Beacon Hill - Dining Room and on to Hall/Foyer

 

Finished up the dining room but for the drapes/curtains. The wooden window wall turned out well. I swapped out the wide shelf that was supposed to go under the window for a narrower one.  Still wide enough to hold some kind of pretty. Look in the far right upper corner. I wasn't ready to break my brain cutting the cove molding to make a fitted corner, so I sawed the top off of a Newell post and inverted it, butted the cove moldings against it.  

Three things left to do in here --- the drapes/curtains, which will have to wait for fabric;  the tape wire brads poking through the ceiling; and the light fixtures. All in good time. Regarding the brads, I think I'll wait until all of the wiring is finished, then use the trusty Dremel to grind them down, patch with Spackle, and repaint.

Moving on to the front hall/foyer. The initial plan called for closing the doorway nearest the front door, so I made a plug for it. There will be a ceiling light above the front door and a mirror on the wall to the left of the front door to bounce the light, but I'm wondering if this corner won't be too dark. The plug will not be glued until the jury comes in with a decision. The first step for this room is the floor. I have an idea for an original parquet design and process, but it is untried. Fun to experiment!

Back at Work - Dining Room

 

It is hard to believe the Beacon Hill was started in 2013 -- eight years ago! After a hiatus of several years while life intervened, I finally found my mini mojo and dusted out the craft room. One of the hang-ups is my indecision about how to finish the exterior -- clapboard? brick? stucco? stone? combination? The easiest way to get around that is to concentrate on the interior and face that later on.

The tape wire is installed on the ground and middle floors, but not on the top floor, so the logically place to begin is the ground floor. What is indicated as kitchen in the plans that come with the kit will morph into the dining room. It has a bump-out with three adjacent windows that I think will be board and batten on the exterior. The window sections are glued and painted and put aside for installation later.

This is the dining room with the porch window blocked. The red paint chip is the color key for this room. The floor overlays the kit floor. It is stained with Minwax Aged Oak. The door and all trims will be dark walnut for contrast.

I noticed the brass eyelets used for the tape wire joins have poked through the 1/8" floor above, leaving a couple rough spots on the ceiling. Not sure how to deal with that. Wish I had noticed sooner. I could have used ceiling paper to hide before gluing in the plaster rose. 

I wasn't sure about using wainscoting as I was afraid it would make the room too dark, so I made up a panel to audition. It is made from some of the siding boards, Victorian skirting board, and a reasonably shaped piece of molding I had on hand, all stained dark walnut. The white strip at the top will be covered with dark walnut cove molding, which will also extend along the board that runs parallel to the set of three windows.

Of course, the next step was to see it staged with the basics.  I needed to see how all of the wood tones worked with the wallpaper. 

I don't recall whether the light over the small cabinet is wall mount or stands on the cabinet, but in either case the mark may need to be adjusted. There is enough tape wire on the other side of the wall to raise or lower it. The breakfront and dining set were made from kits. The chair seats have not been covered; did not have the wallpaper at the time.

The window frames are stained, but I think light-colored drapes or curtains will help lighten the room.

Not sure if there will be a rug in this room or not. If there is, it will have to be in light tones to contrast with the dining set. 

Note to self: exercise blogging muscles! I apologize for the haphazard spacing of this entry. It has been a while since I posted!