Day 51: My Shabby Chic Cottage project has begun

Last fall (while still in the U.S.) I had the opportunity to purchase the kit for Lisa's Country Cottage for $26.94 (including shipping!)  Not sure if you were aware of last weeks sale that I DIDN'T take advantage of (The Retro Gas station was 75% off for $49.99, but to ship it to me was going to be $114 and then I just know customs here would have flagged it and charged me a minimum of $16, soo I had to forgo it, even though I have a future project that I just know it would be great for...but I have to watch my budget sometimes :( BTW, that wording is changed to ALWAYS if my husband is around)

  ANYWAY, I received the cottage kit, and decided because I was soo into Sophie's that I would just put it aside and then when I went to Chicago for the Tom Bishop show and Minneapolis to Little Enchantments in April, I made a list of everything I thought I would need to complete the cottage, and purchased it.  Of course we all know what happens once we start a project, it can take a different direction, but so far the only off course way I've gotten has been the idea to add a few things I will need to hand build anyway, and to me, that's fun and making it mine!

So last week, on June 18, 2013, I pulled the kit out of the box and started this project.  

I'm beyond excited to tell you about a new tool and process I've discovered, 

but 1st I feel the need to document the initial pictures.

Here is the kit, as it arrived....Super exciting I know!

The 1st thing I did was take everything out and dry fit it.  I LOVE to kit bash, but there really are only a few minor adjustments I plan to do to this...strange!

It's just always been my desire to do a cottage, maybe it's the girl in me, or maybe it's just that desire to run away over a weekend to an adorable little cabin in the woods, but something has been tugging on my heart strings to do this project.

Step 2, I did research on how to prep the MDF board, I have never worked with MDF before, so I didn't want to mess it up.  In fact my only history with MDF was something else I tried to build years ago, and all I could recall was it getting mushy.  After much research all I learned was to seal it with something that's not water based.  Not having immediate access to anything else, I tried my trusty gesso.  The test seemed to go well, so I set out to coat it all...not a quick thing when all you have is 1 bottle of gesso, and no idea where to buy more, so you HAVE to not have any waste...so I brushed it.

Step 3 was I glued the base together and then used my stone template on it.  

Now comes the FUN part!  I have my plan and it includes some wall paper.  My husband just happened to be working on his hobby at this time (which is card tricks) and he recently purchased dry mount tissue and a mono cote iron, which he uses to make Gaff Cards.  When I did Sophie's Coffee Bar, I had used his iron and tissue to adhere the menu to the outsides of the counter and worked it awesome, so I had the great idea to use this process for the wallpaper.  It worked like a charm!!!

I had only purchased 1 sheet of wall paper, so I had to make it fit, so I was forced to piece it together on the wall that will have some things covering it (hence the open spots).  The coloring of my picture isn't good, and obviously you can't touch or see the results up close, but let me tell you, it works great.  The best part, its a completely dry process, so no bubbles, wrinkles, or shrinking! 

I'm going to jump a head of a few things I've done to show you the amazing idea I had last night for the mono cote iron (that's the iron down below)

While trying to decide what to use for my deck boards, I recalled a roll of unfinished wood laminate I had purchased last summer.  My idea originally was to use it to make some baskets, that didn't work great, so it's just been sitting waiting for a purpose.  Well it met it's lucky day.  I pulled it out the other day and was soo excited, it cuts easy and is very thin, so doesn't add a lot of thickness to my deck or weight to the project.  So last night I was sitting down to install it, with not really thinking a head of really HOW I was going to install it, when I had a great idea.  It has a glue like backing on, so I think maybe it's a heat thing, so I rev up the mono cote and iron, and guess what?  It worked soo freak'n awesome!!!  I had such a blast doing the deck. 

Ya know the best part to finding a new toy (tool :) and process you love to do, now I want to find more projects to use it!

Well, I better get back to work....I can't believe I've only been working on this project for 7 days, it's SO far...but you'll have to wait just a bit longer to see pictures :)

Thanks for stopping by today!