The flats were screwed together from behind, the fronts had to be lined up and totally flush before the screws could go in. Me, Vicky and Jenny made numerous support braces that would attach to the back of the flats for extra support. these were constructed of two lengths of pine screwed together at a right angle again making sure the edges were flush. These could be any length as they weren't size specific for going across the backs of the flats. Once they were all in position and screwed together, the support braces braces could be attached. They were positioned in rows, along the top and middle of the flats.

On the inside of the rooms the the bottom 3ft of the flats was painted with a mahogany wood effect, this was to give an under coat for the paneling. It was also questioned whether or not to apply artex to the surface before we painted it to conceal the grain natural grain of the wood below but we got away without doing so as we decided that the panels were going to cover it up anyway. The upper half was wallpapered a neutral cream colour by Rhyan, Jenny and Vicky. The cream was to be painted green in the study and pink in the drawing room.

Whilst this was taking place the chaise lounges was being constructed by Nicole and Sarah and Fiona was beginning the tiles for her fireplace. The tiles were made of small pieces of mdf and the overall effect once they would be varnished is to give the impression that they are ceramic. Since she had a lot of tiles to do and there wasn’t enough space for us all to begin our specialised bits of furniture we all chipped in to help her out with the production of the tiles.

Nicole and Sarah working on the chaise lounges.

There were many processes for us to help with the production of the tiles. I helped out by sanding some of the tiles down for her, repainting it a white base colour, tracing out the outlines of the characters that went in the middles including cats, birds, flowers, rabbits and a chicken/woman, painting over the traced drawings with a blue paint and then glazing them later on. This would have been a very tedious job for Fiona if she would have had to do it all on her own and it would have taken too long for her to complete anything else.

The tiles being glazed.

Traced picture on white wooden tiles.