Props My 1st Roombox | Now with a kitchen!

Table of Contents:

1. The Brick Wall - This post!
2. Mini Update #1
3. The Floor
4. Side Walls
5. Room trim/baseboards & Sofa Progress
6. Sectional Sofa Completion
7. Mini Update #2
8. Mini Update #3: Couch upgrade
9. Our Generation Kitchen Repaint

(I’m a little late in posting this here since I already started on this project about a week ago. If you want to see all my dumb postings about it, you can check out my Roombox story on my Instagram.)

Late in 2018 I decided I was gonna put together a proper roombox together over winter for my 1/4 scale dolls, and after finally* getting my roombox in the mail earlier this month, I finally had a chance to get it all put together.


Here’s the plain roombox with a few random pieces of doll furniture I had on hand thrown in. I wanted to get a feel of how much space I actually had to work with since expectations and reality can be quite different from one another.

Thankfully, as I was waiting on my roombox, I didn’t waste my time and went about doing a buttload of research into what I wanted to do regarding flooring and the walls and how I’d manage to make the looks I wanted. I had my heart set out for the back wall to be brick. Originally I’d wanted white brick, but over time I came to love the idea of a red brick wall with bricks of other colors sporadically added in. But I digress! Thanks to all that prior research, I was able to put together a grocery list for myself for everything I’d need to get started on the diorama and had a decent idea of the steps I’d need to take to work on it all.

I also put together a very quick and basic layout for what I wanted for the room using an app on my phone.


I haven’t quite settled on the paint color for the side walls. I’m really torn between an off-white or more of a warm and dark gray. Hmmm....

Anyway, after actually having my box on hand, I finally went out and bought most everything I needed (had to buy the flooring online since my local Home Depot didn’t have a faux wood floor peel&stick tile style that I liked in stock). Finally I was able to set to work!

* - The seller I bought the roombox from accidentally got mine and another client’s addresses mixed up so my box ended up in New York instead of Alaska. On the plus side, I ended up getting a free hanging bench out of the whole ordeal since the other client opted for a refund instead of having me ship the bench to them. Thankfully the seller was able to get a hold of the other client and they shipped the box on to me...but yeah it took around 2 weeks or so to get to me ffffffs


The Wall
First things first! I had to seal both the back wall that my brick would be applied to, as well as the adhesive-backed cork shelf liner I was using for my faux bricks so they wouldn’t just suck up all the paint and other moisure that’d end up on them.

I just used about 2 or so layers of gesso for both. I didn’t want to lose too much texture from the cork, so I tried to keep it as light as I could get away with. The gesso really helped stiffen up the cork since it just wanted to roll in on itself when I first laid out the first sheet I was working on. I also decided to tape off the edges of my back wall to keep from painting over the pegs that fit into the floor and ceiling liner slots. I imagine I’ll have to take the box apart now and then, so it just seemed a waste to bother putting paint or sealer on those areas since they’d likely chip off.

After the cork dried, it was finally time for one of the fun parts—painting!




I ended up cutting the cork sheet in half so I had two large pieces to paint. I did the first sheet in mostly brick reds and oranges, adding a bit of grey and black paint to add some dirty parks on them to make the bricks less uniform in color.

With the second sheet, I started with with a brick dark burgundy color that faded to a lighter color near the bottom, and after letting that first layer dry, I used a sponge to plaster on non-diluted acrylic paint in a few solid strips to get nice dark bricks as well as more bleached looking ones. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a picture of the final result of the second sheet.

I got the idea to paint my bricks this way from a blog I found during my researching period of someone putting together bricks for their doll house. You can find part one of their posts about it here. Most everywhere else I looked to always did the painting after applying their plain bricks. Considering that I wanted my bricks and “mortar” to be different colors from each other, individually painting each brick sounded like way too much work. This method works a heck of a lot better for me!

After everything was fully dry, it was time to draw out grids on the back of the sheets...



...which is decidedly less fun.

