Getting stoned - a Three Day Event

This is Lauriston Castle, Edinburgh and the building I'm taking as visual inspiration for Marsh Hall.

I'm using a Bromley Crafts stencil and compound for the finish and this is how it looked once dry but before any paint was applied.

Day 1

The house had already received an undercoat of watered down muddy brown emulsion,

then, using various "stone" colours I dotted and dabbed with sponges and brushes until I got an effect I was happy with.    This is the sort of finish you could fiddle about with for days/weeks and perhaps never be 100% happy with so you have to tell yourself it's fine and put the brushes down otherwise you could go on  forever 

Part way through the process I decided I didn't want the window surrounds or stonework around the Porch to have a different finish/colour from the main house.

I felt quite "arty" holding the inspirational postcard in one hand and dabbing away with the brush in the other, standing back to check the effect then moving in with another splodge!

As the house will be viewed directly from the front there isn't any special finish at the back, just plain emulsion.   The left hand side wont really be seen either given where the house is situated in the hobby room but the right hand side is more on view and also, because there is an additional section of house on this side, I decided to give the building a Clock Tower.    The table the Hall is on at the moment is 3' wide, the house is just short of that and the overall space available is just over the 3' mark therefore a full height tower was out of the question as it would overhang the surface so this little add-on was created to give a bit of interest and to take the 'blank wall' look away.   

The finish you see is untreated emulsion paint.    I've definitely stopped dotting and dabbing at it (for now, anyway) and the next thing to do is spray it with matt varnish to seal it all.    I'm working on the chimneys at the moment then the Porch will be fixed and it's on to the windows.

Day 2

Following on from yesterday's efforts I decided, after seeing the gray gables and quoins in the cold light of day, that they appeared to me to look too much like a framework round the building so I had another go with the dabbing and dry brushing to tone them down.

I'm happier with that, it doesn't look boxed in as much.

The chimneys got some stone/dry brushing treatment and I think I'm finally ready to apply two coats of matt varnish to seal it all.

My final "stoning" task of the day was to add gravel to the top of the porch and paving slabs to the base.    I'm pleased with this.

Day 3

This day saw the Clock Tower being finished

The bell and house name plaque was attached

I saw this little lion heads with rings idea while watching Monarch of the Glen (research) and thought it was a nice touch 

And, for a bit of panache, the Coat of Arms

This is the property as it stands at the moment.   There are still one or two tweaks to be made and I've had a further couple of ideas relating to the front but these can wait.