Modern miniature furniture in New York Times

For all of you who, like me, love to look at (or even aquire) modern furniture for their dolls, here is an article in the New York Times about them. I resent the implication that people who collect stuff like that are eccentric and weird - it is the only thing that marred this article for me. I would love to have some of that stufff to photograph my dolls with. They have a nice slideshow too.

Modern miniature furniture in New York Times

For all of you who, like me, love to look at (or even aquire) modern furniture for their dolls, here is an article in the New York Times about them. I resent the implication that people who collect stuff like that are eccentric and weird - it is the only thing that marred this article for me. I would love to have some of that stufff to photograph my dolls with. They have a nice slideshow too.

Tatiana's Doll House: Home Office

This office display is a permanent set-up inside one of the shelves of Tatiana's new bookcases that make up the structure of her black and white doll house (search this blog for more of the rooms). She loves the nice black finish on them and the fact that there are no predrilled holes. Each room is about 17Hx37Wx15D inches.

Tatiana used large wooden shadowbox frames with white coverstock inserted inside for the windows. The middle part is a piece of black on black foamcore that I cut to the size and wedged in between the frames. The fireplace is a wooden Christmas display miniature that Tatiana purchased from City Lights Collectibles online. She could not find it on their website to provide us with the link - looks like they do not carry it any more.Tatiana did not modify the fireplace, it came with nice metal candle holder in copper colour with white wooden candles. On top of the fireplace is a wooden 4x6 inch photo frame with real mirror inserted inside. 

The vase is a playline Barbie accessory that she repainted. The ashtrays are Re-ment, one of them was spray painted silver. The flowers are from the wedding isle of Michael's craft store. The desk is a smaller size shadowbox frame cut with a mitre saw and put together at a 90 degree angle. Computer, phone, I-pod, CDs and printer are Mattel minis. Tatiana repainted the desk lamp and vase. The office chair is from a Barbie playset and she spray painted it black.

The white sofa is a leatherette covered jewelry box that came with two matching pillows. The coffee table is black wooden drawer from Tatiana's jewelry box turned upside down and propped with two wooden mini photo frames. Notebook, portfolio, glasses and remote came with various playsets, coffee cup and saucer are Re-ment. The carpet is a sheet of black craft felt.

 

 Venus Eugenia is wearing her own outfit with random FR basic pumps, while Most Desired Eugenia is dressed in "Black as Night" blouse and Capri pants.

Tatiana's Doll House: Home Office

This office display is a permanent set-up inside one of the shelves of Tatiana's new bookcases that make up the structure of her black and white doll house (search this blog for more of the rooms). She loves the nice black finish on them and the fact that there are no predrilled holes. Each room is about 17Hx37Wx15D inches.

Tatiana used large wooden shadowbox frames with white coverstock inserted inside for the windows. The middle part is a piece of black on black foamcore that I cut to the size and wedged in between the frames. The fireplace is a wooden Christmas display miniature that Tatiana purchased from City Lights Collectibles online. She could not find it on their website to provide us with the link - looks like they do not carry it any more.Tatiana did not modify the fireplace, it came with nice metal candle holder in copper colour with white wooden candles. On top of the fireplace is a wooden 4x6 inch photo frame with real mirror inserted inside. 

The vase is a playline Barbie accessory that she repainted. The ashtrays are Re-ment, one of them was spray painted silver. The flowers are from the wedding isle of Michael's craft store. The desk is a smaller size shadowbox frame cut with a mitre saw and put together at a 90 degree angle. Computer, phone, I-pod, CDs and printer are Mattel minis. Tatiana repainted the desk lamp and vase. The office chair is from a Barbie playset and she spray painted it black.

The white sofa is a leatherette covered jewelry box that came with two matching pillows. The coffee table is black wooden drawer from Tatiana's jewelry box turned upside down and propped with two wooden mini photo frames. Notebook, portfolio, glasses and remote came with various playsets, coffee cup and saucer are Re-ment. The carpet is a sheet of black craft felt.

 

 Venus Eugenia is wearing her own outfit with random FR basic pumps, while Most Desired Eugenia is dressed in "Black as Night" blouse and Capri pants.

Tatiana's Doll House: The Dining Room

The very talented Tatiana has started making a series of rooms in 1/6 scale - all together they will make a big dollhouse. I will be presenting her work here in the blog - one room each month. We start with the dining room. Tatiana was inspired for the table by the dining room from Calvin Klein's Doll House by architect Josh Prince-Ramus (see previous post and photo below) . She liked the "dressy" posh impression conveyed by the dark brown and white colour scheme, and decided to use black & white for her dining room.

Calvin Klein Dollhouse - for photo credit check previous post

The idea to make the whole doll house in black and white with style and colour coordinated rooms came to her after making the dining table from wooden frames, which she purchased on clearance for her craft projects. They are solid wood shadowbox frames with high quality black finish. Her husband kindly cut them to desired height with a mitre saw. She then finally had enough modern looking furniture to make not only the dining room, but also the living room and bedroom. These furniture pieces with their rich feel of solid wood and almost jewellery-box quality finish are her favourites.

Tatiana had several dioramas in foamcore boxes before and after discovering that they don't hold their shape and warp under furniture weight, began looking for something more sturdy. She found oversized double corrugated cardboard in a local art store and decided to give it a try. She scored the sheet with a construction knife, then proceeded to fold and glue it into a box. The result was much better than she had hoped for. Using oversize coverstock for walls and floor added more durability and allowed her to avoid unsightly seams.

The columns are 13-3/4" wedding cake pillars, bought here. The white chairs came with Dynamite Girls convention chair packs. Tatiana purchased some of them on e-bay and some on doll boards. Plates are Gloria accessories that were repainted white. The cutlery, candelabras, wine bucket with bottle and "crystal" glasses are from Gloria play sets too. Vases are by Mattel, except for the clear one, which is a lipstick base.

She cut out placemats from acrylic screen on collectible Barbie box. The white table runner is a candy box ribbon. The Fashion Royalty liquor cabinet was a part of her office diorama, that was disassembled to make room for this one. Tatiana thought that it would look much better as a china cabinet and, after arranging some Re-ment plates and tea sets in it, she was happy with the result. And so are we.