Minibydesign

Colonial Revival Update 4

2011-10-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

Even the most organized among us lose track of time every now and again, and I don't count myself among the MOST organized! That said, wow, last update was in June and here it is October 1! Fall is in the air, football is in full swing, baseball is in the playoffs and yet another professional sport is on strike (NBA). Ah, thank goodness for the stable world of miniatures!!!!

So, here is where we last left off. The entry hall is coming together nicely and I told you we would be moving on to the living room. So let's do that.

This is the back side of the stair wall in the entry hall. You will notice the tape wire has been placed to support two sconces above the living room fireplace. The square with the cut out will provide a framed location above the fireplace to hold a picture. Again, the tape wire terminates at the floor so a connection can be need underneath the house to some switches. More on that later.

Here a shot of the fireplace in progress. I have added a faux marble surround and painted the grate. I will close in the back and add working embers. Can't decide if I will do more but this is what I have so far.

Here I have added the sconces to the picture surround that will go above the fireplace. I am really enjoying this (new to me) technique of layering in texture in the construction of the room. Here to fore I just went with the flat walls. I may be going a bit overboard but I am learning quite a bit about the process which will definitely help me with future projects.

OK, progress! The sconces have been wired to the tape wire and the picture surround attached to the wall. The columns are of the same material as the wainscot that I added to the hallway. I just placed them here for now to get a feel for the look. You will notice a small line just above the base of the column, that is where I chose to cut them down to fit the ceiling height. They came pre-made about an inch too tall. After some sanding and paint, these should be far less visible.

Here, the columns have been painted, the capitals have been painted gold, and the fireplace has been added to the wall. I plan to paint the column bases black to match the baseboard moulding that will be added.

I took this shot to get some perspective of the fireplace wall from the "floor" level. I am liking where this is headed.

Now the walls are painted a taupe color, the column bases are black, and the tape wire on the floor will support some plug in sockets, either in the floor or on the walls.

Here I am piecing in the wood floor since my sheets are not quite long enough to span the depth of the room.

As promised, here is a shot of the area where I intend to add push button switches to control the various electrical items in the house. I used this technique with my scratch built contemporary dollhouse with good success. The switches are push on/off switches I purchased from the local Radio Shack store. I used crimp and connect connectors from the wire to the switch and tape the wires together at the origin.

Here you can see the wires coming through the floor waiting to be connected to a power source and the switches. You can see by the bits of masking tape that I have begun labeling them so I don't lose track of which wire goes to which item.

As we approach completion of the living room, the downstairs portion of the main house is nearly done. I have started the construction of the two story addition kit that will house the kitchen and master bathroom. Perhaps we will focus on that next time. Until then, thanks for checking in on Minibydesign!

Colonial Revival Update 3

2011-06-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

Wow time flies when you fit a wedding into your schedule! My younger son was married on June 11th and all went perfectly well. The planning and preparation leading up to the wedding and the recovery period after has made the last month fly by! I can hardly believe it has been a month since my last update to this blog. Fortunately, I did fit in some work on the dollhouse and took plenty of pictures to provide fodder for this update.

When I left you last we were moving from the dining room into the hallway. I envision a fairly formal and grand entry way to include light colors and plenty of light (a large chandelier included). To begin, I selected a wallpaper and started it around the front door.

I purchased some ready made wainscoting that is a resin material. It is my first time using this product and I have to say I am quite pleased with its look. It cuts very easy on the scroll saw, it is easy to sand, and holds paint very well. I decided to cut pieces of the wall paper to accent the inside areas of the squares on the wainscot.

Below you can see a close up of the wall paper in place.

In this next shot you see the wainscot on the complete hall wall. Notice the wires are in place for the two wall sconces yet to be added. Also notice the wires at the base of the wall feeding into some holes in the floor. These will lead to some switches on the back base of the house to control the lights.

In the next shot you see the other hallway wall that supports the stairs. The wall is papered and has the wainscot in place. The tape wire will be hidden by the staircase. This tape wire supports a light on the wall under the stairs.

In the next photo is a close up of the outside edge stair panel that I am cutting from some basswood stock.

Now the stair is in place along with the treads.

Another closer shot of the stairs. Also notice the wood floor is down and stained.

And lastly, a shot of the completed sconce wall with the sconces in place.

When I return, it will be time to move onto the living room. Until then, thanks for checking in on Minibydesign!

Colonial Update Part 2

2011-05-25T15:49:00.000-04:00

When I last reported the basic shell was in place and some of the planning was coming together in the form or pencil marks on the wall. Well, much has been accomplished since then, despite a 10 day hiatus to attend the wedding of some very good friends daughter in Texas.

