Here’s a look at my nearly finished roof! As you can also see, the chimney will be covered in blue stones to match the exterior paint. Once I add grout it will look better. This part of the project has taken as long as the rest of it combined!
Miniature Schnauzer & Miniature Roof Makeover. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Not long ago I got this dining room set on eBay:
eBay find
To me, it looks like furniture actually looked in the 70’s. There’s none of the teak, Danish modern 1960’s thing going on with it, which is what I’d ideally like for the dining room.
I decided to give it a makeover to see if I could convince myself to love it. After all, I’ve been looking high and low for the “perfect” set for months, and I don’t think I’m going to find it.
Here is some vintage fabric I just picked up at a St. Vinny’s in Canada (My goal: to visit every St. Vinny’s in the world).
Authentic Canadian fabric. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I especially love the bottom pattern. I might have to turn that one into something for my real house.
Here’s the fabric again, beside one of the dining room chairs. I’m determining which pattern works best with the scale. I also set each in the kitchen/dining area to see which colors blended best with the wallpaper and adjacent kitchen tiles.
Choosing fabric for the chair.
The winner is… This one!
What the heck! You mean the original fabric was actually paper???
Before and after.
A whole set of chairs!
And a matching table runner, to top it all off.
Trying it out in my in-progress dining room.
I’ve got to admit… I really like it! The next step is to make a matching cushion for the window seat bench behind it.
I didn’t want to bore you, but when my friend Katie assured me that an update about the progress of my mini house’s roof would “fascinate” her, I couldn’t say no. Here are a few photos of its current state.
Mini house roof update. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Mini house roof update. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Recent updates to the mini house include some great new eBay furniture purchases and steady process on the shingles. All I can say is, this house has a lot of roof.
Here are a few looks at some inexpensive eBay finds I picked up recently.
Trying out some cute eBay chairs with a rug I already had.
I’m having a hard time finding the right dining room table. This eBay find is cute, and it was a great deal, but I’m not sure if it’s going to make the cut.
Trying out furniture and accessories in the partially finished kitchen. The adorable bowls were eBay finds, all the way from Thailand. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Painting dollhouse shingles. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I’m trying out paint colors on shingles. I’ve decided to go with a mix of yellows and browns. You may be tempted to shingle your house and paint it later, since this is much faster than painting shingles individually. I think it’s worth the extra time to paint them individually, varying the color a bit from shingle to shingle, so your finished product looks more realistic.
I will show you where to start applying your shingles soon!
More shingles. The fishscale style are fine for my house — I’ll just keep the round part hidden beneath other layers.
It takes a long time, but this is what television is for. So you can watch it, guilt-free, while accomplishing mindless projects like painting 8 zillion mini shingles.
Have I mentioned how excited I am that the Real Housewives of New York are back? I love them all!!!!! Even Ramona has carved a small place in my heart.
I was at my local craft store the other day, taking a look around since I was running early for an appointment. I came across a glass ornament (I have no idea what it was doing out in April — maybe it was meant to be used for a little spring/Easter scene?) that looked like a perfect mid century modern bubble chair. I decided I’d hang it from the ceiling in the corner of the living room. Ten minutes later, wondering down an aisle I’d never before set foot in, I discovered an assortment of plate and cup holders. One of the cup holders was a perfect match for my ornament/chair, turning it into an actual free-standing bubble chair. Here they are:
Cup holder + glass ornament = perfect 1:12 scale mid century bubble chair! Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
My new bubble chair works great with my other living room furniture.
Bubble chair with a mini newspaper rack and a side table that’s actually a container of lip balm.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my mom picked up some adorable white cupboards for my kitchen. Here they are in place, in my semi-completed kitchen:
White cupboards in my mini kitchen. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
They’re a little taller than the window, which is unfortunate but not a huge deal.
I added the refrigerator into the mix, even though it needs some more coats of paint, but left out the stove since the paint was still really wet. It looks very cute, but not exactly mid century, not exactly modern, and not exactly personality-filled like I want my house to be.
I decided to make some small changes. I purchased some cool little gold buttons:
Tiny gold buttons.
…and some woodgrain decorative tape, and gave the drawers and doors a makeover. Here’s a look at the “during” portion of the makeover:
Giving my cupboards a makeover
The great thing about this makeover is that the tape can easily be removed without taking an paint off, and the original brass knobs can be stuck back in place. However, I decided I liked it and felt it was a better fit with the rest of the decor in the house, so I updated everything. Here’s a look at the “after” version:
Kitchen “after”
As you can see, there are plenty of details still needing to be fixed, from paint on the window that needs to be removed, to trim that still needs to be installed. It will all come together soon though. If this new look seems a little weird to you, just wait. When you see the finished product, it will all make sense!
The refrigerator and stove I plan to use in my house were a little too small and an icky shade of yellowish beige. After several unsuccessful looks at eBay and other online miniature shopping sites, I decided to do what I could to improve the appearance of them.
I didn’t mind so much that they were a little small — to me, it gave the refrigerator a bit of a Smeg feel to it, and the stove reminded me of a cute little 1960’s gas stove I had in an apartment long ago (my favorite apartment ever). But the stove in particular was just too small to work with the cute little set of cupboards my mom picked up for me, which I am firmly committed to using, so I decided to do what I could to make the stove a little bigger.
Stove before. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
After putting a couple of coats of paint on each, I added some feet to the stove (tiles, actually).
Stove with feet added.
The tiles/feet overhang the back of the stove, because I’m going to build up the back of it with some cork coasters. These little feet bring it up to the same height as my countertops.
Two cork coasters, painted white, trimmed to size, and glued to the back of my little stove.
These coasters not only give the stove a top portion for knobs, but they also make it so the stove is the same approximate depth of my counter tops.
I added some tape to round off the border of the stove, some more coats of paint, and some black brads as tiny control knobs.
Almost done!
My stove is almost done! It needs another coat of paint and some of the details worked out, but I’m much happier with the color, size, and general appearance. Photos of it in the kitchen coming soon!
The floors and wallpaper are done in my kitchen and dining room! Now I just need to add some trim. Here’s a peek at the progress:
FlipThis(Mini)House kitchen and dining progress. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
flipthis(mini)house 