What is He Thinking?!!

Morning folks!

For the most part, I have caught you all up on the "past" progress on the Steampunk Chateau. I will add more posts here and there as I begin new decorative or building efforts...some of those will dip into past decisions and choices. But for the next two or three posts, I'll give you some ideas of my future plans for the house.

I realized that in my earlier posts I hadn't really given anyone a good sense of where I was going with this thing...other than the project would have a Steampunk theme.

A full view of the second floor hallway insert

Today's post is going to be about one somewhat different decision I made, and some of the reasoning behind that choice. I am sure one or two of you have wondered...why did he do THAT?!!  That choice was to add an insert for the hallway, rather than punch through doors in each wall, and rather than placing the hallway at the rear, where it opens up the view more fully for anyone who wants to see the details.

I had a number of reasons for making this choice...and it will be interesting to see if that choice pays off.  I am actually quite excited about the prospects.

Closeup of the hallway during initial planning stages - lots of blue tape!

From a practicality stand point, this decision was fueled by the fact that I needed an easy way to connect the modules of the third floor, without cutting up the available space.

My choice on the 2nd floor center module, which is to be a main hallway, was to use much of that floor space to create a dramatic feature.  This left me with no real practical way to connect the rooms without making the floor space in that module essentially unusable for any furnishings..which I did not want to do.

Center module with mostly open space to create drama - but it limits space available!

So in order to cope with that choice, I needed an option that allowed access but at the same time left me with space to decorate and use the center module.

Probably the more important thing to me as I reviewed potential options for access from module to module was the design element. One of the things that makes any room interesting, life size or miniature, is the use of hidden space.  

The automatic drama of hidden space

I am going to be doing this throughout the house...you have already seen that my Grand Staircase does not go all the way to the back, but rather crosses the room and obscures part of the Entry.

Here again is a similar choice.  When the entire house is complete, I wanted there to be several levels of interest....the initial view...a secondary, somewhat more detailed view, and then those closeup and peekaboo views...that is, to me, what makes a miniature house truly interesting.

At the same time, I did not want to entirely close off the views to these rooms so that the only views were through windows.  That is too MUCH hidden space!

So my choice was to create this pillared hallway insert to span the entire front of the second floor space.  I hope in the end that it will be effective. 

A lovely paper door that I may use as the inspiration for my doors in the hallway

As you can see hints of in the photos, each of the openings WILL have a door (except maybe the hallway above the Entry..haven't finalized that in my thoughts!), and I hope that by treating those doors in a manner that allows a somewhat hidden view into each room that the end effect will be magical.

An interesting view through the side window during construction

The hallway insert you have been seeing so far is another of those "mockup" installations...The final version will be of wood, because it must be taken out and inserted in order to take apart and move the final house, and will need to be of extremely sturdy construction as a result. 

I'd be interested in feedback on this one!  It is an unusual choice... and one I am in a "wait and see" mode to determine how "good" that choice was!

Thanks for visiting!! 

Until next time! 

Doug S