The Valance Wall

Before adding the valance wall, I hung the mosaic of Pope Leo XIII in the papal gardens (far left).  According to the Google Arts Web site, the mosaic was a gift to Theodore Roosevelt from the Pope when William Taft (then governor of the Philippines) was in Rome to negotiate the purchase of church lands in the Philippines by the United States.  Obviously, I don’t have a real mosaic—just a print-out of the mosaic, coated with a little clear nail polish and framed. I also added a lightweight white cotton lawn curtain to the window, using a Pretty Pleater to give it nice folds.  I know these are a bit pricey, but I have never been able to get good curtain folds with the skewer and pin method.  I ended up with a lot of obvious pin holes, as well as uneven, messy folds.  The Pretty Pleaters are easy to use, and I have been very happy with the results.

I then prepped the valance wall with paint and paper, added some framing material painted gold along the bottom, and tested it in the space.

The border will go all the way around the room.  The odd gap between the paper and the border will be filled on the other two walls with picture rail, which is on its way from Manchester Woodworks. The Georgian gold brackets (there are two) came from Sue Cook in the U.K.  She does exquisite plaster work in both 1:12 and 1:24 scale.  The brackets arrived very quickly and were beautifully packaged, so they weren’t damaged in any way.  The brackets were not glued on until the wall was glued in place.

Finally, it was time to glue in the valance wall.  I admit, I was a little reluctant to add this piece, as I was so happy with the way the wall looked without it.  However, for accuracy, it needed to go in, and, as it turns out, I’m happy with it in, too.

In other news, it turns out that the bronze statue that I thought was some kind of raven or bird of prey is not.  I learned from a tweet on Sagamore Hill’s Twitter account (yes, apparently they have one) that it’s actually Frederic Remington’s Paleolithic Man.  Yeah.  Not going to be able to reproduce that in miniature, but I have an idea.  More to come.

I also did my first lighting test.  The wires will mostly be hidden behind/beneath baseboards, bookcases, and rugs.  I have one more lamp, but during testing, its fragile little shade broke.  Aaarggghhh!!!  Fortunately, the rest of the lamp seems to be OK, so I will likely keep it and add my own shade.