The Bungalow is Finally Finished

I have finally finished the Bungalow, a little less than a year after I started it. Im quite glad it is done, it was a big job. I am pleased with the modifications I made to the original Real Good Toys kit, they have made it more "Bungalow-ey". Below is the original Real Good Toys kit.

Modifications included: 

• Creating new external window architraves, and adding new window panes;
• Entirely altering the front door;
• Altering porch posts to two columns, rather than one fat column;
• Removing porch railings and chimneys;
• Removing interior staircase (because it was completely out of scale). 

I stained the shingles a dark wood colour, as it is the most common colour I have seen in California Bungalows. 

It took an inordinate amount of time to stick down all the trims and eve brackets. But they give a very finished and nice effect. 

I have listed it on eBay, and hopefully someone (who has more space than I do) can furnish it nicely with period Arts & Crafts style furnishings! I will be very sad to see it go.

You can view the listing here. 

Finishing the Bungalow

It has been some time since I did any work on the Bungalow. This is because I moved house and had no room for it so it had to go and live at my parents workshop for a while. I had some time recently to try and finish it. I have to sell it when I am done however, because it is just too big for my tiny apartment. 

I started the labour intensive job of putting the eve brackets together and painting them. 

Next the front dormer style gable end went on. Inside this gable end I had to create a false ceiling.

Because the rooms inside were thin and deep, I decided to block them off to get rid of the roof slant and give them more normal proportions. 

Next I cut the wallpaper to shape for the upstairs rooms. I chose a selection of the Arts and Crafts style Brodnax prints. 

This time I chose to use wallpaper paste, and so far it has been very good. 

 For the bathroom I discovered that craft sticky squares make perfect tiles.

The house is slowly coming together. Hopefully I can finish it before the week is out!

Next is the shingling... the most time consuming task of all. I have chosen to stain the singles once they are glued, as I found this to be a much faster way of doing it (contrary to the suggestion in the Real Good Toys instruction book to stain them individually). 

This is the finished central upstairs room. It is looking nice. 

Miniature News from Around the Web

Over the past couple of months I have come across several interesting artists and craftspeople creating miniatures. These projects have been doing the rounds on the web, but it is nice to see them in context, rather than in isolation on someones Pinterest board.

First is the UK based children's charity KIDS, who late last year organised a very original fund raising idea. They invited prominent architects to create dollhouses of their own design. The resulting houses were auctioned to raise money and awareness for children with a disability. Some big names in architecture took part, including Coffey Architects, FAT Architecture and Zaha Hadid Architects. Below are a small sample. 

This dollhouse by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris was one of the more "traditional houses", in that it resembled what one might normally consider to be a dollhouse. 

The house by Lifeschutz Davidson Sandilands (above) was in 1:6 (barbie scale).  

Some were a little bit more meta than others, such as this one by Guy Holloway Architects (above).

 Others played with colour and natural wood grains, such as this house by Coffey Architects (above).

In other dollhouse news, US artists Joe Fig has created a series of room boxes in 1:12 scale depicting a series of influential 20th century artists at work in the studios. These well executed miniatures are very detailed and would have required a great deal of research. Here are a selection of some of these beautiful rooms.

Finally, some pictures which you may have seen around the web or on Pinterest. These are the work of US photographic artist Thomas Doyle, whose fascination with snow globes eventually lead to these marvellous creations in 1:144 scale (or there about).  

The Mysterious Charlotte Hunt: Solved!

A few months ago I wrote a post about a miniaturist named Charlotte Hunt. I had seen many miniature interiors by her, but found no actual information. She created mainly Scandinavian interiors and painted furniture. Then a little while ago I ordered a book called Secrets of the Dollhouse Makers by Jean Nisbet.

The book contains an article about her and her work. I recommend the book, it is a great resource if you are interested in prominent miniature artists.

A Tiny Career Change

I have not posted in a while because I have been VERY busy. As you know, I love building little houses. However, recently my day job as a corporate environmental lawyer just has not been cutting it or making me happy. Because of this, two months ago I quit my job and enrolled to study architecture at university. Im really poor now, but Im happy! 

Below are some pictures of our first major project. The purpose of the assignment was to teach us about structural framing. It was a bit of a challenge to build a whole house from technical plans (as opposed to dollhouses where walls are solid) but it was fun. 

These are some projects from our first year design subject, so much balsa wood!

Look forward to some more miniatures which will (hopefully) now be better informed and more interesting thanks to all the new skills I will be picking up!

Another 1:144 Scale Project - Little Toy Dollhouse

I haven't made many posts in the past few months, so here is an update of a little project I have had going. I have been doing more 1:144 scale houses lately mainly because my apartment is so small and they are manageable projects!

I wanted to make this little house look more like a toy dollhouse one would have, rather than an authentic house in miniature.

 I made the house from stiff card and coloured paper.

It looks right at home in my dollhouse bedroom. This is an adult's room though, so I'm sure it would look even better in a nursery. 

    

I got the small pieces of furniture from SDK Minitaures. They were more than a bit fiddly to put together!

Palladian Cat Villa: Update

Since my last post about a project in which I made a miniature Palladian villa for my new kitten, little Frankie Mayonnaise has finally arrived. By popular demand from several of my lovely followers, here is an update.

I'm pleased to say Frankie Mayonnaise loves her castle. 

She is also quite fond of dollhouses (although that is mainly because she likes to destroy them). 

If you use Instagram, follow her too! @frankie_mayonnaise