My Model Room

Since I'm back at uni now I am going to call the project finished.

I had to give a presentation about my work so far and everyone seemed very impressed with the photos of this creation.

It took three months to make and is a pretty good replica of my bedroom, a 10th of the actual size. I made my bed, my furniture, even my books and posters.

I worked out that I only spent about £3.50 on the whole thing, and that was for the cardigan I used for the carpet, a long strip of bolster wood I used for the door frames, and a cheap tube of white paint.

If you missed out on any of the steps I took to making my miniature room then here are all the links. It certainly seems like a lot. 

1: Making a start

2: Wallpaper

3: Carpet

4: Window

5: Bunk beds

6: Furniture

7: Locker

8: Bedding

9: Ottoman

10: Airing cupboard door

11: Drawers, shelves, photos

12: Mirror and more

13: Curtains

14: Laptop, chair, table

15: Book shelves and notice board

16: Bed details 

My Model Room: #16 Bed details

I've added the finishing touches to the bunk beds, like this hanging toy tidy. I won't be making tiny versions of the toys though, I think that's a bit excessive.

I've also covered the top bunk. In reality it is covered by a patchwork blanket but instead of trying to recreate it I found this fabric which is a similar colour just without the pattern.

For under the bed I made a white drawer out of card with black beads stuck to the bottom for the little wheels, and a simple cardboard box which I use to keep shoes in. 

My Model Room: #15 Book shelves and notice board

The room is starting to look a bit more 'lived in' as I'm filling up the shelves.

For my notice board I used a small bit of cork and put a tiny version of my calendar on it. Unfortunately the only image of the Country Music Hall of Fame calendar on the internet was the December page with Gretchen Wilson on it. I was hoping for Sugarland, or maybe Brad or Taylor. 

Hanging from one of my shelves I have some plastic crystals that were sold as Christmas decorations. I recreated these using clear seed beads and invisible thread. On the drawers underneath I made the red plastic container I keep my hair things in and my clock, which I still need to put the numbers on.

Here's a close up on the mini version of the wooden box I made in middle school, and some of my books. I made the books by taking a photo of the books on my shelf and sticking it to a little box made of card, slotting in more card for the taller books.

Also notice that I made the shelf brackets made of little bits of card painted pink.

My Model Room: #14 Laptop, chair and table

So this is where all the blogging happens.

There's the computer table (which usually has more junk on it), my laptop, chair and more pictures on the wall.

I'd been putting off this section of my room because the chair was going to be a challenge. With some wishful sticking and lots of kebab skewers and cocktail stick I managed to come up with something resembling the real thing.

For these pictures I just took photos of the originals, or found them on the internet, and reduced them in size on Word. Then I stuck them to card and covered them in sticky back plastic. There's my Lost cast photo, my signed Ian Somerhalder photo ("Aloha babe you rock!") and a photo of me and Joshua Radin with a signed ticket.

To make my laptop I just used bits of thick card painted black and some shiny silver card. And the website I chose to display on the screen? Facebook of course.

My Model Room: #13 Curtains

At last the windows have curtains. I used the fabric from my actual curtains, the same stuff I used for the duvet cover.

The curtains are permanently open as it would have been too much of a challenge to have them drawn as well. So I used a simple running stitch to gather them at the top.

I also gathered the curtains at the bottom a little as they stuck out too much on their own.

I made this little vase, for one of the flowers that appear throughout my bedroom, by rolling up a piece of sellotape and then gluing it directly to the window sill.

My Model Room: #12 Mirror and more

Here's my mirror and the decorations around it.

There's my handmade montage of people with guitars. I took a photo of the original and reduced the size and the frame is made of matchsticks. The guitar in the top right corner is covered in buttons!

The mirror is jut shiny silver card. The circle stickers are to represent the sports day stickers I've had stuck there for ever. At the bottom I used nail transfers to represent all the different post-it notes I put there.

