I do regular sized woodworking on my day job, but for myself I make miniature rooms. I use the regular sized machines and tools at the shop as opposed to hobby/small sized model making type equipment and tools.
The exception is a small miter saw and miterbox for cutting the flooring.
I made all the panelling from individual pieces of clear 100 year old spruce wood, and the flooring was made from padauk cut into small strips and micro pinned to the plywood base.
Here’s a few photos
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Wollf2,
We went to the The National Museum of Toys / Miniatures In KC MO last summer.
Wow! Your stuff is as the same quality as what I saw there and even better than some.
Thank for sharing.
John
Thank you John!
What is the scale of your room?
I know a guy, he makes doll houses and sells all that he can make. His prices start at $25,000 for a doll house. Well, that was some time ago, I don't know the current price.
You might consider giving up your day job.
I only go with 1:12 scale. That room is a compilation of albeit not a duplicate of two real rooms in the historic Wilton House which is now a museum.
I did a Georgian room before that one, actually I made it twice because the first was destroyed by a fire at my workplace as I described in another post about dust collectors, but I had many photos and I was able to scale the dim's of the box by using the pattern on the wallpaper in the photos I had.
Here's a few photos of that one, I decided to do the flooring in a herringbone pattern alternating walnut and cherry for contrast, but I was somewhat disappointed after stain and finishing by how much of the contrast between the woods was lost.
Most of the furniture, wallpaper, chandelier etc was still available and I was able to recreate the first one that burned.
Are you also making the furnishings? Lighting, pictures, etc.
The wood furniture (except the piano) and lights were purchased, the pictures are actually vintage, signed miniature oil paintings.
I was not able to find a suitable piano that didn't look "cheap" or the wrong style, so I made that myself using pieces of the padauk wood I used for the flooring.
I also needed to make the wood windows as the 1:12 scale windows were too small- they needed to be about 1:6 scale, I made them double-hung,with actual glass, and a shadow box behind them with a color photo and leds.
I still need to make curtains for the windows and add wires to the piano yet
This is awesome. I always liked making models as a kid and still make balsa airplanes. I would love to try something like this.
I always liked miniatures, as well as engines, model airplanes's engines were of interest to me, I have several of those.
I guess it was my late "cousin" (I was adopted) Murial in whose estate house on Long Island that I spent a few nights in as my "Grandma" was her personal secretary and lived in her own apartment on the top floor of the house.
Muriel was very well off, she had "domestics" (gardener, driver, maid, cook, and Grandma as her personal secretary)
I was only about 6 or 7 but I remember the big open wood staircase leading to the kitchen and a formal library with books on shelves to the ceiling. In the room was two large tables upon which there were two large glass enclosed miniature rooms.
I remember one was a living room of some kind with chairs, sofa, rug and furnishings, she turned the lights on for me and it was WOW!
I don't remember the other one, but Muriel was a sculptor and a room down the hall from the library had lots of her bronze sculptures in it.
She died when I was about 7 or 8, I asked about the rooms and was only told they went to a couple of girls in the family, never saw photos or saw them again.
Muriels' husband's family had the last name "Eden" and apparently wayyy back in the ... 1700s were the ones who founded the town of Eden, Long Island. Muriels' ex husband had something to do with shipping, as in ocean/freight shipping, so she could afford the huge house, domestics, and antiques, so those miniature rooms were probably very expensive antiques imported from Europe possibly.
You would probably enjoy making something like a miniature room, it doesnt even have to be a full room, you could try a shadowbox, basically a "slice" of a room that could hang on the wall like a picture.
Theere is a wood molding supplier that makes miniature wood moldings like the full sized ones- cove, quarter round, cornice, chair-rail, baseboards, window trim, wainscott- all kinds, the amazing thing is they come 24" long and I still have NO idea how they can make a 1/8" molding 24" long and even get something that small and thin thru any kind of machine!
The wood furniture- the good stuff is amazing, some costs almost as much as the real furniture. The chandelier in the museum room I posted earlier is actually hand made of metal and glass crystal like a real chandelier is, wired to work, it was almost $300 but nothing else could possibly "make" the room like that does!
The first one I constructed was built because of all crazy things- I saw a miniature staircase and bought it because it was very cool, and then I decided I needed a room for it LOL!
The room had a theme to it; "The telephone call" I made it as a sort of art work, with the inner door left open, bags of groceries carlessly dropped, and the phone's receiver left dangling, the idea was the viewer interprets what that call might have been about, as clearly the person ran out of the room suddenly, so was the call fantastic news, or tragic news? the viewer decides that based on their own experience.
After that one I did a Victorian bathroom, for that I found a bathtub, toilet and sink made of metal from the UK, an EMpire style wood console table, I didnt like the cheap plastic medicine cabinets with shiny mylar "mirror" that I saw, so I made my own and used an actual glass mirror in it.
The flooring was padauk wood
oh wow i really love it! It really takes a lot of time and effort, I'm not as skilled as you, so in such cases you should contact semihandmade customer service https://www.pissedconsumer.com/company/semihandmade/customer-service.html for advice. They ensure clarity and professionalism, blending youthfulness with expertise for a seamless experience.
Thank you!