Furniture is looking goooooood!

.....though they're not all quite finished yet

I've spent the last couple of evenings (and most of today,Sunday) working on the furniture kits: painting and adding artwork. There are still knobs to be added, and little additional bits like the books to be made up, and the - gulp - marbling finish on the bath, handbasin and toilet to do. I'm going to give it a go, but if I can't get it right then it will be back to spray painting it plain white or light ivory :)

So: progress report! First, the bath surround, which has been painted but needs touching up. The lattice is not glued on to the tiled top yet because I need to varnish the 'tiles' a few times to get them nice and glossy.Here it is with the steps to one side in order to show the botanical prints around the bath surround.

The toilet is the nicest setup. The striped paper on the back sets the floral shelf lining off beautifully and I love the pretty wooden trim. The toilet is just sitting there for now until I paint it with the finish.

And looking at the sides you an see that they are 'shutters'.

In the same theme of repurposing, the handbasin is set into an old door. The brackets supporting the handbasin reflect the trim on the toilet shelves. The oval trim around the mirror is the same as the oval designs on the lattice around the bath.

Now the bedroom. The big double bed is sooooo pretty! You can choose whether to have striped or floral sheets showing. I chose the floral. The bolster is striped with floral ends and the pillows are floral.

The wardrobe reflects the patterns and colours used in the bedding. There are 6 designs provided for covering the tubs on the shelves so you can choose the combination you wish. The photo doesn't show it but the drawer is lined with the lovely turquoise paper too. The drawer and door both open and I have left the tubs so they can be removed rather than gluing them in. Inside the doorthere is artwork showing lots of pockets for more storage.

Here it is again with the door closed.

Next, the dresser is both colourful and pretty. Again, it uses the same designs and colours, and it has a real mirror in the opening. These kits are wonderful - so much detail, so beautifully made and so much fun to put together. The artwork is just lovely.

And for the end of the bed, there is this great bench, with it's pretty pink floral print cushion.

And some of the 'little extras' that came with the bedroom kits included two floral prints and frames. Here they are, resting against the stool.

Emma's dollhouse is fully papered inside, and has a removable front. I haven't put on the little green shutters beside each of the windows yet. Here it is with the door removed,

And here it is with the door on.

When the kit for the comfy chair and La-de-dah came, it was missing the fabric for the cushions and throws so I have written and let them know. I decided to paint the chair green, to co-ordinate with the colours used in the artwork on the daybed. If I don'tlike the effect it will be easy to change since the chair is resin. I quite like it in the green at the moment but will wait and see the overall effect, especially once I get the living room carpet.

The lamp table doesn't look particularly special but by the time the pretty gold and 'crystal' lamp goes on it, with the books and spectacles or whatever I put on it, it will be very nice. I want to maybe put some photos there.

This is my second oval occasional table, the first one having met a sad end. I was more successful with this one, though I'm not entirely happy with it. And it also needs a bit of a sand and a touch of paint. But I do like the effect of the glass top.

The ladies' desk and side chair are delightful. There is so much detail in the desk, even a set of monograms provided so you can put your own initials on the side, which I have done. I was a little surprised that the artwork for the seat cushion on the chair was so small, but it is sweet. I have several bits and pieces to add to the desk to give it a more 'used' look.

And just to finish off, here is all the bedroom furniture together - just because I think it is so pretty.

More Pickett Hill furniture kits

Pickett Hill won out

I couldn't resist it, could I? I am after all, a miniature tragic! When we came home on Monday I had several packages waiting for me: one from Petite Properties with some furniture kits and a free-standing garage; one from MJ Miniatures with some super little kits that had been on sale (that site is well worth looking at); two for cardmaking/scrapbooking - some dies and some stamps; and one from the Betterleys with some kits for Pickett Hill - yaaaaaay! There was no time to do anything other than open the packages on Monday; I had a lot of paperwork to print out for the Church Business Meeting in just 2 1/2 hours time, and an Agenda to type out for it as well; dinner and a shower and change of clothes were equally needed. So I quickly opened and admired, then set the boxes aside.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we were very tired after a huge day, despite sleeping in. But we had a

caravan to unpack and a mountain of washing to tackle before my back appointment in the afternoon. Last night I just couldn't wait any more, and assembled the bathroom kit. Here it is, still unpainted.

And the lamp table with the side chair that goes with the ladies' desk, along with a couple of frames that were provided, along with some prints to frame.

And now the bedroom furniture. Obviously the wardrobe isn't fully assembled and won't be until I have finished painting it inside and papering it.

Now I have most of the major furniture in the house. I need the loveseat for the lawn, bedside table (or maybe two of them), the clock, and a couple of bits and pieces I think. The next big expenditure will probably be the landscaping kit. I bought the basic one before, because the full one was sold out. The basic one included the turntable, fencing and the arbor, but the full one includes all the landscaping as well. I'd like to use the basic one for the John F Craig house and have the landscaping to put around Pickett Hill.

Tomorrow night I hope I get the chance to finish assembling the furniture and start painting it. With this wet weather it might take a while to dry, though it's not that cool even if it does feel it, being wet for so long. But I can already see it will be beautiful when it is completed.

Last part of your tour for now...,

All the kits I have so far

We will start today's tour on the ground floor, with the kitchen. Here is the island sink unit, not in place yet of course, because I want to show you both sides. This is the side that will not normally be seen from the outside.

And when we look on the other side we can pause to admire the pretty storage tubs that give even a functional room that special 'Pickett Hill' touch. The stools tucked under the end are pretty sweet too, aren't they?

