Here’s a look at the living room with its new floors, wallpaper, trim, and fish art over the fireplace:
Trying out furniture and decor in the living room. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Trying out furniture and accessories in my living room. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I’ve installed wallpaper in the living room! Here are some photos of it, along with one showing the stencil I created (much like the kind I created when installing floors) for the area by the stairs.
Add a little, take a little away until you get it right. Creating a wallpaper stencil. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Installing wallpaper. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Installing wallpaper. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Installing wallpaper. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
As you may recall, I made this mural for my mini house’s office…
Mid-century mural for the office. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
but have since eliminated teal/blue from my house’s color palette.
Also, I realized after creating it that it would have clashed with whatever wallpaper I ended up choosing for that room.
I liked the design of it so much, however, that I decided to create a small painted canvas with a similar design.
I started with a tiny canvas from the local craft store. These sell for about $1.99 each. I drew the pattern on with pen.
Tiny canvas. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Then I filled in the borders using a fine tip brush and the colors I plan to have throughout the house. I painted the edges of the canvas black.
Tiny painting. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
This is a quick, simple, inexpensive project anyone can do. The secret is to use a very fine tipped brush so you have control over applying paint to such a tiny space. I can’t wait to hang it in the office!
I decided to create a medicine cabinet for my mini bathroom. I fashioned it using a mirror from an old eyeshadow compact and a plastic box that once held pins in a sewing kit. Here are the original components in their natural state:
Plastic container that originally held needles and pins. This will the interior and door of my medicine cabinet. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Side view.
This mirror goes on the front of it. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I was able to snap the mirror off the eye shadow without breaking it, which was great. I glued it to the lid of the box and used regular clear tape as a hinge. I painted it with white paint (unfortunately, plastic hates to be painted). I lined the interior of the cabinet with paper and inserted a little shelf that is actually the same floorboard material I’m using for trim (also plastic-y, also hates to be painted).
Medicine cabinet interior, shown with tape so you can better imagine the scale. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Next I needed some little bathroom accessories, like glass jars of cotton balls and fancy little soaps wrapped in tissue paper. For cotton balls I used the kind of mini pompoms you can buy at almost any craft store. Here’s a look:
Big jar of mini pompoms beside mini jar of mini pompoms. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
To create soap, I used a real bar and cut off little chunks. A couple got wrapped in white tissue paper, and one was set into a tiny ceramic bowl that will make a great soap dish.
Mini bars of soap made from a regular bar of soap. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Little soap.
Are you ready to see the finished product?
Bathroom with handmade medicine cabinet, partially opened. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
As you can see, the paint continues to scrape off, especially when I open and close the cabinet door. I’ll need to touch it up again and then leave it alone. Despite its imperfections, I think it’s pretty cute!
I’ve made some progress on my house (and the creation of accessories for it) in the last couple of days, thanks in large part to the blizzard that has kept me stranded at home. Here are some updates for you.
Every mid century house needs one of these. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Here’s a look at this little blanket, in progress, with some scissors in the photo so you can get a better idea of scale:
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I also installed some tile floors in my bathroom:
Grout coming soon! Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I was going to go with tealish blue stone, but as I shared in a recent post, I changed my mind and decided to cut blue from my house’s interior color palette. These yellow tiles were purchased at the start of the project, and once again seemed like the best choice, so I went for it and installed them.
Here’s are some photos of the “before”:
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
and “during”:
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I’ll grout them soon, and install some wall paper. This horrible little room will be bright and cheery before you know it!
I also made a little rug/throw, using the pot holder loom I’ve mentioned in previous posts (every kid had one of these at some point, and they’re great for making mini weavings!)
Here’s a peek at the finished result:
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Also, some of you may recall me making a thread-wrapped lampshade for my (real, human-scale) home, in my blog Holly Recommends. Well, I decided to make a little thread-wrapped lampshade for my mini house as well. Here it is:
A mini, thread-wrapped lampshade, set on top of a tiny vase makes a cute lamp.
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
As I began choosing decor for my mini home, I had the idea that I wanted to go with mainly mid-century oranges, yellows, and greens, but with fresh metallics thrown in, and some teal (the color of the exterior) here and there, to tie the outside of the house and the interior together. In a human scale house, this combination wouldn’t be very overwhelming. I quickly discovered, however, that in such a small space it wasn’t working to combine so many colors.
I created this mid-century inspired mural several months ago, for one of the walls in the office.
