With the floor and walls of the main room “timbered,” I decided to try aging the wood while I could still easily get my hands inside. I have some Minwax slate gray stain (water based) that I originally tried on the raw wood, but it was too light. The ebony stain was proving to be too dark, so I added a coat of slate gray with a sponge brush.

The result is easier to appreciate when comparing the room to the second story floorboards, which just have the ebony stain on them.

Next I got to work on the ceiling. Again, I wanted to do this while the ceiling was still unattached and accessible.

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So far, work on the Little House cabin has involved a lot of staining, then waiting for the stain to dry. On Sunday I started by staining the remaining house pieces. This might not have been necessary since I’m planning to cover everything with shingles or siding outside and skinny stick “logs” inside, but I didn’t want any raw wood to show through.

While the stain dried (outdoors, because of the fumes), I worked on “dirtying up” the chimney grout. I’ve never really done this before so I just made it up as I went along. I started by watering down some gray paint. I then spread this over the grout and stones.

Every so often, I’d wipe the wash off with a damp sponge brush to prevent it from drying on the stones. I went over the whole thing a couple of times, making sure the stones themselves didn’t end up painted.

The first wash was a bit too light, so I mixed in some darker gray paint and repeated the whole process. Here’s what I ended up with. Not sure it’s realistic, but it’ll do. After taking the photo below, I painted the whole chimney with matte varnish to protect it.

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