Shortly upon my return from Texas, the mini shop was a whirl of sawdust and paint once again. Next up the bump out wall for the fireplace. Here you can see the basic structure with the fireplace temporarily in place.

Next I added some moulding to form two recesses on each side of the wall above the mantel. These recesses will highlight the sconces to be added later.

Fast forward to see the paint and wallpaper have been added to the fireplace wall and surround.

In the next shot you can see the wall sconces have been added and the chair rail and skirt board are being secured until the glue dries.

Here the fireplace wall is essentially complete and the wires for the working fireplace embers and the wall sconces have been fed through the holes below the floor. There is an extra wire to support the circuit that will connect to the chandelier to be added to this room when the ceiling goes in. I have learned through the years to plan 3 or 4 steps ahead to make life a little easier down the road. :)

You will notice in the above shot, the wood flooring is in place. While working on the fireplace wall as a separate piece, I was able to continue work on the room itself.

Here you see the fireplace wall as a work in process while in the background, you can see I have added the wall sconces and wall paper to the far wall.

Now the wall paper has been completed on the front wall and the section below the chair rail line has gotten its first coat of paint.

A close up of the sconces, wall paper and paint job. Looking good so far!

And now the floor goes down. It will get at least 3 coats of clear stain to shine it up a bit.

Next time, we will move into the entry hall. Until then, thanks for checking out Minibydesign!

Colonial Revival Time!

2011-04-02T11:33:00.001-04:00

I have been deeply engrossed in the making of miniature modern, Art Deco, and Frank Lloyd Wright inspired furniture for the past 2 years. Along the way I did two Art Deco inspired room boxes. About 4 years ago I purchased the Montclair Kit by Real Good Toys on a 50% off sale! Since then the 4 boxes have been sitting on a shelf waiting to be opened. Well, my friends, two weeks ago, the boxes were opened and I am off to the races!

I went all the way and acquired the two additions that go on either side of the main house. The two story addition will house the kitchen downstairs and the master bathroom upstairs. The Conservatory will house a large garden room off of the main living room to take advantage of all the light the walls of windows will let in.

Here a shot of a few of the pieces out of the box. I was relieved that after four years there were no missing or damaged parts!

OK, on to some assembly........

First the foundation. In the first shot, the plywood you see underneath the framing is not floor, it is a spare piece of plywood I am using to expand my work spot for the house. The second shot shows the floor going on over the framing. It is a long journey from here but at last it is started!

Here the first wall is going up. The door will be the entrance between the dining room in the main house and the kitchen in the lower floor of the two story addition. The braces are in place to insure vertical alignment at 90 degrees.

Now the other wall and the front are in place. Notice the main entrance in the center and the symmetry of the windows on either side.

A quick shot of the front of the main house. One of many nice things about RGT kits is the clapboard siding is already milled into the outer walls. A nice detail and a big time saver!

Here you can see I have carved two wire slots to run electric to two wall sconces. These will be filled in with wood putty and sanded smooth before the wallpaper goes up. Also, you can see the line I have marked for the chair rail height so as to not bring the wallpaper down so far.

Next time, a fireplace wall with a bump out to add architectural interest to the dining room.

Thanks for stopping by to Minibydesign!

Art Deco Bar The Unveiling

2011-03-06T08:20:00.001-05:00

At long last, the Art Deco Bar is done! As it is just opening I am afraid it is woefully understocked but time will take care of that! Also, I am on the prowl for a top notch 1940's era bartender who knows how to make the driest martini in the land!

Without further adieu here are a few pics:

This is taken from one of the two open sides. Gives a good overall view of the bar and seating. Thanks to Dale of Dalesdreams (http://www.etsy.com/shop/dalesdreams) for the wonderful work on each of the seats on the bar stools. Also, Dale is responsible for picking out the fabric for the carpet and sending it to me! Whoot, thanks Dale it is perfect! A wonderful artisan, please check out her shop soon!

Here you see some of the art work I pieced together from some old advertisements in the art deco era.

A close up of the storage under the bar and part of the bar work surface.

Here I opened the cabinet doors under the corner cabinet to reveal yet more storage space waiting to be filled with bar goodies.

Notice the lights over the clear shelves in the back corner cabinet. Also, you can see the color bands over the bar which are lit from within with LED lights (4 total inside the bar canopy).

