Cheering up a Gloomy Sunday: Charlotte's Room

    The weather today is dark and rainy, it is one of those gloomy Sunday afternoons. Since I don't have to work on Monday or Tuesday, I haven't given in to the gloom. Instead I am inspired to make some use of my free time to work on a room I came up with on Valentine's Day. Too bad the weather didn't want to cooperate. Anyway, I started by collecting anything I could find that was pink, red, or heart-shaped to put together a V-Day inspired theme. But it wasn't really coming together, and I couldn't seem to pull off the romantic vibe. The only remaining V-Day inspired items that made the cut is a pink candy heart on the dresser (as a jewelry box) and my favorite little heart mug from my childhood. I started putting things together that looked very kid-friendly, so I decided to make a girl's bedroom. I am imagining her as an 8 year old girl named Charlotte. She is quiet and organized, and she loves horses and reading chapter books. Her room is kind of in transition between a nursery and tween bedroom. 

      The dresser is a Re-Ment nightstand with the lamp removed. The numbers wall art is made using scrapbook stickers. I bought the horses yesterday in a mixed bag of plastic toys from a thrift store. The bed is also from a thrift store, it is from a common miniature nursery furniture set.  I used a cocktail umbrella for a parasol, it would be cool to put a light behind it and make it into a lamp. The tree is laser cut wood I found it at a scrapbooking store. The bookcase is commonly found generic furniture as well, I just painted it white and temporarily put paper on the back of each shelf. All the decorative papers (rug, floor, walls, etc) are from Michael's. The chair is Reac Japan. The origami elephant is from a Jonathan Adler origami kit. All accessories are Re-Ment, Dollhouse Emporium, handmade, children's toys, or hobby store finds.

margaret_loves Navy Blue Velvet

I've been obsessed with the idea of having a navy blue velvet couch in my formal living room. I've pinned some pretty fabulous blue velvet sofas and other furniture to my Wish List board on Pinterest. Not sure my husband is as in love with the style as I am, and it will be a long time before I can afford one (and by then I may have moved on to another trend, knowing me). So, to satisfy my craving for a glamorous navy velvet Carrie Bradshaw-esque couch, of course it is time to turn to miniature!

A while back I won this couch from a Call of the Small giveaway. I used it in one scene that I thought was pretty cute, but the color and pattern isn't very appealing to me. It has pretty clean lines and a simple design though, so the time has come for a makeover. Have I ever reupholstered miniature furniture before? No, this will be a first :)

I wanted to remove the bottom part of the sofa and replace it with some wooden or chrome legs. This step was easier said than done. I used a kitchen knife to wedge, slice, crack, and pry the bugger off. Finally, it was done, with a mess of tiny nails sticking out. They snapped off easily enough with a wire cutter.

Next I starting playing with fabric. I looked for navy velvet fabric at a craft store, but before buying it I thought about looking instead at used clothing from a thrift store. I found a long-sleeved buttoned down blue velvet women's shirt. It was more than enough fabric, plus it cost a lot less. After deconstructing the shirt, I cut off a piece and started contemplating how to cover my sofa. I used straight pins to hold it in place. Now I am kind of stuck. I don't know what to do next. Should I use glue or staples to attach the fabric directly? Sew some kind of slip cover? Sew or pin the fabric directly? Or just figure out some temporary way to keep it on.

I am also considering using pins or thread with tiny beads to create a tufted detail on the back of the sofa, but I am not sure it would look right with the overall style. Anyway, that's a little too much information/over thinking for this project. Any advice would be great, and I'll let you see how it turns out.

Once I finish it, I have some lots of 1:1 scale inspiration photos I can attempt to recreate in 1:12 scale. Oh, and apparently nothing goes better with a navy velvet couch than a zebra skin rug and acrylic coffee table :)

Images from Pinterest.

margaret_loves Roomboxes

I saw these storage cubes on Design Milk. I am drooling over the sliding cut-out walls in different colors and designs. I want them all to make into dollhouse rooms! Too bad they are just prototypes for now from Note Design Studio in Sweden.

Found: A knitted pouffe look for less

I've been seeing knitted pouffe ottomans/bean bags for a while now in CB2 catalogs and interior design blogs. Then I saw this beautiful handmade miniature version made by The Shopping Sherpa and featured by Pinch of Pepper on Flickr. I don't know how to knit, much less on a miniature scale, though a project like that may motivate me to learn when I have free time this summer. I also saw a great selection of assorted colored miniature knitted pouffes on PRD Miniatures for $12 plus shipping. While I'd love to have one, my budget is small so I started looking for a cheaper option in the form of...hacky sacks! Colorful knitted bean bags that are small enough to look convincing? I hoped it would work, but after browsing around to find one it was more difficult than I thought. Most of them had wild patterns, and it was difficult to judge if they would be the right size. By chance, I was wandering around a Party City store where they sell small, individual toys for goody bags to give away a children's parties/fill pinatas, etc. and I found some mostly solid colored bean bags for $0.97 that I could display upside-down and get the basic effect. Now I have 2 knitted pouffes for around 2 bucks. My secret is out (just don't look on the bottoms!)

Nothing much new here except the hacky sack/bean bag pouffes from Party City. Couch made by me. Coffee table from ebay. Television and stand from Dollhouse Emporium. Accessories are Re-Ment or handmade.

