Petit Maison: Part I

Day 1: House after a few hours of prep and a trip to the craft store

I like the idea of making things, this is one of the things architects do all day, the work involved in actually designing, sketching, cutting and assembling an object from scratch is fun for me so I decided to make a small play house for Arielle. Initially, she really wanted one large enough for her and her cousins to hide out in but there isn't anyway I can do that so we decided to make one large enough for her dolls. I am not really interested in making a dollhouse in the traditional sense of the word and I certainly don't have the time to do so either but I can handle a simple design so thats what I sketched up; A simple two story house with a pitched roof. It is very hard for me to keep it simple and not go into real design mode, start sizing beams and calculation stair risers! 

   

Anyway, we started by going to the craft store to buy supplies. I decided to base the house on the largest piece of birch plywood I could find in the store which turned out to be 12"x24"x1/8". Here's what we bought: (2) -12"x24"x1/8" birch plywood, (10) -4"x24"x1/8" basswood, (4) -4"x24"x3/32" basswood and a mix of miscellaneous wood dowels. I also got out my X-acto knife, blades, Sobo glue, architectural scale, pencils, chopper, cutting mat and metal ruler. 

After a quick sketch to figure out what rooms we wanted, we started building.

Because the birch plywood is so hard, I used 1/8" basswood strips for the exterior walls laminated to museum board. The was good for two reason; it gave the wall thickness ( stability) and made it so that I could have a wood finish on one side and white on the other. Arielle enjoyed covering the entire 22x30" board with glue. We then laid each sheet of basswood carefully onto the board and piled magazines atop to keep it flat while it dried. We did this twice, one sheet for the front and back walls and then another for the long side wall.

While that was drying, I measured and cut 4 dowels to use as the edges for the floor slabs. I cut (4) 24" pieces and (4) 12" peices-less the thickness of the dowels. I then glues these onto the bottome of the (2) 12"x24"x1/8" birch plywood sheets and set those aside to dry.

Once the laminated wood and museum boards were dry, I drew out the profiles for the front and back sides and the side and began to cut them out using the x-acto knife and a metal ruler.

As I finished cutting them out I decided to try to assmeble the house to see if things fit together properly. Its important to do this before you glue anything together so you can adjust and trim where needed. If I was using a laser cutter, I wouldn't worry but because I am manually cutting this out by hand, I need to make things line up properly. I did this by basically using anything I could find to hold the walls up with and masking tape.

Two picture frames are holding up the second floor and I taped the walls together at the corners.

It took me a few hours to do all this only because I had a 3 year old helper and a 6 week old strapped to me in a Moby wrap but really its a quick process from start to finish. The next step will be to design and cut out the fenestration and interior walls.

After doing this, we took another trip to the craft store to get more board and pick out wall paper to decorate the house with. Arielle picked out this Dalmatian figure and the lady at the checkout forgot to ring it up until after I had paid up. I promised we'd be back to get it another time but a young lady behind us actually asked her to ring it up with her stuff and gave it to Arie...I had no idea people like this still existed..but it really made Aries day! So now we have a pet for our house.

Next Post: Fenestration and interior walls....

'I Think I Canvas Hamper' HACK

My 'Land Of Nod' I think I Canvas Hamper hack.

After the unfortunate demise of my daughters plastic laundry bin (long story..), we have been making due with piles and a hanging laundry bag to put all her dirty clothing in and for me to get them down to the basement where I do the laundry. It not only got to be annoying but also, its teaching her a bad habit..throwing her clothes on the floor because she couldn't reach where the bag hung. Although  I am still working on getting her putting her toys away but at least she was really into putting her clothing in a hamper at bath time and putting her shoes in her room in a nice neat line in the corner, and I saw that all starting to change.

It was partially my fault as well because I haven't been able to put away the laundry fast enough so she sees laundry piles in every room; me, being a 'good example' hasn't been so great. Anyway, after looking for some simple hampers and not really finding what I wanted, I gave in and decided I needed something..anything, I also needed one our new little one as well. So the project began..