A shot of the other side of the bar showing more storage shelves loaded with a few "wine" bottles. I love the art deco piece on the wall in this shot. Also, notice the black and white checked floor tile behind the bar area.

Nice shot from seat high level with the lights on. You can get a good sense of the contrast of aluminum, mirrors, and black and white colors. Notice the black and chrome footrest along the base of the bar.

A special thank you to Lisa of Everydaygourmet (http://www.etsy.com/shop/EverydayGourmet) who custom made this wonderful garnish tray at my request. Wonderfully real looking orange, lime, and lemon slices along with olives and cherries and toothpicks too! Thanks also to Lisa who made all the cocktails scattered around the bar and tables. Amazing work and you should check out her shop soon!

This has been a very gratifying project and I hope soon to tackle the third room box in this series, the art deco era dining room. With the anteroom and the bar in place, I need a place for folks to dine.

Until then, thanks for checking in with Minibydesign and happy mini-making to all!

Wow Time Flies

2010-10-20T19:11:00.000-04:00

My friends, I am so sorry that I have been so delinquent in updating my Blog. After 8 plus months of being unemployed I started a new job in January 2010. At first, keeping my mini world and my real world in sinc was OK. But things quickly unraveled. I am sure most, if not all, of you know of what I speak.

Anyway, the deco bar is nearly done and I hope to soon post an update of completion. Other projects are slowly underway. Thanks for following me and for your patience in my delayed progress.

Happy mini-making to one and all!

R

Art Deco Bar Update 5

2010-03-14T20:55:00.000-04:00

Wow, winter really kicked the mini-making community in much of the USA this year and North Carolina was no exception! Finally, the weather has begun to warm, the snow is melted, and the mini-shop is inhabitable once again! YAY!

I took advantage of the recent good weather to finish the bar stools courtesy of some fine cushions prepared by my fine Team ETSY teammate on TeamMIDS. Dale of DalesDreams does wonderful work, visit her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/dalesdreams. Thanks Dale!

Here you can see a couple of pics where the cushions are clamped and glued to their base on the seat post.

When I first opened my shop this morning the sun was shining on the Art Deco Bar like it was waiting for opening day. I snapped a couple of pics just using the natural sunlight coming into my shop.

You can see the washers on the floor that form the base of the stools. I drilled up through the bottom of the floor to secure the stools to the floor. Worked pretty well and I think the results speak for themself....

Now all that is left is to add some art on the wall, a few drinks on the bar and the bar accessories to the shelves and bar workspace. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I will have final pics next weekend. Thanks for checking in!

The MBD Club Anteroom

2010-01-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

This is the one that started it all. I wish I had taken progress pictures but redeemed myself somewhat by doing so with the art deco bar. This room box was inspired by a picture I saw of a remodeled anteroom from the art deco period. I set to work to replicate the doors in that picture in miniature. This led to the creation of the room box to put the doors to work.

This room box is 16 1/2 inches wide, 12 inches deep, and 11 1/8 inches tall. The front is "framed" by a gold painted trim and includes a removable plexiglas insert. I removed the plexiglas for purposes of the attached pictures to eliminate the glare.

The door is surrounded by Cocobolo, Brazilian Cherry, and painted maple wood. The plexiglas door frames are gold painted bass wood and the decorations are applied decals. The doors are none working but provide a view into the MBD Club Dining Room. This is a picture of an actual art deco era dining room that I have installed on a curved backdrop to provide a panoramic affect. A working light above the inside of the doors provides accent lighting.

This room box includes 2 club chairs, an art deco style side table, host(ess) stand with working light, carpet, easel, and 2 planters with plants. All items were hand made by me except the lights, billboard, menus, and reservation book on the host stand. The billboard, 3 menus, and reservation book were made by a very talented TeamMIDS teammate, Candy. Please visit her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TrashAndTrinkets orhttp://www.etsy.com/shop/fairygarden. The billboard announces "MBD Club Live Tonight Kelly Smith and the Louis Prima Band". The menus have MBD Club on the front and a menu listing on the back.

The wall sconces and the host stand light are working lights. The baseboard of this room is made of Cocobolo wood. The crown moulding is dental moulding with gold painted accents.

The club chairs are made of Brazilian Cherry with padded burgundy cloth cover and trim. The art deco side table, easel, and host stand are also Brazilian Cherry. The host stand is on a black plexiglas base. The planters are miniature Christmas Tree ornaments on a mirror base.

This box is listed for sale at http://www.etsy.com/shop/minibydesign.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy!

