I'm now on my summer holiday, and I'm staying with my sister in Bathurst, NSW. She moved here just before Christmas, to live in the house our mother left us. I've been helping her unpack boxes, especially boxes of books.
I've also started stripping paint from the wallpaper in the antique book-style house from Sydney, which I showed in May last year.
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| The wall on the left was covered with the same pink paint as the back wall. (The lower right corner is the last bit I did on that wall - it's darker because it's still a bit damp from the stripper.) |
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| The stripped wallpaper has lost some of the colour and detail of the original papers in the rooms below, but looks much better than solid pink! |
I also took off some of the paint from the floor of the room below, as I wanted to reveal more of the writing stamped on the wood:
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| I think it says Bruto 59, though I'm not sure about the last letter. |
And just before I stopped, because the sun was moving round to the spot in the garden where I was working, I put some paint stripper on a corner of the roof. It removed the top layer of pink - I think there's another layer of red underneath the blue:
I don't know how much more stripping I'll get done while I'm here - I have another week, before I spend a few days in Sydney and then fly back to Darwin. I'm hoping I'll get this room finished, at least.
I also have four new dolls houses occupying my bedroom here, so I'm hoping to get a headstart on blogging and show them to you while I'm here! (Actually, there are five, counting a cardboard flatpack dolls house!)
I hope you have all had a happy Christmas, and wish you all a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead, with lots of dolls house fun!
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Happy New Year and happy holidays!! That sounds like quite a project..so many dollhouses :) Interesting!!! Vey much looking forward to more! :) Best wishes, Anne
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anna! A very happy New Year to you and your family too! Not forgetting Caramel and Praline :-)
DeleteStripping the paint...the part I like least on refurbishing little houses! But yours has lovely wallpaper and very interesting window frames....so certainly worth the effort. I can't wait to see your new treasures...get busy on that blog post! Your last issue of Dolls Houses Past and Present was excellent...as usual! Happy New Year! Florine
ReplyDeleteI don't particularly enjoy it either, but I must say it seems easier and quicker using paint stripper! And yes, it will be worth it to see the papers in all the rooms again, and take it back a few decades ...
DeleteWell, I have heeded your call re the new dolls houses - I've already taken photos and blogged about one of them, so hopefully I'll do another in the next couple of days!
Glad you enjoyed the magazine :-) And a Happy New Year to you too! Rebecca
It looks like you're starting the new year with an interesting project with restoring this particular dollshouse. I'm glad the paint stripper isn't destroying the wallpaper underneath, I suppose some colour fade was to be expected. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteHi DollMum, I'm glad to have the time to do some work on this little house. It will remain here in Bathurst, though, so I can only work on it during my visits here. We'll see how much I get done!
DeleteI was encouraged to try paint stripper on the wallpaper after seeing a lithographed Gottschalk dolls house which a DHP&P member had restored. I guess the paint stripper is intended to remove paint and leave wood, and paper is made of wood pulp - though of course the printed colour isn't ... anyway, it does seem to work!
Happy New Year to you and your family too!