Hooray, the en-suite is finished! This is such a long post, hope you don't nod off half way through :-) Trouble is by the time I realised it was so long I really didn't want to start over again with a second one so I just kept going!
When I bought dolls house number two I wanted it to be modern, then I wanted it to be a sort of cross between modern town house and Downton Abbey! Ideas came and went until eventually I had to make a start. Two things I was certain about were downlights in the kitchen and bathroom and spraying doors and stairs white. I then decided to put an opening from the basement to the first floor, and put some extra windows in the sides of the house. So whilst waiting for inspiration for what to do with the rooms I set to work on the garage floor and then the hallways.
Inspiration for one of the rooms at the top of the house came from Pinterest and various sites on the web - a bedroom with an en-suite shower room. The colour scheme is going to be pink and grey.
The first job was wallpaper and a down light, very easy.
I then needed to get the en-suite area done first because of the fiddly shower bits.
I made a divider out of mdf. Sawing it by hand wasn't too bad,
the slightly uneven side is towards the wall, and covered with the wallpaper!
The shower enclosure is square "tiles" printed on gloss photo paper.
The flooring was going to be wood. Notice that word 'was'.
I changed my mind and opted for a tiled look. The paper is thinner than the wood so I thought I would raise the level of the shower cubicle slightly and then put thresholds along the edge of the shower cubicle and between the en-suite and the bedroom areas. So far so good. I thought round bits of wood would look nice along the edges.
Using pieces from this old place mat, I cut out the sizes needed, and even mitred them
dipped them in paint followed by varnish, propped them up to dry by sticking pins in the ends of the wood
and sticking the pins into a flower oasis
glued them into place, stepped back to admire my handiwork, and ....... didn't like it. I left it for a day or two thinking I might grow to like it but I didn't, it just didn't look right, so I pulled it all out!! I lost the photos I took with it in place and looking neat, this is the reconstructed photo so that you can see what it looked like!
So back where I started!!
Well after all that effort plan B was more successful.
I re-covered the wiring with fresh insulation tape,
printed more tiles and decided to do the whole area the same level.
I made this template of cardboard to make it level with the bedroom area.
It warped slightly so I put heavy books on top of it.
It flattened out nicely, then I stuck the tiles on, and again put books on top to get a good flat surface.
Pleased with it so far.
I thought tile grouting would be difficult to use, my daughter suggested wood filler which I already had from a recent paintwork job. It was ideal as it was easy to apply with a cotton wool bud
and is a very good match to the tiles. Skirting boards will go on the wall.
Need to crack on now
Hanging the shower caddy
I drilled a hole in the back wall, cut a piece of a cotton wool bud, trimmed the cotton wool and stuck this shiny bead onto it
I stuck the bottles and sponge in situ
Now to make the shower cubicle
Using a scalpel I cut this channel in the mdf to put the perspex in, it was quite a snug fit but I put a small amount of glue in just to give it added stability.
I drilled a hole for the shower head.
I then carefully stuck these silver coloured edges in place. If you get any marks on perspex it's practically impossible to get them off, which is why I left the blue coating on until the last minute. I put a little button underneath the shower head as the on/off button. And then it was ready to put in place.
With the towel rail in place it was ready for the next phase.
The room divider
I had drilled the holes in the floor before finishing the shower enclosure.
The plan was to put stakes into the floor and inside the divider to hold it in place,
so to line them up accurately I marked the holes with a felt tip pen
and pressed the underneath of the divider on top to transfer the ink,
then I realised I had the divider the wrong way round! so I did it again.
I drilled the holes quite a long way inside the divider with just a small amount going into the floor.
and it worked! they fitted in beautifully. Now to paper it and put a cornice on the top.
I glued four pieces of wood together, overlapping each other and spray painted them.
A shoe box is ideal for small spray paint jobs.
It's ok, there is a gap between the top of the divider and the bottom of the cornice and after gluing it in place I thought of a better way to do it! But you now how it is, after what seems like an aeon to get a job done you just don't want to re-do it, deciding instead to do it at a later date! mmm........... maybe
Anyway the next job was to fix the toilet
It's a wall mounted one and I think it would have stayed in place just by gluing it, but doing it this way will give it a bit more hold. I drilled a hole in the wall and glued this piece of wood in,
the toilet then fits over that.
By now I was getting a bit fed up with this project, I just wanted it finished, so what did I do? I decided to make some towels!! You can buy them but I wanted a specific shade of pink and I had just the right colour ribbon sitting in my sewing basket.
For the bath towel I bought a white flannel, cut out a piece and glued the ribbon in place. I used UHU contact spray glue but the spray was too much for such a small area so I sprayed some onto the paper then applied it to the material with a small piece of wood.
More glue, fold the ribbon over,
repeat until you have three folds. I then folded the sides over to meet at the back.
I did the same for a much smaller one for the wash basin, that was mega fiddly! I made it in one piece though, gluing the edges to prevent it fraying. It was too small to fold over.
And then made some makeshift ones for the shelves.
After putting tiles around the sink, gluing towel rail and toilet roll holder in place it was finally finished.
Thank you for reading this epic saga! Hope you have enjoyed it and maybe picked up a few tips :-)
I'm going to start packing my case for Australia now!
