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newbie question - your opinion on bathrooms


tyggereye

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I love hearing what you are all doing for your bathrooms. I am pretty set in stone now that my San Fran will not have a bathroom. Like I said the only thing making me think about it was the fact of getting a claw foot tub I've always wanted. Also I wouldn't mind doing this cute thing I saw on pininterest for a real room where you put shelves around the walls and add little real shells. It looked cute. I'd totally might do this in a future dollhouse bathroom.

http://pinterest.com/pin/4503668346912360/

You could have an area in the bedroom with a washstand and the tub you love. I've seen bedrooms with this sort of thing, and a nice folding screen for privacy. That's going to be my approach in one of the houses I'm working on. :)

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I built the SF555 for our eldest granddaughter, so in addition to a full-blown late Victorian bathroom (that I made all myself) I put a small half-bath in the third floor tower room.

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. . .

I think another trip to Dragonmart may be required (the Chinese Market so big you need a bicycle to see the whole thing). I'm sure some of those tile suppliers may have something similar in size and at a reasonable price.

. . .

You might want to check with some of the places there that make RL scale building supplies. We lived in South America for awhile and many of those people are true artisans and if you explain just what you want, they might make it for you. A scaled down version of the real thing. Wouldn't hurt to ask :)

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Somethimes, there are only so many rooms in a house and you have to furnish as to what is important to you. For example, in my house, I left out the kitchen. There are only two rooms on each floor, and I wanted a living room and a dining room on the first floor, and a nice bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. There could not very well be a kitchen on the third floor, so I made them into a music room and a free-for-all room that I have dedicated to a different purpose. I dont think I have seen a house without a kitchen, but mine does not have one. I will save that project for my next house. My next one will be my dream house - the Northpark Mansion.

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Now, to try and find small enough glass blocks to build a wall, does anybody have an idea where I could find transparent glass-like blocks about 1 inch by 1 inch?

I was just remembering something that WyckedWood (Karin) did for the windows in one of her houses that might work for this application as well. She used some glass pieces that were irregular shaped and glued them together on some acetate or acrylic. It comes in clear as well as many colors and sizes of pieces. It could easily be put into a little frame that became a room divider or screen. She used different colors in different rooms to create different moods. Here is the link to the whole album. Just another thought on this disguising the toilet problem.

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Somethimes, there are only so many rooms in a house and you have to furnish as to what is important to you. For example, in my house, I left out the kitchen. There are only two rooms on each floor, and I wanted a living room and a dining room on the first floor, and a nice bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. There could not very well be a kitchen on the third floor, so I made them into a music room and a free-for-all room that I have dedicated to a different purpose. I dont think I have seen a house without a kitchen, but mine does not have one. I will save that project for my next house. My next one will be my dream house - the Northpark Mansion.

I'm skipping the kitchen in my big Tennyson. I've considered putting in a doorway under the stairs as an illusion to another room (the non-existent kitchen). :lol:

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I've seen clear acrylic beveled tiles about 1/2" square. They too could be glued to a piece of acrylic for a glass block wall look.

Someone mentioned a toilet from HBS, clear, hollow, that you paint on the inside. I used once once, stuffed it full of polymer clay, then glued it against the wall. I may have used glue dots or some kind of clear glue, don't remember, it was a long time ago.

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I was just remembering something that WyckedWood (Karin) did for the windows in one of her houses that might work for this application as well. She used some glass pieces that were irregular shaped and glued them together on some acetate or acrylic. It comes in clear as well as many colors and sizes of pieces. It could easily be put into a little frame that became a room divider or screen. She used different colors in different rooms to create different moods. Here is the link to the whole album. Just another thought on this disguising the toilet problem.

That is an awesome build - thank you so much for the link! It would be much easier to find some broken safety glass and build similar windows or a half-wall.

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Lene, If you have a local car window-repair shop nearby you might try asking them for some broken safety glass.When I was cashiering I had a customer who worked at that kind of shop and after I requested it he brought me a large styrofoam coffee cup full of broken glass.He looked at me funny that morning when I first told him I wanted it for crafting,but he brought it that afternoon and said there was plenty more if I needed it. :) A regular auto repair shop may be also be able to give you some...It's actually very pretty and is not likely to cut you-of course still wear gloves when handling it.

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I appear to be in the minority here 'cause all my houses have to have bathrooms & stairs. They have to have kitchens too :D otherwise they don't seem 'finished' to me.

It's funny, when I look at other people's miniature houses it doesn't bother me in the slightest if any of those rooms or stairs are missing - I can visualize that they are in the part of the house that you can't see. But in my own houses, the kitchen, bath & stairs are mandatory to make it feel complete. Yeah, I'm a tiny bit obsessive! lol!

The only exception in my houses is my little two-room honeymoon cottage. That has just a bedroom & bathroom. No stairs (lack of space) and no kitchen.

With that said, while the rooms themselves are "must-haves" in my houses, the things you might typically expect to find in those rooms aren't. The house I'm working on now, while it will have it's mandatory kitchen - and the kitchen will be fairly modern - it won't have a fridge in it unless I can find a more realistic looking one. The one's I've been able to find so far just don't do it for me so I'll probably be leaving it out & just imagining that the fridge is on the wall that you can't see! lol!

