Showcase: Sina's Modern Farmhouse

Showcase: Sina's Modern Farmhouse

- Working in a bank I don't have as much creativity or time to be creative and so the farmhouse was my way to start doing something a little bit less traditional, something a little more me. Creating miniatures allows me to design without limitations. There's not as much of a financial burden as designing a real house and you're also not having to consult anybody else. I like modern, I like creating pieces for the current age. So when I started this dollhouse process it was really complicated for me to find anything online with the modern look that I wanted, so I ended up starting to build my own. My name is Sina Richard. I am the face behind Sina's Modern Farmhouse and I am in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A lot of what I will build my products with is basswood, it's great for holding shape, it's really tough wood for painting and staining. I was really inspired by a designer that I have been following for a couple years. She recently posted a marble slab sink. I loved it. And because currently we don't have space in our actual human sized house it went to the dollhouse. I first measure the space and I work in 1:12 scale, which means for every inch it's a foot in real life. I will cut all the wood down, shave off any excess, make sure everything is square. I will take the sinks that I've created and put them on top of the board. I trace them with a pencil and then cut them out. I glue the sinks to the top board, making sure everything's flush and neat and tidy. I will flip it over and make sure that everything looks even on the other side. And then it's creating the box. Gluing everything together, making sure everything is fitting tight, and creating that solid base for the sink. When everything fits in nice and tight it's this magical moment where the measuring and all the planning and preparing that you did shows and pays off. Once everything is completely dry you're gonna sand off any rough edges, just to make sure that it's a nice, tight, smooth fitting box. Now it's time to apply the marble. Designing the marble is inspired a lot by marble patterns that I really enjoy and editing it to make it fit the exact look that I want. So after you lay out the paper, then you apply the Mod Podge and glue it on. And it's just a matter of having crisp lines and no bubbles. Then I will cut off the excess paper. Using that excess paper I line it up on the ends and I Mod Podge it to the ends, making sure that the design looks a little more seamless. After all of the pieces are glued onto the boards it's putting a coat of glossy Mod Podge on top that makes the paper that you've printed look glossy like a piece of marble would. Then it's cutting out the sinks. The last step is adding in the drains. The easiest and best and most lifelike version is taking the end of a paintbrush, dipping it into gold, and dropping it on where the drains should be on your sink. Once you've done that you have a completed modern marble sink. Having a product look like the thing you're trying to design is definitely worth all the time and the money and the cuts on the finger from the X-ACTO knife and the sticky glue on your hands. Miniatures have added this extra level of satisfaction to my life. Having people tell me that they're inspired by the work that I'm doing and that they're going out to buy their own dollhouse kit to start from scratch, it's made me feel like I am doing something that's worthwhile. Instead of it just being a hobby to drone out winter, it's turning into something that I'm really enjoying and that people seem to be enjoying with me.