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 just discovered there’s a gathering of like-minded people happening in April in Chicago.
That’s right! A gathering of miniaturists!
http://www.bishopshow.com/chiinfo.htm
I’m so excited! I need to go to this show!
My only concern…
I mean…
You know…
Sometimes miniaturists get a bad rap.
Remember in The Lovely Bones…
or how about this painful movie?
Well, regardless, I’M IN!
See you there!
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!
To make your floors fit, create a pattern or stencil using paper, the way clothing designers create patterns before putting scissors to their fancy fabric. This works for wallpaper too. Here are the steps I took to install my living room floor.
First I cleared out my living room. Next I began constructing my stencil, basing it off the shape of the far wall. See (below) how it fits like a puzzle piece against the wall? This required a fair amount of adding and subtracting to get it right. I’d slice a little bit off here, tape in a little extra there, until I had it just right.
Create a stencil to lay on top of your flooring. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Next I added another portion for the section of flooring that is by the railing. Then I put the stencil on top of my flooring and taped it into place.
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Next I carefully cut out my floors. I ended up with this:
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Now came the moment of truth. Would this amorphous shape fit just right into my mini living room?
Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Yay! It fits! And since the floor is actually made of individual slats of wood affixed to a paper backing, it’s flexible enough to maneuver into place.
Below, if you look to the left of the stairs going up to the bedrooms, you can see one small piece going the wrong way, where I stuck in an extra piece since the flooring was just a bit smaller than the length of the room. Once I install wallpaper, white baseboard trim, and put furniture in place, this will be practically unnoticeable. Chip clips are handy for holding the flooring in place as adhesive dries.
Use chip clips to force your floor flat. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Finally, I’ll pile some books on top to help ensure it stays flat.
Keeping newly installed floors flat. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Living room wallpaper is going in soon! I can’t wait to show you the results!
My mini bathroom is really coming along! The tile floor has been grouted, trim has been installed, the sparkly chevron wallpaper has gone up, and the mini blinds I made from a coaster are now on the wall. Here’s a look at all the progress:
Progress in the mini bathroom. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
As a reminder, here are some before photos:
Bathroom before.
Bathroom floor installation, partway through. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
For information on making your own mini coaster blinds, take a look back at this post from a few weeks ago.
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.
A couple of weeks ago a friend let me borrow her heat tool. She thought it might loosen up the remaining part of the kitchen floor that wouldn’t budge.
Stubborn floor. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Stubborn floor. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I’d been trying to tear out the floor for weeks months, and was at the point where I was actually damaging my house, since the remaining bit of flooring was stuck so firmly in place.
I had doubts about whether the heat tool would work because I’d tried so many tools and cleaners to loosen it up, and I’d had so little luck.
To my amazement, it worked like a charm. It turned the adhesive back into a somewhat liquid state, and the remaining bits of the floor came up in a few easy sections.
Like Pangaea breaking apart. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
The final result was this:
Ready for new floors to be installed! Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Thought still a little uneven, it’s now smooth enough in my house for my new wood floors to go over the top. I am SO happy to finally be able to move on to the next step! Thanks to my old friend Beth and my new friend Darice, my house is ready for its dream kitchen to go in any day!
My husband thinks Darice looks like she needs to be hidden in a sock drawer. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
If you’ve ever worked on an old house, you’ll uncover some secrets. Mini houses are no different. Yesterday I removed the baseboard trim in the living room…
Baseboard trim. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Baseboard trim. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
and discovered this:
Trim with notes. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
As you can see, it’s the hand-written notes about which wall to install the trim on. I thought it was pretty cool to see the notes that someone, a little girl’s dad, I imagine, made to himself as he constructed the house. I had to save that little piece. It’s too special to toss in the garbage.
I’ve also discovered as flooring and wallpaper come out, that my house is definitely made from a kit. You can see how parts are labeled (for instance, “Part F”). That might lessen its appeal to some collectors, but it doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
Once the trim came out, I began fitting some of the new wallpaper. Unlike the wallpaper in the bedroom, I’m crazy about the one for the living room. It has gold in it, feels very Jonathan Adler-ish, and will help tie together all the metallic accents that will be going into the living room. Here’s a sneak peek at it:
Living room wallpaper sneak peek. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
There’s been a huge, unexpected benefit to installing wallpaper that I’m feeling lukewarm about. Before installing the wallpaper, I felt like I was pretty much done with the bedroom decor. I had a little bed I’d made from some Styrofoam, handmade bedding, some nightstands I’d painted, and a little dresser. They were all so-so. I was happy enough with them. Once the wallpaper was installed (And let me tell you, working in a tiny space like that, cutting out the perfect window-shaped rectangle that is positioned just so is the definition of tedium), I realized I would do whatever it took to not have to redo it. That has meant taking a serious look at everything else going in the room, and only allowing in decor that will elevate the overall look of the room. I’ve admitted to myself that some of my original plan wasn’t particularly mid-century or modern. Like the nightstands. I decided I either need better nightstands or better wallpaper, but I can’t leave both as they are, or my room will not be cute enough.
In this instance, inspired mainly by The Century House, I decided I wanted my mini bedroom to have a platform bed with built-in side tables like this, this and this, and ohmygoodness this, so I decided to create one for my mini house.
Several months ago I purchased a bottle of men’s cologne from St. Vinny’s, specifically for the awesome wood cap that came with it. The cologne was nestled in a faux wood box. Here’s a look at the box:
Faux wood box. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I decided I was going to turn this into a headboard with side tables!
The box had three parts, as you can see, that all fit together. I decided the two smallest ones would work best for my mini house.
The box is not in perfect condition since it’s from decades ago and has who knows what history. I’m not letting little issues like that stop me. No house is perfect, so a couple of scuffs here and there are no big deal.
Here are the steps I took:
1. Cut the lid in half. These will be my side tables.
You say lid, I say side tables. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
2. Next I made marks on what will be the headboard of the bed, outlining where the side tables will be inserted.
Attach side table here. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
3. Both sides got matching marks, and then were sliced through with an Exacto knife. Then the side tables’ rough cut sides were inserted into the slots that had been made. Here’s the result:
Mini headboard. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
And a view from the back:
Back of the mini headboard. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
I realized it needed legs. With their light coloring and clean lines, these wooden caning pegs are perfect for mini mid-century furniture legs!
Caning pegs. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
4. I punched holes in the bases of the sides tables, and each got a leg added:
Adding some legs to my mini headboard. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Here’s a view from the front:
Mini headboard, now with legs. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Once the mattress, pillows, and comforter come into play, the imperfections will be hidden or toned down. I think it looks pretty cute! What do you think?
I thought I’d share a few pictures of how the house looks right now. As a reminder, this is how it looked when I received it this summer:
Day 1 of my mini house. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.
Most of the carpeting, wallpaper, and trim have since been removed. Wood floors have now been installed in the upstairs bedroom, as well as some funky retro wallpaper in the master bedroom. All rooms will be receiving white baseboard trim, but a flatter version than what was originally in the house.
A small part of the original kitchen floor remains, thoroughly glued in place. A friend lent me her heatgun yesterday. She thought it might help loosen up the floor. I’ll let you know how that goes.
flipthis(mini)house 