New photos!

At last I have a few new photos to show! Even when I've been working on other properties I've still had this little shop in my thoughts especially when I visit a Dollshouse Fair. I bought some lovely Jane Harrop furniture kits and I'm thrilled with how they look in the living room upstairs.

And finally a little more stock (still need lots more!) and a couple of customers at last!

These lovely characters are made by a lady locally in York

Some new scales and some cheese

Some wallpapering

I've completed the upstairs decoration now. I was undecided what era this shop was going to be but knew it was to be 'old fashioned'...very vague I know but anyway it is turning out to be around the 1940s/50s. It just seems to have evolved that way!

Here are photos of progress so far...

You can see how I've placed a wall to give the impression of stairs behind with a door leading into the hallway.

I've used a real wood floor sheet stained in medium oak 

This is the hallway which turns a corner to go down 'the stairs'

Some recent photos

It has been a long time since I updated this blog as I haven't  been able to work on it until now.

The Village Shop has been packed away as I had no space to display it. At last I've been able to get it out and do some well needed refurbishment.

The front is finished with Richard Stacey real stone but as this is quite heavy I didn't want to do the sides with that so opted for the Bromley Craft stone stencil and compound. 

I'm pleased with the result. After painting I think it matches in quite well.

I've added some window boxes too. 

All my houses together.

Front stone work and roof

I've used Richard Stacey real stone to clad the front and grouted inbetween the stones  with mortar mix. It looks very realistic as you can see.

The roof has been covered with pantile strips which I painted with different shades of acrylic paint to get a weathered appearance. The pantile strips are made from mdf and are very effective. It was a little tricky cutting them to shape on this hipped roof but the result is quite good I think.

Shop interior almost done

I've been busy this last week transforming the shop interior.
I wanted an 'aged' look so opted for stained wood panelled walls
with shelving built in. Now they need filling!

Front of counter

Oranges, apples in boxes (I need to 'age' these boxes) and cakes in the display counter made from fimo

View showing the whole shop with door 'leading upstairs'
Lots more to do but getting there I think......

A village shop is born

Here in my blog I'm sharing my progress in making my 1:12 scale shop kit into a typical, small village shop. 
The building began life as the 'County Shop kit' made by Sid Cooke and has already been built for some time. I bought the kit awhile ago, before I had a digital camera, so I can't show the actual building process as I didn't photograph all the stages but there will still be lots to do and see as I go along.....

This is how it looked at the beginning.

I've made a few little changes inside. I removed the stairs which came up from the shop into the living area, blocked up the hole and changed the wall layout. I've made a hallway/landing upstairs to give the impression of there being stairs at the back of the rooms. Doing this has given me a much larger living area. 

Without the stairs it leaves more floorspace for the shop too. The inside is beginning to take shape now with the building of lots of shelves in the shop area and upstairs the wallpapering is nearly complete.