I found one at PB kids which I almost ordered embroidered with their names but they got mediocre reviews,  then I found one I liked at Restoration Hardware but it seemed too rugged and it was $79, its a bit expensive at least for Laundry hamper, so I then found these beige (plain) canvas hampers at the Land of Nod for $16.95 and decided it may be fun to try to personalize them with some stencils and paint. It initially began as just wanting to put a standard stencil letter for each one but my lovely husband suggested actually spelling their names out on the hampers as well, sort of like the RH hampers. 

Land of Nod's I think I Canvas Hamper

Restoration Hardware's Salvaged Tarp Laundry Hamper

Process: 

Homemade stencil

We found 4" stencils at Michael's to spell their names out and I decided to make my own stencils for the bigger letters because they didn't have anything I liked or anything big enough at Michael's. I printed the letter on card stock and cut it out with an X-acto knife.

We decided to use a matte grey spray paint and some masking tape to basically try to achieve a slightly uneven, 'standard issue' type effect on each bag. 

Stencils from Michael's

Firstly we taped all the letters together spaced as tight as I wanted them to read, then taped them to a piece of scrap paper to keep the spray paint form getting all over the rest of the bag. At this point we discovered the text was a bit to big and wouldn't fit on the bag as 'Arielle' so since we call her 'Arie' quite a bit we cropped it to say 'Arie'. 

We then taped the entire template to the bag, laid it  down and just sprayed it. 

We did run into some problems because the bags weren't able to be completely flattened due to built in piping (good for making it stand up and bad for trying to mount a stencil).

Stencil after we sprayed the first hamper

Stencil taped to the hamper

Hamper after removing the stencil

I was a bit shocked by the result initially, the flatter the bag is, the more control you will have over the spread of the spray paint, the better (neater) it would have looked but once I got over the initial result, I actually liked the imperfections. It took about 20 minutes to dry and then we filpped it and did the other side with a big 'A'. We also made one for the baby but I won't show this until we have actually officially named her and shared the name with our family and everyone (currently only the three of us know what it is). Obviously, if we stick to the name we have, then she has a cool hamper but as of now you can see that it begins with the letter 'E', if we change it, we can always toss the hamper!

Finished 

Beige.

Four years ago when I was expecting my first daughter, I spent a lot of time planning and designing her nursery/room. I am an architect so of course I had drawings and photorealistic renderings of the room before we bought anything and everything that we selected had been researched and deliberated on. The process is no different this time around maybe except for my timing- I will probably order the crib and dresser this weekend but theres a 6-8 week shipping delay so I wont be setting it up until mid-May. What is different is my taste in decor and clothing, my daughters room is orange and cream (which we painted several times before we settled on a the shade) and filled with very colorful stuffed animals and modern decor. The entire room was designed around this Litto Silly Owl Crib Set which is orange ad brown. This time around, I am planning a nursery which will remain the color it currently is (taupe) and be filled with antique white mid century inspired furniture, frilly white curtains, chandelier, neutral colored piillows and crib set. I also purchased some newborn clothing all in off white and neutrals, of course a few things are pink because its almost impossible to avoid when shopping for girls but even still, I am not only staying away from color this time, I am also staying away from pattern.

The funny part is that my daughter's silly and colorful personality fits with her room so well that I cant help but feel like the baby I am carrying must have something to do with my new design sensibility..is that strange or what? Is she telling me she's going to be an extremely easy going, quiet baby with a sort of 'beige' personality? or even better have I become 'beige'? I like to think I'm pretty funny and outgoing..ok who am I kidding, no I'm not. I hate talking on the phone, it can be hard to get me to attend social events, I rarely order any other flavor ice cream other than vanilla, I wear black and grey most days...maybe I am really beige..My husbands calls me a 'Plain Jane' sometimes. This is something I need to give a little more thought but in the meantime, heres my design palette for the babys nursery. Too beige?

A. Baby Nursery Design

List of Items

• Pax Birkeland
• Oeuf changing station
• Mid-Century Dresser
• Mid-Century Crib
• Jellycat Bashful Beige Bunny
• Je T'aime 12x20 pillow cover
• Eames Molded Plastic rocker
• Tiered ruffle Sheer Panel
• Mia Chandelier
• Counting Sheep Organic Crib Bedding
• Jellycat Truffles Dog
• Oversize Growth ruler