My Undersized Urbanite Entry - The Steampunk House

Here it is, at last, my entry for the Undersized Urbanite Dollhouse Contest!

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>>>>>>>>>Click Here to visit the Official Voting Site<<<<<<<<<<< 

Voting is now closed. Thank you everyone that participated.

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The before photos;

Just a weird little cabinet. Bought it for $20 at a local antique co-op. The new materials and, "Made in China", sticker was a dead giveaway that it wasn't really an antique, but hey it was neat, I hadn't seen one of these before, and I knew I could use it...

...So in the basement it sat, for years, until the opportunity came along to turn that blank white house above into this beauty;

 Come on, I'll give you the tour;


First, let's just enjoy the Exterior for a minute.

A 12 oz. can of Loganberry for size reference (guess where I'm from)

Because it was a cabinet, this house is more of a flat outline than a true dollhouse. So to make it visually interesting, I used an assortment of textures. Old brownstone influences, vertical wood elements, scalloped shingles and 'tarnished metal' paint detailing.

I wanted this house to look like an old, slightly run down building. Some interesting people showed up, loved it, and decided to make it into their own little quirky townhouse.

And I got to cross, "Try to make egg carton stone work", off my creative to-do list. :)

Exterior Materials;

Egg cartons

Paperclay

Balsa wood

Acrylic paint

Corrugated scrap booking paper

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Ok, Now let's go inside,

And start with the Basement.

It's old and unfinished.

The floor is just packed stone,

and the ceiling could use some work too.

Although the basement is half the height of a typical room, the tiny tenants of this house have plans to renovate the space...Assuming that they stop using it to store the "artifacts" that they've been finding, first.

  Some of this stuff is pretty neat though. 

That large metal piece was part of a very heavy necklace. And the pottery:

I made these out of paper, gesso, paint, & polyurethane.

Basement Materials;

Egg cartons

Paperclay

Balsa wood
string
Popsicle sticks

Acrylic paint
Other props

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Next, we head up the stairs to the Kitchen.

I think that, if this were a real room, the first thing that you'd notice walking in is the eclectic tile floor,

Hand cut, baked polymer clay tiles, along with some paper, sealed with polyurethane.

Then you might notice the re-purposed industrial spring bar stools,

Pipe-cleaner + a ton of paint and Polycrylic.

The seat is a cotton/fabric covered bottle top.

And then you'd turn and see the rest of the place.

Regular readers of my blog will recognize that almost everything in this room/house is handmade and was created over the course of this project. If you'd like to read about all of the handmade items in detail later, just follow the, "Undersized Urbanite", tags on my posts. There's not enough room to talk about them all here. :)

I will highlight the counter though because: A). It has a real glass mosaic top;

Along with some black acrylic paint, all sealed with a thick coat of Polycrylic.

And B). It rotates out into an island, for when the tenants are entertaining guests.

 Steampunk ingenuity.

Plus a few more photos of the top monitor fridge because it took so long to make, and because I only made that specific type of fridge because it fits into the non-modern electricity Steampunk theme, it deserves a little more face time too.

I think these people have a tiny drinking problem. 

(Thanks again for the bottles Neen)

Kitchen Materials;

Scrap booking paper

Balsa/Bass wood
Polymer clay

Acrylic paint
Other props

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And with that, we go up another flight of stairs to the Bedroom.

A little sparse compared to the kitchen, but it's got everything these little people need.

 An oil lamp (found it) & big book (painted gift) for night time reading, 

a piggy bank (purchased item) for safe keeping,

Steampunk bunkbeds (handmade),

And a pewter alligator to live underneath the Steampunk bunk-beds. :)  

The carpet is upholstery fabric and, believe it or not, the wallpaper is a crinkled up paper bag + some paint.

 (This is my favorite door, btw)

Bedroom Materials;

Brown paper bag

Upholstery fabric

Balsa/Bass wood

Acrylic paint
Other props

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Now up the stairs, one more time (this is a tall house) to the Observatory.

Prior to moving into the Steampunk house, the tiny tenants did some traveling, and they are very curious about the world. So when they discovered their spacious attic, with a window letting them peer out into their town or up at the night sky, they declared it their personal observatory and filled it with all of the souvenirs that they've acquired during their adventures.

A Popsicle stick and Polyurethane  hardwood floor makes for one classy observatory.

 

And a handmade upholstered bench makes for a comfy place to sit,
as long as you don't have a problem with mummies,

Or bugs.
(bought the mummy, photographed and miniaturized all of the bugs)

Observatory Materials;

Brown paper bag

Balsa/Bass wood
Mixed Media
Acrylic paint
Other props

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So that is the now finished Steampunk House. I hope you've enjoyed your tour and the dollhouse (vote for me! May 5-12). Please be careful walking back down all of those stairs on your way out,and have a wonderful day.

Thank you Christina, of Little Victorian, for hosting the Undersized Urbanite Dollhouse Contest,

I really enjoyed it. :)

And good luck to all of the other entrants!