I bought these flowers from Hobbycraft and have them in a couple of places in my room. To make the miniature versions I cut tiny petals from one of the original petals and then glued a small piece of wire to each of them individually. 

I also have them on my wardrobe in these little half pots. I made the original pots with papier mache around a large yogurt pot, but for the miniatures I just folded a small bit of sugar paper.

My Model Room: #11 Drawers, shelves, photos

I've finished the shelves, drawers and pictures in this little corner of my room.

I need to make my CD player which sits on top of these drawers, and fill the little shelves with CDs and cassettes.

Here are my school class photos. For those of you who are interested and fancy squashing your face up to the computer screen, in the top photo - Year 4 - I'm second row, second from left, in the next - Playgroup - I'm second row, first from right and in the bottom one - Reception - I'm second row, first from left.

I need to fill these book shelves with books. That'll be a fun challenge...

I also put a plug socket behind the drawers. You can't usually see it but I love the details.

My Model Room: #10 Airing cupboard door

I had a lot of fun recreating the door to the airing cupboard in my room because of all the photos and posters.

And I didn't shy away from the details. There's the door hinges, which were originally cocktail sticks...

and the door handle.

I also made the plastic wall hanging photo display thing using sticky back plastic and actual photos of me and my friend. I used the tiny photo thumbnails you get when you get prints developed at a store, and they just happen to be one tenth the size of the originals.

I even included tiny CDs which I use for decoration, made out of small circle bits of mirror with a sticker in the middle.

And I've got exact copies of some of the posters I have displayed; Taylor Swift, Jason Behr, Pushing Daisies and a Kenny Chesney tour poster which I ripped out of my People Country magazine. I wish I could read that magazine regularly, but you can't get it in England.

This is one of my favourite parts of the project so far.

My Model Room: #9 Ottoman

To make the ottoman for my room I used a toothpaste box (Sensodyne toothpaste to be precise, though I'm more of a Colgate gal myself) and a bit of foam for the padded seat which I covered in pink fabric.

For the details on the upholstery I used matching seed beads as the buttons.

Charlie's still hanging around, but now he has somewhere to sit.

I've also started adding small details to the room, like this plug socket.

My Model Room: #8 Bedding

The project continues with the bedding. I got the sewing machine out and whipped up a duvet and pillows.

My top bunk is where we store spare pillows so I made a few extra to copy this. This part isn't finished yet as my actual top bunk is covered in a blanket with a hexagonal patchwork pattern, but I haven't figured out how to replicate this yet.

The duvet and top pillow on my bed are double sided and I went for plain pink for one side and a pink patterned fabric for the other, which is the actual fabric of my duvet set and curtains. My Mum re-hemmed my curtains, cutting off the extra so I could use it for my model room. 

I've got a lot of the extra curtain fabric leftover so I made a hair bow with it. Now I can match my room!

My Model Room: #7 Locker

I'd always wanted an American style full size locker in my bedroom -for no reason other than it would be awesome- and for my 15th birthday my Dad managed to get one for me.

This is me a few days after that birthday fitting inside the locker.

And here's my miniature cardboard version of my locker.

Complete with scaled down versions of the posters and pictures I have on it.

This miniature room is really starting to look like my actual room. This is the view in from the window.

My Model Room: #6 Furniture

The next part of my model room project is some more furniture; drawers, desk, shelves and wardrobe.

My furniture is grey with pink plastic beading on the edges. Who knew that those two colours would go well together.

I used cardboard packaging and other bits of card for the furniture and painted it all grey. I also cut lines into it to give the illusion of separate drawers.

For the pink beading I mixed PVA glue with pink acrylic paint because this would give the plastic look I wanted. I applied the mixture with a syringe as this gave me a very thin line...although there are some parts that are a bit messy, you can just ignore those.

For the drawer handles I mixed up some more glue and pink paint and spread it thinly on a bit of plastic. I then put pink seed beads in it and waited for it to dry. Then I cut circles out around the beads. I'm sure there's a much easier way to make the drawer handles, but this way worked for me.