Thursday 27 September 2018

New Project: Bates House

To celebrate Halloween this year, I am putting together a model house kit I was gifted for my birthday - the Bates House from the movie Psycho.  It's a pretty famous house, lol, so I hope I can do it justice!

I'm not sure of the exact scale but it's roughly somewhere between 1:24 and 1:48, so I'm calling it 1:32 scale for the moment.  As it is a model, not a dollhouse, it doen't have access to the inside so to-scale furniture is not an issue :-)

This is what it is supposed to look like when put together in the raw state, although I will probably pre-paint many of my pieces before assembly.





The kit also includes frames for the windows.  Painting and decorating is NOT my forte, so I hope my painting and landscaping can do the house justice!

Saturday 22 September 2018

The Mod Pod Build: Finished

After finishing off The Dressmaker's Cottage for my middle daughter, it was time to go back and finish off The Mod Pod for my youngest daughter!  The inspiration for the Mod Pod was the modern shipping containers converted into compact holiday homes which have appeared near beaches and lakes around the world recently.  You'll have to imagine that this Pod has a second Pod nearby containing the bathroom and laundry, ha ha, because this one only has a bedroom, kitchen and lounge!

I abandoned this build after I did a terrible job on putting together the under-bench stainless steel sink from an ELF kit.  It was first attempt at something like this but I was really dismayed at how it turned out - warped and with glue on the aluminium sheet :(  I didn't trust myself to finish off the kitchen then, so I started on another project.

Coming back to it now, I felt a little more confident - and a little less perfectionist about it, LOL.  The ELF kitchen was straight forward to assemble which was great.  I decided that you can't really see the sink anyway, so I left it as is and chalked it up to experience ;-)

After the kitchen, there wasn't much left to do except make a headboard and dress the bed, and attach the "concrete" ledge for the electric fireplace in the lounge.  Oh, and I ordered some 3D printed door handles from Marion Rissek's Shapeways store, for the sliding doors at the front!  It all came together pretty quickly after that.

It's very hard to take pictures of the front doors as the plastic reflects everything terribly!  I rook the doors off for a better view of the inside, but my pics of the whole Pod are not very good because of the reflections. Oh well!

This is the empty Pod before adding the interior.  The "glass" doors slide on each end towards the middle.










And here it is outside with the doors off:




The bedroom

With the sliding door in place:

















The boho pillow, plant, Buddha, hanging lights, mirror, cross, surfboard and cane basket came from MiniHomeCoAu on Etsy.  The sign is from My Miniature Emporium ( also Etsy).



I made the bed, headboard and bedding.


The kitchen.

The doll (Chad), is a Heidi Ott doll, dressed in clothes and shoes from Lena Kristapchuk on Etsy.  The kitchen kit is ELF Miniatures, the coffee machine is also ELF, the knife block is Miniature Co, the bowl of yoghurt and fruit is Petite Boulangerie Au and the stools are My Miniature Emporium.











The lounge room.


In the lounge room, the chair and electric fire are from ELF Miniatures.  The rug and plants are from MiniHomeCo.  The side table and laptop are from Minimum World.

Here it is with the door on:











This is the kitchen and lounge together, for a better perspective.



With the lights on!



And the kitchen and bedroom together.



There are LOTS of things I would do differently if I were to do it again, but as my very first from-scratch build, it didn't turn out too badly! :-)

Tuesday 28 August 2018

The Dressmaker's Cottage Finished: Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the Dressmaker's Cottage, the downstairs rooms!

On the left is the kitchen, with a blue Aga stove and porcelain sink.



My daughter loves baking, so I had to include an apron (from Mondina Dollhouse) and a baking scene on the table :-) 




The gorgeous cannisters on the shelf are from A Lavender Dilly, and the cutting board is also from Mondina Dollhouse.  The pink KitchenAid and casserole dish were from eBay.  The fabulous filled dish drainer is from PinkabellaMinis.




Looking across to the sewing room from the kitchen.




The sewing table.  The pattern and cute little buttons card are from Mini Fanaberia.






The bolts of fabric and the sewing book are also from Mini Fanaberia.










Mini sewing patterns, also Mini Fanaberia. She had a sale on her mini sewing items and I couldn't resist!










Lastly, the sitting room.  The side table contains another sewing book, a pair of scissors and a packet of licorice allsorts, my daughter's favourite sweets :-D




The Aubusson rug and pillow are from Mondina Dollhouse. So pretty, the photos don't do them justice.




The blinds and curtains are from MiniMaisonMiniatures.




Thanks for having a look around!

Monday 27 August 2018

The Dressmaker's Cottage Finished: Part 1


I don't think any project is ever 100% finished but I am happy to hand over this one at this point to my daughter!

Let's start with the outside!  This was what it looked like once I had finished the exterior (see the rests of the exterior here).  I had done basic landscaping.




I had paved a path and added a fence and some vines and grass.




Once I had stopped fiddling with the interior, I could add the rest of the landscaping without fear of losing it every time I moved the house, lol (although they are all attached with museum wax!).

The daughter loves her bike, so of course the garden had to have one.  The I added flowers and plants, chair, hat and garden tools, amongst other things.  I love the leaves, although I didn't make them, they came in a set with the rake.

The hydrangea and strawberry are from LoveratsMiniMishmash on Etsy, and the parsley pot is from PinkabellaMinis on Etsy.






























Moving onto the interior!  Here it is all in one shot.




Just the downstairs:



And the upstairs:




The upstairs consists of the bedroom and bathroom.




Here is the Dressmaker's bedroom!  The dressmaker herself is a Heidi Ott doll, in a gorgeous dress and shoes from Into the Blue Couture on Etsy.

The hat is from Mondina Dollhouse on Etsy.



The fur rug, skates and basket are from Minimum World.  My daughter has ice skating lessons each week :-)




The bedspread is from Beautifully Handmade on eBay.  The pillow, tray and rug are from Mondina Dollhouse, and the tea cup with lemon slice from A Lavender Dilly (Etsy).




Her dress has lovely details and does up with teeny tiny buttons in the back!








Here we have the bathroom:








I love the tiny little bottles of nail polish!  So sweet!  The nail polish, hair straightener and hair dryer are from Delph Miniatures.




I'll continue with the downstairs rooms in another post :-)