Ground floor decoration, false stair treatment, starting front door

 This week I was installing the ground floor decoration which I purchased so many months ago, and for which I had previously done preparatory painting and staining. The ground floor decoration is basically complete now apart from touching up paint, installing a hearth, and installing the windows and front door.

In the dining room, I installed the cornice and skirting, and then the border and dado wallpapers, then the door moulding. I used a thin door moulding as the door is not full width, part of the illusion of greater depth than is actually available in this cut-down house.

False stair treatment

In the living room, I had to decide how to create the illusion that the staircase continues through the ceiling to the first floor (where the faux hallway is).  While I had built the fireplace wall to neatly finish at the ceiling, it needed more to help the illusion look real.  I decided to stop the cornicing short, about where the staircase opening would normally start, and then frame in a simple box which hides the top of the staircase.  I also later installed a bit of angled wallpaper border to suggest that it will follow the staircase angle to the upstairs.

In the living room, I wallpapered the room - managing a neater result on the bay window opening this time (compared to the bedroom) by wrapping a separate strip of wallpaper around the curved portion of the arch to start, then cutting the archway opening wallpaper into an arch shape across the top and the area below the arch so that it wraps around the upright sides and into the bay. I pasted wallpaper between the windows and horizontal strips across the bottom and top of the bay.  Once the window frames are installed, I don't think the seams will show.

I glued in the fireplace wall, prioritising a clean fit against the back wall because any gaps at the base were then hidden with trim.  Then I installed the cornicing, butting it against the fireplace wall on the left, but stopping short on the right as mentioned above.  Then the wallpaper border went on, including along the top of the bay window interior.

Finally I glued on the handrail of the staircase, the trim around the door, and installed the ceiling beams that hide the top of the stairwell.

The illusion when seen face onwards

Looking up at an angle, you can spot the fake

You can see in this picture how shallow the faux staircase really is

Front door

One of the final pieces I will use from the kit sheets is the front door.  There are two pieces: a front trim piece with four cut outs - two for windows and two to simulate panelling - which faces outwards. Mine fits into my door opening, so will appear recessed compared to the exterior door trim.  The other piece is the main door which on mine is a little bigger than the door opening so it will protrude into the interior of the living room.  The interior side will be seen inside, so I stained it.  The exterior side will only show through the openings in the front trim as rear panelling.  I don't want to use the rough kit trim internally so I have stained some wood trim which may actually be cornicing but I think will be ok for a feature door frame.