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Showing results for tags 'decorating'.
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I've just come back from a few months hiatus, while I've worked on improving my techniques for making mini pottery. Put a few of them on Etsy, though I've got more I'll be adding by and by. Perusing the forums, I see that I should be using some other measure of scale than a dime, so with upcoming photos I'll change that scale prop. MesoWorks at Etsy. I'm also on Instagram, same name MesoWorks, but won't link in case it's not allowed. I have more stuff on there, just for show not necessarily sale.
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It's a common question. (Indeed, it's one I haven't yet answered for Miles and Theo's cottage, where I may change my mind yet again about the body color of the house.) So I decided it was time to gather in one place all of my favorite resources for fantasizing about colors.Color visualizersThese applications let you see how various color schemes look on a sample room or exterior.--Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer (look for the LAUNCH link on this page)--Benjamin Moore Personal Color Viewer--Color Scheme Creator (designed for Web sites but fun for anyone -- also shows what schemes look like if you're colorblind)Historic color schemesWhat are the authentic color schemes for past eras?--Sherwin Williams Preservation Palettes: from Colonial Revival to Suburban Modern, with external and internal color schemes--Decades of Color [pdf]: palettes for the 1960s through the early 2000s--Art Deco Color Schemes: photos from the era show real rooms--Ephemera Now: 1950s ads for furniture and home appliances demonstrate middle-class color schemes--Color Schemer: users share their possible color schemes for various eras (as well as with other themes)--Old House Journal's Recommended Paint Books: lots of Victorian sources, some reprints of actual 19th-century booksAcrylic paintsHere are color charts for the more common American brands of "little tubes of acrylic paint."--Delta Ceramcoat: gives opacity, but I've never liked their browns--DecoArt Americana: offers a larger range of muted colors and my favorite beiges--Plaid FolkArt: includes a handy list in chromatic order
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Snowflakes flutter (well, not here in California), and it's the season for a mug of hot cocoa, a few new bottles of paint, and a dollhouse kit. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas -- and therefore are a bit skeptical about the necessity of building Santa's Cottage -- you can decorate for a cozy winter by turning one of the smaller Greenleaf cottages into a gingerbread house. It's just as adorable as one made of cookies, with the added charm that you can display it for years (and have someone live in it). You can even construct an entire village, one cottage at a time, over multiple winters. (But check out this thread for a discussion of real gingerbread houses.)This gingerbread Buttercup shows the basic techique. Start with a cottage that has ornate lines. Paint it ginger-color. Decorate.These houses by ot00555 and fairimom show decorating ideas that would also work on a Buttercup.Clayseed's gingerbread Buttercup demonstrates a more challenging technique that uses sanded spackling paste to get a cookie-like texture.Kato_411 provides a helpful list of ideas for winter decorating, from pine trees to ice-skating ponds.For items you don't want to make, check out craft stores: last year, Michael's carried a splendid supply of faux candies for making gingerbread houses out of birdhouses.What do you put inside a gingerbread house? A bakery, of course!
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Being a great fan of scrapbook paper as dollhouse wallpaper, I'm making a list of scrapbook paper lines that feature funky, modern, or masculine designs. KI Memories: Funky and mod designs in coordinating colorways, with a new set of lines released each month. Keepsake Rectangled appears in Nico & Fuzz's kitchen. Kopp Design: Mix-and-match mod papers, plus color-coordinating lines of striped, plaid, and plain papers. Mustard Moon: Plaids and tone-on-tone patterns in every possible neutral shade, plus some reds, purples, and yellows. Sassafras Lass: Super-funky patterns in 1950s through 1970s colors. Many patterns are on the large size for 1:12, though. Scenic Route: Rich-toned stripes, tone-on-tones, and tile patterns. Chatterbox: Papers similar to the real wallpaper you'll see in model homes, arranged into colorways by room. Fabulous stripes; florals run a bit large. Rusty Pickle: Distressed and shabby designs, usually with a country palette. A good source of "tin ceilings" if you're not worried about actual texture. Basic Grey: More distressed designs, with brighter background colors. Best used as floors or a single wall, as the designs can be difficult to match. I own a few too many of the Phresh and Phunky line because I love that shade of pink.
