Friday 17 January 2014

Grand Mansion Update

I finally resumed work on the Grand Mansion. You can check out the previous updates here and here.

I stopped mostly because of the attic. It is such and awkward shape that it was a massive pain in the ass to create a wallpaper template for. Plus I was having trouble with the flooring I had chosen too. I decided that rather than wallpapering the entire wall, I would just paint the insides a matte black and wallpaper the lower half.

And the trouble with the floor tiles I was talking about? I was using this texture from Filter Forge to make my floor, but I wanted it standing on it's pointy ends, like diamonds. Guess what I did? I tried to manually rotate the texture. That was a real pain and a half to get *exactly* right (I didn't). Yeah, it hadn't occurred to me to just type in move 45°. *facepalm*

Wallpapering WIP


The next step after wallpapering was to mask the thing so I could apply several coats of glossy paint to the 'tiles'. I know, I should have sprayed before wallpapering, but it was dark out and I was impatient to move the project along.

Spraying gloss


Look, all nice and shiny now. It warped a little, which I expected. The effect is more apparent in person. The tile mosiac in the middle was originally blue. I Photoshopped it into this sepia colour before printing it out.

Shiny new bathroom


This also happened when I sprayed this wall with gloss. No idea what happened there. Didn't affect the other walls.

Dirt on wall


Now, for the furnishings. These things have been languishing unceremoniously in a box since I got them. I've used the old TOMY Sylvanian sink and a fancy toilet released for the hotel theme. The TOMY sink is very good quality--it's made of ceramic and the tap and pipes are actual metal. In contrast, the toilet is a sad, cheap feeling thing of thin plastic. Yeah, some of the old SF stuff is just so much nicer.

The carpet is just a print out. I'm too cheap to splurge on proper dollhouse carpets, and printing them allows me to control exactly what size I want it. I probably should look into printing on textured paper, though.

Sink and toilet


On the other side of the bathroom, we have the bathtub. It's another TOMY piece, and is made of nice weighty ceramic. Like the sink, the taps and pipes are made of solid metal. The shower is actually removable. There's an option to use a handheld shower instead, but I prefer the big shower. In real life, I prefer a handheld. :P

The coat rack is a bootleg. I'm wondering if I should leave it as it is, or repaint it; and if so, what colour?

Bathtub

Here is the whole bathroom, all in one picture. Click for bigger.

Fully furnished bathroom.

I've also created some pictures for the walls of the mansion. I printed them out and used painted balsa wood as backing. I was reluctant to buy proper dollhouse picture frames because of how many I needed and how costly they would all end up being. I also like the fact that I can directly control the size and what I put in those frames. I'll have to print out more geeky pictures next time, and less generic ones. As it is, I already have a picture of Rivendell in one of the silver frames.

DIY mini picture frames


I think it looks quite good in a room. Here it is with fizzy fish. It lives in the Grand Mansion now.

Fish and Picture

4 comments:

  1. Hello Pei,
    You had a lot of problems along the way, but the finished room is beautiful and very well done. The black and white theme is beautiful and the little touches of color you added make for a very elegant room...perfect for a Grand Mansion.
    Big hug,
    Giac

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  2. Fun post! You've really done some creative things with the mansion. The bathroom is so elegant and refined. Which of your critters live in it? Too cool! xo Jennifer

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  3. Hey :-),

    wow! This room looks amazing; I'm really impressed. I'm looking forward to your next post!

    Many greetings,
    Kyra

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  4. Omg! Beautiful work! I don't think I'll have the heart to paint mine but I would like to wallpaper it to give it more personality. You did such an awesome job!

    -Random Faerie

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