Tatiana's Doll House: Club diorama

The latest diorama talented Tatiana has created is a place for her dolls to relax and hang out - The Fashion Royalty Club. This display was inspired by a pink plastic piano that she repainted  black last summer. That project was very long and challenging for her as she aimed for a thick glossy finish. One month and two cans of paint later she finally felt happy of how it turned out. She used a high gloss black lacquer by Rust-Oleum and applied it in multiple layers.

The round tables are from a Gloria play set, their bases painted silver. Tablecloths are made from polyester table napkins and curtains are faux silk dupioni napkins  attached with double sided tape. The buffet table is a wooden shadow-box frame that was cut with a miter saw. Cake, pastries, trays and cutlery are re-ment, small white plates came with a no-name play set.

Tatiana made the wall scone lights by splitting a Mattel purple chandelier in quarters and gluing them to wooden pendants from a dollar store. After that she spray-painted everything with black acryllic paint and attached them to the wall using double sided tape.

The chandelier is an accessory from a Barbie playset that she painted black and attached with a polyester thread to a mini square gel tile. Gel tiles come with a sticky back, so it is very easy to attach them without any damage to the surface.

The tabletop candle holders are Gloria minis that Tatiana painted with acrylic paint using a brush. The wonderful black chairs are from the Pivotal Jazz dolls by Mattel. She loves the scale, the style and the quality of them. I must say that they look great - I own some of them! The swan vase on the piano is a wedding favour from a craft store and in it are white roses from buttonier flowers.

Deconstruction Sight Eugenia is dressed in Guaranteed Chic outfit, restyled by Tatiana. Former Face Time Eugenia was re-rooted in raven by the very talented Susan K. She is wearing the Soir De Paris dress. All photos by Tatiana.

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 Bedroom

In the third instalment for Tatiana's doll house, I have the bedroom! Every house needs a nice looking bedroom to rest and relax and Tatiana's is no exception! Of course it is always in the style laid out for the rest of the house - black & white.

The bed and bedding are from the Fashion Royalty Loft collection furniture. This line of furniture was a hit with collectors and most items are very sought after. The bedside tables, trays, striped vases and lamps are from the Jonathan Adler Barbies.

Tatiana repainted lamp bases and trays that were originally hot pink (Barbie anyone?). The bench and vanity table are solid wood shadowbox frames cut with a miter saw - I can see she uses shadowbox frames a lot for making benches or side tables. For the vanity top she inserted a real mirror in the small wooden photo frame.

The Panton miniature chairs came with the Dynamite Girls convention chair pack given to the attendees of 2008 FR Convention. Integrity also sold a pack of chairs in an assortment of colours. The curtains are table napkins. 

The closet door is from Barbie House by Mattel. The hinges were broken by Tatiana's girls beyond repair, so she just cut them off and the closet was born! The fluffy white carpet is a piece of craft fur. The white vases, telephone and basket came with various Mattel play-sets, which Tatiana then repainted. The silver tea set is Re-ment and the tea tray was just a purple no-name doll accessory. 

The wine bucket and bottle are Gloria, the glasses are from a Fashion Royalty convention accessory pack. The small silver cushions came with a jewellery box that looks like a mini sofa - these are easy to find in accessory shops in various styles and colours.

I hope you enjoyed this month's room from Tatiana - back next month with another beautifully decorated room in black & white!

Tatiana's Doll House: The Living Room

As we promised, here is the second instalment of the presentation of Tatiana's doll house. In this post we visit the living room. I remind you that, as mentioned in the previous installment (dining room) the whole house will be made in black and white.

The room is another box made from double corrugated cardboard. Tatiana used oversize coverstock for walls and floor. The curtains are dinner napkins - black ones are faux dupioni silk, white is polyester. The console table and the TV bench are made from another one of the frames she got from a clearance sale. The back panel behind the TV was cut out from cardstock sides of the box that came with the Fashion Royalty bed (inspired by a visit to local IKEA store). Tatiana replaced the Barbie sticker on the TV screen with a cutout from the card that came with the registration gift at the Chicago Fashion Royalty convention. It may have to be replaced with a plain black cardstock later, but for now she likes how her dolls are watching Convention News!

The sofa and chairs are jewelry boxes. The black coffee table is from the Fashion Royalty Loft collection; the accessories on top of it were included: the shaker, glasses and champagne bottle in the bucket. The white carpet is just a piece of craft felt: Tatiana used two sheets for thickness. The two small side tables are acrylic risers from re-ment bakery cases, turned on a side with tops glued to them. Their sides, originally slightly sloped, became horizontal under the weight of the tops and lamps. The black mirrored tabletops are from a friend of Tatiana's - she is not sure what they are. 

The lamp shades, candles, telephones, vases, electronics and jewellery box come from various Mattel play sets. Tatiana repainted the vases, jewelry box and statuette, which is an Esmeralda figurine from kids candy. The lamp posts are from the Gloria playset. A piece of thin wooden rod and a clear bead were used to attach them to the lamp shades. She purchased inexpensive self-adhesive mosaic stones from the scrap booking section and placed them adhesive side up under the back legs of the sofa and chairs to level them up.

Tatiana says she had fun making this diorama and likes that her dolls finally have a modern living room; she was meaning to make this one for years. They sure look great sitting in there.

All photographs courtesy of Tatiana.

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.