Friday, November 2, 2012

Jewelry Care

I'm so happy you now have a piece of jewelry I made.... or at least you trust me to help take care of the rest of your jewelry box!

MORE TO COME......

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The BIG reveal.....I'm finally done with the dollhouse!!!

My hubby will be so thrilled to get so much of the house back to being a real people sized home, and not a tiny people size construction project!!

Anyway.....here we goooooooo

The outside first....... as this house is built on a cliff, we needed to make a fence all the way around (LE SIGH) except for the area that is the edge of the infinity pool.



The lower patio has aluminium lounge chairs and a little table to match. The area under the cantilevered second floor is stained red to match the main wall in the living room. The "wall" is actually glass, and would open the dining room up to the outdoors. Along pool is a small grassy area with stepping stones that leads you around the living room and out to the parking area. You can also see all the pretty potted plants along the living room glass wall.



Right outside the kitchen is a tiny little sitting area...2 pretty red chairs and a table....What a great spot to have your coffee in the morning!!

 The upstairs patio has an open pit fire ring. A round umbrella table with red quarter round benches that go around the fire pit when not at the table. There's a lounge chair and 2 other silver chairs.....and since it's just off the office, it's the perfect excuse to take the afternoon off!

NOW...lets go inside..... first the entry hall for the door from the driveway....
 
As you enter at a mid-level, you can see right down the stairs out the big glass wall, or look up into the hall with the office at the end. On the wall is a big Jackson Pollock under a very mod 3 globe chandelier.

Let's go down the stairs and see the living room, kitchen and one of the baths....




The living room...with it's HIGH IMPACT red wall and glass everywhere else. Bamboo flooring, vintage Malm wood stove, cork tables and that mod arch floor lamp. Since the photos, I have replaced the plain white chairs with 2 silver ones, and added another leather sling chair.
                                                                          From the living room we can look into the kitchen over the BIG dining room table.... And this angle lets you see some of the can lighting.

The dining room and kitchen flow from the living room and out into the patio. The GIANT dining table seats up to 12....and has a neat chandelier over the center. Light wood matching the birch table and chairs holds 8 small lights in tubes that match the can lights in the rest of the room.
The biggest question of the night should be White wine or Red???  Along with the pretty silver filigree candle holders, custom dishes in white, blue and yellow, the table is all set!

The kitchen is bright and shiny yellow with stainless appliances (the doors all open, by the way). The counter tops are poured in place concrete that was then polished. The island has 3 high stools, a nice spot for a quick bite. Under the top cabinets, glass shelves hang down to keep the most used dishes handy all the time. Real cork clooring makes it easy on the feet for the gormet of the house...and the maid too!
 Off the kitchen is a 3/4 bath....pretty cream terrazzo and copper walls. It has a copper vessel sink with medium tone wood vanity. The shower has 1 inch square glass tiles in shades of brown, with a "nook" for the shampoo bottles. The copper rain shower head had to be custom made as well.



So that's the main floor.....shall we head upstairs to the master bedroom and the office?


This is the hallway at the top of the stairs... Again we see bamboo flooring. There are 2 doors, one to the bath and one to the master bedroom. A pretty table with vase, candles and a bunch of wedding photos take up this part of the house. If you turned around, you'd be headed out the glass doors to the upstairs patio.
As you enter the bright and productive office, you first see the double desk. They share file cabinets, but one side in this house is for the computers. This side has an airbook and i-pad. Shelves are underneath to help keep everything neat and tidy.
This is the other side of the office. I suppose that other folks would share the space with their partner, or maybe the kids....not me. This is the jewelry studio. You can see the bench pin (where I cut things out of sheet metal) and the TINY hammers, along with some wire that's being worked on on the dividing desk top.
This is the "back side"of the jewelry studio. You can see a rolling mill....it's used to imprint things like lace on silver! The buffing mill is used to polish items to a high shine. The red and green tanks you see? Well, that's my torch set-up....because, well, playing with fire is pretty darn cool!

The master bath....ahhhhhhhh...so relaxing!
This bathroom has a distinct Asian appeal. And oriental inspired mirror and the most luxurious Japanese soaking tub. The wide waterfall faucet will wash away the cares of the day. The surround is actually pebbles set in mortar.... soothing greys, white and pearl colors go well with the silvery blue paint on the rest of the walls. The vanity and floors are ebony. The large porcelain single bowl sink is a lovely rectangle shape, with squared off edges on the faucets too.

