Something old, something new

Furniture and decor I've purchased

Despite the horrendous demoing process (No pictures necessary. Let me just say, I’ll be lucky if my house stays intact as I tear out these superglued-in floors), I am maintaining a positive attitude.

I recently acquired this vintage miniature dresser that features hand-painted rosemaling. It is solid wood and has great details, like mid-century legs and real drawers. It was just $6.00. What a find! It’s going to be a wonderful addition to the master bedroom. Rosemaling might be classic Norwegian, but to me it screams 1972.

Tiny dresser with rosemaling. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Also, for the office, I got a miniature Mr. Arty! It’s meant to be a key chain, but the key chain portion was easily removed. Once that happened, Arty took off running like a gingerbread man escaping from a cookie sheet. He tried to get out the window, but the glass blocked him in.

Any art majors out there recall seeing this little wooden guy (and his counterpart, Handy) reclining in classrooms across America, supposedly helping us to capture the nuances of the human form. Now my mini dollhouse will have its own little Arty to recline on the office desk or bookshelf. I think once he gets used to it, he’ll realize it’s a pretty nice place.

Arty (key ring version), the little wooden guy who help you draw. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Arty, escaped from his box, having ditched his key ring, relaxing on the blinds. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Inspiration and tiny decor items lurk everywhere

Everyday objects repurposed

When I’m in the creative zone it’s kind of hard to shut it off. At any given time, I have ten (or twenty, or thirty) different projects swimming in my head. From books I’m writing to houses online I’m dreaming of buying to my imaginings of going on Project Runway (even though my sewing talent level is more on par with Threads), I’m always dreaming about my next creative endeavor. Lately my mini dollhouse is on my mind quite a bit and I find inspiration everywhere. Example: What do you see here?

A.) Some bodywash on a bookshelf

B.) Something out of place. Is that still wet? It might leave a mark. Maybe you should have set it on a coaster or something.

C.) A disposable bottle and a cap that looks like a tiny, modern bowl.

If you said A, you are a normal person. If you said B, you might be a little bit neurotic. If you said C, let’s take a closer look!

Ooh! Look at the lovely curving lines of this bottle cap. And the rich, gold color. If I flipped it over and ripped off the top I’m sure it would look something like this…

This is going to make a great little holder of mini fruit, mini balls of yarn, mini magazines, mini plants, and other items. What did I tell you? Tiny decor truly can be found anywhere if you simply look a little closer.

Mini modern bed and pom pom accented bedding

Handmade decor for my mini house

Inspired by modern miniature beds like this, I have created a bed for my miniature master bedroom. The frame is made of part of a picture frame and some thumb tacks. The mattress is made of a piece of Styrofoam covered in quilt batting. It is a work in progress. I plan to give it another coat of paint and maybe add a headboard.

The sheets, comforter, and pillows are made from a fabric remnant, a curtain, and some mini pom pom balls. Since the master bedroom is not that big, this bed will be the focal point of the room. You may recognize the LOVE pom pom pillow from a project I started several weeks ago.

Mini bed with pompom details. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Make your own modern white chandelier

Handmade decor for my mini house

I came across the awesome website How About Orange yesterday. It’s filled with all kinds of 3-D papercrafts, complete with clear instructions, photos, and templates. By shrinking down the smallest template and printing it at 75% of its normal size, I was able to create this mini (non-functional) paper chandelier, inspired by modern chandeliers like this one, this one, and this one.

Tiny, easy to make light. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

This will go in the dining area, hanging over the table.

Thanks to the clear instructions on How About Orange’s website, I was able to make two of these in a short amount of time (the first just to see how it went, and to discover that it was a little too large; the second one being the one you see here that will actually go in my dollhouse). No glue or tape is required to form the ball. You could probably tweak the template to make the petals spiky instead of round, or use something like sheets of thin plastic or felt to create decorations or ornaments (the original intention from How About Orange’s blog).

Wooden handles turned modern love seat (and don’t forget the tiny newspaper)

Everyday objects repurposed

Since the only furniture I can find is Victorian, I’ve been busy making my own interpretations of mid-century modern furniture. I made this little love seat from two wooden handles, part of an old napkin, and some wooden balls. Let me take you through the process.

It started with some wooden handles I found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. I’ve determined, at least in Madison, there is no place better to shop for dollhouse decor than hardware stores. The Restore is great because there are tons of tiny trinkets, washers, nuts, bolts, handles, and hinges. All kinds of things to capture a person’s imagination, all for very little money.

Two wooden handles held with tape while the glue dries. Another in case you are confused. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

I glued two handles together. Here they are, drying. The other handle is shown in the photo in case you need a little help picturing what these handles looked like before I taped them together.

Once they dried I glued some wooden balls to them. The wooden balls are inexpensive. I got this entire bag at a garage sale or thrift shop for very little money:

Here is an in-progress look with the the glue drying:

I turned part of a set of napkins into the fabric for my love seat. Here is the in-progress of this step:

Once the glue dried, I painted the love seat and then wrapped the fabric around the love seat and sewed it into place. I topped it off with a little pillow.

The thing the newspaper sits in is some little metal contraption, also from the Restore. Some kind of bracket or something, I guess. To me it just says Magazine Rack. I bought several bags of these. I have no idea what they are actually used for. I have them in other colors too. For a buck a bag, I couldn’t pass them up.

