Seeing the Light! (...Well, almost!!)

Hello gentle readers! As part of my ongoing improvements to The Swan Inn interior. prior to it's Christmas makeover, I have been tackling the lights. This should have been fairly easy and straightforward as I had learnt many lessons from wiring up my Georgian House, and wanted to make this project easier to wire up. Tape wire and lamp adaptors were kept to a minimum, and I ran wires in channels routed out in floors, walls and ceilings to the back of the building, wherever this was possible. This did mean removing the large chunky plugs from each lamp, and replacing them with tiny Cir-Kit plugs, which fit into sockets designed to be pushed straight into tape wire. All of this was to be hidden behind The Swan, out of sight.

Well, I say that dolls house lighting systems must have been designed by one of Satan's own Hell Demons, to infuriate and frustrate to the highest degree, any poor sap who thinks it will be easy! Some of the lights worked first time; great! Some worked after some tweaking; OK! Some worked by checking connections and tightening brads etc, but some are refusing to work, even now!!

OK, I have run out of tiny plugs, that is true, as I lost one of the tiny metal pins, and think this last plug was faulty anyway, but even when the plug had been fitted the light wouldn't work! Currently the lights in all the major rooms are working, but the kitchen and landing remain unlit!

Here are some more pictures of the lights that work! There are also bulbs in the fires to make them glow, perfect for cold wintry nights!!!

I don't think you've seen the sitting room from this angle before, with the fireplace. This is where the recovered sofa and armchair will be going.

Time to Recover

Can it really be over half way through November already?! It will be Christmas before we know where we are! My last post was at Hallowe'en, but I have been very busy between then and now working on a special project for Christmas. Before I can finish my Christmas project, I need to get The Swan Inn knocked into shape, so have been working on all those jobs that have been put off over the summer months. First on the list was a little reupholstery work.

Do any of you remember this sofa? I was given it free by a good friend of mine (hi Dianne!) but I absolutely hate the covering fabric.

Here it is inside the pub's sitting room, looking rather out of place in my view. I did like the shape of the sofa and always intended to recover it, so that was the first job to do!

Fortunately, the sofa came apart quite easily and I was able to remove the old ugly fabric from any parts that would be seen. I kept the old fabric for use as templates when cutting the new fabric which was to replace it.

The new fabric has a much more 'country' style that I wanted in the pub sitting room. Most of the work was done simply by cutting and gluing, but the pleated pelmet skirting the bottom required more work to achieve, which included SEWING!!!! Yes dear readers, I picked up the dreaded needle at last! please don't look too closely at the ham fisted stitches along the hem! I also have to pin, iron and sew in the pleats. Now, it may not be as neat as the original cover, but I think it looks a lot more attractive now!

But the story doesn't just end there. I also made a wing-backed arm chair, this time completely from scratch, using MDF and some wooden dowel. I also made those stubby little legs on the front of the chair. It doesn't show too well in the photo, but there is some buttoning on the back seat of the chair too, which should have been simple, but cause me no end of problems!! Again, I am sure I could have bought something a lot better, but I am very pleased with this little chair, and the fact I made it all myself makes it even better!

And here they are both together. I decided I didn't want the foot stool in the end as there wouldn't be any room for it in the sitting room, so it never got recovered. Now, I think it would be nice to have some cushions on the sofa, but that may be pushing my sewing skills too far!! we shall see! I am sure you're all dying to see how this furniture looks in the pub sitting room, but I am afraid you'll just have to wait a little longer for that. I don't want to ruin any surprises! ;o)