Art Deco Bar Update 4

2009-11-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

I trust that all who celebrated are fully recovered from Thanksgiving! I have just barely done so myself. And, slowly but surely getting back into the flow of mini-making!

Indeed progress has been made on the Art Deco Bar Room box! Walls have gone up, along with wall covering. And some of the details are starting to emerge.

First, take a look at this pic and see if you can tell what it is going to be when it grows up:

Well if you guessed bar tables and hanging lamps, you would be right! Now be honest, did you really guess correctly?

Here it starts to make more sense. The chrome plated tube (water supply line in real life) has been cut to size, the wooden discs that make up the base and the tabletop support have been sanded and painted, and the tube has been filled with a wooden dowel. The screws attach the base and the tabletop support.

One more step and we will have mirrored top bar tables!

Two round mirrors and some double sided carpet tape and Viola'! There will be 3 of these in the bar positioned under some art deco lamps that I am making from scratch from the other dowels in the pic above.

Shifting gears, when I last updated you I was considering my wall covering. Well, I settled on white just like in the inspiration picture (see blog update 1). I realize there is a lot of white in this room but I believe some art pieces, coupled with bar bottles, bar stools, etc. will tone it down a bit. We'll see.

The support in the middle of the pic is temporary as the bar canopy is pretty heavy and is attached to the two walls. I don't want it to pull free at this point. When the ceiling goes on, the bar canopy will attach to it as well and add support.

I took this shot to give some perspective of what the patrons at the bar will see. The space in the middle of the canopy is mirrored and a light fixture sits on point. This fixture along with three down lit lights in the back corner bar will provide plenty of light for the bartenders.

Well, the wall covering is in place and the 3 bar tables are completed and temporarily stationed in their place. The hanging lights over the tables are working lamps that I made from dowels that are hollowed out to accept the receptacle. These were inspired by the hanging lamp over the main bar in the inspiration pic. Also, note that I am experimenting with some mirrors on the left wall. More on that next.

As you can see, I removed the ceiling to allow for some clamping of the columns that will stand proud of each side of the mirrors. The outermost column serves the additional purpose of supporting the plexiglas wall when it is added. Notice the slot routed into the left column in this shot. More on that next time.

As you can see we are closing in on adding carpet, barstools, and drinks! Soon the MBD Bar will be open!

Thanks for peeking in!

Art Deco Bar Update 3

2009-11-19T18:29:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe it has just been a week since my last update. Seems like a month! Oh well, here we go.

You might recall I overdid the size of the back corner bar and had to "shrink" it down a bit. Here I have cut the black Plexiglas top and notched it out for the shelf supports. Also I have dry fit the mirrors in place.

No don't worry, I haven't switched to working on the deck of the Starship Enterprise! LOL! This is the "inside" area of the roof section over the bar. In order to generate enough light from the LED's that will live inside this section, I used foil tape to generate reflection rather than wood absorption. You can just make out the blue and red and clear plexiglas between each stepped out layer of the ceiling. The LED's will illuminate these on the outside rim for a nice affect. I hope.......

Here you can get a sense of the ceiling profile as it will look over the bar. Nice use of the Xacto knife don't you think?

Here the black plexi has the protective paper removed and the clear plexi shelves are dry fit in place. I chose to cover the shelf supports with aluminum tape rather than paint them. This will add a reflective quality to the mirrors when the LED lights shine down from above the shelves.

Here the completed back corner bar has been dry fit in place. The ceiling over the bar has been attached to the 2 side walls and you can see the actual bar in the far right of the picture. I confess I am not happy with the arches in the back bar as they gave me considerable fits. However, rather than smash this section to bits and start over, I have decided to live with this slight imperfection as the real star of this show is the bar and the ceiling over the bar.

Here the laminate is going on the bar front. Once it is all in place, I will install the bar top and work on the footrest that will go around the base of the bar on this front side. My next focus will be the completed ceiling and lighting, the floor behind the bar and determine how I want to treat the walls. Hmmmmmmm

Thanks for peeking in! Tell next time!

Art Deco Bar Update 2

2009-11-12T15:10:00.001-05:00

Progress has been slowed by the remnants of Ida drenching North Carolina and bringing along with it a cold snap (upper 40's). However, I am too excited about this project to be kept away and have persevered. So here is update number 2.

I have approached this project as 3 main projects within the big picture. The bar, the back corner bar, and the stepped out ceiling area over the bar. This picture shows the dry fit of the 4 parts that make up the ceiling over the bar. This is looking from the top down, the cutout area in the base piece will be covered by a mirror or smoked plexi.

