My nephew was less than 3.5 years old the first time he saw one of my roomboxes, but he was instantly fascinated and would sit still and study it closely for a very long time. The same happened again later, when I brought another roombox to show him. So, I thought it would be fun to build him one of his own for his 4th birthday.
Layout: Part of his family's home was perfect for adapting into a miniature setting. The kitchen and kids' room with a view of the driveway and garage, and the sand box on the lawn next to it, are situated just about the same in real life.
The protective glass front shadowbox is "trompe l'oeil" painted on the outside; I
wanted it to resemble a wrapped gift, with ribbons and a label saying he got it from me on his 4th birthday.
Construction: I used a back opening IKEA box to house the setting, covering it on the inside with "sky paper" (sold for model railroads).
I built the rooms, garage wall and ground as a single unit that I could finish entirely inside and out, and then slide it into the box. That way, it was easy to assemble and hopefully will it also be easy to repair in the future. E.g., if there's an "accident" and glass cracks, I could just replace the actual shadowbox.
As you can see, the slide-in/out arrangement also made it really easy to photograph - no glass to consider.
Toys: The two little cars here, and the one in the kids' room, were made
by by Teresa's Miniature Creations in Naperville, Illinois, USA. I made the rest of the toys from Fimo clay. The dandelions were made according to a how-to by Sue Thwaite (a.k.a. Ladybug) in
LEN (volume 1, issue 3).
Pedal car: Now he was big enough to inherit a little pedal car, so
I wanted to include my interpretation of it. Also, it would add some interest to the big empty driveway. At first, making it seemed overwhelmingly complex, but then it cleared gradually. For a
start, I had some ready-made tiny wheels from a hobby shop sale. I bent craft wire into a basic framework, impressing it into the Fimo clay I used for the seat and front.
When I tried to glue the different wire pieces together with CA+ glue, I realized that the glue joints would be very weak as the wires barely touched, but then I recalled an old trick I've heard - sprinkling baking powder on wet CA+ glue makes the glue set in no time, and adds a lot of bulk. With a few applications of glue and baking powder, the car got nice and sturdy joints.
Kitchen: I made it as true to life as I could. Almost everything is built from wood, card, metal wire, and fabric. I used lots of cut off pins too. The "wire" plate rack is a cheat - I glued together three bits of clear plastic, and a little bit of wire so it would stand up, and painted white stripes on the clear plastic.
For the sofa back and arms I used plastic fencing, the mixing
bowl and lamp are made from fly fishing cone heads, and the fruit plate is made from two Grandt Line train model lamp reflectors.
Birthday celebration: The kid-friendly birthday cake is made of thin pancakes (crepes rather than American pancakes), whipped cream and blueberry jam. Yum! I made it from Fimo, with brush bristle candles. The crepes pan, mixing bowl, and jam jar from preparing the cake can be seen elsewhere in the kitchen.
The little car on the table is a metal model from The Quarter Source, which I painted. The plates were a how-to by Lyn Latimer in LEN (volume 2, issue 2). The spoons are bits of wire and blobs of glue, all painted silver. The mugs are cut from toothpicks and painted. I decorated the room with Fimo balloons (see my directions for 1:48 scale party decorations in the DIY projects section of this site).
Kids' room: Some of the furniture is from IKEA, so I could just refer to their catalog for exact measurements. Very convenient! I tried to copy the arrangement of photos exactly, as it's so characteristic of the room.
Posters, photos and painting: I used photos of the actual items, squared
them up and scaled down (including frames), then ordered a photographic print with them all on. The quality can be very good, depending on your original picture. Isn't it amazing how recognizable
the guardian angel print by the bed is?
I cut out each print and touched up the cut edges around the "frame" with paint where needed. On the painting in the kitchen I used FolkArt's Dimensional Brush Stroke Medium to change the glossy surface into a painting-like one, but I doubt that anyone will spot the difference!
Toys: I repainted two bought resin teddy bears to look more like the
"real" ones. The little car is from the same source as the ones in the sandbox, and the red huggable heart is a soft toy from IKEA. I made the heart from Fimo, like the rest of the toys in the
room.
Here, my nephew gets his first look at his gift. His grandfather holds the box securely, just for sure.
