Hygge & West Mini Room
I was overjoyed when Christiana Coop and Aimee Lagos, the brilliant girl bosses behind Hygge & West, reached out to me to help promote their new book Hygge & West Home: Design for a Cozy Life.
The whole book is absolutely gorgeous, and I found it so inspiring for my own home. Hygge is a Danish concept all about creating cozy and inviting spaces in your home. Christiana and Aimee asked me to choose a room from the book that also featured one of their unique and stunning wallpapers and to recreate that room in miniature form.
Since I knew I would be documenting the whole project on Instagram (follow me @sawdust.angel and @mini.adventures.co), I knew I wanted my followers to help me choose the room. I narrowed it down to a few finalists, and the winner was Gemma van der Swaagh's guest bedroom. Her house was one of my favorites in the whole book, and there were so many things about this room that I looked forward to creating.
Because this was a completely custom room, I knew I would have to make everything from scratch. A few of the pieces were different than anything I had ever done before, but I love the challenge of figuring out how to make a piece in miniature form. I couldn't be more pleased with how this room turned out.
Gemma has such a great sense of style (you can find her here on IG), and a lot of her pieces are vintage so I couldn't find sources for everything, but I'll link what I can. The room itself was constructed from plywood, and I had a few tricky angles to figure out for the ceiling. I painted the walls and ceiling white and stained the floor a warm brown. I scaled down the whimsical Pineapple Blue wallpaper from Hygge & West, printed it on cardstock, and then glued it to the back wall.
I just love the artwork she chose for the wall. It's interesting without taking away from the wallpaper. I took a screenshot of an Instagram post from Gemma with this artwork, cropped and printed the image, mounted it to black cardstock, and framed it with coffee stirrers painted gold.
The Dondra teak wood bed frame is from cb2, and I constructed it from balsa wood and popsicle sticks. The bedspread in Gemma's room is from Pottery Barn, and I found a dish cloth at Home Goods that matched the pattern. The pink pillows were made from a placemat.
The throw blanket on Gemma's bed is from Anthropologie, and I created a mini version out of an undershirt and tassels.
I had no clue how I was going to make this throw pillow from Shes+Happy+Design, but I managed to figure it out. I made a basic lumbar pillow from an undershirt and wrapped the ends in faux fur that I typically use for rugs or throws. For the tribal print, I took a screenshot of a post from Gemma's Instagram, cropped the image, and printed it on velvet paper, something I typically use for rugs. I wrapped the middle of the pillow with the printed velvet paper, and VOILA!
For the Moroccan rug, I found a similar pattern and printed the image on velvet paper. I used a blue Sharpie to draw over the lines to more closely match the rug in Gemma's room. I glued fringe on the underside of the rug. The benches at the end of the bed were the last things I did because I had never done weaving before. I constructed the frames from round dowels and toothpicks. I found a diagram on Pinterest that showed me how to weave, and I used jute to make the bench seats. I love how these turned out, and I'll definitely use this technique again.
The Constell light fixture from Dutton Brown was one of the things I was most excited to make. I used pieces of brass tubing, wood beads, and eyelets for the framework that I spray painted brass. The globes are just small glass globes used for jewelry making.
It's such an interesting piece. I'm excited to try making other lights like this for future dollhouses.
The Japhy bedside lamps from Rough Luck Studio are equally as interesting.
I used a piece of brass tubing and wood bead spray painted brass. For the base, I painted a wood circle to look like marble. For the lamp shade, I cut a foam marshmallow in half and wrapped it in textured cardstock.
Here is another shot of Gemma's guest bedroom where you can see the dresser, the other piece I created.
Both the nightstands and dresser were created from balsa wood and feature false drawer fronts. I used brass tubing for the handles.
What's your favorite part of the room? Make sure you check out Hygge & West Home: Design for a Cozy Life. If you like creating a welcoming home or interior design, I promise you'll love every page of the book.
