The Chimney and finishing of the roof for Kate's Cottage

Hello my dear friends,

So once again November came to an end. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Christmas is round the corner and I am looking forward to it like always. Well the Christmas tree is up and decorated with all the decorations around the house. The kids always love helping out. 

Finishing the roof and Chimney.

Coming back to our project Kate's Cottage, I think the roof was one of the parts that I really had to think hard to get it right and exactly how I wanted it. Apart from the roof there was even the chimney to think about it.

Real Tudor Chimneys 

I searched and searched for Tudor Chimneys and blimey I never seen so much sophisticated bricked chimneys in my life.  Here in Malta we don't have them and we only get the modern ones but these are just beautiful. I tried to look for some history about them and it seems that the more decorative chimneys belonged to the most wealthy families. Very obvious our Kate is not one of the most wealthy but we can't say that she is one of the poorest either. As she has lands of her own with crops, has cattle and a roof on her head ,for that period I can say she had much more than one would wish for.

Bare Chimneys

With the kit I had these pair of chimneys and I just didn't know what I was going to do with them. Personally they didn't talk to me at all. So I decided to add a little bit more than necessary. 

Covering the center part

I just didn't like the clean hexagon shape of it. So first I started by using sack cloth to cover the middle part and the top part (the pots) of the chimneys. At least like this I lost the sharp edges and like this it would give me some nice texture.

Using string for spirals

When the glue dried up using thick string (the type that you use for parcels), I started piece by piece spiraling the string around the chimney.

Completed the decor

After I have finished spiraling the string around both chimneys, I left them out to dry from the glue. They were quite moist with glue so once they were dried they became hard as rock.

Under coat of paint

As the chimney had a mixture of bare wood, cloth and string it was important to give it a good undercoat base. I was still not satisfied with the bare wood of the Chimney. It looked too clean cut so with a tissue paper, using the paper mache method I covered the bottom part and the crown of the chimney. I went for a dark brown which would also be considered as a mortar. Every inch had to be covered even the tiniest area.

Giving the second coat of paint.

When the dark paint was fully dried, mixing color paints, I achieved a terracotta color and started painting the chimney section, section. Before letting the paint dry, using a tooth pick I tried to bring out the brick work pattern.

Dirtying the chimneys

Once the terracotta paint dried up it was time to dirty the chimneys. I can't imagine having a clean chimney. So using black chalk and with a damp brush I dried brushed the chimneys to give it a good effect of suet. 

The Masonry

The last bit was painting the masonry in the same dark brown and then I bricked it up with the versi slip bricks.

Complete chimney

As soon as I finished bricking the masonry I dirtied it with the same method as the chimneys. Then I stuck the chimneys to it and I was thrilled with the end results. I just couldn't imagine that it would look so good.

Chimney on top of the roof.

Once the chimney was done then I could finish of the last bit which was the trimming of the roof. Just like the roof was covered I used fabric. The same fabric was glued all around the trim.

Using fabric for trimming

After the glue dried off and the fabric was solid to the trim, I brushed down both the sides according to their sides where you could see the parting in the middle of the wool. I have cut the wool very short and turned the edges according to the shape of the trim. Once that was done, using satin acrylic varnish spray, I covered it and with a tooth brush I just brushed it down so the fabric will be soaked well with the spray. As soon as it was dried the fabric was solid but you can tell that the effect was just perfect.

And here is the finished roof with the chimneys.

Completed roof with Chimenys

I hope you have found this useful. I never imagined that they would come out like this and some how they suited the little cottage perfectly.

I hope you have liked what I have done so far. So this is all for today. Keep tuned for more updates on Kate's Cottage and many more.

I just wanted to let you know that we will be having the Advent Calendar like last year where you might find some useful tutorials.

Wishing you all a nice weekend and see you all real soon.

Hugs.

Rebecca xxx