Manor Minis and More

Just like I have go to recipes, I seem to have go to miniatures artisans.

When I began making minis, my go tos were House of Miniatures kits and Chrysnbon kits. They were affordable and easy to find.

As time went on, I was fortunate to be able to afford some special pieces by Dennis Jenvey, Jean Yingling, George Becker, Warren Dick and a few other artisans I discovered through Nutshell News. I would have loved for some of these folks to be go to too, but alas and alack, the money wasn’t available.

Fast forward two children and a few (cough cough) years. Now I have a few new favorite miniatures craftspeople.

One of these is Kris Compas. Kris makes the BEST upholstered furniture. I saw this green furniture set and simply could not resist it.

If you notice in the pictures, I have a few pieces from Pati at minisx2. Incredible stuff and the best part is that she (as well as Kris) do custom orders.

I was a total sucker for cats for a bit. Represented are Bridget Mccarty –

And Teresa Summers – (I just love what I call the Mardi Gras cat)

And if you look close, the kitten by the coffee table is by Reve. Now I say good on her, but I totally can’t afford Reve anymore. (The kitten was thirty some dollars “back in the day”.)

I can’t remember who made a few of these pieces. There are some super fun acrylic vase turners on eBay. The white cup and saucer are part of a custom made service for 8 of plain white china from Jean Yingling. (I really treasure this set and it made through our move with out breaking.) (knock on wood)

Cue the Sound of Music – these are a few of my favorite things.

Sandra

I put together an extremely crude mock-up of my 70’s kitchen.

I say extremely crude because the wallpaper and floor are only taped in place as are the wall cabinets. I still haven’t done any work on the house itself, but it has been fun playing with the furniture. I think I have something that is close to the picture in my last post. Without the pink. I am not a pink fan.

This kitchen is built from a Realife Kitchen Kit. I put together a number of the kits when I first started doing miniatures because they were cheap. What I had forgotten between that time and this was that they are cheap for a reason. The wood is very thin and quite prone to warping. I also opted to skip some steps which make the kits a whole lot more complicated than they need to be, such as making the front of the cabinets with pieces of strip wood and fussing with the refrigerator shelves (the fridge is glued shut). Overall, I am pleased with the way the kitchen turned out.

I really need to get to work on the house!

Sandra

First things first. I need to show you my brand new Kris Compas dining room chairs! In my opinion, they are just right for this room.

Now on to the Contemporary Ranch.

I haven’t really gotten around to putting the house together yet. It’s been too cold or too wet to start my much loved textured spray painting for one thing. But in anticipation of actually building the house, I have been planning the interior.

After the black and white (mostly) color scheme, I feel the need for color. Lots of color. What better place for a serious color fix than the early 1970s.

For some reason my mother had these 1971/1972 decorating magazines around.

I gather she planned on redecorating at some point. Unfortunately, for me, she actually got around to all that redecorating a little later and we ended up with the dreaded avocado green/harvest gold. The worst part of the redo (My mom will never see this, thank goodness, since she does not own a computer.) was that we had the 1950’s turquoise cabinets with – yes – coppertone appliances in the kitchen. I kid you not.

Even if they did not inspire my mom, I can so see having some mini rooms like these. Who can resist that kitchen? The mediterranean furniture? The bentwood chairs?

Here are some pieces I have gathered up so far.

Peace!

Sandra

Some credits: mediterranean furniture – Old Concord from eBay (still looking for more of this!), modern chairs from miniatures.com., love seat is a modified Realife Kit, beautiful z-shaped shelf from minisx2, bentwood chairs are from Town Square.

I originally posted this on my Catzlover Cooks blog, but thought I would post here since it is, duh!, a miniatures blog.

I saw these pictures on the Ugly House Photos site.

I just could not resist making a similar room box. Not only an homage to my teenage years (although in my reality the basements that I hung out in were not this cool at all), but I got to have a room with all that white carpet. In my 1:1 world with cats and coffee this carpet would be grey in no time!

This was too much fun!

Contrary to the picture, I am really picky about colors. As such, I make a lot of my own wallpapers. (Please do check out the modern wallpapers I created!)

While checking out an icon site I discovered this very nifty link – The Japonizer. Pick a pattern, pick your colors, and voila! You can download a pattern that can be used to make your customized wallpaper. The above was an art deco pattern done in black and white. (I unintentionally put it up upside down on a box for the picture – Yikes!)

A sidenote: I say a great big “NO” to “Yes” glue. This glue is often recommended to use when putting up wallpaper. It may work really well for some folks, but for me in humid summer Virginia the glue took way too long to dry and left unsightly brown spots on my paper. I am sticking to plain old thinned tacky glue – thanks!

Sandra

Credits: Chest is Amazing Miniatures, Chair is Amatheria, Vases are ncshrimper on EBay.