My First Dollhouse

My mom was cleaning out her attic and dug up some old childhood toys she thought my kids would enjoy. My kids were really excited to have their own dollhouse, as they are not allowed to touch some of my other houses. I had to laugh at the dinner table - lobster? Really? Definitely not the typical meal for us. The Fisher Price A Frame House brought back some memories; it's been great having my kids love it as much as I did. My oldest thinks it is the greatest house because it only has one bedroom so everyone can sleep together. After picking him up from school today, he said "Mom, we need to get a bunk bed before we move to a one bedroom." I'm not sure why he thinks we'd move to a smaller place, but kids really do say the darndest things.

Plan B. Use plans.

Okay, my construction skills are not quite there yet, so to avoid a Giant disaster, I'm going to modify the Fascination Station from HBS/miniatures.com for the I'm a Giant challenge. I bought the kit at the beginning of the year for the Creatin' Contest, but after test fitting it, it has been taking up space in the garage ever since. Now I'm going to try to crank it out to meet both December deadlines.
The dollhouse kit has an angled roof that didn't fit my design for the house, so off with the roof. My handy husband set up a jig to cut off the pitch in the roof for a nice flat version I can add a second story to. I'm getting excited now that we have walls and a roof. The clock is ticking but I'm hoping it will come together quickly. We shall see.

One warning when dry fitting with tape... don't use plain masking tape. The blue tape is fine, but everywhere I used regular masking tape, it pulled off part of the MDF and left rough spots that don't sand well and look pretty bad especially after paint. Sigh. Live and learn. I'm just excited to finally be building!

Round 2. Challenge Continues

After realizing the last design would have been too big for me to drive to the showcase in LA in January, I came up with a new design with dimensions that would fit.

In this version, I scrapped the second floor and downsized all of the furniture for the most compact floor plan I could come up without being a studio. Looks great on paper. But that's about as far as I got. My aspirations are higher than my skills. This one is going to be strike 2, until I can come up with tools and skills required to actually build it.

Benched.

Round 1. Giant disaster.

Did you ever have the greatest costume idea, but when you look in the mirror its just duct tape and a cardboard sword? My I'M A GIANT dollhouse challenge is shaping up to be the same disaster.

I've been really pondering what to do for the challenge. I've been going back and forth with design ideas, but nothing has come together. Before Halloween I decided to build a one bedroom two story case study inspired house. After giving up on making a scale version of one of the classics, I unpacked my miniatures (we moved recently) to layout a house to build around some of my favorite pieces. Reminded me of that Kholer commercial, "Design a house around this."

I cut cardboard to size to figure out the dimensions of the wood I needed to buy. I worked out two staircase designs to find the best space saver. I found a bathroom layout that would work with this beach side house. After spending two days going over the numbers and needed building materials, my husband asked, "is that going to fit in your car?"

Strike 1. If it doesn't fit in my car, I can't drive it to the showcase in LA. Back to the drawing board.

(latest challenge posts here »)

Marquette Model by Cali Rezo

(Okay, I've mentioned I am behind in posts, but I've been meaning to post this for, jeez yes, a year now. Ugh, one of these days I'll get on top of things.)

Last November, Cali from France sent me links to an incredible project she's working on. A modern miniature model of her real house. First, I love her home decor in real life, but her attention to detail in recreating miniature versions is amazing. Check out the comparisons between the model and the real life pictures. Pretty impressive!

The miniature versions of her artwork and accessories is just inspiring. I literally wished I lived in her house. Thanks for sharing Cali and good luck on the second floor, I can't wait to see the rest of your house!

Check out her blog to see how the first floor was constructed and more miniature compared to real life photos. The photos are amazing. Additionally, you can check out the progress on the second floor:
www.calirezo.com/site/index.php?page=maquette

(all images from www.calirezo.com)

PRD Miniatures - Goodies for you Goodies for me.

For their first time at the Good Sam Showcase of Miniatures, Paris and Lisa Renfroe didn't just have a display, they had a showroom! The large picture (from Paris' flickr page) shows the display in its entirety. Shoving my camera around to take pictures felt like I was in a real modern showroom. You didn't even have to look them up on the map of vendors, you could see it from across the room and it drew you in.
Paris had a ton of new items, modern picture frames, stools, accessories, knitted poufs, driftwood sculptures... some are up on his website under Decorative Accents, I'm sure more will be up soon.


