Raise the roof!

Deaun, a dollhouse collector and restorer, recently wrote to me about her Gothenburg roof renovation. The results are impressive! Here is what she says:

Thank you for posting the Lundby wallpaper and roof tile pictures; you have helped make restoration much less frustrating! Almost a year ago, I bought a hard-to-date Gothenburg with a 1980s extension. Many of the room papers are faded to a nondescript beige color—your papers worked wonders!  

Today I started printing off sheets of the roof tiles to fix a big problem: as you can see, this is all that's left of the original tile color. The other portion of the roof doesn't even have the pink tinge:

After I printed the tiles, I was concerned with the loss of color using standard paper; photograph paper improved the quality, but still appeared washed out when compared to other Lundby houses I've seen. 

I collect and restore houses, primarily Keystone of Boston, so I have become pretty handy with thinned acrylic washes. I also didn't want to lose the tile lines by simply painting over them. I chose an opaque acrylic and held my breath for the first few strokes.

Here is what the roof looked like halfway through. Please pardon the glare—the color is much more uniform in person after drying:

On the far left/back of the roof, you can see a water spot that the paint did not negate; I used printed shingles as a patch before finishing and then glossed over the patch with opaque, and it blended in well. Without knowing the patch it there, no one would suspect.  

I thinned out enough paint to cover each section and ensure a uniform appearance. When the paint had dried for several hours, I applied a moderate coat of Modge Podge over it to seal and protect. The roof looks amazing.

So, it is possible to repair sun damage to the whole roof without trying to match up patches! I am so glad!

Holy roof tiles!!! Deaun's restoration really does look amazing! I'm so glad she took the time to share the process with us.