I used a varying glaze with a base of low lustre acrylic medium and differing amounts of raw umber. Raw umber is always the go-to colour to muddy anything up and age it. The floor looks a lot better now, after more sanding and polishing. I will add the soot effects of the fire later, when I'm feeling braver (it always seems to take a lot of guts to really dirty up a nice clean kitchen (although I seem to do it with ease in my 1:1 kitchen :)
And just before I go to bed, one last (arty) shot of the stone :)
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The floor looks fab! It's sometimes hard to stop at the right point, I have many times overdone things so it's good now and then just stop and look at the surfaces for a couple of days. I think that the dirtying is quite fun and it makes the houses look more real with the wear and tear. And the best point is, that some mistakes just blend in :D
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Thanks, Ira! Isn't that true? Patina is everything, I think. I also love the sort of house or roombox where things are in slight disarray, just as if real people lived there. It's funny the sorts of things that make a miniature look real.
ReplyDeleteFantastic floor!Great job! :)
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ReplyDeleteI am building a dolls house at the moment and I LOVE this floor. The last house I made, I bought individual floor tiles and it cost me an absolute fortune and didn't look anywhere near as good as this. Can you tell me which products exactly you used to colour the floor so I can try to replicate in my own house? I have acrylic paints but not sure wht you mean by 'glaze' is that varnish?
I would be eternally grateful
:-)
Thanks for your comment, Slim :) Okay, I use the word "glaze" to mean a relatively small amount of pigment in a larger amount of medium. It's diluted paint, basically :) So in this case I wanted something to protect the floor, so I used a medium lustre polymer acrylic medium with small amounts of acrylic paint in it.
ReplyDeleteYou could certainly use varnish -- probably you'd want a pretty low lustre varnish for an old floor, or medium lustre for a more polished looking floor. If you get a water-based varnish or varothane you can use your acrylic paints without a problem. Don't use a lot of colour at first -- play with it until you get the right degree of transparency and colour.
fab thanks so much!!! I actually just gave it a go last night. The polyfiller I use is grey in colour to start off with (rather than white) so I just watered down my acrylic and had a go with colours. The varnish I use is matte and you can't even tell it is there once dried - pretty sure a sparkling glossy floor would look WELL out of place lol
ReplyDeleteI need lots of trial attempts first to get it looking as good as yours - but THANKYOu because you are seriously saving me a fortune!
Slim, I'm so happy to help! How wonderful that your polyfilla is already grey -- that saves a lot of trouble. Let me know how it goes -- I'd love to see photos :)
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