My big hurdle then was what to make the stucco with. I wanted to use something that I already had at the house since I had a really limited budget to work with. Hard to spend oodles on the house when your kid needs diapers. :D So I scoured the internet and came up with this: watered down wood filler, which I credit to Emily Morganti! She apparently learned this in class. Check the link to see her process and experience.
Let me tell you all, this works AMAZINGLY well and is only $5. PLUS I still had tons left over and you can still use it for it's intended purpose as wood filler. :) All you have to do is put some wood filler in a cup (I did mine directly in the container since it was about half empty) and add water. Then stir and add water until it has the consistency of soft serve ice cream.
I then took a sponge brush and slathered it all over a wall (missing this picture, but it doesn't have to be solid smearing, the next step will even it out). After that, while it was freshly wet, I dabbed at it with a cellulose sponge and created a stippling effect. :) Awesome! After I was sure I liked the look, I taped off the window frames on the building and *stuccoed* the rest of it.
30 minutes later, it was totally dry and I gave it two coats of the Gold Coast White. After the paint dried, I removed all the tape. Yea for clean lines!
I knew that I wanted lots and lots of color, but it also needed to be grounded so it wasn't blinding. I used my absolute favorite color, Bittersweet Chocolate by Americana to paint the trim, under the eaves and the windowsills. The small windows and the inner stripes got lots of color and I used the same colors in the wall mural. All of it was Americana paint because it has superior coverage and true, bright colors. I used the following: Bahama Blue, Bright Yellow, Cantaloupe Orange, Citron Green, Dioxazine Purple, True Blue, Desert Turquoise, Peony Pink, Baby Blue, Holly Green, Christmas Red, and Pineapple Yellow. The sign is painted to match, too, and is made out of cardboard, ribbon, chain and strip wood. The mail box is black polymer clay with a wash of Antique Copper on it. Numbers are from Houseworks. Open sign and hours are printies.
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The Roof:
Before I started this project, I knew I wanted a modern metal roof. I have some great examples in the neighborhood, so there was plenty of stalking material. :) And to make things better, the people right across the street just upgraded to this kind of roof so I got see how they were put together.
That wood up there is baby booty smooth! When I first started painting, I thought super smooth would be enough, but even then, the wood grain was showing through the paint. Blech. Not very metal looking and just would not do! (Seen in picture below) The strip separators are made out of 1/8" strip basswood. I had the frames over lap the holes cut for the skylights so there would be a gap to slip the acrylic sheeting into when I was done.
At the top of each strip, I cut it at an angle to allow for a flush fit to the metal strip at the top. On a real building, there is a cap put over the metal and the strips, but I thought that looked weird.
After a few days of pondering, I decided the best way to achieve a faux metal finish would be to use a glossy paper. I wanted something that was sturdy and wouldn't warp too much once painted. I have several wallpaper sample books and I opted to use the order papers in the back of the books. :) I had a moment where I thought I would want to order the wallpaper for real life some day, but these have all been discontinued for years. So no harm. They were perfect! I glued the whole piece to the roof section and then cut the excess off with a sharp blade. Then the strip wood was cut to size and glued on with Aileene's. I planned to use 3/8" strip basswood and balsa wood to make the frames for the skylights, so I left a gap accordingly at each skylight.
When putting the build together, I had to saw and sand off parts of the roofs on the addition to get everything together flush. Since I don't have any fancy saws, the edges were pretty rough and even after sanding, required some packing with wood filler.
That wood up there is baby booty smooth! When I first started painting, I thought super smooth would be enough, but even then, the wood grain was showing through the paint. Blech. Not very metal looking and just would not do! (Seen in picture below) The strip separators are made out of 1/8" strip basswood. I had the frames over lap the holes cut for the skylights so there would be a gap to slip the acrylic sheeting into when I was done.
At the top of each strip, I cut it at an angle to allow for a flush fit to the metal strip at the top. On a real building, there is a cap put over the metal and the strips, but I thought that looked weird.
After a few days of pondering, I decided the best way to achieve a faux metal finish would be to use a glossy paper. I wanted something that was sturdy and wouldn't warp too much once painted. I have several wallpaper sample books and I opted to use the order papers in the back of the books. :) I had a moment where I thought I would want to order the wallpaper for real life some day, but these have all been discontinued for years. So no harm. They were perfect! I glued the whole piece to the roof section and then cut the excess off with a sharp blade. Then the strip wood was cut to size and glued on with Aileene's. I planned to use 3/8" strip basswood and balsa wood to make the frames for the skylights, so I left a gap accordingly at each skylight.
Then all the papers and the strips were painted with several coats of Folkart Metallic Copper paint. :) Totally awesome finish! Finally, I glued the already cut skylight frames into place. :)
These were painted with a custom mixture of the Metallic Copper and Bittersweet Chocolate and Holly Green by Americana. The top of the roof is spray painted with Krylon Aluminum paint and is the same wood used to make the skylight frames. I also sponged and smeared some of the custom color, and those used to make it, in areas to show some weather damage and wear.
Here's the final product!
Another post will cover the tree, light, parking meter, planter, bench and waste basket. :)
Using glossy paper is very clever! I'll have to store that in the idea file.
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