Some Progress

The spiral staircase, which was a major part of this project, and the reason I came home with a pretty much unfinished building, is now hanging on by a thread - I may assign it to the burn pile! However, in the meantime, I did do some work on the Industrial Loft Project, aka the Steampunk Apartment Corner Vignette. My idea for this loft is that it is cast iron construction, so lots of metal to fake up....



My decision was to take baby steps. Yesterday, I cut fine strips of file folder card, and used it to make a finished edge around the second floor; it was faux-painted to match the stained boards, and I am quite happy with it. The same finish will eventually go around all the raw edges of the project. Above is one of the windows in the process of being glazed. The Carpenter-in-Chief said I should not have the wide muntins of the window on the outside, as rain would collect in the metal corners and the window frame would rust out. OK, I agreed, and decided that I would cover the outside edges with fine, painted strips of sturdy scrap booking card. The purplish thing is the closest I came to black, so that was the colour I chose. I think a fair amount of card will go into this construction!



It's taken most of today, but one of the windows is in place, ready to have the interior framed glued in place. We were going to make the central section swivel out, but that requires, a) pin hinging and b) pin hinging having to be drilled in a laser-cut window where you can't get your pin vise in straight. I've given myself permission to make is simpler; the upper pane will be permanently closed, while the lower one will be permanently open. It is currently under weights awaiting the glue drying. You can see the nice finish on the edges of the second floor.

I would like to suggest hardware on these windows, and will have to research that. Also, I'm thinking that roller blinds would be an interesting touch, as this loft is now a home; they would be rolled up, of course, so not too difficult to create, and could have interesting hardware too. And perhaps I'll look for an interesting dark tiny tie print for the blinds.