Flooring for the Ballroom

I’ve finally made a decision about the decor in the large, ballroom area of the house.

The walls were all painted cream (as per usual) with two walls on either floor wallpapered in a subtle patterned cream.

I wanted to either tile the ballroom floor (although i’ve done a far bit of that in the house already) or apply a wooden flooring. I really didnt want to use a paper image flooring that you can get as I didnt think this would look very good. I found an old laminate door cover in the garage. Essentially it is a wood textured sticky back plastic. This worked in my favour though as it was easy to cut  and apply. Although I did have to use glue as the sticky back wasnt all that sticky afterall… and that brought with it additional problems of air bubbles in the floor.

(Before)

The Finished Granite Floor

Ta-dah!

In hindsight I think the floor tiles are possibly too far apart, however I’d have needed to buy a second clay to create more tiles so I tried to stretch them. For only my second attempt however I am pleased with the result and, as the tiles and polyfilla were laid onto a sheet and not applied directly to the base, I can change them at a later date if I decide otherwise.

Now to add the jar ceiling light I made earlier! Waiting for glue to dry whilst holding the object is very tiring, so I decided to improvise…

Granite floor tiles

Using the same method as with the patio floor tiles in my previous blog post ‘How to Create Patio Floor Tiles’ I used a Granite textured Fimo clay to create larger tiles for the kitchen/bathroom (I havent decided which it is going to be yet).

The tiles were somewhat darker than the clay once cooked.

All that is left to do now is add the polyfilla!

A Room for the Children

This is one room which my previous house was too small for. I decided to make it another of the attic rooms, leaving the larger rooms for areas such as the kitchen and bathroom. I think making a room for children has a lot of potential. Bright colours, creative shapes and exciting objects.

I decided to begin this room from the floor upwards. I had some small scraps of paper (craft paper for card making not wallpaper) which I decided to base the floor around. I didnt have enough of one particular design to cover the whole floor in one particular pattern and so decided to go with a patchwork effect. Initially my idea was to tear different sized pieces for the flooring like a scrap book however this didnt look particularly effective and I felt the need to tidy the pieces up which defeated the initial purpose. I then settled for cutting retangle and square shapes instead.

Each piece was then carefully laid into place and stuck down with a glue. Luckily I had enough of each colour piece and the shapes I created covered the flooring nicely without too many skinny pieces near the edge or crazy overhangs. Once the floor had been completely laid down I coated it in a final layer of PVA to give it a sheen effect similar to that of a vinyl.

I decided to paint all the walls white for fear any patterns or colours would detract from the flooring I had just created. Particularly as the attic rooms are fairly small once furniture has been inserted. Again I only used item to decorate which were left over from my previous house. I globe light is a particular favourite of mine and I’m sure it will get moved from room to room as I go along before I find it a permantent home. The baby’s dress and the blankets were all hand-crocheted which are a lovely finishing touch.

 

I made the hanging mobiles on the cieling from laser-cut star shapes I found in one of my craft drawers. Colouring them in with a permanent marker pen gave then a metallic sheen which I think add nicely to the feel of the room.

Looking through the window.

How to Create Floor Tiles

There are all sorts of methods for creating floor tiles/tile effect flooring in a dollhouse. From patterned paper to paint and stencils to moulds and miniature tiles. Each with their own level of difficulty, expense and realism.

I set myself the challenge this time around of using miniature tiles and grout for the flooring of the patio, large lounge/ballroom area and tiles for the roof (eventually). However after looking around various sites online at pre-made tiles or DIY moulds and casting powder I was a bit disappointed to find that pretty much every method I could find was out of my price range.

I then found an article online with a stone flooring made from kitchen counter samples. This got me thinking about possible methods for making my own tiles.

To avoid buying expensive moulds I knew that the material used to make the tiles would need to be fairly firm, such as a clay. I found a range of FIMO effect ovenbake clays which were available in a range of stone effects including Quartz, Marble and Granite. Even the non-stone range clays were very details in appearance and could have passed for tile/slab material.

For my first attempt I decided to create a crazy pavement style patio floor with small, and given my lack of mould potentially irregularly shaped tiles, in an opal green shade for the front of the house. The clay was initially quite tricky to knead however given a bit of persistence I managed to roll the clay into a shape a couple of milimetres thick. I would recommend using a rolling pin for this to ensure universal thickness however as I did not have one to hand some of my tiles are fractionally taller than others. Although I dont think you can tell! I then cut the clay into approximately 0.5cm strips and slided each tile about 1cm long. After cutting each tile and then shaped the edged slightly to tidy them up.

As you can imagine this one by one process was quite time consuming!

Time for the oven!

I was terrified at this point that the tiles would curl or burn or something equally disasterous which would ruin all my hard work. 30 Minutes seems like an incredible long time for such tiny tiles to be in a hot oven, so in my paranoier I was checking them about every 5… nothing much changed!
Once removed the tiles looks pretty much the same as they had when they entered. A few had gains some faint black streaking however this added to the effect in my opinion and I’m not convinced you would be able to tell had you not just spent the last however many hours staring at the clay… Finally, I glazed the tiles with PVA to add a faint sheen.

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Following this I cut out a template of the area to be tiled. This would then make the base which the individual tiles would be glued on to. This allowed me to ensure each piece was in the desired place and avoid the fiddly wall sections which would be in the way should I apply the tiles directly the base. I also needed to cut out individual pieces for the edges of the base which were oddly shaped or too small for the regular tiles I had created.

When all the tiles had been glued into place I fitted the template into the area and applied the Polyfilla between the cracks, wiping away and excess from the tops of the tiles. I also applied Polyfilla to the edge of the template cementing the tiles into place on the base.

The finished result!