A gift to Valerie.

She always was so fascinated that I thought it might be a good idea to make something special for her ..... her very own little miniature scene. At the time, she lived in an appartment that wasn't big enough for an entire house, that's why I decided to make a roombox.

I always think about what a person likes most before I decide which kind of roombox I'll make. And I think she finds herself in a lot of details inside these 2 little rooms.

Only after I had already finished the roombox, I decided to add a little outdoor scene / garden. So I took a large piece of 10 mm MDF, covered it with ready-made grass (available at most hobby/railroad stores) and put the roombox on top of it.

Then I started with the backside. Since there were windows, it was not just a plain wall and I added a little greenery, mostly DIY stuff, like the green plants inside the terracotta pots.

On one of the smaller side walls, I thought a trellis with some climbing flowers would look nice. I did this little project out of an issue of one of my D.H. magazines.

The second smaller side is the main entrance to the rooms. I painted the door in a natural wood tone and added a few dried flowers as well as a little path to reach the door without having to walk on the grass.

While making up that room, choosing the furniture, I thought about a girl, a little lonely maybe, away from home in a foreign country, maybe for study, and she found a family who had a room for rent. And there was enough space to have a bedroom and a little desk next to the window, as well as a sofa for reading. A few nice paintings on the walls, a sewing machine, a magazine rack, a few roses and pictures and a Gucci bag will certainly make her feel at home after a while. It's kind of a cosy little room I think.

I just loved the idea of having that swinging door to seperate the two rooms. I do admit though that in certain situations, it might not be such a good idea to have a door to the bathroom that doesn't really close, but since there is only 1 person living here, it won't be such a big deal. I had a lot of those white ceramic tiles left over from another project and after I had decided to have the bathroom red and white, I had the idea of coloring a few tiles.

The technique I used here may be found more detailed in the TIPS & TRICKS section under Wall Painting/Tiling.

Especially for Valerie, I added this little personal touch by minimizing a picture of her and her hubby, Denis. I framed the picture and put it next to the roses and the budda she had brought from one of her trips.

Here is another example of DIY, instead of buying expensive flowers in fancy pots (please refer to the TIPS & TRICKS section, Flowers and Plants). I mostly used dried flowers here with very little plastic aquarium greenery.

Here is a little detail of the picnic table outside the room. Unfortunately, what you do also see in this picture is a lot of dust. I think I'll have to tell Val that these "little" rooms need a good cleaning from time to time.