I have finally started my project for 2014, Honeydukes, which will be a mixed inspiration from the film and the theme park shop at Universal. This is the exterior I am hoping to recreate as far as possible. I love the tall bay windows and steeply sloping roof.
I eventually came up with a design that would include the features I really liked but in a manageable size. I drew up the plans on graph paper and made a cardboard model in the dimensions I wanted. After a lot of tweaking I found a model company that were able to cut out the MDF pieces to my plans. I asked for 6mm MDF following the very helpful advice of Jo Medvics, which will hopefully cut down on the finished weight of the shop.
I spent a long time hunting for a model company who could cut out this kit and it is not a cheap option but I just don't have to appropriate power tools to enable me to do this at home. For anyone who is a confident user of power tools I would really recommend this route rather than buying a kit, it is great fun working everything out and the end result is exactly what you want.
The first thing I did was sticky tape the ground floor together to see if my measurements worked!! Then I sealed all the pieces with a mix of emulsion paint, PVA and water. The whole of the interior will be off-white so I sorted out my inside and outside and painted all the interior sides before assembling for real. My son's Beano collection came in very handy for weighing down the floor and creating sturdy right angles for the basic ground floor structure.
The structure has a much taller ground floor than usual because of the very deep cornice/wall signage that goes around the shop.
Once I had a play with the shop fittings I decided that the ceiling was too high, so I have trimmed the top floor piece to sit lower and it will rest on the over sized cornice. Like all building projects it is evolving as I am playing with it.
The gap in the back wall is where the Bertie Botts display will be placed......eventually!!
The wall units are the generic type you see everywhere, I bought mine on Ebay, but the counter I designed and had made by the lovely Rob Lucas. It is a copy of the counter from the flim version of Honeydukes sized to match the wall units. As usual Rob has made a lovely piece that fits perfectly.
The spiral staircase will fit through the gap and I want it to simply appear in the upper floor so I am not too worried as to where it is finally placed. I will probably make the gap smaller once I know exactly where I want the staircase to go.
At the moment I am going to concentrate on the lower level, starting with the interior fittings. So tomorrow I am planning to lay the ground floor tiles and start painting the wooden cabinets, cornice, door, panelling and staircase.
Plus, mix the colours........I am dreading this bit as the colours are the heart of this project and I am terrible at making decisions about colour. I am going to prepare lots of wooden strips and mix and match. Wish me luck!!
The photos of Honeydukes are from the websites Orlando Inside and Hughes Reviews.
