La Maisonnette - making the bed

I know I said the next post would be the bathroom but I've had a few questions about the bed so here's a little peek into the somewhat haphazard way I make things!

I have a great love for vintage iron beds. 

So when it was time to make a bed for La Maisonnette there was no question it would be an iron one. 

I had an idea for what it should look like and flicked through a few books and surfed the web for some inspiration. 

I never did find a picture of the exact bed as I saw it in my head. 

I didn't draw a picture of anything, I just started building it.

I don't have many pics of the bed making process so this isn't a tutorial! 

The bed really is just made from florist wire and beads and glue.

I bent the wire around a little bottle that I found on my desk.

Those gold things are some dollhouse hinges I had - and by some miracle was able to find them when I needed them. 

The bed feet are just eyelets.

Of course I made the bed ends without even thinking about how I would attach them to the bed base. Aaaaaaarrrgghhhhh!!!!!

Oh, well...where there's will there's a way...

I taped a bugle bead to each of the bed legs (you can see one on the left of the pic above) then glued a piece of wire to each side of the bed base to slot into the bugle bead.

I buy vintage hankies at the op shops whenever I find them.

They make perfect bedding.

I don't like cutting them up but sometimes it has to be done.

Here's the other side of the bed that will only be glimpsed through the window.

The most important thing about this bed was that it had to fit in the space.

Fortunately I measured the width of the alcove the bed was going into and made allowances for the bed feet as they stick out further than the bed ends.  

I've made that mistake before.

Once again I surprised myself when it turned out like the picture in my head!

Thank you all so much for stopping by here and for the lovely, kind comments you left on my previous post. 

I've missed you!

It feels good to be back!

La Maisonnette - Building an attic bedroom

 It has been so long since I blogged I hardly know where to start! 

But here goes...

For years I had been wanting to renovate my mini bakery into a more French looking building. 

I had always wanted to build a mansard roof with an attic bedroom in it like the one in Lea Frisoni's book

 'Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature'.

Here's an old pic of the bakery.

The roof was just a waste of space as it didn't open up and that had always annoyed me. It was the first dollhouse I ever built and as there's not much room in the real house for more dollhouses I ususally just renovate the ones I have. 

Scraping the old sandpaper bricks off was a bit of a trial...until I got my hubby to help.

No turning back at this point!

I have Lea's book in French. My dear friend Sylvia sent it to me many years ago. Whenever I'm looking for motivation or inspiration I flip through it...I love that book! I can understand a very little bit of French and I thought if was going to try and build the mansard roof I might need the English version of the book. 

I managed to get it from the library...and just in time too...because a week later, in March 2020 the whole of  

New Zealand went into lockdown due to Covid 19. 

Which for me meant seven weeks of no work!

I used foamboard to make my mansard roof. I wasn't sure the old Victorian windows were particularly French but I did a bit of research on the internet and did see a few French buildings with similar windows. I'm all for recycling and doing what I can with what I have. Fortunately I had the attic window in my stash of stuff...I like stuff and I have a lot of it. 

I was texting with my mini making friend from the other side of the world Kim Saulter - Kim's Mini Bakery - throughout the build. 

Above is a pic I sent her when I was figuring out the layout.

The bakery will still be on the ground floor with a maisonnette (if that's the right word for it) on the two floors above.

The part I really love in Lea's house is the shelves and cupboard in the mansard roof wall. 

My house is a lot smaller than Lea's so I had to adapt the instructions to fit my needs.

Because I needed to fit a bathroom in the rooftop I had to create a small recess in this wall so there would be enough room for a bed. I've tried to make it look like there was once a fireplace there.

Love it when the painting and aging is done...feels like real progress!

I already had that wallpaper...it's some vintage real house wallpaper!

The floor was tricky as I don't have very much wood lying around these days. I found a couple of very warped pieces of wood and as I didn't need very long strips I was able to cut just enough floorboards to fit the bedroom. 

I know those floorboards don't match up but fortunately the bed will cover that!

Floor done!

And just like that the attic bedroom is built!

It was a bit tricky getting the walls to fit together - I might not be that good at measuring. 

The roof isn't attached yet because I'm still working on the wiring.

Now to fill the room, although once the bed is in there won't be much space.

And here's the bed I made. It's just beads and wire. 

And a couple of vintage handkerchiefs for bedding.

The first four weeks of lockdown was called Level 4 which meant everything was closed, only essential services were open. The next three weeks after that was Level 3. Which meant cafe's could open for contactless pick up...which is when I discovered the 'Cakery' a few minutes walk from my house had the most divine cinnamon rolls. 

 All I had to do was text them with my order then walk around the corner and collect - too easy! 

I hope this post isn't too long. 

I almost think I know what I'm doing again!

All the photos have been taken on my phone so I hope they look OK on your screens.

Next post the bathroom (almost done!) and then there's the middle floor which is almost done but proving tricky to fit everything in and the exterior is coming along nicely...so more to come soon!

Easter in the Farmhouse

I've had so much fun making things and decorating the farmhouse for Easter.

My fabulously talented friend Kim Saulter made the beautiful rose topped cake.

I made polymer clay Easter Eggs... that's about the extent of my abilities with clay!

The bunny tin was asking to be made!

Overflowing with pretty coloured eggs!

Dyed eggs for breakfast at the farmhouse.

The little hutch dresser was too tricky to photograph in the farmhouse.

So I put it in the real hutch dresser. 

It looks like it belongs right there amongst my ever growing collection (it's not hoarding if it sparks joy, right??) of vintage pastel coloured china.

It's autumn here in New Zealand.

These are the last of the summer roses from my garden.

The chick tablecloth was a very lucky op shop find.

Once again the chick cookies got baked...and eaten!

I hope you're all having a lovely (and pretty!) Easter.

A teeny dollhouse for the Farmhouse

This has been a crazy year for me with little time for mini making.

However, I was so inspired by a picture of an antique dollhouse I saw on the internet I just had to make time to do some serious mini making.

The Farmhouse girls bedroom needed a dollhouse.

It was fiddly folks! 

But then most mini making projects are fiddly to say the least!

Fiddly but satisfying.

Built mostly from cardboard.

That roof took three attempts to get right.

A peek inside!

I've painted some tiny metal furniture I had. 

It's a little over sized for the house but I remember my first dollhouse when I was a little girl had over sized furniture.

And I made a teeny tiny version of the dollhouse to go in there.

So the dollhouse dollhouse has a dollhouse! 

So you can see how small it is! And there's the teeny, tiny dollhouse dollhouse dollhouse too.

This is the actual 19th century Swedish antique dollhouse that inspired me so much. 

You can see it here.

I could sit here playing with my little house all day.

but there are more things waiting to be made...

Thank you all for the comments you leave. They really make my day!!