Lamps, lamps, lamps...

I want really contemporary lamps for the container house. So, I rummaged through all the plastic bits I collected and found really great material to work with!

The first was the reading light behind the sofa. Here I worked with metal for the lampshade.

Next was one for the outside, next to the entrance door. There I wanted a more industrial look..

The Constanza lamp from Luceplan I have in my real home and I really like the design. Problem is though that the electrical wires need a thicker stem than in real - so the lamp does not look quite so delicate as in real life. And after 3 attempts I even got the lampshade right ;-)

The last one in this series was a real challenge: a copy of a Frisbi lamp by Flos!

I am nearly there - but it needs some fine-tuning like getting the wires totally straight.. haha.

And now off to start working on the outside - my siding for the outside has arrived from USA!

Irina Polin: Artist/Photographer of Minis

Now this is something so special - there is no way I cannot share it! When I saw these photos of a mini house I was absolutely fascinated not only with how Irina Polin photographed them but as well with the shabby look, which she 'decorated' with surprises.

She found this old dollhouse on the side of a road, ready to be carted to the 'dump' and it was one of those 'must-have' situations. To her it looked as if the interior were dating back to the 60ies. It took her some time to find additional scale things to complement this interior .. and since she likes to irritate the viewer, she added non-scale items to the rooms :-). Spot them!
For her, art should remain mysterious and provocative.

Irina Polin was born in the USSR, in Moscow. She lives and works in Switzerland.
She started her artistic career as a painter and that is why her photography is always a performance, an installation, which she prepares carefully before taking a picture.

This is the selection '12 rooms' (there does not seem to be a pix no. 12....)
And: larger version of photos best seen via the link of her Website

Irina, thanks for letting me share this!


See her video as well..

Kensington Dollhouse Festival 2015

The two days at the fair were stunning! The amount of really excellent miniatures offer such choices that decision making takes time - I definitely needed a second afternoon to spot the all the things I missed on the first day :-)

The best thing though was doing this together with Carol and Annina! We had laughs and could get excited together. With their high quality expectations we only got the best!

My big bottles in mini version from Ray Storey

 Fabulous pottery from Elisabeth Causeret.. put into scene..

 Wonderful small wood bowl for display or future pot plant arrangements from Kim Belwood

This is the boat I did not get - I was too slow. But it is now with Carol and I am looking forward to see how she will display it :-)

Amazing how tiny these knives are! Got some more metal items for the BBQ stand I want to make. Le Mini di Pierluigi

 Commercial - but it was the next best thing to a Nespresso...

 My pride: Petite Fleur from Yorkshire makes this out of brass! Simply stunning

The present from Carol: her laser cutter is great for things like this lamp shape and the Ikea chair! We decided to use it for a couple of other ideas, too ;-)

So, this was the first mini fair I went to. I heard that the one in Chicago has even more exhibitors!!

Starting with the interior

The siding containers have is not in the usual wave form. It would have been too easy to pick this up at a stationary store...

Internet search does it and I found the perfect one at an affordable price - but in the USA!

Since they are not delivering to Switzerland my friend Cindy (thanks..) will act as a courier and bring it to Switzerland towards the end of the month. Patience ...

This means that I cannot work on the container. So, I decided to start with the center block where I do not depend of wall measurements.

Last year I picked up a 2mm PVC sheet during my holidays in France where I usually spend half a day at Castorama, a super homebuilding shop. And this PVC sheet was now perfect for building the build-in cupboards with a sleek and functional look.

Since the container is higher than a usual room and I wanted to utilize every centimeter of space I made them right to the top. But: how to get there? Problem solved with installing a removable ladder :-)

But where would I store this ladder in a 30m2 house? It never stops, does it?

Next step: kitchen on the back side of this panel...

Start of new project

After a bit of a break and doing real-life renovations (not completed yet, but well underway) the pictures of all these tiny homes on Pinterest intrigued me and the idea of using old shipping containers to build a home grabbed me!
And once I started scouting the internet I was amazed at what was already done by some very creative folks. I saw as well that Paris Renfroe already made wonderful single units - but I want a house that works, not single rooms!! Needless to say - in the same quality ;-)

My plan: something small with one bedroom, using two 6m x 2.45m containers (it is either that or a 12m monster). It is a tiny home measuring less than 30m2! So, not much space to play around with - maybe I best have a look at Ikea how they furnish small spaces like this :-)

It rained all weekend and it was perfect to draw some plans on 3D Live Interior...

The 3D view then resulted in something like this:

Bird's eye view puts it all into perspective

Next steps:

• electrical plans
• finding the corrugated siding in scale
• figuring out which parts of the house can be moveable so see inside..

That will keep me busy before I can start building ;-)