It features two rooms that are mirror-images of each other. They are separated by a wall housing a mirror which serves as a dimensional portal. One room, neglected and abandoned for decades, represents the present day. The other is warm and inviting with a lit fireplace, cozy atmosphere, and full of great memories. 

This project was conceived & built just hours before Christmas and was barely finished due to the severe winter storm. We lost power for a bit so I was sanding and painting by lantern light. It wasn’t pretty. There were a lot of words I cannot repeat here, but in the end I made it work. 

Video from Pexels.com and courtesy of Cyrus Photography 

Being the end of the year and all, I looked around and realized I had to whittle down duplicate pieces and unfinished projects gathering dust. It was easy to decide on a Christmas theme since I had some duplicates of miniature Christmas items that came together in a lot won on Ebay a few years back. But how could I maximize the usage of everything?

The holidays are a joyous time for some and a difficult time for others. Many times, we find ourselves thinking about the “olden days” and the folks that touched our lives. We remember the warmth and coziness of past years how much circumstances have changed. We don’t often notice the subtle changes over time, but the cumulative result seems drastic in contrast to our previous years’ celebrations.

Missing many people, places, and traditions from my own past holidays, I decided to create a 1:24 scale diorama/book nook (yes it’s both – I shall explain) that illustrates the yearning for comfort of the past.

Seeing as I had two small ornate frames, I figured I could have a central wall with them on either side with the inference of a mirror (or portal) being there. I was initially going to show two rooms side by side as mirror images of each other, but decided to include a spirit with the ability to travel back and forth through the portal.

Luckily for me, I had some weird male-looking (and possibly ceramic?) figurine (thanks to the Ebay lot) (and thank gosh only one because frankly, the thing kinda creeped me out) that I could place mid-portal between the walls and cover with a ghostly looking material.

I started with the layout and the basis for it was a leftover wood plank floor I had previously made out of coffee stirrers that measured 13″ x 5″. I then made 3 cross walls out of Dollar Tree foam measuring 5″ L x 5″ W x 9″ H. And no, I did not remove the paper backing because I gave up. It never comes off for me. I found a great antique damask wallpaper pattern, sized it down, printed it, and cut it into strips to hang on the walls.

I wanted identical fireplaces and marked out a place on a back wall made of foam measuring longer than the length of the floor and 9″ high. This would allow me enough room to attach the side walls to the back and floor. The fireplaces were made from cardboard, air dry clay moldings, and EVA foam. They were primed with white gesso and painted with brown acrylic craft paint to simulate a wood grain.

Next, the wallpaper was hung in strips on every wall. I had leftover window frames from the Madison Seminary project that were the perfect size. I cut holes in the foam walls, sandwiched acetate between the frames, and hot-glued them on as well as some leftover trim for windows sills. Obviously the “past” room had a perfect window but the “present” room had cracked and broken panes (acetate). As for each exterior, I wanted a wood plank look so I used coffee stirrers.

Yikes – I couldn’t stand it once it was finished. I decided to cut up 1/2″ strips of white cardstock and layer those over the wood like siding. I liked that look much better. Again, one side was pristine and the other was slathered in a dark brown wash with torn paper (missing siding). I didn’t do the back of the project as it’s meant to be seen from the front (diorama) or either side (book nook looking through the window).

I decided to dampen, fan fold, wrinkle, and tear some of the white cardstock into pieces. These torn pieces were affixed to the figure like robes with Elmer’s Glue. I managed to shove the “spirit” between the walls horizontally, mimicking a floating spirit look. I wanted to show him reaching out towards the past but alas, his arms were too short. I cut off some small plastic doll hands, made foil ARMatures, and hot glued them in place. The figure was hot glued as well, as he was kind of heavy and barely fit to begin (which made it a tight workspace to “clothe” it).

Oh yeah, did I mention the strange figure was only holding a towel? The back of him is censored in the video, just in case.  I thought it may need a sparkly finish so I mixed up Triple Thick Gloss Glaze with a teensy bit of gold glitter and gave it a thin coating. I keep finding glitter in the house a week later… But I digress. The color of the hands now mismatched the color of the feet sticking out so I white gesso’d all visible appendages. Makes it more ethereal, I suppose plus I wasn’t going to waste a chance to gesso something.

Curtains were made courtesy of Dollar Tree fabric by cutting four pieces to the desired size and distressing one set. I fan-folded them, tightly clipped them, and soaked them in 1 cup of water and Elmer’s Glue for about an hour. They dried overnight on a paper towel because they were too saturated to dry with a heat tool (I tried). The next day, I unclipped and opened them up to reveal they had kept their shape nicely and were ready to attach to toothpick curtain rods. Tiebacks were made from shimmery string and surreptitiously secured with hot glue. 

The removable ceiling was made by using Dollar Tree foam and – you guessed it – primed with white gesso. When dry, I painted half of the ceiling dark brown to add contrast and let that dry. I dabbed Mold Builder latex over the brown section and after it dried, stippled on some off-white acrylic craft paint to the whole piece.

A pink eraser works pretty well for removing random places of where the latex was applied which then gave the appearance of a crumbling, peeling ceiling. I topped the piece with “planks” of coffee stirrers for stability and painted the top black. It did end up having a slight warp to it but that can usually be fixed with weighted items. Ideally it shouldn’t warp but now I’ve learned for next time.

The room depicting the present day was weathered by ripping the wallpaper at the seams and adding dark washes. I carved out a small hole in the wall and added coffee stirrer pieces split in half to simulate laths. I had some leftover pieces of flattened, dried joint compound and broke some up to glue around the perimeter for an exposed plaster look.

I had some extra 3D printed candles from the “A Haunting” diorama so I took those and weathered one set.

All of the mirrored-image accessories such as the Christmas trees, books, candles, candy canes, and wreaths were placed in the scene and weathered accordingly. It was then I realized I wanted better, more stable framing around the project so I used popsicle sticks and wood filler. I was in the home stretch, just about to sand and paint when… we lost power due to the severe winter storm. I sanded and painted by lantern light though I had to wait to use the glue gun for spider web strings after sprinkling joint compound dust all over the room on the left. 

Creating and working on this project has helped me greatly in a therapeutic way. It helped me realize even though so many things change in our world, you can always visit the warmest memories in your heart with gratitude.

Here’s the finished video. Thank you so much for being here, and I welcome any questions/comments. See you in the next one!