perfect beach cottage ~ part five

My perfect beach cottage has a roof!

And it’s not the original kit shingled roof ~ it’s my version of a southern beach cottage tin roof! At last 🙂 !!

In my mind I own ocean-front property, and the quintessential beach cottage. Unfortunately, neither of those things are actually true at the moment. My miniature perfect beach cottage is the alternative for now ~ and a great way to scratch my creative itch in the meantime. It started as a gift from Bluwaterguy and his mom, well over a year ago ~ and my cottage DIY adventure has been a series here on the blog. Links to the previous updates are included at the end of this post for the whole story!

After finally completing all the tiny rafters, brackets and trim, it was time for the roof. I used roof photos from our Seaside trips as inspiration and experimented with different options to get a good look. I finally decided to use some heavy corrugated foil-covered craft paper for the covering and silver tape for edge flashing and seam gutters.

Here’s a look at the work as it was done ~ with random iPhone photos as I was working along ~~~

First I traced and cut pieces of the corrugated foil craft paper into shapes to cover various roof areas. I was careful to align the horizontal lines and grain where the paper was machined, as I cut the various pieces. Next I used narrow strips of silver Duck tape trimmed to cover all the roof edges and seams as flashing.

After all the edges were taped, I put the corrugated paper pieces in place, trimmed all the paper edges for a close fit, and then glued the pieces in their final spots.

Next I applied some narrow strips of the silver tape to wax paper backing, in order to create flexible pieces with enough body to hold a sharp crease. Once these were trimmed and creased, they became flashing for the gutter seams and roof lines.

A thin layer of glue smoothed out with cotton swabs and these were ready to put in place.

Here’s a close shot of the dormer with all the flashing and seaming in place. And it was one VERY SHINY roof!

I thinned some white paint with water and then dry-brushed a light glaze coat over the entire roof to dull down the shine. I wanted that whiteish haze you see on a new tin roof, and got pretty close.

Here’s an “after glazing” shot of the same dormer for comparison. I may still add some streaks of verdigris or other color wash glaze, but I’m going to live with this for a while first.

Roof completion has been a big milestone. There is still a bit of interior decor stuff, an outside shower, a weather vane, and a few other fun things before I call it complete. Oh, and of course a plaque with the cottage name ~ bluwaterescape!

Here are the links if you want to catch up on the previous updates ~~~

• perfect beach cottage ~ part one
• perfect beach cottage ~ part two
• perfect beach cottage ~ part three
• perfect beach cottage ~ part four

Hope you come back to see the final photos and tour. It won’t be too long now!