Then I was finally able to actually cut all that cork into little bricks. My hand was dead by the time I was finished. xD Didn’t help that I not only cut out each individual brick by hand, but I also rounded the corners of each brick as well to give them less harsh edges. 8D;;;

Finally...FINALLY...it was time to stick the bricks on the wall!


This part of the project alone took me 2-3 hours. OTL



Boy oh boy, did it look freaking beautiful.

After all that...it was time to mess up all the brick with the dreaded spackling.



When I first started this, I was just using my fingers to smear it in, but that just wasn’t doing as nice of a job as I wanted, so I ended up buying myself a putty tool smeary thing (don’t judge me for not knowing the name! xD). It definitely helped speed up the progress.

Also, fun fact, spackling cleans off decently easy, it just takes more than a light wiping to get it scrubbed off. Thankfully I figured that out after half a wall was done. Originally, all my bricks looked as messy as those last couple of rows in the above picture. xD;;

After hours of tedious scraping and scrubbing and whatnot, the spackling part of my project was completed. PRAISE DA LAWRD!



Once the spackling was dry, I went through and sporadically stained it to give the faux mortar a more weathered and used up look (and also to help conceal the paint from the cork that smeared while cleaning the spackling off xD). Looks nice, yes?



And that’s the back wall completed! So far I’ve painted one 2 light layers of Elmer’s Glue-All to help seal it, but I’m thinking of doing a third layer to be safe.

I’m so glad to have the most work intensive part of the project done with. All that’s left is cutting up my flooring (when it comes in anyway...) and painting the side walls. I’ll probably also put together trim for the back wall to hide the messy edges. I’m thinking of maybe using popsicle sticks, but we’ll see... P:

Either way, I’ll keep you guys updated on future progress!

References I used for brick wall:
Brick Foundation Tutorial by Little Spoon Miniatures on YouTube
DIY Miniature Fireplace by The Square to Spare on YouTube
Brick Wall Part 1 by liduina88 on Blogspot

 

@Crimson-Catalyst I’m a sucker for brick too, so I’m insanely happy this turned out as good as it has. I have a decent pile of leftover bricks so I might also be making a removeable fireplace or something in the future. Seems a shame not to use them otherwise. Anyway! At first I tried just mixing the bricks up and grabbing them at random from the pile, but I switched up to paying more mind to what colors to use since I did want some more steady blocks of same colored bricks here and there and just wasn’t getting that too much when going at it more randomly.

@RinSetsua Thank you! Yeah I’ve always liked checking out people’s roombox projects just to see how they do all the little details.

 

No big updates today for the roombox since I’m still waiting on my flooring (stupid UPS) and won’t have the chance to go buy paint until the weekend. I did want to show the roombox off with how it looks with my dolls now that the back wall is finished though!





Just the wall on its own makes such an amazing background for my doll photos.

As for small updates, I did order some packs of wooden dowels off of Amazon (still had gift card money from what my boss gave me as a Christmas and then birthday gift so figured what the heck). I got a set of square ones that should be about half an inch thick that should work wonderfully for modifying the sectional sofa on display in the first picture above, and then I got another pack of flat dowels that I’ll use for making my wall/floor trims. Hopefully all that will show up by the end of the month, but who knows with Amazon’s free shipping to Alaska.

I also really need to get a hold of a mitre box and saw set so cutting those dowels evenly will be easier...if my dad or brother don’t have one I’ll likely just buy that locally.

 

Hey guys, back with an update! I got my flooring in the mail this afternoon and spent all evening getting it installed!


Found these on Amazon here. My local Home Depot had this type of material too, but they didn’t have any wood colors/styles I liked in stock, plus I had gift card money on Amazon anyway. ;B

Here’s what I used for my flooring. They’re peel&stick vinyl floor planks and aaahhhh~ they really do work wonders for making doll room floors!

Super easy to cut down (if a little tedious). All you gotta do is use a ruler to keep your lines straight and use an xacto knife to slice a line down through that top layer (doesn’t even need to be all that deep!). Then it just snaps apart with some pressure. Took me a while to get a hang of getting straight lines, but it worked out. c: Tons easier than doing a popsicle stick floor.


