Greenleaf Spring Fling 2012

As mentioned long ago, I ordered and built Greenleaf's 2012 Spring Fling kit, with the skylight upgrade. I never actually got around to posting pictures of it anywhere...until today. 

I decided not to enter the contest because I know this piece isn't pretty or impressive (have you seen the Spring Fling entries? They're all brilliant) - and it's not meant to be.

This piece represents someplace I lived a long time ago, when I was very young, very broke, and spent as much time somewhere else as possible.

Try, if you can, to imagine a former storage room converted into a tiny apartment. There was no kitchen, just a sink and a fridge (but it's not like I knew how to cook at age 19 anyway...). There was a bathroom, but it was one floor down and shared. You'll have to imagine the hooks on the back wall that held my clothes. And as long as you're imagining things, please humor me by imagining the New York skyline in the background (and I don't mean glamorous New York, I mean gritty New York).

All I needed was music and a place to sleep. (And a skylight. How could I live in a grimy urban loft and not have a skylight?)

My Ace Bathroom

My taste in interiors is pretty eclectic. Case in point: my miniature bathroom was inspired by the Ace Hotel's Portland and New York locations.

There are a few little things I need to touch up, and I still need to make and install towel bars, but between the black-and-white palette, curtained transom door, and classic fixtures, I think the influence is pretty clear.

Some Ace Hotel rooms have claw-foot bathtubs (I've always wanted a claw-foot tub), and I originally planned to include one. However, the only ones I could find that looked right were 1) way out of my budget, and 2) too wide to fit the space. Yes, I know the bathtub I chose overlaps with the door frame a bit. It didn't during the dry fit, and the front sits flush against the wall, so I've decided not to let it bother me.

There isn't a medicine chest because if this were a real house, the logical place for it would be on the non-existent back wall. I did make one before I realized this (classic white with a red cross on the door), so it's going to be in the kitchen instead. In real life, I am most likely to injure myself in the kitchen (cuts, burns, slipping in spilled liquid, that one time I dropped a heavy Le Creuset pan on my foot...), so that's where I keep my first aid kit anyway. There will be a toothbrush holder, I just haven't glued it in yet (the mini toothbrush holder and toothbrushes I bought came in rather unattractive pastels, so I'm repainting them in bolder colors).

I realize the chandelier is a bit flashy for the Ace aesthetic, but the Art Deco ceiling fixture I ordered was sold out, and I love chandeliers anyway, so in it went. Someday I want to have one in every room of my house, whether they go with my vintage/antique/industrial furniture or not.

From the Inside Out

For the obvious reason that the upstairs landing is blocked in by the bathroom and living room walls, I found it easier to install the interior of the smaller bedroom and the landing interior at the same time, glue the staircase in place, then add the bathroom and living room walls.

Here is the smaller bedroom. It's not 100 percent complete - I still need to install stair railings and fix the gap under the cove molding on the left side - but I love how it's turning out.

Here is a glimpse of the landing from the front of the house. (I couldn't get a good angle on the bathroom wall, stairs, etc.) I initially painted the window frame white, but it looked much too plain. Glossy black paint to the rescue!

Why Don't You...

"Why don't you...realize, realize the return of black, and black and white, in decoration? It is of tremendous importance. Use it whenever you can." - Diana Vreeland

Rooftop

I've been reading Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature by typing sections into Google Translate, since my French is limited. The construction section, to my surprise, called for making the rooftop from Bristol board (I do wonder if I mistyped it...).

I've handled Bristol board countless times. It has many uses applicable to miniatures, but I wanted the rooftop to be made of something sturdy enough to take a certain amount of handling, several more moves in my lifetime (probably), and being in the same house as a large cat who is almost as clumsy as I am and doesn't let it stop him from climbing tall pieces of furniture. So, my rooftop is made of 1/4" plywood, left over from cutting the interior walls. The raised ribs are made from craft-store 1/8" x 1/8" sticks.

I couldn't find zinc paper anywhere, but I always have paint on hand. Using pictures of real buildings in Paris as a guide, I gave the bare wood a base coat of silver metallic paint, then added layer after layer of dirty washes in varying shades of gray. I have no experience with faux finishes, and was a little intimidated because I have never been a good painter (despite my best efforts to the contrary), but I'm very happy with how the roof turned out.

Obviously, 1/4" plywood is much thicker than Bristol board. The "seam" between the rooftop and the mansard roof will be covered by rain gutters painted and aged to match the roof.

Exterior progress

Plastering and painting is done, I've added the top-floor windows, and the rain gutters have been fitted. As you can see through the ground-floor windows, I've also been hard at work laying dozens of tiny, but real, glass tiles (I attempted some Bristol-board tiles, but they just didn't look quite right).

More to come...

My new wheels

I've wanted a Vespa since I was 15.

I live in a place where it isn't really safe to ride a scooter, and having a car is pretty much necessary.

But someday...someday I'll be able to move away and get that Vespa.

For now, parking a 1:12 replica of my dream scooter on the sidewalk outside my 1:12 dream house will have to do.

P.S. Someone's actually following me! Welcome, Norma.