It's October 25th, 2009 and here's my new project.

It's going to be a summer retreat for a couple of hard workers, living in a big city all year long, desperately needing such a place somewhere near a beach. It will probably be a very modern design, something I have been wanting to do for some time now.

The kit comes from www.dollshouse.com, the Dollshouse Emporium in the UK and the quality is very very good and their service is too.

So, let's get to work and please check again in a few weeks to see the work in progress ..... thanks.

When it comes to big surfaces to paint, I'm always using this system instead of a simple paintbrush. The result is much smoother and it's also quicker. I used a warm color, since my little summer retreat is of course near a beach and it made me think of Tuscany of Provence.

The little retreat is devided in 2 rooms, a small one, which I used as a kitchen and a bigger one, which will be living and dining room. Here I'm cutting my wood for the wooden flooring. I'm using balsa wood, max. 2 mm thick, paint it with special wood dye and then cut the pieces in different lenghts, to give the floor a more authentic look.

In my opinion, it's wiser to put on your wallpaper first before installing the floor. In this picture, you can see the flooring being put in place.

I often use real ceramic tiles, but I had this tile sheet leftover from another project and these sheets are a little gloss, which makes them look really good in the end. And black/white tiles were just perfect for my little kitchen.

Now it's time to start painting the door and window. I love a red door, don't really know why, but it always give a house some kind of a personal little touch, I think

It's a really good thing the house has a view to the Beach, because this wonderful big window allows you to see anything what might happen out there, lol.

This is a kitchen I got some time ago, a finished kit, which just need to be filled. Unfortunately, it did not fit into my new little kitchen here, so I had to build one myself.

So here it is : my very first try to build a kitchen myself. Not so bad, don't you think. Not perfect either, I know, but it was a first try and ......... this one fits !! And it reminds me of my first kitchen in my appartement when I moved out from my parent's place, it also had a red sink and a red stove.

Because there was not enough room in the kitchen for a table and chairs, I decided to make a small counter (out of scratch of course), allowing to have a little bit more space to prepare the food.

Well, here is my living/dining room. As you can see, it's a more modern design and I had a lot of ideas to fill the room, as you'll see in the next pics.

A modern dining table with a glass top and fancy metal chairs.

I made these place sets out of gift wrapping paper, leftover from X-Mas.

I made this wall shelf out of scratch, added a mirror back and glass (plexiglass, which is easier to work with and less dangerous to cut) and it ended as a sort of hanging shelf which I glued to the wall. And only then, the idea came up to make a bar, so I added glasses and bottles etc.

In a recent issue of one of my dollhouse magazines, I found this pattern for making a chair and it was such an easy project that I decided to make 2 of those nice little chairs.

My hubby and I are big movie fans and therefore, this idea here came up : instead of hanging up traditional paintings, which did not go so well anyway with my modern wallpaper, I thought of black/white pictures of "old" movie stars. And to give the whole thing a more personal/modern touch, I glued the pics to little pieces of mirror.

A modern telephone, a little vase, a digital camera, all these little things that give the authentic look to a room.

A modern room setting like this one need a flat screen TV. I made the table out of scratch.

To be able to really enjoy having a view towards the beach and the sea, there is a wonderful roof terrace on top of my little appartement. It is divided in 2 parts. On the right side, there is a B-B-Q (I made a few FIMO hamburgers and hot dogs), with a little table and 4 chairs. On the left side, we have chairs and tables to sit and enjoy the vacation, with a little outdoor fireplace when it gets a little chilly at night.

We're getting ready for our little outdoor B-B-Q dinner, as you can see.

What would a nice BBQ be without Burgers and Hot Dogs ...

Here we are, End of December 2009 ........... at the end of my little "Summer Retreat" Project. It freezing outside, the snow is falling ..... so I think it is about time that my little family can take a holiday at the beach.

It was really fun making this roombox. I loved it.