Houses and rooms of the ancient world

[EmilyCraig]

I have been obsessed with miniatures for more than 20 years, building dollhouses, acquiring minis and making my own furniture and accessories using whatever is on hand. I'm also a huge history nerd and have recently been researching Ancient Roman interior design. To combine both interests, I began work creating furniture in 1/12 th scale that might be found in a 1st century Roman Villa. Then I had to design roomboxes to display the items I've made! I am curious if there is anyone else out there who is working on or has experience creating 1/12th scale items and rooms from ancient time periods. I'd love to chat about the interesting challenges of this kind of project!

[KathieB]

Hi Emily, and welcome to the forum. I like to research details of my houses and other venues (pottery shop, quilt shop, 1870s Bohemian inn and restaurant, etc) in their historic context. It's a challenge in any time period. 

When you have made 5 posts, you can open an album in the Gallery to share photos of your work. We love eye candy. If you post photos elsewhere online, you can include links in your messages. You can see some of my work by clicking the blog link below.

[havanaholly]

I made an atrium room box once with familia, impluvium and a curule chair.  The pictures vanished from my albums in one of the Forum's many  "upgrades" and I gave the room box to my youngest son, the family Latin scholar, an his roommates cat ate most of it.  I upgraded the family survivors and moved them into my Magnolia.

[wormwoodz]

Hi emily! I work with real size antiques and I'm also a big history nerd  

I love how house furniture evolved over the centuries, it's interesting how designs from old roman period were revived several times. And on the decoration of furniture itself, we see older designs come back with a new twist, like the regency furniture for example. I think it's a fantastic idea to recreate older historic settings, I wish they did that in museums as well it would be very educational since furniture usually doesn't survive for that long. It could spark more interest in the subject as sometimes the only visual information we have is just from looking at reliefs and paintings.

[Khadi]

I'm not sure if this link would be of interest to you.  It is to the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh (my alma mater).  There are a wide variety of cultures, styles, and time periods  represented.  I have used them for inspiration.  

http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

[grazhina]

I think I've only done one house or roombox that wasn't from another historic period. I just remembered I had these pictures saved on my extra hard drive. I've had them about 14 years or so, never did get around to building a Roman house, so maybe they'll help you on your project. I don't even remember how I got them, they're from a museum display. 

The forum was acting goofy again, wouldn't let me post any of the pix in this text so I uploaded them to gallery 

 

[KathieB]

7 hours ago, Khadi said:

I'm not sure if this link would be of interest to you.  It is to the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh (my alma mater).  There are a wide variety of cultures, styles, and time periods  represented.  I have used them for inspiration.  

http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

Thanks for this link, Karen. The Czechoslovakian classroom has given me some inspiration for décor in my languishing Bohemian Inn.  

[grazhina]

Just slap me with a dead fish. Apparently I took the pictures of the Roman house myself, at the U of PA archaeological museum. It used to be one of my favorite places to visit when I lived in Philly. 

[EmilyCraig]

Thanks for the links you guys! It's so exciting to get new resources- I am a very visual person- it's difficult for me to narrow down a design or concept without a visual reference-  and I collect a lot!