Lakehouse details

I've been compiling a list of most of the miniatures which are in the Lakehouse (see my previous post here), and I'd like to share this with you. I love these minis - they are the result of several years of collecting, and it's a pleasure to finally see them in place. I had many more which would also have been suitable - maybe I'll re-furnish one day . . .

Bonnie Lavish - Queen Anne's Lace kit (the white flowers in the summer wreath)
Carol Cook - bread, cheese board,
David Edwards - wooden recorder (on living room shelves)
Dolls House Emporium - The Retreat house kit, square window, green kitchen cabinet, kitchen shelves, white shelves, mirror, spiral stairs, boat, outdoor furniture set
Hanky Panky - lilacs kit
Kim's Miniatures - swedish style bed, table and chair in bedroom, swedish bread rings, thrush on deck
Kiva Atkinson - basket of mushrooms, onions, lemons, garlic, beetroot (Kiva on eBay here)
Marg's Minis - blueberry basket, raspberries
Sandie Coe - painting on bedroom wall - and Sandie's Etsy shop
SDK Miniatures - sofa and chair kits, daisy kit, lily of the valley kit
SP Miniatures - ceramics (see my previous post here), glassware (large green demijohn bottle and wine glasses by Ferenc Albert), apples, shallots, Sir Thomas Thumb wooden bucket
Taigakoru - silver fertility goddess and sun symbol (earrings)
Terence Stringer - poker work box in bedroom
Treefeathers - Tolkien books

Wood turnings - Bertie's, The Helmers, Turnings in Miniature,

eBay - various - mostly from Kerbey Lane, MainlyMinis, Susi's,

Swaps and gifts from friends :))))
Ira at Merry Jingle (where are you, Ira??) - glass birds, Finnish kitchen tins and glass jars, step-chair, wooden scoop, barbeque, poppies, swirled glass bottle in bedroom, fabric for sofa and chair, Finnish magazine, brown perfume bottle
Larissa at Lil'La - pocket watch
Lorraine at Dfly Creations - hardback books
Mirja at Happy Little Muffin - yummy sausages
Nikki at Witch and Wizard Miniatures - pale bowls, and cream plate and bowl on shelf
Norma at Make Mine Mini - divan at foot of bed

Made by me -
rugs, rya wallhanging, mat, coffee table, tray, basket, leather journals

The Sami (Lappish) wooden cup in curly birch was a souvenir of my trip to Finland. The woven bast shoes were bought a long time ago from a Russian miniatures website.

So, thankyou everyone!!

There is still an outdoor boardwalk to be made (think skis, skates, fishing gear . . .) as well as a sauna. :)

Glenda

Thankyou for your kind comments

Thanks so much for your lovely comments about my lakehouse in my previous post :)

I realise that the lady who lives in the lakehouse is my alter ego! She is neat and serene, but I'm not! Dear Alan laughed out loud - he's threatening to post photos of my messy house!!

And as my little guardian poppets keep telling me, no, it's not finished :) There is still the outdoor boardwalk to make, as well as a sauna - essential! I told them I need something different to do now, and they won't let me rest! No relaxation where they are . . .

So I have told them that I'm going to start my next mini house. It's a tower for a medieval enchanter. I'm including a fantasy aspect so that I'm not totally restricted to purely medieval elements - in other words, I want to cheat outrageously and include all sorts of fun stuff :)

I hope that satisfies the poppets - they won't stop *looking* at me!!

Welcome to the lakehouse!

Woo hoo! I never thought that I'd reach this stage - a project that I can (almost) say is finished to my satisfaction. Yet here it is, my first miniature dwelling - The Finnish Lakehouse :)

So, welcome!! There is a barbeque sizzling on the deck, the gentle twilight is working its magic, and the lake and forest surround us with their captivating beauty.
The facilities are basic, but it's nice to cook and eat outdoors!
If you stay late and can't manage to row the boat back, you're welcome to sleep on the sofa, or on the deck under the midsummer twilight.
The lady who lives here inherited her bedroom furniture from her beloved grandmother who taught her to love the peace of the natural world. She likes to read quietly when it rains.
She has found places for the handcrafted ceramics and glassware which she loves. She made all the rugs herself.
Today her friends helped her to gather mushrooms and blueberries in the forest. You can see them on the deck, as well as in the kitchen.

My first house - yay!! Happiness here :))

Thanks to all those craftspeople and mini artists whose work is inspiring!
And I wouldn't have done this without your kind comments, help and encouragement, my blogland friends!!

Glenda

Lakehouse stairs

I've installed the little dividing wall and the spiral stairs in the downstairs part of the lakehouse.
Here it is so far, with a few items of furniture to show the general setting.
I've decided not to use the white incised boards for the attic ceiling - they made it look even smaller and somewhat cramped.