Picture Postcards

I wanted to play around with my new acrylic risers today and make a office scene in my Ikea Lekman roombox. I bought some Jonathan Adler origami paper at Barnes and Noble that I wanted to use as a rug. I found a postcard of an abstract painting in my collection that inspired the rest of the colors. This room is a mixture of miniatures and re-purposed items. I used my red CB2 Christmas ornament chair plus 2 from my REAC collection. The tables are acrylic risers found on ebay. The red table is a cap from a spray can. The white cube storage unit is Dollhouse Emporium. The accessories are mostly Re-Ment or made by me. The red thumbs-up sculpture is an eraser I bought at Target. I found a pack of them in different colors and poses that I thought would look interesting in a miniature scene. I only spent about 15 minutes putting it together. I like to imagine it as an office for a young, modern creative type.

The second room is in my thrifted dollhouse. I haven't really refurbished it yet, but I temporarily tacked some scrapbook paper to the walls and floors. I used a postcard image to inspire this room as well. The sofa and cushions are made by me (don't look at them too closely or you'll see how bad I am at sewing). The small bookcase is from Dollhouse Emporium. I found the other bookcase at an antique shop and painted it white. I am thinking of putting some paper or a contrasting color in the back of each shelf later on. The chair is REAC and the cubes are Garanamals building blocks. On the shelves are two tiny glass birds that were a Christmas gift. You can find them along with dozens of other glass animals at Toys R Us. They are really

cool little collectibles. It looks to me like an urban bachelor's living room.

margaret_loves dollhouse DIY

In the search for modern dollhouse furniture and accessories, the choices are few and expensive. Most are highly sought after or out of production (only available on ebay) or painstakingly handcrafted by a few artisans on etsy and a handful of other sites ($$$). I don't have the budget to pay 1:1 prices for a 1:12 item (unfortunately) so I happily resort to a satisfying, though many times frustrating and time-consuming process of creating my own miniatures. A lot of mishaps, glue-gun burns, and not always picture perfect results, but I am proud of some of my creations. I wish I had taken some photos during the process of making my sectional sofa, but it isn't too difficult to figure out. Basically, I cut out rectangles for the base, back and each cushion, wrapped them as neatly as I could with fabric and used hot glue to put it together. The mirrored tables are inspired by ones sold by the Dollhouse Emporium. They are wooden blocks, and I glued some mirror board squares to each face. Finally, I found a tutorial to make an Arco-style lamp using a melon baller and some wire. I can't remember whose blog I found it on, please comment if you know so I can credit them. Of these I am most proud of the sofa, and I have used it the most, almost too much. I really need more variety in my collection. It is based on one sold by Room and Board, one I'd love to own in real life :) I am struggling to create another couch, though. I think I must have blocked out how difficult it was. I bought a secondhand leather skirt and a blue velvet shirt from Goodwill (cheaper than buying raw fabric) and I am in the process of taking them apart and using the material to make some more pieces. This time I will try to blog my process.

margaret_loves Lucite

I love the Lucite trend-from Ghost chairs to CB2 tables-and I knew they should be fairly easy to create in miniature, but it took me several months to find just what I was looking for. I looked at some clear acrylic risers from The Container Store, which come in a variety of sizes, but with shipping I would have been paying way to much for a small bit of plastic. I knew there had to be more options out there. On ebay I found a set of three small risers for less than $5. Perfect. Here is a picture to give you a better idea of their scale-
The tallest makes a excellent desk (it would look great with nothing but an miniature Mac book on top!) and the shortest makes a nice low coffee table. The medium height table could also be a coffee table or end table, or perhaps a stand for a television. I am so excited to use these, it was small purchase that I can get a lot of mileage out of, as long as they don't go out of fashion any time soon :)

Chair: REAC Japan miniature Panton, rug is cut out from felt from Michael's, square ottomans are building blocks.

margaret_loves thrifting

I checked out a newly opened thrift store in town not expecting to find anything in particular, and was pleasantly surprised to find this set, though incomplete. The shop owner said there was supposed to be a china cabinet with it (hence the loose drawer) but it was nowhere around. She charged me only $1 which I thought was a great deal, and told me she would put any other miniatures she found under the counter to save for me! They look like they were a furniture kit that someone put together, but are pretty well-built and have nice details. I am thinking of ways to possibly paint or refinish the pieces, and creative uses for the drawer as wall art or perhaps a tray or small table top. I hope to post a scene using them soon :)

margaret_loves miniatures

My love of all things cute and tiny has become a full-fledged hobby. I loved dollhouses as a girl, though I never really had much of one. My aunt gave me a dollhouse kit for a birthday, but it was too daunting a task for me to build on my own, my parents weren't really interested in helping. I never got past the foundation and selecting wallpaper, and we ended up getting rid of it. I had lots of Barbies, like most girls did, but I spent my time arranging their furniture and the tiny food in their tiny kitchen. I never cared much for dolls or fashion, but I loved interiors and styling rooms. I even thought about pursuing a career in interior design, but I decided to be an art teacher instead. I still love reading design blogs and decorating my own apartment, and I am an HGTV junkie. Only a few miniature items survived from my childhood, but one day we visited the Birmingham Museum of Art and in the gift shop they had some REAC chairs. I picked one up on a whim, and I began my collection of more grown-up, modern miniatures. The Modern Miniatures group on Flickr really inspired me, seeing the rooms and houses decorated to look like real life designer spaces. I especially love creative DIY methods for creating furniture and accessories and appropriating 1:1 objects as miniature items. I still don't have my dream dollhouse, instead I mostly set my scenes using bookshelves and boxes. Lately, I've started collecting interior design images from the web or a magazine and tried to recreate them in miniature scale. I hope to use this blog to connect with others who enjoy this hobby and share ideas.