Triang 62 - with the garden boxes!

 

Triang No. 62 1930-58. Dimensions: 27 inches [68 cm] wide, 11 inches [28 cm] deep and 17 inches [43 cm] high.

I was excited to find this one for sale locally. It is the  version I've long been looking for, with the garden walls and the curved gable beams. It was in a sorry old state when I got it, filthy dirty and very rusty after years in someone's attic. There were signs of historic woodworm on the sides and upper floor and the roof had caved in at one end and there were two missing windows. Inside was dirty but the wallpaper wasn't too bad. I was able to keep quite a lot of it and the ones that couldn't be saved were decorated with repro Triang paper (from DollsHouseMan on Ebay). But, undeterred, we cracked on with it. First job was to give it a good hoover - there was even a mummified wasp in one of the gardens.

 

Once clean, I carefully removed all the windows and got started treating the woodworm (just in case) and filling all the holes - this took a while! Once the filler was dry and sanded I repainted in acrylic paint as close to original as I could get. The flowers on the front door were still good so I worked around them, blending the cream paint in with the original. then I added a few flowers of my own to disguise the slight difference in shade.

Luckily I had some scraps of Triang paper left over from other projects and since the scale of this house is small, I was able to make use of some quite small pieces. Annoyingly, I ran out with just one wall left to go! More paper duly ordered. 

The floor paper wasn't as bad as it looks. I was able to save the brick kitchen floor. I cleaned it, painted in the torn bits (showing green in the picture) in a brick colour and now the furniture is in you' hardly know. the upper floor and the parlour I replaced with Triang parquet flooring that I had in my stash.

Once the interior floors, the roof and the gable beams had been gently waxed to bring out the colour I really felt we were getting somewhere.

The photo above is halfway through restoration. The exterior repainted, and the roof at the mid-way point of reconstruction. The cunningly taped screwdriver was holding things in place while the glue dried. Two windows were made by my trusty assistant, wooden for now, to be replaced should any original Triang windows come to light in the future.

The edges of the floors always bother me and I usually pretty them up with vintage trim or lace. For this house, since I had nothing that seemed to go I used washi tape and I love the effect. Since it is self adhesive and reusable it doesn't damage the surface at all. I find it useful for all sorts of things when making or upcycling furniture for my houses. it is the first time I used it in restoration of the actual house though. I also used it as replacement curtains.

While laborious work continued on cleaning the rust from the windows and repainting and glazing them I couldn't resist putting the furniture in. then I had fun with flowers for the garden.  I will be keeping this house. It is gorgeous and now is in pride of place in my hall.

TAADAAAAA!!