My urban patio scene is large. And given that I'm still chugging away at my mid-century build and some other ideas in the pipeline, space will get short. I decided that I wasn't going to make the patio a traditional room box, but rather an un-boxed room box. I'm at a loss for clever words/phrases to describe it!
The 2 walls and the base are not attached, just 3 slabs of wood. I used a few books and vases to prop the walls up. Next time I have my table saw out, I plan to cut a wood triangle and put a 90 degree groove in it to essentially keep the two walls together at the top while I use the scene. The beauty of this design means I can use different backgrounds, or use the walls for other photo shoots.
The Pool
The pool is a trimmed with some scrap baseboard trim I had laying around. On top of the trim and the "water" area, I applied wall spackle. Or wall filler. Or wall patch filler...whatever you call the stuff that fills holes in a drywall or plaster wall. I then used a simple yellow sponge with a green scrubby top to texture the stucco.
The pool was my first foray into this magical water for model making. There are a few brands out there, Magic Water and Woodland Scenics. Both are "pour and done!" No mixing products. That said, you can only pour 3-4mm thick at a time. In the end I did 3 pours waiting 24 hours between layers as directed. By chance I watched a YouTube video about the water and it said that it can be cloudy for a few weeks as it slooooooooowly cures, but in the end it will dry clear. Between pour 2 and 3 it was cloudy. And it had every changing sections of cloudy for 3 weeks! It finally cured and is now clear.
Had I not known about the cloudiness being normal, you might have seen that plywood go flying out my front door!
The Stones
I had enough egg cartons for the stones, but the thought of painting and cutting them up was too much. So I took the $10.99 route. I went to the art store and found some thick, rough, texture paper for painting and decided that it looked like stone.
The paper was 22 by 30 inches, so I have A LOT of stone available for future projects. I took a variety of grey, off-white and brown paints and made a mess on the paper. Then I proceeded to cut it into bricks. The process was quick and painless, and took much less effort then egg cartons.
Some might take the time to use a ruler and make marks for the herringbone pattern. I did not. Sheer laziness. I did, however, find the center of the board and made a mark there so I had a starting point, but that was it.
Once the tiles were laid, I sealed the bricks with a water based top coat and used the wall spackle as grout. Then came many washes with brown and grey to dirty it up.
The Concrete Walls
I have always wanted to try making a concrete effect for a mini project. I didn't know where to start, never had the right project and was worried it would look like garbage once I had it finished. Well, on a hope and a prayer, I took the wall spackle and gave it a try!
There are many types of concrete walls. Do a quick internet search and you'll see there are long panels, square panels, panels with pipes, and panels you can see holes where rebar existed. Many options, all worthy of re-creation. I decided to keep this first try simple with just tall panels.
I mixed the spackle with grey paint to lessen the paint needed to finish it at the end. I then divided the walls into equal sized panels. I taped off every second panel. It's a two step process. Then I applied the spackle and textured with my fancy yellow/green sponge. You definitely need an image of concrete as you texture to get the right smooches and stippling.
Once the sections started to dry I removed the tape. The following day, I applied tape to the spackled sections and spackled the unspackled panels. Valuable lesson: you don't need to intentionally leave a space between the panels for effect. I moved the tape over too far and left a huge, unnatural gap. I then re-taped right along the stucco line and it became clear that the adjoining panels were distinct with a line between the spackle.
After everything was dry I sanded with a fine grit sand paper. This is KEY to getting the concrete look, because it removes any obvious sponge marks or unnatural swirls.
Then its just a few simple coats of medium grey paint and a few well placed dabs of darker grey applied with a sponge.
It's a room box, no its an un-box room box! And now its sitting in its 3 panel form neatly in my basement not taking up valuable real estate.
Greetings From The Mini-Miniaturist
Miss Kitty is now 6 and quite the miniaturist. She sets scenes with all her dolls and Lego on a daily basis. But when she saw all these mini goodies out, she couldn't resist getting in there with mom!
Using my minis and a huge selection of her own, she made her own patio scenes. No mini can be left behind, everything gets into her scene no matter the obstacle or lack of space.
I promised her I would post her accomplishments.
