How to do a lot of stone?

[Kells]

(sigh) All of my other projects just may take a back seat to this one, but I'll explain why in a second. First, my question. How to do stone has been covered many times on this forum (I know, because I've searched). The egg carton method is my favorite. I've done it successfully on foundations. Or at least successfully IMO; I was happy with them. BUT... how does one do stone siding on a large house?

I got some embossed stone papers. Although pretty, they are not seamless. They look exactly what they are. Oh look, you stuck a bunch of 8" x 11" stone sheets all over your house!

Plastruct stone sheets are a maybe, but it would be a whole lot of work trying to spackle / drywall compound / paperclay the joins so they blend together.

And there is no way on God's green earth I am doing the egg carton method all over a huge house! So, I am at an impasse.

I am not a fan of Magic Brick, to put it mildly, but I've never used their Magic Ston without an E. I could see that working well on a foundation but has anyone ever used it to do an entire house?

So why the sudden shift from other projects I've got going? Well, I have an ulterior motive. My husband could not care less about dollhouses. Say the word "Victorian" to him and his eyes glaze over. I try (unsuccessfully) to keep my dollhouse blathering to a minimum. HOWEVER, I showed this idea to him to get a second opinion and he is thrilled. Seriously, he has never been excited about one of my miniature projects, but he is over the moon about this one. I'm pretty happy about the fact he wants to be part of this. He practically has the jigsaw in hand ready to chop down the roof line (it's too steep) and enlarge all the window and door openings (not one of which fits standard component sizes).

I've had an old Stanley Colonial for at least a decade. It was falling apart when I got it and it's only grown worse. This thing must be 40-years old. I have a baggie inside the house collecting all the window mullions that keep falling out. The siding is atrocious and needs to come off. And the interiors! Good lord, I don't know what the original decorator had in mind but it certainly wasn't Colonial. Think lots of floral Victorian wallpaper and out-of-scale billowy satin curtains.

You've all seen the house, it's built from these plans. Mine is exact, even the same color.

Here are some of my inspiration photos for the exterior and interiors. Mallorca is one of our favorite places. I love the architecture but I am especially excited about the interiors. I'd get to use some contemporary furniture, artwork and acessories I've never had a place for, yet still work in some "antique" French and Spanish pieces. French limestone floors, simple and clean white plaster walls, dark beams. I think it would be lovely!

And finally, here's my Photoshop mock-up. I have most of these components. I'd finally get to use the (USELESS!!) additions off my Rosedawn, but at least those came with these pretty doors. I've done Spanish barrel tile roof so I've got that down (these are taken from a photograph of the roof on our actual house, lol). BUT THERE'S STILL THE ISSUE OF THAT MUCH STONEWORK! I could cry thinking of having to do that much in the egg carton method.

Is anyone still reading??? HELP!

 

[KathieB]

I used joint compound/wallboard mud to do the foundation of my first Orchid. I spread a thin layer of the compound and then used a toothpick to draw individual stones. When it dried, I sanded off the little peaks that had popped up in places and did a little shaping with an emery board, then painted the stones. Onnce it dries, the mud does not add a lot of weight to the project.

Orchid Foundation

[fov]

I have to do a foundation for the house I'm working on and I'm looking for alternatives to egg cartons, just because I'm tired of them and want to try something different. Haven't found a good alternative, so I'll probably do the egg cartons again. But I spent some time looking at life sized stone/pebble tiles. Would something like this work for the exterior of your house?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Merola-Tile-Pebblini-Mini-Sandstone-12-in-x-12-in-Pebble-Stone-Mosaic-Tile-10-63-sq-ft-Case-PGYPMSD/301418723

[havanaholly]

I made the exterior first floor of my Orchid general store "stone":

I primed the exterior with flat white interior latex paint and when it was dry I spread spackle (you can use joint compound) 1/8" or so thick with an expired credit card and drew my  "stones" in the wet spackle with a pointed toothpick and when the spackle was all completely dry I painted the "stones".

