Chapter 3: Shrek's Room, the Library and the Kitchen

I realize Shrek is not in the Disney pantheon but we have a Shrek doll that fits the scale.  The girls play with him and the princesses, so I felt he needed a space.  Given his personality, I felt his room would be most appropriately placed at a distance from the rest of the private spaces.  But since he's a sensitive guy, I put it next to the library, which, for no really good reason, is next to the kitchen.

These rooms are mostly finished, but there will likely be some updates to include a little more furniture, especially in the kitchen.  But the girls have been playing in them for a long time and I'm working on other rooms so they get their chapter now.  I'll add new pictures for any cool changes.

After using lots of masking tape to connect all of the shoe boxes, I painted the inside of all of them grey, because a) it seem very castle like and b) it was one of the paint colors I already had.

 Then I spent hours and hours (really) looking for the right images to create the feel I wanted for each room. My original plan was to create great backdrops and not a whole lot of furniture (it's still the plan, but I've started to really like making furniture).  I used Snag It, Picasa and Word (pasting images in docs to get the exact printed size I wanted) to get scale, direction and to change image styles--making real things look a little more like cartoons.
Then I started putting things together.  Glue sticks, white glue (stuff I had on hand) and lots of cutting and pasting happened.

Finding the images for the kitchen set of a bit of a making streak.  I remember pouring through my stacks of various papers trying to find the perfect floor when it finally occurred to me that I could just use an image for that, too.  Minutes later it was game on!

I was using white craft glue and clamps to add the wooden slats to the ceiling.  It took a few days.  The back wall, cooking stove, wine cellar, header beam and floors were all printed on photo paper and glued with stick glue to the walls and floors.  The steps and the little table actually came from the packaging from one the girl's princess toys.  With the floors, I ended up painting the seams of seams to get seamless look.  In hindsight, I could have just painted the floor but I was having a block.
The library was a little more difficult than expected.  I wanted something that looked really rustic and cartoonish to fit with the look of the dolls.  I finally found something and after bit of work with Snag It, I was able to create bookcases in the sizes I needed.  I did not want them all to be the same sized or even.  I don't know why, that was just how I envisioned it.

A stained glass window was important to my aesthetic and while the art nouveau styling might seem anachronistic, this is a magical, time and space bending castle, so it's all good.  

The girls wanted to participate in the project.  I had them gather sticks.  I had an idea for Shrek's space.  I'd found a cool picture of a "Hobbit" window, a stone fireplace and some "portraits" of Shrek and his loved ones and my favorite part--Shrek's outhouse.  The sticks would make a perfect addition to the rustic look I was going for with Shrek's room.  I used white glue to affix the stick.  It took a few days to finish because of the drying time.  I'd totally forgotten I had a hot glue gun.  I wouldn't forget that again.

I'm ridonkulously pleased with how the outhouse came out.  I'd cut through just one box to create the door and used the side of the other box to affix the picture of the toilet.  I even printed a reverse image of the door and cut it out so the interior would have the moon cutout in reverse.  The placement of the door frame was precarious.  I had to bend it at the hinge but I think it fit the whole look.