Friday 4 June 2010

Into the Fire Part 2 - Feb - March 2010

Firstly, sorry it's been so long before I've finished off this section.  I've been been busy woodturning but you'll have to wait until I produce something decent to see any miniature vases etc :)

I had always intended to make the grander fireplaces from wood and my disappointment in the finish of the plaster ones reinforced the desire to make something better.

I had been recommended a supplier on the dolls house forum: http://www.wood-supplies.com/ who has a fantastic selection of jelutong and other miniature sized wood.

Being a designer by profession I drew up in AutoCAD a design for my fireplace based on a project from a book and then ordered my wood.
I did have a couple of issues as I didn't allow for the firegrate depth properly and had to adapt my design while making it, but I'm sure we've all done that!

This is what I came up with:



The plinths are cut from skirting board (extremely fiddly to get the mitre cuts right) so when flush against the wall the skirting board will appear to run seemlessly around the room, I hope!

It has since been finished with the small gaps filled, sanded and painted with two coats of watered down white emulsion and three coats of Plastikote Satin White spray paint.  It looks really good but I haven't got a photo of it right now so I'll have to update this post later.

In the meatime, this is the fireplace in-situ in my dining room with real marble hearth and iron on floorboards with veneer inlay.