Props A Rococo Room Fit For a Princess

Hey all, welcome to my first project thread! I've decided to use this as a way to organize my thoughts and process, as the note on my phone about it is a bit of a mess, and this will also make me feel some level of personal accountability to get this project started at all (thanks, paralyzing indecision). This whole project isnt' going to be one prop, but multiple things for this overall room.

The Project: The Shimmering Court (Room, horse, Minifee, Pukifee)

Overview: I recently acquired a Minifee Chloe, who shall be known as Princess ? until her name comes to me after her final faceup, and a Pukifee Frozen, who will be her grumpy cherub attendant. Princess ? also requires a horse, because what sort of self-respecting fantasy princess doesn't have her own horse?

I also have a 1:6 scale room box from Laserlines on Etsy. Originally this was meant to be used for the Monster High dolls I made over, but I found that I'm not into actually keeping those once they're done. I tend to just throw them to the kids afterwards. So now, resin for mama, MH tossed to feral children to keep them happy. Everyone wins.

But I digress. The room box might be 1:6, but I found that my MNF fit quite well in it, possibly enough to fit 2-3 dolls of that size in there. So now the room will belong to Princess ? and whoever else comes along that fits in with the fantasy princess theme.


The Inspo: Rococo, regencycore, those 1990s posters of white unicorns with black hooves and noses, Renaissance art, the Birth of Venus.
Because this is fantasy, I will be drawing from rococo/regency aesthetics, but no part of this project is meant to be historically accurate.


The Vision: Shimmer. Pearls. Iridescent gold. Roses. Ivory. Ribbons. Lace. Feathers. Velvet. Marble statues. Gilded threads.


TO-DO

Room Box

• Pick a stain color for the flooring. I purchased a box with the herringbone pattern etched in, so that will have to be taken into account.
• Exterior walls will be painted off white so it blends in with my furniture.
• Interior walls: likely some soft shade of white. I'm debating adding iridescence to the paint for a little more dimension.
• Wooden column appliques: measure for the rococo-style appliques I found that would make good doll-size columns. There are also medallion-style appliques that might work to add more of that over-the-top rococo style to the walls.

Room Box Accessories

• Carpet: Find scrap velvet in ivory/gold to create a carpet.
• Chiffon curtains. Hopefully with tiny gold details already incorporated!
• Bed: I've decided to purchase an Our Generation scrollwork daybed for this. It's a little big for Princess ?, but that's fine, she's probably a bed hog. I will be painting the frame gold and using a mix of velvet/lace/chiffon in ivory and gold for all bedding materials.
• Marble statues: find miniature marble statues as decor.
• Rose and ivy vines: I want roses and flowers creeping all over this room box, like she's Sleeping Beauty.

Horse

• This will be an Our Generation horse, since they're also sized almost perfectly for Princess ?. I'm hoping for either the Lusitano or Clydesdale, but I will take the palomino in a pinch.
• Touch up skin/face/hooves for more realism (possibly some fantasy-ism, we'll see how I feel when the horse is in my hands).
• Create all-new fantasy-style tack (likely the part of the project most likely to make me scream)
• Name the horse so I'm not just calling him 'Horse' the whole time.

Cherub

• Faceup: I'm thinking very iridescent for his tiny grouchy face.
• Wig: Undecided.
• Toga: please god let this not be the thing that drives me to despair. White chiffon required.
• Accessories: I'm going to look for gold faux leather to create his belt, sandals, and quiver. There might also be a minuscule flower crown involved.
• Wings: undecided on looking for resin wings or creating them from feathers, although I think resin with iridescent paint brushed on would be gorgeous.

Princess ?

• New faceup: although I purchased her with a lovely faceup done by her last owner, it's too pink and pretty and not doing it for me. The inspo for her new face will be Jennifer Connelly in the Labyrinth (which hopefully my skills are up to par). I think Princess ? has a dark side and needs a face to reflect this.
• Flower crown: to be made with white roses, tiny pearls, white ribbon and lace. This will hopefully match the white princess dress I've already purchased for her.
• Shoes: I'm going to buy plain white flats and glue on the pearls and diamonds, and possibly add lace-up ribbons.
• Dress: Already ordered.
• Find a name!

Phew, okay, that was a lot, but these are my first BJDs and this is going to be a massive project for me. I will be updating soon with pictures of all aspects as I cross things off my list, from the base level to the finished product. Wish me luck (because I'm gonna need it) and I hope to be able to come back soon with progress made!

 

Thank you, I hope so too, haha!

 

The Base: Bare Bones (and a brief Laserlines review)

Here is the base model of the room, along with an example of Princess What's Her Face standing in the middle, poor nude and hairless thing that she is right now (she should be getting her new faceup next week, so I'm not dressing her yet).

For reference, Princess is a Moe line MNF. I'm not sure what an A-line would look like in this room, but I can definitely fit at least 2-3 MSD in here comfortably. A lot of this space will be taken up by the Our Generation bed. Frankly, my dream doll bed is a Winzer Doll bed French Renaissance bed, but because her dress cost so much, I've decided not to get wild on the furniture for now.

For anyone looking to buy from Laserlines, this is what a basic room box looks like with the default window/door (which I would ask to remove from my next box in favor of walls). Nothing is glued, it has a slot system to keep it all together and is pretty sturdy without any reinforcement.
I did pay extra for the herringbone floor, which may have been a mistake in retrospect, as the wood color looks too dark to stain blonde and it feels pointless to cover it with contact paper. I may stain it dark for now, and if I can acquire another 1:6 scale room, swap out the flooring when I move on to my next project and just put marble contact paper on a non-patterned floor for this one.
This room is pretty big and takes up about a third of my 72" long sideboard.
They also shipped quickly and everything was super easy to put together. I feel there's a very good chance I'll end up getting a second one for a darker diorama.

Next up is painting the walls this weekend! I'm using Ceramcoat in Magnolia White. Floor stain TBD.

 

This is ominous, but honestly I might actually be most excited for the horse part

 

Haha, actual factual! I think Horse will be receiving a unicorn horn, but now that you've mentioned gryphons, a massive art doll of one would be an amazing project!