Last Friday, I was on a miniatures mission at the hardware store. I needed to get wood for the front wall of the miniature bakery, but I wasn’t sure if they would be able to cut the wood into the tiny pieces I was hoping for. Turns out, they couldn’t, so I ended up figuring out another construction method for the wall. More on that in a moment, but first, I want to show you some cute finds I uncovered in the flooring department at Lowes!
I remember as a kid using some pieces of leftover linoleum my dad had saved from a house project. I turned some of them into board games, but I also remember using them as stages for miniature scenes.
Inspired by this memory, I decided to poke around in the flooring section at the hardware store, and I found all sorts of tiles and stones that would be great for miniatures! The rectangular tiles (of which there are many options not pictured here) are generally $1 or less, and they would be perfect for restaurant-style counters.
Here’s a picture with my hand so you can get a sense of scale.
I found glossy white counters, glossy black counters, and even thick glass counters with white backing that would look great in a modern restaurant. There were even narrower pieces with one smoothed edge (or a demi-bullnose edge, if you’re hip to the counter lingo), and all of these tiles have rough, unfinished undersides that would make them easy to glue to counter supports made of wood or other materials.
I also found pieces of marble, both polished and unpolished, which would be great for bakery counters or even door stoops. In fact, depending on how I decide to finish the outside of the bakery, I might use one of these tumbled marble squares (they came in an inexpensive box of six or so) for the front step, and each square is just large enough that I’d have room to put some flower pots or other outdoor decor.
All right, back to the front wall. Since I wasn’t able to get wood cut into the tiny pieces that I needed, I decided to use a combination of foam core and book board sandwiched together with holes cut out for the windows. While I really want to fast forward and finish the wall, I’m still waiting for a book on urban dioramas to arrive in the mail, and I want to check out some of my finishing options for the wall exterior before I install the windows, just in case it’s easier to create my chosen finish without the windows in the way.
In the meantime, I’ve been painting the windows so they’re dry and ready to go once the time comes.
Be sure to check back as I post more progress pics of the miniature bakery. You can also easily sign up for email updates here.
13 responses to “Finding Surprise Miniatures at the Hardware Store”
How cool!! I also remember having a ball with hardware-store-type samples as a kid. I don’t even know what these things were samples of… veneer maybe? Laminate? Anyway, they definitely got my imagination going. 🙂
Yes! Your comment just brought back a strange memory: I must have been nine or so when I went through this phase of going through home magazines and calling the toll-free numbers to request samples of carpets and other furnishings. I was such an odd kid! 😉
OMG, that’s something I would have done!!! Now I’m imagining us as kids running up to each other like, “I found a new number to call!” and then us going and calling the number together. Hee.
hehehheheh OMG, that image just made me so happy. 🙂
[…] then had a happy accident when I took one of the tumbled marble tiles I bought at the hardware store and placed it in front of the entrance door, like a paving stone. I loved it! The box of tiles had […]
were you waiting for that Hungarian diorama guru’s book I had posted about a while ago? 😀 😀 😀
No, it was this one, and I didn’t care for it much. 🙁 Where did you get your copy of the Hungarian book? The few places I found it online were out of stock…
directly from the author’s website: http://adobadiorama.hu/gb_rendeles.php 🙂
Thank you!! 😀
you’re very welcome ;D
Just bought my copies! And now…I wait. Very impatiently. 😉
I think you’re going to love them. They are for a much smaller scale, but the ideas are very clever and can be scaled up quite easily. Can’t wait to know what you think of them!
I’m so excited! Thanks for posting about them on your blog. The picture of the little bench in snow and ice alone is worth getting the book to learn how to make!