Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Yesterday was a creative day – Don was recording music all afternoon, and I was working on miniatures. I stained the table that I made a while back. It’s going into the kitchen at Hummingbird Cottage. Photos will be coming. And I painted and wallpapered the bedroom in the English Cottage.

Wallpapering these little cottages is a wee bit difficult as there are nooks and overhangs and eaves and whatever name you want to call them. In other words, they’re very much like our real life upstairs rooms.

Now honestly, I forgot about that wicker table and did not choose these colors so that I could use it in this space.

But I can and isn’t that nifty?

There are different ways to wallpaper a dollhouse, but I do – for better or worse – what I did for Hummingbird Cottage. I grab a piece of paper – usually something I’ve pulled out of the printer – and I place it against the wall and trace each section, including where the windows are. I place the pattern on the wallpaper and trace it once again, making sure to include the windows and doors. Then I cut it out, and tweak it a thousand times as I try to fit it to the actual wall. This was much more finicky than Hummingbird Cottage. By the time I did the last wall, the one on the right, I was over it.

I wanted to pull out one of the colors in the wallpaper for the sloped ceiling (is that what you call it?) And I wanted to do it with paint I had on hand. So I mixed a color that echoed the green-gray of the vines but was a bit brighter, because I didn’t want it to look too gray.

Now, for the floor…

I have no furniture for the bedroom yet. I do have that wicker table and I have my eye on a bed. I’d also like to find a narrow wardrobe and a smallish chair. And maybe a narrow fireplace.

I want to share a movie that I think you’d love. It’s on Netflix and it stars Sophia Loren. It’s called The Life Ahead. It’s the first movie she’s done in ten years (she’s 86) and it’s directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti. It’s wonderful. The cast is uniformly excellent. The story centers around a young boy named Momo played by Ibrahima Gueye. Gueye is simply extraordinary in this role. Words cannot express how talented this kid is, how natural and moving. And it’s beautifully directed. There’s much I could say about it but I don’t want to spoil your experience if you haven’t yet seen it. Watch it. Your heart and soul will be full.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Yesterday was spent indoors as it was rainy and windy outside. Plus, we’re tired and quite frankly, we’re trying to retreat from the world. Some days I’m more successful at that than others and yesterday was one of them. We took time to just be, doing whatever it was we wanted to do. We also took time late in the afternoon to cuddle on the loveseat and listen to the silence around us.

I spent some time up in the office/studio and started to paint parts of the English cottage bedroom before I add wallpaper. I removed the furniture from downstairs and while I was moving the unfinished kitchen island, I had a yen to finally go for it. I had mixed some paint for the bedroom and I liked it, so I used it as the base paint for the island.

Before:

And after:

It’s hard to capture the color because it’s one of those blue/green colors that changes depending on the light. Right now, in the sunny den, it’s looking bluer. When I took this photo this morning in the kitchen, it looked greener.

I decided to go with the imperfections of the wood and did very little sanding. My concept was an island that had been made out of an old weathered cabinet. Whoever made it added a counter made out of a slab of reclaimed wood with a farmhouse sink fitted in. I’m not happy with the faucet that came with the piece but it will do until I find something better. It was a bright brass, so I painted it with silver paint.

I’m pretty chuffed about this one. The backside is equally weathered.

The whole idea for the cottage is lots of color, lots of comfortably ‘old’ pieces that somehow work together in a cozy, comfortable space.

Heck, I’d like this piece in real life!

Today is sunny and I’m going to do some more work on the dollhouse. I’ve got my eye out for a used Beacon Hill by Greenleaf – which is a quite large Victorian. I’ve been seeing a lot of in-progress Beacon Hills on Instagram and I like all the details and the abundance of rooms. You don’t always get that in the interior of a house; they tend to be four large rooms, an exception being Hummingbird Cottage, which has six rooms.

I don’t want to put the house together or at least, I’d rather not, so every day I troll Craigslist to see if one has been listed.

Am I crazy? Yes.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.