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I started leaving out bathrooms I like to pretend that the DH people have them but they are hidden perhaps in a hallway or off the master bedroom. I have put in false doors just to mark the place where the bathroom might be.
I left stairs out of a house but it bothered me that the little people didn't have one! :ohyeah:

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Found this in pinterest...was thinking of using it for my real house but you can block off under the steps and add a door and put this outside the door! Possibly even flat....i may have to do it myself

Ooooo I love that I am for sure making a sign like that for my Bordello!

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Kathie, I think you may just have saved my bacon lol!

Now, to try and find small enough glass blocks to build a wall, does anybody have an idea where I could find transparent glass-like blocks about 1 inch by 1 inch?

Do you have a Tap Plastics anywhere near you? Or a store that sells different sizes of plastic sheets and stuff? Because Taps Plastics has little plastic square blocks that were fairly cheap at the time and I always thought how good they'd be for glass blocks. Certainly a lot cheaper than HBS right now. Maybe check out a hardware store or even Lowe's or Home Depot too.

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Do you have a Tap Plastics anywhere near you? Or a store that sells different sizes of plastic sheets and stuff? Because Taps Plastics has little plastic square blocks that were fairly cheap at the time and I always thought how good they'd be for glass blocks. Certainly a lot cheaper than HBS right now. Maybe check out a hardware store or even Lowe's or Home Depot too.

I found these acrylic cubes on the Tap Plastic site. There are some other options as well.

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The other thing that irks me about bathrooms is the lack of decent modern looking toilets !!

The only one I found that is truly modern costs over $100.00 and I can hardly justify that price for one piece of a bathroom.

I wish someone would manufacture a reasonably priced one that looked like it belonged in this century and didn't have a brown or black seat !!!

off my soapbox now.....

http://www.miniatures.com/Updated-Basic-Bathroom-by-Houseworks-P23218.aspx

nuff said.

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Yeah, I have 2 of that set. It's updated for sure and I like them but I call that more the Art Deco era. Believe me that is not truly modern in the sense of what I mean for the builds I'm doing right now. I'm looking more for this or this - in an affordable range - these are very nice but over $100.00 per. I want more year 2000 and on in these styles like this or this or this. Too bad I wasn't rich instead of old. :cry:

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Do you have a Tap Plastics anywhere near you? Or a store that sells different sizes of plastic sheets and stuff? Because Taps Plastics has little plastic square blocks that were fairly cheap at the time and I always thought how good they'd be for glass blocks. Certainly a lot cheaper than HBS right now. Maybe check out a hardware store or even Lowe's or Home Depot too.

Sadly, no - I wish there was though! I'll have to do some digging here in Dubai to find something similar.

I found these acrylic cubes on the Tap Plastic site. There are some other options as well.

Thanks for posting the link - they look really good.

Another option I've discovered: Take some thick acetate and carefully heat it up with an embossing gun while rolling it over a round shape to get a nice curve. Then I can cut the curve to start from the ceiling corner and flow down gracefully to about half height to enclose the toilet area of the bathroom. At the lowest point, possibly put a glass block or something similar to place a potted plant on it for effect.

I can also do some faux stained glass detailing on the piece of acetate. I'm thinking this may be the cheapest option of all and introduce some more flowing shapes into the room.

Another benefit - making the shower cubicle from similar curved acetate. I've been racking my brain to create a modern flowing shower stall - I don't like curtains IRL, so don't want them in my DH. I like this one: http://www.salinesolutions.net/images/Curved_Bubble_wall1209a.jpg and this one http://st.houzz.com/fimgs/6301a9450f3e9cd3_6891-w422-h316-b0-p0---bathroom.jpg

Has anyone tried this technique? It is going around on Pinterest at the moment: http://miniatures.about.com/od/techniques/ss/Bend-Sheet-Acrylic-Or-Plexiglass.htm

I still have hope to create a toilet out of the Chinese soup spoons I bought - they are the perfect "bowl" shape once I can get the handles off safely. Then it is just to create a pedestal (or wall-mount them to a square white salt shaker) to recreate the modern look. Making the toilet seat will be a challenge, but I'm keeping an eye out for possible solutions in that arena. I found a wooden donut shaped item (chopstick rest) but it is almost half an inch thick, so will have to cut it down to size, but it would be perfect for a seat without a lid.

If you want to see some really cool modern toilets, go look at my "Miniature Bathrooms" board on Pinterest. I saved a bunch last week and a few of them could be easily adapted from white dining porcelain ware.

On a side note, I'm sanding out a nice shape out of a little brown vase to create a fireplace, so I'm sure the diamond needle files will help to create the toilet bowl without cracking the glaze. First I scratched the outline onto the vase with a diamond needle file, then I started sanding it. The hole is almost finished, but here is an in progress photo:

post-28022-0-23639800-1374333078_thumb.j

It is very dusty work, so I keep a moist cloth underneath to catch the dust and also wipe the vase every few minutes. So far, no cracks in the glaze!

I'm going to add some Sculpey stone finish around the rim with some stones on the bottom section and I'm hoping to use it in my arabic courtyard cafe with some majlis seating around it (the desert does get very cold at night, esp in winter!).

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For really modern bathrooms like pictured I would combine various bits of table trash, jewelry bits and various shaped plastic containers; For the curved shower enclosures I'd take empty plastic bottles and cut them down.

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