[Kells]

31 minutes ago, fov said:

I have to do a foundation for the house I'm working on and I'm looking for alternatives to egg cartons, just because I'm tired of them and want to try something different. Haven't found a good alternative, so I'll probably do the egg cartons again. But I spent some time looking at life sized stone/pebble tiles. Would something like this work for the exterior of your house?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Merola-Tile-Pebblini-Mini-Sandstone-12-in-x-12-in-Pebble-Stone-Mosaic-Tile-10-63-sq-ft-Case-PGYPMSD/301418723

Wow, I like that! I'm going to have a look at Home Depot next time I'm there. I wanted a river rock foundation for my Gambrel and this may work. I fear it might add a lot of weight to this one though. It is already very heavy. Also, I posted the wrong picture. I stuck in stone I'd used turning this into a Buck County, PA sort of Colonial stone house rather than the stone I borrowed from one of the pics above of an actual Mallorcan house. The rock used on those houses is flatter, much less rounded than river rock / pebble stone. My fault for misleading.

Have you checked out those embossed papers I mentioned? If you search on Ebay for 1/24 Embossed Stone, you'll find a variety of styles. They are actually very nice! They have a 3-D effect and aren't just printed flat. The brick papers go together pretty well. I was unhappy with how the stone papers joined. They're 8" x 11". I don't know how long your foundation pieces are, but in 1/24th scale you might not have the issue of seams at all. Another plus of working in half-scale!

2 hours ago, KathieB said:

I used joint compound/wallboard mud to do the foundation of my first Orchid. I spread a thin layer of the compound and then used a toothpick to draw individual stones. When it dried, I sanded off the little peaks that had popped up in places and did a little shaping with an emery board, then painted the stones. Onnce it dries, the mud does not add a lot of weight to the project.

Orchid Foundation

This is the method I plan to use for the limestone flooring throughout the ground floor. Weirdly, I didn't think of it for exterior stone. Thought it would be too flat. Well, yeah, if I smoothed it out it would be, lol. That looks great on your Orchid! I could see that working for me. Especially since, like I said above, I posted the wrong picture, duh. My rock needs to be flatter and more elongated, not a lot of little round ones.

Apologies for belaboring the issue but here's the correct pic. Besides the difference in stone, this one also doesn't have framing at all the corners of the house. Your comment on your pic explains how you went around the corners. This is also something I very much needed to figure out, so thank you!

[Kells]

4 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

I made the exterior first floor of my Orchid general store "stone":

I primed the exterior with flat white interior latex paint and when it was dry I spread spackle (you can use joint compound) 1/8" or so thick with an expired credit card and drew my  "stones" in the wet spackle with a pointed toothpick and when the spackle was all completely dry I painted the "stones".

Thanks, Holly! You replied just as I was posting so I hadn't seen this. Question, do you have a preference for spackle vs. drywall compound for a project such as this? I suppose I could try them both on scrap wood. Did you seal yours afterward? I need to keep mine from looking the least bit shiny, so there's another issue I have to contend with.

[KathieB]

38 minutes ago, Kells said:

I need to keep mine from looking the least bit shiny, so there's another issue I have to contend with.

Final coat, clear matte polyurethane.

[havanaholly]

2 hours ago, Kells said:

Thanks, Holly! You replied just as I was posting so I hadn't seen this. Question, do you have a preference for spackle vs. drywall compound for a project such as this? I suppose I could try them both on scrap wood. Did you seal yours afterward? I need to keep mine from looking the least bit shiny, so there's another issue I have to contend with.

I find that spackle and joint compound work equally well for me.  I don't seal mine, I haven't had any issues with it and use is for most of my exterior treatments.  Using the pointed toothpick raises the edges along the line, so I use the side of the toothpick to roll the excess over the surface of the individual "stone" to give it stony texture and not look so flat.

[shannonc60]

I’d recommend Creative Paperclay done in the Rik Pierce style. I recently did an interior wall of my French house using it, then applied some texture paste I think it was over the top for mortar. Link here. Using paperclay gives a more rounded stone look, rather than flat stones.

[KatFord]

You're inspiration photo is beautiful! I can't wait to see this project. I would also suggest paper clay for the exterior. I think it would be the best way to cover such a huge space. 

 Kim

[Shy Spirit]

Just throwing in my vote - Paperclay all the way!  Roll it out like pie dough, use glue to attach to the wall.  Paperclay is very forgiving to work with ... it may crack some as it dries, but you can fill in cracks so easily with dampened "worms" of paperclay.  It does shrink slightly as it dries, but not much.  Seal it when dry.  

I have used egg cartons and they can be very effective, but paperclay is much quicker and easier (IMHO).  Of course, you can't beat the price of egg cartons!