Some of my planks were a smidge too long, so I had to cut super small slivers off their ends now and then and needed pliers to snap them off since i couldn’t get a good hold of them with my fingers alone.

Here’s a quick picture I took while I was installing the floor after having spent 2 hours or so cutting all the planks out. I made mine 1inx10in (and then my smaller ones were 1inx5in). Out of the 10 planks I had from the start, I have 4 and a half leftover. Definitely need to think of what I could use the rest of the planks for... P:

Anyway, installing them was super easy since they have adhesive backing. Just had to peel the paper off and stick ‘em on the floor!



And here’s the floor all completed! There did end up being a few gaps here and there, and I might go through with a tiny brush and paint in what you can see of the plywood underneath to disguise it, but otherwise, it looks fan-freaking-tastic.

Now all that needs doing is getting paint for the walls and wall/floor trim! Then it’ll be time to focus on modifying the couch in the picture and putting together other pieces of furniture and decor for the living room.

References:
Dollhouse Kitchen Tiles by Loy Dollhouse on YouTube
DIY Dollhouse Flooring by LittleVictorian.com

 

@Jany & @Crimson-Catalyst Thank you both! This has been such a nice project to work on this month.

@maddison3m Thanks! I have definitely been thinking of using it for future doll furniture, but we’ll see. P: Maybe could even make a removable raised floor to give more layout options? HMMM! I don’t think it’s really possible to stain it since it likely wouldn’t absorb anything like wood would. Either way, I’m sure I’ll eventually find a use for it! If not, I could likely sell the extras to someone that needs it for their own mini project.

Anyway! Another update to the roombox! I painted the walls over the weekend after getting a sample paint can from Home Depot. Wish I’d opted to get 2 since the one can just barely was able to give two quick and slightly uneven coats to both side walls.


You can see some of the uneven painting in this picture. I’ll probably get another sample can in the future to try and even up the color, but for now, it’s fine as is.



All the base room needs is trimming (which I got in the mail this morning), and it’ll be complete! After that I can focus on furniture and decor.

 

@Disnerys Thank you! I’m happy to be a source of inspiration!

Updatesupdates...well the base roombox was officially finished last week! I got all my dowels in the mail and was able to paint and glue on the trim/baseboards in the room and started working on modifying the section sofa I’ve been using.



Here’s shots of when I was working on the trim. I probably should have painted it BEFORE gluing it on, but oh well. I’ll likely have to take an xacto knife along the edge of the trim later on to make sure it comes apart cleanly if I ever want to dismantle the room.

The Couch
Since the room itself is now completed, it was time to start working on furniture! The first thing I wanted to work on was modifying the sectional sofa I had to make it look less like a cheap 17” doll sofa I got off eBay, and more like a nice modern/contemporary styled couch you would find at Ikea or something.

For the sofa, I ended up needing to get LOTS of hot glue sticks (actually ran out while working on it ), some fabric, square dowels, Elmer’s Glue-All, foam, and quilt batting (which lawrdy I hate working with with a passion since it sticks to EVERYTHING). If anybody plans to do something like this, never underestimate just how many glue sticks you will end up burning through.

First thing I had to do was add onto the couch frame.


I didn’t get a picture of it, but I did later add more dowels to the whole to give more support. I also decided to detach the armrest from the chaise end of the sofa so that upholstering would be easier.

All I did was cut the dowels down to size and glued them onto the frame of the base couch. I ended up not wanting the couch to be quite as long as it originally was (plus I figured I could use the spare seat frame to make a matching chair later), so I used dowels to add on the little bit of extra length I DID want and added onto the frame from there.

After all the glue was dry, it was upholstering time!


For the cushions, I cut my foam to size (making them slightly smaller than I wanted since the batting and fabric would add bulk), and then wrapped them in batting and finally the fabric.

The first thing I did was glue batting along all the bottom edges and back of the couch so that any unevenness would be hidden, as well as to soften up the overall look of the end result.



Here’s a look at the couch after I got the fabric glued on! Looking fantastic so far, but back cushions would be nice.



