DIY: More Mix & Match Dioramas Walls

As mentioned last week, I decided that I would do a short series for diorama walls and room box ideas. My goal is to keep the costs down and allow them to be collapsible and storable. So continuing the Mix and Match theme, I have created a few more concept ideas for interchangeable walls.  Each of these build on the concepts shown in last week’s blog found here.

Traditional Style

Bruni gets ready for the day in her elegant Chinoiserie style dressing room.

You’ve probably noticed that I love to add molding panels to the bottom of my walls. I honestly have used that over and over again and I simply layer poster board together to create dimension. This style works great for a traditional or formal style. The molding doesn’t always need to be white, but it seems to be my common choice. The nice thing about this style is that you can add solid color inserts or a variety of scrapbook wallpaper inserts for different looks. This style is great to keep a story line consistent in a grand home that has this treatment throughout the house.

 

Create panels by cutting down your poster board to the desired size and then cut a piece smaller by 1/2″ on each sides so that you will have a 1/4″ border around the smaller piece when glued onto the larger panels. I use the Aleene’s Turbo Tacky glue pens for this and set them under a couple of heavy books until dried.

Cottage Style

Jasmine poses with her sweet niece set upon her toy chest.

The bead board style is great for so many rooms as it always has a clean, cozy, and comforting feel. It works for a county cottage or even a beach home.

 

To create the bead board look I just used the large craft sticks you can find at the Dollar Tree and added a combination of wood and poster board trim. I trim the rounded tip on one side and glue down one by one with the Turbo Tacky glue. I then painted all of the wood pieces with white acrylic craft paint.

 

Rustic Style

Simone sits peacefully in her rocker at her family cabin by the lake.

This rustic or ship lap style paneling certainly lends itself to a cabin feel. This is perfect for your lake getaway or ski lodge. It also works great if you like the country Farm-to-Table look a la Fixer Upper.

 

For this look, I used Super Jumbo craft sticks. I trimmed the rounded edges off of each side and proceeded to create a horizontal paneling. I finished the paneling by painting it out with a variety of natural, brown, and white acrylic paints. I chose to wrap the poster board frames in craft paper I found at the Dollar Tree. This look would also look great with a simple white wash.

 

Loft/Industrial Style

Bennie’s city loft infuses he and his bulldog’s love of food.

This style of room would be great if you have a group of characters who all live in a city loft. You can reuse these walls for each character’s space to create unique decor while keeping the style of the building in mind.

 

For the brick pattern, I used an image from Google that I have used for many outdoor scenes and printed it on heavy stock scrapbook paper. I glued it onto the wall using Mod Podge and trimmed out the brick shapes where I had to layer the sheets to make the combined width of the wall. For the lower frame or trim piece I wrapped and glued the brick printed paper on the poster board to create a more 3 dimensional look.

Modern Boho Style

Gabrielle is constantly inspired to paint when she is in her vibrant apartment.

Many of our creative and artsy boho dolls can take some strong design, so I thought I’d have some fun with this one and go a little wild with pattern and the lower paneling. For a more low-key look you can definitely use some solid color inserts.

 

For this wall panel and the next, I used place mats found at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. They were $1.99 each, so pretty affordable to spare for a craft project. Another option is to use bamboo sushi rollers that can often be found at the Goodwill.

Tip: Cut these horizontally first and glue onto your panel before trimming the vertical edge. You run the risk of the pieces falling out of the seam on the place mat if you cut off the length first.

Classic Boho Style

Candice is always dreaming of the tropics, so bringing it into her sun room was perfect.

I adore tropical leaves, so I thought it would be fun to compliment this paper with an ocean/nature themed lower panel. I can just imagine this room full of plants and wicker furniture.

 

In this style, I used wood trim that I water washed with a combination of light green and blue green paint that complimented the place mat I selected.

As you can see, there are so many options you can create to interchange your diorama walls. Let your creativity loose, rooms are great in white, but also fun full of pattern and texture. It all depends on the look and style you are going for. Mine seem to change with my mood and the personality of the doll I am creating for. To me that is what is fun about having a variety of dolls for inspiration.

Thank you as always for stopping by! I hope you got some more ideas for creating your diorama’s and story scenes. Next week I will wrap this series up with a few final ideas and methods I use for creating room boxes. Don’t forget to click on the Follow button so that you will receive an email notification each time we post a new blog! Until next time…

A la prochaine

Rie & Bruni