This is a long photo post about the project I worked on earlier this year. It's still not exactly finished or perfect, but here it is anyway. I had a conversation in the spring about Calico Critters (Sylvanian Families in other parts of the world) that made me want to dig out the 7 or 8 figures I had as a child. These toys are a little bit weird and I have written before about how I like vaguely creepy, unsettling animal toys. These particular toys had/have a massive fanbase outside of the US, and there's even a theme park in Japan! Anyway, I had a few of the dog-people and one really sad bear that I got from who even knows where. When I was about 11, I badly wanted the giant green-roofed house, probably because it seemed huge and the website boasted a selection of printable wallpaper that you could put in your house. I own that this is not a typical thing to maybe be obsessed with at that age, but I would also remind you of the following things:
1) I was very into building houses in The Sims at the time. That's pretty much all I did in The Sims, actually... rosebud for eternity and then build crazy mansions.
2) The idea of producing something with your computer, with your HOME PRINTER, that interacted with physical toys was a really new, exciting idea. Especially for a kid who just made stuff to play with all the time.
ANYWAY, I found the Deluxe Village House on Ebay for a reasonable price and in decent shape. It's missing just a few pieces. The Calico Critter website still offers printable wallpaper, though not for this model anymore, and I even used the Wayback Machine to look at the old site's wallpaper. However, I knew I could do better. So, I did:
I used scrapbook paper and a combination of double-sided removable scrapbook tape and acid-free glue dots to secure the paper to the walls. Measuring was accomplished using a ruler to record the general measurements in cm (to the nearest whole or .5) of each side of each wall shape. I would look at each room and sketch the polygons of the wall panels and label each with a letter (on the drawing and on the wall on masking tape). Then, I drew out each of those measured shapes on tissue paper, and fit them against the wall, cutting it down or otherwise revising it to get closer to the actual wall shape. Then, I traced those tissue paper versions onto the final scrapbook paper. This worked pretty well, but cutting out windows was tough and it did not come out perfectly. These pictures try to focus on the house more than the occupants, though I did cave and take some photos of them interacting with the house a little.
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| The living room is done in red and you can see the divide for the dining room, where the wallpaper changes. |
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| The kitchen. It almost all fits in there. Curtains will probably be added to the house later. For one thing, they will help hide the flaws around windows! |
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| The kids' room is missing detailing, but I really like these walls! |
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| The bathroom has a bright green textured wallpaper and this particular set came with so many pieces that it looks nicely cluttered in a small space. It actually won't all fit here. |
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| The house is smaller than I thought it was and I decided to add some walls to give the parents their own room. Foamcore covered on all sides in paper and wedged between floor and ceiling did the trick. |
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| The nursery is a light blue with polka dot texture. |
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| The rest of the bathroom furniture created a 2nd bathroom upstairs. This floor is one of my favorite parts of the house! |
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| The wall with attached sink fits perfectly. It blocks the toilet from view, but you could still step around it to get into the room. |
