Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Because sometimes procrastination can be a positive thing!

In the time since I've been wrestling with making the changes I want to make to the Smaland dolls' house that Lundby Australia had sent me, the lovely people at Lundby updated the design of the house, making what I wanted to do with it a much easier proposition.

First up is the new remote control, which gives you the ability to have the lights on in one room at a time: perfect for this build, as I can have lights on in the upstairs bar/ music venue but off in the downstairs cafe (which is only open during the day).
Lundby Smaland 2015 remote-controlled lighting unit, in box.
Lundby Smaland 2015 remote-controlled lighting unit components, with instructions.
Rear of a Lundby Smaland 2015 dolls' house, showing remote-controlled lighting unit instructions, with the unit components next to it.
Lundby have produced a clever stop-motion animation showing how it works:
The other change that works for my build is their decision to make the kitchen/ dining area open plan, which means I don't have to deal with channels in the floor and wall and can, in fact, use the floor that comes with the house as it is, if I want to...
Lundby Smaland 2015 dolls' house, in box.
I decided that all this was a sign to stop procrastinating, and do some work on the hack.

Remember when I mentioned that I tell myself if I mess something up, it'll be a good story for the blog?
Lundby Smaland dolls' house rear wall, with a piece of scrapbooking paper cut to size to fit, and a Xyron sticker machine.
After checking the Lundby site for the wallpaper templates and finding them not there any more, I decided it would be a good idea to cut the new wallpaper to size before applying it. Bad, bad idea. Can you see?
Close up of a piece of paper cut to fit the back wall of a Lundby Smaland 2015 dolls' house, but not quite fitting.
Luckily I had enough of the paper to try another approach: applying and then cutting (my big Xyron sticker machine came out for the job).
Two uncut pieces of scrapbooking paper, run though a Xyron sticker machine and sitting on the back wall of a Lundby Smaland 2015 dolls' house.
Perfect!
Close up of the top of the back wall of a Lundby Smaland 2015 dolls' house, showing scrapbooking paper attached and cut to size.
Next step was the flooring. I had assumed that the bedroom carpet was a single piece of fabric. Silly me. It's lots of fluff, glued on:
Lundby Smaland 2015 dolls' house bedroom floor, showing how the carpet is made of fluff, not fabric.
(I'll get back to that later, as I'd run out of the time I'd put aside to work on the hack).

So far so good, even if it's all a bit temporary for now.
Corner of a live-music venue, with an armchair behind a mic and next to speakers. Next to the chair is a guitar.
I was pleased to find that the copper spray paint I bought for the Hideout build, and used to paint one of my stag heads, went well with the paper I'd chosen. I think I'll be using that on a few things before this build is done...
Upstairs of a Lundby Smaland 2015 house, redecorated as a live-music venue in black and gold.
My next issue is dealing with wallpapering the window wall. I'll check the Lundby site again in a day or so to see if the templates have mysteriously returned and if not, I might have a poke around to see how difficult it is to remove the windows from a modern Lundby. *gulp*
Corner of a live-music venue, with one wall unpapered.
I also need to decide on papers and flooring for the music venue entry area and get them installed...
Selection of scrapbooking papers in black and gold, with a gold-painted stag head displayed on them.
Slowly but surely, I'm making progress!

2 comments :

Indy_Poppy said...

I like you idea of using the xyron for glue. I saw one on special at Lincraft the other day and wondered what I could have used it for. (Should have got it) Indypoppy

AMCSviatko said...

Part of the experiment is seeing how well the glue holds up: watch this space (also, Xyrons can often be picked up cheaply on eBay...)