Awhile back I was given a Chrysnbon miniature bathroom kit to assemble all the parts of an antique bathroom. Earlier this year I set about building the room to house these.
I did a lot of searching around for images of old bathrooms and miniatures of such. The shape is based on an image I found that I though would suit all the fixtures and how I plan to embellish them to tell a bit of a story. The blank body of the room is made from foam core.
Interior:
The door is pre-made wood that I stained and distressed. Adding the door handle and robe hook. It came with the moulding. The “tile” wainscot and floor is shiny photo paper embossed with my Sizzix Big Shot. It was sealed with decoupage medium, then painted all the grout lines. After installation they were further distressed with paint in a glaze medium. The wainscot cap is a wooden dowel, painted.
Wallpaper is printed cardstock that I cut into strips and real assembled on the walls. It has been distressed, too.
The window frame also came from the store, but it did not come with the “glass.” I picked up sheet plastic for that. There is one broken pane in the lower right and built up grunge around the rest. I used the same stain as the door and made the moulding from craft sticks.
The ceiling is meant to look like an old tin ceiling. I used my Sizzix again to emboss soda cans. The crown moulding is a style of folder that cuts and embosses. I cut one edge flat, then formed the pieces around a dowel. It has all been sealed and stained, of course!
Exterior:
I can’t help but “tell the story” on the outside of my dioramas, too. This bathroom is located on the upper story of a house that predates such rooms, so it was later added - hence the odd footprint. Above it is the attic floor, made with wooden coffee stirrers, stained and distressed.
The room exists in current day and the house had been resided sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. The siding is wood grain textured cardstock that I embossed too give it the lap-siding look. Again, distressed - I don’t remember if I used ink or paint or both. Window is trimmed with wood.
Working around to the left, we have the hallway.
Again, I used printed cardstock cut into strips and applied like wallpaper. I have yet to finish the bottom of any of the adjoining rooms’ walls. At this point I think I will keep them un-distressed just to juxtapose the room interior, but who knows if I will change my mind?
The room next door, probably a bedroom or dressing room.
I did the same treatment to make the wallpaper with printed cardstock. On this side, I matched the floor level of the bathroom - can’t remember why! Will finish the bottom of this wall along with the rest.
That little jogged wall will hold some plumbing and is meant to look like another unfinished part of the house - a “crawl space” for storage, etc. It’s “insulated” with old newspapers - printed scrapbook paper, stained and distressed. The floor is more coffee stirrers.
Many other more time sensitive projects have come up, so I put this away a couple months ago. I plan/hope to bring it back out to fill up with silliness this autumn.
Addendum: This is approx. 1:12 scale.