Downstairs is the modern part, and upstairs has some older style furniture.
There is no kitchen as such, or indoor bathroom.
The people who stay here will have to cook outdoors, and they have an outdoor loo!
There is no electricity, either. They look forward to staying here to get away from the city life, and enjoy weekends and vacations in the woods by the lake. Blueberry picking is fun!!
They definitely need a sauna, though . . .

And here, below, is the old-fashioned pull-out sofa which I have re-covered with Ira's fabric. I'm very pleased with it, but so far I don't quite know where to put it - I can feel another roombox appearing in my imagination . . .
I got it from Kim's Miniatures (here) here in New Zealand. I also got the sleigh bed, the table and the chair, which are in the lakehouse attic, from her.

Sofa and chair

This set is to go in the lakehouse. The kits are from Susan Karatjas at SDK Miniatures (here).
I cut down her two seater loveseat into a single chair. I left the wood unstained, just waxed, to look like pale birchwood.
The fabric (perfect - so Finnish!) is linen which Ira kindly sent me a while ago. I have enough of the blue left over to cover an old-fashioned Swedish pullout sofa - watch this space.

And talking of space - I don't have enough for all the things I have collected to put in there! :0 That's why I reduced the size of the smaller sofa.
They also say that 'less is more', so I guess I'm going to have to just change the interior every so often! Re-decorating is not a thing that I enjoy at all, but at dollhouse scale it must be easier . . .

Lakehouse deck and floor

At last I've finished the deck for the lakehouse. I'm quite pleased with the weathered look to the boards - the grey and yellow seem to go well together.
The floor installed - it was a fight but I won :))
I ended up using Aleene's Tacky Glue (thanks for the suggestion, ladies) and weighting it down with heavy stuff (bags of cutlery is very effective!) on a thick oven tray, as well as clamping the front edge under a metal ruler. I kept pushing the back edge down with my fingers through the drying process, every ten minutes for an hour.
It has very slight ripples, but nothing that well-placed furniture and rugs can't cover ;)

Next time I use this veneer I'll do the flooring first, before building the kit. Then I'll be able to get at all the edges to flatten them properly. The attic in this house was particularly difficult to get the floor into the corners.

Now my little supervisors are asking 'where are the stairs?'.

Lakehouse battens

The lakehouse now has its exterior 'board and batten' look.

Now for some detail - :)

These battens were a rough-cut wood (I wanted this look), and were originally painted, along with the house, in the pale cool yellow which really, really wasn't right!! Everything was then overpainted in this warm gold colour. The MDF walls were quite smooth after the two coats of paint, but the battens were a pain to paint because of the rough texture and my impatience. :)

When I came to it the next day, I taped the battens in place and had a good look at the effect, which was surprisingly good! On the battens the original colour was just peeping through the new one in places, and it added depth and interest.

I've found this before in working embroidery backgounds - when you carefully mix a cool and a warm of the same shade of colour, it makes the result easier on the eye than a single pure shade.

The poppets say that I'm boring you, and would I please put the flooring in place!!

The lakehouse progress

At last I've finished (almost) painting the lakehouse, just some paint dribbles to remove, lol, and one more coat of paint on the windows :)

The floorboards are marked out, and need plank ends and nailmarks added.

The next step is to fix the battens in place on the exterior walls.

Above are the white incised boards which are going to be the ceiling in the bedroom on the top floor.

The house piles which will raise the lakehouse up, and the incised decking have been aged/weathered with a couple of washes of very dilute black acrylic paint. This is the first time I have done any of this sort of thing, and I did lots of colour tests until my brain melted.
One of my problems is that I am usually so afraid of making mistakes that I end up not doing anything at all!! In the end I remembered a line from a Star Trek movie - 'just take your best guess, Mr Spock', lol!! Life's too short to worry so much!

BTW this house is a kit from The Dolls House Emporium 'The Retreat' (here) - if you take a look here you can see more of their fun kits for smaller projects. Their Tollhouse is going to be my medieval enchanter's tower, my next main project.

A little boat

Here's a little rowboat which I have painted for the Finnish lakehouse. It was originally varnished wood with a green trim, but I saw a pic in my book of a boat in the colours of the Finnish flag, so this is the result!

I got the boat a long time ago from The Dolls House Emporium, but I don't know if it's still available. I have found that some things there are available only from the paper catalogue, which is not an option for overseas buyers who must use the online catalogue. (The catalogue number for this boat was #4255.)

The lakehouse so far

It's slow doing this as there's only three hours a day when it's warm enough to paint. It still needs a final coat of paint on everything - and a last minute change of colour on the outside, so I have to wait for our weekly trip to town to get another paint test pot.

Glenda + paint = mess!! lots of mess!! :)

I have changed my mind three times now about how I'll do the roof. :)

I am having fun doing this!!