First thing's first go to the hardware store to buy a piece of MDF. The guys at the store were nice enough to cut it up into all the measurements I needed. (P.S. the image below is actually the left over board after I had cut out all the dimensions of the walls).
The first thing I did was vanish the floor of the cafe, now because I needed it for another project I decided to use Shellac. So I made up a pot full and then using a rag wiped the varnish onto the MDF.
The finish came out really nice just like a real floor.
Next up was painting and decorating the outside walls of the cafe. I decided to give the cafe a brick look so using my wood cutting tools (which I have left over from my woodblock print school days) I was able to chisel out the outline of bricks.
I had already painting the bricks with some awesome terracotta paint and then all I had to do was mix a cement grey color and paint the grooves between the bricks.
Generally I think the effect worked well, however it was harder than I thought to keep the lines straight and to have all the rows of bricks lining up on each wall so that once constructed they all line up. The end result was some walls having odd shaped bricks and half rows but I think it helps to give the wall an old building kind of feel.
To make the cafe feel more aged I used one of my charcoal sticks to weather the bricks and then using some special charcoal sealant spray I set it all in place. The end result looks pretty cool if I do say so myself.
To get the walls looking crisp I did about four coats. With plain coloured walls the figures will be free to decorate the interior of the cafe with brightly coloured art.
Well that's all I am going to show you for now. In the next part I will show you the awesome windows and the colourful art which will adorn the walls of the cafe.