Mid-century mural for the office. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Until yesterday, I never wavered on my devotion to it. However, once I put it in place and began evaluating how it was going to fit in with other wall coverings and materials, I saw that it clashed. The room on its own looked cute, but a dollhouse is literally a house with one whole side of it torn off, and every room needs to work together cohesively.
Editing can be difficult. To better convince myself, I laid out several likely wallpaper choices together to see if I was happy with the overall effect.
Wallpaper choices. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
To me, these work well together.
I added in some of the furniture and accessories that will be going into my mini house.
Wallpaper, furniture, accessories. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I’m still feeling good about it.
Now here’s the part where I add in some of the teal accents, throwing in a few extras not really intended for this space, like the stool, just to see how the colors work together.
There’s starting to be a lot going on here. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
At this point, it starts to look a little off to me. Between the gold accents, wallpaper throughout, strong black and white elements, and other details (Macrame owl, anyone?), I can safely say the teal has to go. I think I’ll paint a new mural for the office, similar to this one, but in shades of taupe, brown, and black.
When we bought our mid-century home, the built-in dresser in one of our closets came with original, giant brass knobs. They were too cool to hide out of sight, so I swapped them with the knobs on an old cabinet from Target that we use as an entertainment center, to dress it up a little. Here’s the look:
Brass mid-century knobs make a cabinet from Target unique. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
It’s still just an old cabinet from Target, but a little more fun than it was with the original, boring knobs.
We ended up with one extra oversized mid-century knob, and since I’ve pointed out in previous posts that I like the look of metallic bowls around the house, like this one:
Thread wrapped balls in a West Elm bowl. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I thought that my mid century knob would make a perfect brass bowl for fruit or other miniature goodies. Take a look:
A mid-century knob becomes a mini bowl of fruit. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Here it is in relation to a human-scale bowl of fruit:
Fruit for humans and mini fruit. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Bottle caps, particularly from perfume and cologne, and other common items like drawer pulls and knobs, often make great materials for your mini home! You’ve seen me turn them into everything from tiny sofas, to vases, to bowls, and more in previous posts. Best of all, secondhand shops have an abundance of items like these for next to nothing. If you’re creative you can do a lot with very little!
If you like the look of sisal rugs and runners like this one, this one, and this one, why not make one for your own mini home? I bought this old place mat at my local St. Vinny’s for $1.00.
Old place mat. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I simply cut out the portion I wanted to use for a runner, like this:
Mini sisal mat. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Then I removed everything but the contrasting weaving, so it looks like this:
Mini sisal runner. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
What remains of the weaving will hold itself together as long I’m careful with it. There’s enough remaining of the place mat that I can make other mats or window coverings. Talk about a quick, simple, inexpensive craft project! It’s going to look great in my mini dining or living room!
Inspired by woven bamboo shades like these and these, I decided to make my own for my mini house. When I saw these inexpensive coasters at Bed Bath and Beyond I knew I’d found my perfect materials.
Inexpensive coasters. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I cut them to fit, and then attached another piece over the top to hide where the cord would be attached and to give them the appropriate look.
Mini blinds in progress! Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
The toothpick will be used like a curtain rod. Next I added a small line of wood glue and held my blinds in place with a chip clip while they dried.
Mini blinds drying. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Here’s the finished product, with a pair of scissors added so you can picture the scale. I will show them in my mini house later, once the house is a little further along.
Mini blinds made from a coaster. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
A look at my mini kitchen and dining area. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I finally got my breakfast bar removed. It turns out it was screwed into place. Once I figured that out I was able to remove it without breaking it, which I was really excited about since I thought it was such a cute feature. I’ll drill new holes for it and it will get moved a little closer to the bench in the dining area, so my kitchen will be a little bigger than it used to be.
The little bit of flooring that remains is coming out one little chip at a time. I almost cut my thumb off the other day when I was trying to watch an old episode of Survivor and work on my house at the same time. All I can say is, I’m glad this is dollhouse flooring and not something I’m dealing with on a larger scale.
I’m not sure what, if anything, I can do about the fact that the floor swoops down a little towards the carport. I didn’t notice it so much at first, but when you’re sitting on the floor, staring at it for an hour, it starts to become really obvious.
Speaking of the carport, I was able to get the wall propped back up to be straight. So that’s great news.
Here’s a reminder of how my house looked when I first got it:
Day 1 of my mini house. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
The exterior is now dark teal. Also, I’ve decided the exterior trim will be a yellowish color to match my West Elm measuring cup planters. Photos of that coming soon!
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