The back cushions I put together the same way as the seats. Cut them to size, trimmed them down to make room for the bulk the batting and fabric would add, and then glue the fabric on top of that. I also glued on a folded up piece of fabric to the back of them to hide the raw edges and messy glue markings.

I also cut some legs out from the dowels and stained them with watered down acrylic paint. Once the paint was dry, I glued them onto the bottom of the loveseat! I probably could have made them taller, but I definitely do like this more downplayed look.



And finally we got a beautiful looking loveseat! I still gotta do all this again for the chaise end of the sofa, so I’ll be sure to post pictures of the entire sectional when it’s done.


Just a quick look at what the couch looked like before to what it looks like now. U; What an upgrade!


Nori is really enjoying the new sofa.

References:
DIY Miniature Couch (No Sew) by The Square to Spare on YouTube

 

Hello everyone! The couch is officially complete!





I’m so happy that it turned out so good! If I can pull myself away from Kingdom Hearts 3 for long enough this week, I’ll probably work on making a matching chair with the extra sofa piece I have left. After that? I’m not sure. P: I’d really like to make a nice floor lamp and a side table (and of course see about decor for the walls), but I’m not sure yet what I’ll need for the lamp I want to make...hrm!

Anyway, decided to snap pictures of my progress working on the chaise portion of the sofa and included clickable thumbnails below!


I forgot to take photos of when I added batting and fabric to the back cushion, but I pretty much followed the video tutorial I linked to in the previous post perfectly in this stage.

Ahhh...and now I have a ton of extra fabric and batting. Might have to see if anyone would mind me pawning it off on them since after I’m done with the chair, I won’t really need the fabric anymore.

 

@Trillian Thank you so much for the compliments. I know how much of a pain it can be to find references for specific projects, so I always try to remember to share whatever tutorials and whatnot I used to work on my projects.

Yeah, brick walls made from scratch are definitely not for the faint of heart. Honestly though, as long as you pace yourself and cut the work up in sections so you don’t get overwhelmed, it’s really not too hard of a project to go through with in your free time. It only took me about a week or so to finish the brick wall, an evening to do the flooring, and part of an afternoon to do the painted walls (and really, most of that was just waiting around for the paint to dry). Sitting down and making a detailed gameplan beforehand helps a lot too so you’re not wasting a lot of time mid-project fixing mistakes you could have avoided. I put off making a proper roombox for years because all the work seemed so overwhelming, but once you get started it can really be a lot of fun!

With all that said, I have a mini update about the roombox!

I recently received a kotatsu table I bought from LeQuak on Etsy and got it all set up in the roombox! I also finally put together a rug I’ve been meaning to sew up for a couple weeks ever since finding the perfect fabric for it in the remnants bin at JoAnns a while back. Also made matching cushions to go with the kotatsu. c:





I don’t have a more technical look at the table with the blanket attached, but here’s a picture I took of my dolls the other day with it on.



Now that I got most of the main furniture in the room now, I gotta slowly work on getting more props and decor for it. I definitely want to get at least one miniature plant (I really wanna get a hold of a split leaf philodendron), as well as maybe a shelf to put on the backwall or a big nice picture or something... P:

There’s also the floor lamp I need to make still...I’m not sure how to go about making that though at the moment.

I also have plans to fill up part of one of the painted walls with pictures of my dolls that the room mainly belongs to, but I first have to actually take proper pictures of them and then get those pictures scaled down properly. xD; So many little details to work on!

 

Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful comments on the roombox! I haven’t done much more work to it from my last update post. Still trying to think of wall decor to put in it and how to apply shelves without permanently attaching them to the walls. xD;

@RenegadeStarSign Oooh that’s awesome that you’ve got a similar project in the works. I’d love to see pictures if you have any posted anywhere. Thanks so much for your compliments. ; w ; It was a lot of work, but pretty fun to do when I put it all together. Finally applying the bricks to the wall was my favorite part.

 

@papilionette Aww thank you, the trim really did help pull the room together; I remember it took me a while to settle on how I wanted it to look.
Over a year later and I’m still amazed that I managed to put that brick wall together all on my own in the amount of time I did it in. Wish I had that kind of energy all the time.