It took me two tries to get the newspaper the right scale. I didn’t worry about the details of printing on both sides of the paper, or having different text inside. I simple pasted in the same image over and over, printed it, cut it out, and put it in the magazine rack. To me, it works fine.

The end result is a cozy place to sit and read the paper:

Tiny love seat and a newspaper to read. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Exterior painting in progress!

Flipping my mini house

A decision has been made. After much hemming and hawing, I’ve chosen this shade of deep teal and given my house its first coat of paint. To get the perfect shade, I mixed it myself using a variety of tubes and bottles of art and craft paint. Here is a little peek at the secret formula:

The magic ingredients. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Final product. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

I tried to make a lot since matching that color is going to be really tricky. Still, I didn’t end up with nearly enough. I’ll mix another batch soon on a bright, sunny day so I can have the best chance of getting a close enough match.

Here is a look at my house now. It’s splotchy and definitely needs another good coat, but you can see how cute it’s going to be. I’m still debating on trim colors. I’m considering leaving the front door alone and just adding a cute doorknob, and maybe some mid century miniature doodad like this backplate.

New exterior color. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

To remind you, here is the ‘before’ version of my house:

Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Here is a view of just the front panel of the house now:

When I’d gotten to the point where I barely had enough paint left to continue, and I was losing my enthusiasm (especially on the side with the carport), I got reinspired by this artwork on HGTV:

Frozen HGTV art inspiration. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

I realized that the wall inside what will be the office needs a little art, so I made this mural using a Sharpie marker and some of my leftover paint:

Mini mural, step one. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Future office. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Mini mural, painted. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Having accent colors inside the house that match the exterior will make the finished project look much more cohesive.

While I still had my paint and paint brush out, I painted the seats of these clearance chairs to match. I’m not even sure if I’m going to use them in the house since they aren’t much of a style match, but they might work someplace.

Mini chairs before. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Mini chairs and mini mural. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

The mural will get cut down to fit on the wall of the office. The chairs will get sanded a little and… who knows.

Coming up soon: Another coat of paint, trim to be painted, shingles to be applied, and chimney to possibly get a facelift. It’s exciting times in Flip This Mini House land!

Are you feeling creative and artistic, but on a small scale?

Blogs and websites that inspire

If you’d like to flip your own mini house, here is a contest you might be interested in:

The 21st Annual Creatin’ Contest from miniatures.com*

Everyone must use the Starting Point Garage Kit as their structure, and the entry deadline is December 16, 2014. Click the link above for more information.

If you need some inspiration, check out the 2014 Undersized Urbanite dollhouse contest website, showing results from this year’s (already completed) challenge.

*I’m not affiliated with this contest. Please direct all inquiries to the people at miniatures.com

Souvenir ornament repurposed into a light fixture

Everyday objects repurposed

This trinket that someone purchased in Jamaica is going to make a fabulous light fixture! Here is the “before” version of it:

Jamaica ornament. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

It was filled with blue sand, little shells, a tiny starfish, and a little pail. My initial attraction to it was based upon the tiny shells, which I thought might be cute sitting on a shelf in my mid century marvel’s bathroom one day.

The only thing keeping the sand and shells inside was a small, easy-to-remove plastic cap at the bottom of the ornament.

Evidence that people spend way too much money when they're on vacation. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

I separated the stuff inside from the ornament:

The materials to turn my mid century marvel's bathroom into a tropical oasis of beachiness. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

Next I cleaned up the ornament with some nail polish remover. Without too much trouble the word Jamaica was erased. Here is a picture of it after about thirty seconds of scrubbing at the ornament with a Q-tip and polish remover. After another couple of minutes, the word was gone.

Using finger nail polish remover to erase the word printed on the ornament. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

The word and the price sticker all came cleanly off, leaving me with this little globe:

Light fixture for a very small house. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

With a little more work, this small globe is going to be a great light fixture one day!

Mini house demo time

Flipping my mini house

The tiny sledgehammers have been unleashed. I’ve been tearing out wallpaper, removing tiles, and prying away miniature baseboards. Here’s an in-progress view of the work zone. I’ll admit, a part of me thought it was ironic/stupid to remove actual mid century features like the wallpaper, only to replace them with my 2014 ideas of how mid century decor should look. Once I saw the back of the bathroom tiles (is that… rust?) and the wallpaper, all covered in mildew splotches and reeking of yesteryear, I knew I’d made the right decision. I have no idea how I’m going to smooth out the bathroom walls, but I guess I’ll figure out something.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Bottle cap turned modern planter or end table

Everyday objects repurposed

This real wooden cap from a bottle of men’s cologne from the 1970’s or 80’s is going to make a great planter or end table. Flipped one way it has a spot for a plant. Flipped the other, it has a smooth table top. Here it is shown beside some books, to give you an idea of the scale. I found it at a thrift store for 90 cents, and it even came in a faux wood grain box (made of cardboard) that might come in handy for another project at some point. The only downfall is the stench of the cologne that I had to endure for the photo shoot.

Everyday object repurposed. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

flipthis(mini)house

Join me as I turn a flea market find into a mid-century marvel

dollhouses

Something old, something new

Inspiration and tiny decor items lurk everywhere

Mini modern bed and pom pom accented bedding

Make your own modern white chandelier

Wooden handles turned modern love seat (and don’t forget the tiny newspaper)

Exterior painting in progress!

Are you feeling creative and artistic, but on a small scale?

Souvenir ornament repurposed into a light fixture

Mini house demo time

Bottle cap turned modern planter or end table