Kitchenalia.....

 I have been working on kitchens, and have made good progress, especially on the one for Gooseberry Cottage.  The name 'Gooseberry' suggested green to me, so when I was assembling it I chose green for the door and window ledges and I am going with green for the main colour scheme. When I did the lean-to greenhouse I was thinking of putting it with this cottage and hence I did the door to that green as well. 

First step was to decide which  of the kitchen kits from Debbie Young to use.  I had made up both of them to try them out.  In the end I decided against using either of them, and instead chose a cheap plastic set that had smaller items in it suitable for the layout.  I felt that the ivy green aga I had (from Virtual Dollhouse, it is made by Jenny Wren) would be perfect for the colour scheme, and give the room a real lift.  So the whole layout changed.

Using the aga called for a fireplace and since I want a door from the cottage into the kitchen through the wall the fireplace needs to be on the left wall (which means the chimney has to be changed).  Some pieces of balsa wood and some cardboard and a lot of fiddling and I had the basic shape.  I have some Elmer's  Wood Filler left over from doing the StoryBook Cottage - I love this stuff, wish I could find it here in Australia!  I am trying to use it up before it goes solid in the tube; it is starting to become difficult to squeeze it out now.  I used some of it to go over the wood and cardboard frame of the fireplace for texture and strength.  I closed in the top part to try and make the shape similar to the shape of the wall, using a piece of paper.  Then I 'plastered' over that as well, using the wood filler.  When that was dry I plastered it inside as well to give it strength.
 

I have some 1:12 scale tiles that have the ivy green that is on the door and a reddish-terracotta colour that goes well with the quarry tiles on the scullery floor. Printing them out in a reduced version, cutting and pasting and I had the perfect tiled back for the fireplace.  sorry the photo looks a bit washed out - I had my magnifying light on as well as using the flash.  The green is actually a dark ivy green.

The walls are cream and after briefly considering doing the cabinet doors in ivy green but deciding it might be too dark, the cabinets are cream as well. The benchtop, which is a piece of cardboard, is painted in various shades of green and some white.  Printing out a reduced version of the border tiles to match the tiles I used for the fireplace and more cutting and pasting and I had the perfect splashback for the bench and for the sink.  I finished off the top edge of the sink with some of the terracotta border from the

un-reduced copy of the tiles so the white plastic wouldn't show.  I tried painting the handles of the cupboards in green but it didn't look any good so it was back to the cream again.  I will try with gold tomorrow.

It still needed more colour, so the fridge ended up ivy green as well.

 I think It would be nice to have a border right around the top of the room or something, the top cupboard area is a bit bland,  but I haven't found anything suitable yet.   Ivy would be perfect.  Meanwhile some pots, a plant, something along those lines would do the trick I think.  It certainly needs something!

Still to come - the door of course.  Appliances - I have made a clock for the chimney above the stove (its a printie folded around a piece of cardboard to give dimension).  There are some shelves in the kits, but they look too bulky so making a smaller set for above the fridge might be the go.  A shade for the light, some dishes, Maybe a small dresser if I can work out how to fit one in.....

I'm quite proud of myself tonight. I  did some electrifying as well!  I've been putting it off - partly because I can't make up my mind about the kind of light shades to use. I know where to put the lights and how I want to go about it, but a simple thing like light shades had me marking time. I have wired the kitchen for the cottage (which is actually a side scullery) and also the house itself. Photos of the lighting tomorrow when I put the shade on - as you can see in this last photo I took some tonight but left the magnifying light on and the LED lights don't show up well.