Opposite the island sink unit is the fridge and stove. Here you can see them attached, with the top on, ready to be installed into the kitchen. The doors aren't on the cupboard because I haven't filled the cupboards with real items. I have however put in the artwork supplied to use if you don't want to put real items in.

And around the corner we see the spice cupboard and the buffet. Again, I can't put the doors on the cupboard part until I fill the cupboards with items, and some of those items are on their way right now.

Just to give you an idea of their size

And of course we can't forget the pie cupboard. This will stand to one side of the kitchen.

Now we'll go up to the first floor, admiring the mural on the staircase wall as we do so, and here is Emma's bedroom

Emma's bedroom is any little girl's dream, summed up with the words 'pink and pretty'. Here is an overview of the contents.

The cupboard bed is the dominating feature of the room and is another of the items that I fell in love with right from the first time I saw it. You can see why I just had to give in finally and buy this house, can't you? There were so many things I loved about the house itself and the furniture. Even the things I wasn't so keen on, have turned out to be really nice once I see them in reality.

The bed kit comes with fabric for so many extra cushions that I can't work out how to fit them all in :) If I have room to put a toybox or window seat into the room I will be able to use some of them on that.

Meanwhile here is the bed (cushions not glued in place as yet) Isn't is yummy?

Looking at the side to show you a few of the cushions and a better view of the interior

Emma's wardrobe is just so sweet and feminine too, with it's graceful shape and pretty artwork:

Emma is also well-supplied with toys. Here is her toy kitchen, which belonged to her mother when she was a little girl. I haven't put the tap on yet. I want to put a metal 'tap' on it instead of the wooden triangle supplied.

There is a lovely doll in a trunk (not shown, I just have to add the handles and hinges to it) and here is the doll's bed.

That looked quite big, didn't it? But to give you an idea of just how tiny it is:

And of course Emma has a table and chairs for those all-important tea parties.

On order is a dollshouse, which will complete the room as far as kits especially for this house, but I will probably add a few other bits .

Emma's shelf is a sweet touch, with a dress and hat hanging from it (I still need to add a tiny bow to each of them, made from a single strand of embroidery floss); on the shelf is a darling little pull-along toy, a box (full of special treasures perhaps?) and an E for Emma, painted in gold.

There are also three little pictures to hang on the wall, framed drawings done by Emma. You can see them in the overall picture. The story goes that there were four, the fourth being of Miss Lydia Pickett, but Lydia chewed that one up.

Now we will just have a peek next door,into Robbie's bedroom. This is very much a boy's room in blue. The lovely striped wallpaper has a border of sailing boats around the top, that sets the nautical theme for the room. The carpet depicts a treasure map.

Here is an overview of the contents of the room.

Robbie has a storage cabinet, with tubs for storage in the pigeonholes. They haven't come out true to colour in the photograph. I haven't decided what to put in the rest of the pigeonholes, but have ordered some white-metal toys that might go in some of them. I love the labels on the doors - they should help Robbie keep organised, but I wonder if they will - he is a boy after all :)

The game table has a tiny treasure map on the top, and the sides match the sides of the boat bed.

It came with six tiny sailing boats and a pirate ship as well as four games and game boxes, and a tiny book.

When these were drying on my worktable, it was bumped and the whole lot went flying everywhere. I found two of the tiny sailing boats (about 0.5cm -1/4" or less,) in between pages in the printer; two of them in my waste paper basket beside the table (by taking out every item in it, unfolding/shaking/examining both sides); one in between the cushion and the side of the lounge chair; and one by crawling on hands and knees inch by inch over the floor.

The pirate ship was hiding in the groove/shadow between the leg of the coffee table and the carpet. The games and game boxes were found in various places similar to the above - all except for one, which to this day is still missing. The table landed inside the printer, down where the paper is fed into it.

The bedside table as we call it in Australia, again is a nice little piece and I have put the book on the top of it.

One thing I have added to the room is a tiny cricket bat. I made this by whittling a piece of wood, with constant supervision from my beloved other half (we are Aussies after all, and though Peter and I don't follow the footie we do all love our cricket, especially Pete and Nathan). He made sure that it was the correct length for a little boy, the correct width in proportion, that the handle was the correct length, and that the blade was shaped just right lol. The cricket ball is coming.

The boat bed is really special. I just love it. Again, it came with fabric to make lots of cushions. I have used the checked fabric for one of the bolts of fabric in the Artist's Studio.

Now let's go up to the second floor and pop into the bathroom. You will notice that there isn't a lot of furniture in here yet, the kit for the bathroom is on order. But you can see the bathroom screen - I think I will use this to give some privacy to the toilet area. The little extras for this room are the laundry hamper and the framed prints to hang. There are other prints too, and I'll probably frame them as well - they are quite little and will probably fit the left-over frames from the chicken prints that came with the Coop.

The robe was surprisingly easy to make, using the pattern suppled. There is also a pair of scuffs (not shown)

.

And so concludes your tour for today. I have no more furniture kits to make up until more orders arrive. There is still the Kitchen Accessories kit but I won't do that until I return home and the house is finished a bit further, in case the tiny pieces become lost.

Our nephew is house sitting, the DVR is set to record our favs, mini projects are packed, as well as mini stitching, mini reading (and other reading), clothes etc. And now the caravan is nearly packed.

Later:

There wasn't time to get those photos arranged before we left, thanks to the very user -UN-friendly way that Blogger now has the photos set up, so it is much later. But now we are all set up in our site on the south coast, the ocean looks lovely, our annexe is up and Nathan is organised with his bed out there along with our dining table and chairs. The television is tuned, we are organised inside, we have had a lovely afternoon and evening with our friends...... and all is well with our world. So that's it for today.

During the week I'll post more about what I do on holiday, including (hopefully) - minis. Til then -