Doll Size Fireplace pt 2

Watch the video here.

This week we are continuing with our work on the fireplace for the dolls. I had one of those weeks where everything took way longer than it should and we also had a batch of horrid weather. So I am sorry this is late in the week going up. On the bright side I have been filming next week's tutorial while waiting for parts of this one to dry so it should go up on time.

So we are adding bricks to our fireplace this week. I am using paper egg cartons again as my material of choice to make my bricks. I have been working on trying to come up with an alternative for those of you that have trouble finding the paper egg cartons. It is kind of funny that what is common in one area is so rare in another. I seldom see the foam egg cartons that a lot of you get every time you buy eggs.

So one thing that I have substituted for the egg carton material in dollhouse scale is sand paper. For our scale it wouldn't have the thickness we need but I got to thinking if you were to glue some sandpaper to the paperboard that a cereal box is made of I think it would give enough thickness that it should work just about the same as my egg cartons. You would have the advantage of less waste too. I think I would use a medium grit sandpaper, glue it to the paperboard then continue with the painting and cutting. It should work well. (I think)

For the step where I paint the fireplace with the gray paint, just use any combination of about 3 colors of gray to give the mottled look we are after.

Now you probably noticed that I had to cut larger bricks in order to finish the front of the fireplace. I had sized my bricks based on the depth of the fireplace I am making. I hadn't thought through to how that would work for the top front area. I played around with the bricks and this seemed like the best solution. I think it looks fine and you don't really notice the difference in the size unless you know about it.

I do wish I had gotten my bricks glued on straighter. I was a bit sloppy on some of them. We have had some horrid weather this week and I was feeling rushed to get this done when I was able to work on it. If I were going to do this again I would take a lot more time with gluing the bricks down. Also some of my bricks were cut crooked but again I was feeling rushed and should have taken the few extra minutes to fix them.

I do have to say that making a larger project for a tutorial on this channel is a challenge for sure. On my dollhouse miniature channel I normally make up a copy first then tape the tutorial. That way I have some/more of the “bugs” worked out. For this scale because the projects are so much larger I can't really make up multiples of them so I am making up parts of the project as I go. I had some things worked out when I started but some parts I haven't really figured out yet (the mantle for instance) and some become obvious as I do the steps. So if this tutorial at times seems a bit disjointed that is why.

I did promise to do a brick count so you would know how many bricks I used. Remember we aren't done yet and depending on how I do the mantle we may need a few more bricks. But so far this is what I have glued on to my fireplace. You may need a few more or a few less depending on your grout lines, cutting and a multitude of other factors.

1” by 2” 50

1” by ¾” 30

1” by 2 ¼” 10

If I can get to the store to figure out the mantle we will work on the hearth and mantle next week. If not we may just do the hearth next time. I have been snowed in for several days so far and it doesn't look good as far as getting out in the next day or so at this point.