Bathrooms have never looked so good. Paris' new Urban vanity with Baroque flair, Soho vanity unit, and French styled baroque vanity unit, are all to die for. I'm getting one of these for my Antrim as I love the idea of a black bathroom. The new rounded hatbox toilets are really cool, too. Paris' bathroom items are on PRD Miniatures under Bath Units.


The Skylofts were there in all of their glory. I love how they are modular, stackable, and you can customize them any way you want. Paris' beds and Lisa's Mimobe bedding are so chic and gorgeous, it's an easy way to add luxury to any mini bedroom. Being artist's in 1:1 scale, translates wonderfully into their 1:12 scale pieces; their artwork looks fantastic in any room.

The M112 Pods were in the house too. I think these are the coolest rooms to play around in and showcase your collection. The new knitted poufs make the cutest side table or cool modern seating. I love how Paris cut up the carpet tiles to make the ultra modern rugs.



Paris and Lisa are so cutting edge modern it hurts. Everytime I get a new catalog or modern magazine, as I'm flipping through it, I'm saying "hey Paris already did that". I LOVE the new flat screen TV, and rugs, and Paris' signature M.U.T.T. furniture line is my favorite. I adore this magazine rack, too cool.

I put in a lot of miles driving down to see them every day, but it's not often you get to be a groupie for rock stars of the modern miniatures world. Paris and Lisa are so passionate and enthusiastic, I can't wait to see what PRD Miniatures comes up with next.

More PRD Miniatures can be found here on flickr, shutterfly and for sale at PRDMiniatures.com .

Peter Tucker @ Good Sam

From Vancouver British Columbia, Peter Tucker and his wife Jeremie were back again this year. My photos of his lights weren't so hot, so I'm using these from his site. I loved his new chandeliers. Peter had made some of the table lamps with LEDs powered by watch batteries, so no need to deal with electrical.

I'm a sucker for "1-of-a-kind" so I bought this side/coffee table. I just used it in a room and will be posting soon (hopefully). It was a pleasure seeing Peter and Jeremie again. They are so nice and fun to talk with.

Peter's blog is a fun read with notes and tips building miniatures roomboxes.blogspot.com or you can find all of his work on his website here:
www.roomboxes.com


I really love his art deco inspired pieces and I adore his Nelson style modern bench. I'm looking forward to seeing Peter and Jeremie at the next show.

(top images from Peter Tucker, www.roomboxes.com)

Good Sam Show 2011

I am totally behind in posts, My Realitty already posted about the show (she was able to make the rounds with Doris, minimodernistas, who will hopefully be in the show next year), and Modern MC's description is a must read. I had a great time with her and mini2b at the show on Saturday, and then came back on Sunday to be groupies with My Realitty. Here are some of my highlights. Erik Goddard had these really cool room boxes: converted urban loft, art gallery, and modern loft. I love the views he creates out the windows, too. My Realitty and I got a chance to hang out with him after the show, super nice guy, it was a pleasure to meet him. Check out his website for more photos and info: www.erikgoddard.com



William Maranville from Livermore, CA was back this year with more incredible handcrafted turnings and carvings from wood and stone. Bill shares a booth with his wife Barbara Stanton who does really cool miniature oil paintings. I didn't take enough pictures but you can see her work is on her website barbarastanton.com. Bill's contact info is (925) 373-9638 email microangelo (at) earthlink.net. Bill and Barbara are so nice, they're always fun to talk to.


I think it's kind of funny that I was drawn to many of the vendors I've purchased from before. Gilbert Mena was there this year, I love his wood turnings and little boxes. He doesn't have a website, but he's out of Valencia, CA. T: 661-259-5350 E: gilmena (at) webtv.net

I bought one of the zebra vases from Troy Schmidt from Santa Barbara, CA, Red Dragon Pottery. My pictures didn't come out so these are from his website reddragonpottery.com/mini.htm. Troy makes gorgeous wheel-thrown porcelain on a full sized potter's wheel.


I got to meet Paul and Susan Osze this year. Again, more really nice people, and another couple that shares the passion for minis. They made the cool garage and condo last year. I took too long talking and missed taking pictures before they packed up, but they had a cool room box with a Kaleidoscope House Jasper Morrison couch, and the "World of Tomorrow" room box with cool audio and video elements. It was impressive to say the least. The photo is from their website, but you have to check out their video of the room. Their website for more of their work is boingdragon.com/miniatures/

My Realitty and I stuck around with our backstage passes for autographs. :P We had a great time hanging out and rubbing elbows. She had brought her new Brinca Dada Dylan House and she let me borrow it! I'll post photos soon. Peter Tucker and PRD Miniatures pictures coming next.