Bougainvillea House 1/24 Scale Room Box

When I was in 4th grade my parents decide to move from Austria to Tehran, Iran. We stayed for a while at my stepfather parent's house, where the entire upper floor was converted into an apartment for us.

The house itself was a spacious older building that had a yard and small wading pool. For us kids only knowing city living a yard and pool meant absolute heaven . I have fond memories of our time there and decided to recreate the facade of part of the building in this 5x7in room box. 

 

I purchased a wooden 5x7 box from Daiso. Here is a similar sized one from Amazon. You would have to removed the lid but size wise it would work for such  room box setting.

After some though I created a sketch of what I wanted to show in the room box.

 

Sketching out the design is like stretching before running. You prepare yourself of what is to come and get the creative juices flowing.

Foam board is a wonderful material to quickly create pavers and bricks with. All you have to do is use a ruler and draw some pencil lines. If you press down hard enough grooves will be created that give the indentation between the materials.

Once you paint the foam board with Acrylic paint and age it accordingly it takes on a rather realistic look. When painting wood make sure that your pain is not too watery. You do not want to warp the wood.

I added texture to the wall by adding some baking soda to the Acrylic paint. The more you add the thicker and more mortar like the paint will become. The same look can be achieved with mixing in baby powder or using textured pastes.

To make the door I sketched out the design I wanted in Cricut Maker.

 

 

The machine then cut out all the pieces on colored card stock. The pieces where layered one on top of the other, glued together and then painted with acrylic paint and wax.

Prima has a series of waxes that work wonderful for giving miniatures an aged look. A little goes a long way and I keep collecting their products since they have such great color choices. I used their brass and gold on the door handle and just love how it turned out.

The door frame was made of thin wooden coffee stirrers. They are thinner than popsicle sticks and super easy to cut.

Adding a door frame gives the whole door a more realistic look.The same was done for the window.

The window was also drawn in Cricut and them cut by the machine. Again card stock was layered to give the window bulk. 

 

It's all about creating an illusion and here I had to create a room that was barely visible if someone stood outside this house and looked towards the window. I found several images that I combined to create the interior I wanted. Then I blurred the heck out of that image and printed it out. I also put a bit of mod lodge over a clear sheet of plastic to make the faux glass look old. Once everything was assembled the illusion of an actual interior behind the glass was created.

For the Bougainvillea plant I used pink crepe paper and thin floral wire. I only had one color on hand, but you could use a variety of pink shades for an even more realistic look.

Just as in real life flowers are not uniform in size. Therefore I tried to vary the flowers of this plant as well.

Each bougainvillea flower has tiny white bracts in the center. I made those by rolling some paper and cutting tiny slits. It was a very fiddle job, but it needed to be done.

Every flower and leaf was glued onto a wire frame and bend into shape. I love how the shadow of the plant casts against the wall.

I think all that work was well worth the effort. The plant added not only color but gave the scene more depth. I also made some extra flowers to sprinkle on the ground. Anyone who has a bougainvillea in their yard knows how messy the ground can get with all the flowers that fall off the plant.

So I have to admit I am a total nerd when it comes to crafting. As soon as I saw this quilling tool set I thought this is perfect for making all sorts of tiny mini creations. I made the pots by quilling the paper into the shape with that little blue tool you see as part of the kit. I then applied a coat of matte Mod Podge and aged the pots with acrylic paint. I made the watering can also out of card stock .

The cat was resin printed and then given a bit more dimension with grey paint. In painting depth is created by layering objects one over the other and by playing around with scale. Things in the distance are smaller than what is closer to the viewer. This is applied here as well. This room box is perhaps 2" deep and by using these principles I made the space look much deeper than it actually is. The cat is the largest piece and since it is in the foreground make the back seem to recede even further. I hope that makes sense :)

Here are some more photos ...

 

 

 

This boombox has sold, but if you like to order one like it or with another theme click below for more information.