Speaking of the roombox, I did a small update to the sectional sofa late last year and completely forgot to post about it here!

With the upgrade, I replaced the old couch feet with taller ones so the sofa is a bit higher off the floor than before, and I also added thick arm rests along both ends.





I still got an extra unmodded piece of doll furniture as well as plenty of this fabric, so I’m thinking I’ll make another couch end piece that will be changeable with the chaise end so the couch can either have a chaise or just be a regular straight sofa. I’d originally planned to make into a matching chair, but I like the thought of having more options for the couch.

 

Hello hello again! I still have a lot to do in regards to decorating with my basic room setup, but I got an Our Generation kitchen set earlier this year and decided to repaint it to make a kitchen for my dolls! I did all this back in…gosh I think June or July? Took me about a weekend of non-stop work.



Here’s a quick image of what I was starting with. I know these things are made for kids, but boy…the color scheme is UGLY. The yellow parts looks alright in photos, but lemme tell you, that yellow is total butt in person. It’s more of a yellow-green look than a lemon color. Wasn’t a fun realization when the set arrived since I had thought to keep the fridge in that color originally. Dolls in the image are an Alchemic Labo Elder Zest and a Haru Casting Neul, both 1/4 scale).



So…this set was utterly impossible to take apart. From what I’ve since looked up online, the other Our Generation kitchen set styling is infinitely easier to dismantle. This thing was an utter monster though! Tons and tons of screws, a majority of which were blocked by bits of plastic and positioned in ways that I have absolutely no idea how this thing was put together in the first place. I went with the nuclear option, as you can see, and just took a drill to the back that I was planning to have against a wall anyway, SO NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW THE HORROR.



Spraying time! This took ages and I had to compete with pollen and cottonwood fluff in the air messing up the drying process. I also had a small beetle manage to flop it’s way into some wet paint fffffs. For anyone wondering, I used Krylon Fusion All-in-One Spray paint for the recoloring! I couldn’t be bothered to do proper prep work like light sanding on the plastic pieces and whatnot to make sure the paint bonded properly, but it’s been holding well enough so far! I mostly just have rubbing/chipping issues on areas that normally get a lot of wear and tear (hinges and along the outer areas of doors and whatnot.



Annnnnnd here’s the (nearly) finished kitchen! I had to wait for the drawer and cabinet door to cure before I could go back and recolor the handles. Doll in image is my Asleep Eidolon Coral. I also filled up the shelves and counter space with all the little food and appliance props I’ve been collecting since I’ve been dying to have a kitchen for my dolls for a while. Most of the props are from those Mini Brand Surprise ball things, with a few of the kitchenwares being things that came with the Our Generation set.



And heeeeere it is fully painted!

I’m really happy with how it turned out, though I’m not 100% sure if I’ll be keeping the set or not. I’m a little tempted to get the Our Generation beach house instead to sate my doll kitchen desires since that one is a bit more modernly styled.

 

@Valdemagra I think you may have forgotten to add what you wanted to say/post?

 

@Valdemagra Haha I see, I figured something like that is what likely happened.

Thank you for the lovely comment on the sofa! Even after all this time since putting it together, I’m still quite chuffed over how nicely it turned out. It’s definitely my favorite piece out of what I’ve made for the roombox (the brick wall being a very close second ).

 

@Idoru Thank you! Yeah, the set turned out nicely in the end. c: Still looks very retro though thanks to the base pieces. Zest boys for the win! The Unoa Elder guys are a bit on the tall side for these sets, but it can still work.

 

@Pippiboo Yeah you could definitely do a collapsible version! My box can actually come apart…well, theoretically anyway lmao…I might have some trouble with mine just due to how I glued on some things without really considering wanting to take the box apart , but the base pieces were designed to come apart. My roombox in particular uses notches/slots to keep the pieces together, but I’ve seen other collectors uses things like hinges, brackets and/or wooden block pieces to slot the boards into to keep pieces together.

But honestly, the real trouble is when you need to store away the furniture.