Heimkino and Malted Mint Update

A image-rich but rather text-poor blog entry. I said I would provide some updates on the restoration of the Gentleman's Dressing Room and Aunt Nellie's Bedroom, and pictures are the best way of doing this.

In the Gentleman's Dressing Room, red velvet curtains and a pelmet have been installed over the home cinema screen in best picture palace tradition.  This was a last minute idea, so the pictures and mirrors that were planned for either side of the screen no longer had a place to go.

The two displaced mirrors have red velvet surrounds so was there any way they could still be included in this red velvet heavy room? As a pair on the only remaining available wall (the interior wall with the door), they were far too close together, but separating them with a stag's head and a smaller picture with a gold frame allowed them to achieve a symmetric balance by way of a central axis.

The stag, unimaginatively called "Big Fella", was picked up from a Yorkshire auction house and is a feature piece which makes the best of the high ceiling.

There is still some final placing of units to be done, but the chairs and sofas are now in fairly stable resting positions.

The grand opening of the home cinema is this Friday 1st April 2022, and my friend Andrew will be bringing along his newly acquired vintage 16mm projector with some films that were in the same auction lot. We may also do a rather more conventional MP4!

In fact, some friends turned up spontaneously last Saturday, so we had a dry run of the home cinema. We hastily wired up the surround sound system, and with wires trailing everywhere and the front right speaker still only firing on one cylinder, we watched the 1961 Disney "Greyfriars' Bobby". It is less well-known nowadays, but deserves a place in the canon of Scottish film classics featuring as it does the cream of Scottish acting talent of the time.

Gentleman's Dressing Room in near final configuration

home cinema screen replete with red velvet curtains and pelmet

Big Fella finally mounted on the wall

In Aunt Nellie's Bedroom, the first coat of "Malted Mint" has been completed, but it will need another to achieve full solidarity. I asked some visitors what they would call the colour, and they said "Mint" so I was greatly impressed. Gregor was less keen on the colour initially, but he says it has grown on him. Trying to stand well back metaphorically whist viewing the colour, I realised it was the perfect blend of the hill and sky colours outside the window.

first coat of Malted Mint: looking towards windows

first coat of Malted Mint: looking towards door