Using the inspiration pic in my first post on this project as my reference point, I am "dressing" the outer edge of the curved bar ceiling pieces with laminate dyed white. Here the first piece goes on! I subsequently completed all three curved pieces and set them aside to dry over night.

Shifting from the ceiling project, here I am dry fitting the arched curves that frame the mirrored back shelves on the back corner bar. Unfortunately, this opened my realization that I had a problem in the making.

Here the back corner bar top and doors are dry fit to the assembled base cabinet. In the background you can see the arches for the top of the cabinet have been painted white. Next I placed this dry fit piece and the bar on the floor piece to check size and fit.

Yep, too darn big! It kills me to redo things but I had no choice in this case. The domino affect would have been to cut a larger floor and cut a new ceiling over the bar, etc., etc. Any of you in the mini world has been down this road before and I feel sure you hate it as much as I do. Anyway, here the assembled base cabinet has be cut apart, resized, and is being glued back together.

Ta Da! Magic, just two days later and 40% smaller. Now I can move forward again.

The centerpiece of this roombox is of course, the bar! Here you can get some detail of the construction I used. In this photo I have started the actual bar counter. Originally I made the counter a single piece but with all the upright supports and curves, I could not get it into place without removing the bar top which was already glued and secured in place. I opted to cut the counter into 7 or 8 individual pieces. Here the first 3 are cut, covered with aluminum and dry fit in place. Only 5 more to go!

Here all the bar counter pieces are cut, covered in aluminum and dry fit to the bar. I will wait to glue the pieces in place until after the laminate under the counter is in place.

And Viola', the laminate goes on! This laminate is dyed black. I left an open space on the left side and one on the right side that will contain some open shelves. So I have measured and cut three pieces to fill in under the bar counter. These were clamped and left over night to dry.

In my next update I think you will be able to clearly see how these three main projects start to come together. Thanks for peeking in!

The Art Deco Bar

2009-11-06T17:02:00.000-05:00

This project is the second in what I hope will be a series of three room boxes. The first is called the Anteroom for the MBD Club. MBD stands for Minibydesign, I know very original! The inspiration for the anteroom was a picture I saw in an art deco book and the doorway of the room really caught my eye. I immediately started the process to recreate the door in dollhouse scale. This led me to create a room box for the door which in turn inspired me to make a couple of art deco style club chairs for the room. I am waiting for some decorator items to by added from one of talented team mates in Team MIDS as part of the ETSY site. So, I will suspend discussion on "Phase 1" until I get the items from my team mate. Then I will provide and update and some pictures.

Unfortunately, in my haste to start the door project for the anteroom, I didn't think to take pictures of the making process. So, I have corrected myself for "Phase 2", the Art Deco bar of the MBD Club!

First, let me share a picture of the inspiration room:

The stylized nature of this bar allows me to set it coming out from the far corner of the room box. This will leave me room to scatter a few tables about the room as well. I love the curves, the mirrored back wall and the stepped out ceiling over the bar.

This picture shows the matt board drawing and cut-outs I will use to shape the wood pieces for the bar. Notice the ceiling over the bar laps out over the inside and outside of the bar. Also, note the curved counter of the back bar.

Here I have dry fitted the mirrors on the top of the back bar counter. I want to be sure there is enough room between the mirrors and counter edge to allow for shelves and curved cove covers over the mirrors.

Besides being able to see how cluttered my workbench is, here you can see the rear bar counter base taking shape. Since the face of the rear bar counter is curved I am making curved doors for the openings. You can see the curved forms glued and clamped to the tops and bottoms of both doors. After the middle portion dries solid for 24 hours, I will bring up the far edges and clamp them for 24 to 48 hours to insure that they hold their curved shape. The wood for the door is basswood as it is flexible enough to be shaped. I will probably cover the exterior with a laminate before installing them. I have some lovely white laminate in stock that just might do the trick.

In this photo, if you can ignore the clutter in the background, you can see the actual bar start to take shape. I have cut the curved pieces for the top and bottom and added the first 4 of 7 total upright supports. This will sit overnight and then the other 3 uprights will be added tomorrow.

So, in 2 days we have the basic design, good progress on the back bar counter, and a good start on the actual bar! Whew!

Oh and as a bonus, a fellow team mate on Team MIDS in the ETSY forum has agreed to tackle the seats for my bar stools! Check her out at www.dalesdreams.etsy.com! She does fab work!

Hopefully more to update after this weekend!

Thanks for peeking in.

Flickr

2009-11-02T19:08:00.003-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Flickr

2009-11-02T19:08:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.