom this month.  apart from that, I need to paint the small area of the walls that remains untiled, maybe do a clothes hamper, a mat for the floor and a blind for the window.  That will be a good effort for January - and one room basically finished.  And now I have told you about it my friends, I hope it means that I am committed.