Now into the Master Bedroom......
The bed is hand tufted black leather. the side tables are attached and they have pendant lights that hang from the ceiling above them. The pretty silver bedding with purple edging matches the lighter shade of dusky purple on the walls.
Here you have a better view of the grey leather bench at the end of the bed. You can also see the double dresser with shelves between. The shelves can be used for folded sweaters or maybe shoes.  On to there are some vases with pretty purple flowers, a mirror and jewelry box.

Here you can see the master closet... big mirrors on the doors. The inside holds a rod that's about 8 feet long as well as 2 shelves to keep you organized. This is just inside the door, and you can see the photos on the opposite wall in the mirrors. 
To make up for not having a "view" over the pool in this room, I added a private balcony. It has glass railings, a couple of silver chairs and a small table.... perfect place for a nightcap?


Wow....that takes care of the top floor. Are you ready to see the basement? It's sooooo cool. I really wish I could shrink myself and live there forever......


We'll start in the downstairs bedrooms....one for a boy and one for a slightly older girl.
Bright colors predominate in this room. One wall is actually all chalkboard paint.... for once a kid can draw on the walls to their heart's content. There's a dresser and small stand alone closet... room for toys and footballs.
A custom lamp sits on top of an even more custom bedside table.... how cool would it be to have a Dwarf to hold all of your stuff??
I really love this door. It's great for a kid's room, and this one was created especially for Sam. The "face" of this superhero is a mirror....reminding him every time he walks out the door that he is "super!"
And down the hall is the girl's room..... Tiffany blue with brown and silver and white. A fancy chandelier with plaster work and silver gilt around it decorate the ceiling.


The Dressing table mirror reflects the mod motif on the wall opposite. The bedside table is mirrored with a crystal lamp on it.
The closet is HUGE and hidden behind a curtain that matches the wallpaper.The bed is a very classic shape with storage underneath. There is plenty of room on the walls for this girl to put up all sorts of Justin Beiber posters...but I'm loath to do that myself.
Since the hallway that links these bedrooms to the main part of the basement is a bit hidden now that the house is put together...here is a photo of it "in progress". You can see the neat moldings IRL, but it won't photo to save my life!
 

So we come out of this hallway into the "man cave" area... it has a pool table, a bar, a sitting area with bookcase and comfortable leather seating. The walls are decorated with Guinness posters, large-format fishing photos, family photos and how could you have a man cave without a really nice buck mount?

You can see the beamed ceiling. The bar has a wine cooler, beer fridge and a sink. Under the mirror is plenty of storage for  stem ware and bottles. You can also see the leather covering the walls under the white chair rail. The stairs go up to the main floor, you can see the washer and dryer tucked in under them.
The home theater has more book selves...3 fancy recliners with a tiny table each, no need to share an armrest! But if you want to get cozy, there's a big couch with an extended chase at the end. All in red velvet, of course, and a curtain for a true theater experience!

You can see the shelves and the 60+ inch TV in this photo. You can also see the Guinness posters that are now hidden from view since the roof went up.

The photo on the left shows the seating better than any other photo I've got. On the right you can see the vintage movie posters that decorate the medium grey walls.

Alright.....enough with all this Manly stuff...I need a bit more glamor in this basement!!! Off to the Hollywood bath!!

"How's my hair look?"

This bathroom has a super fancy vintage mirror. A tile job that is historic...a Greek key pattern that was popular in the 1910's and 1920's. A swooping corner tub, with shower. A sleek pedestal sink keeps with the glam feel of the place.
The silver shower curtain is nice...the towel bar near the sink is heated (of course!) and the Venetian plaster job keeps the room from looking too "flat".  I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of the "real" paper roll.... Seriously, it's about 1/6 inch big!!

So, that's my little house!!  I have to say I'm really proud of myself for getting this done! I really tried hard not to buy anything but raw materials...I did give up on making my own little people.

Do you remember the photos from the inspiration house?? 

You'll have to go back to that post and check more of them out....I think I like mine better!!!

thanks for following my progress....remember to check out all of the others that somehow fell through the tiny rabbit hole!