1:48 scale Christmas living room

How-to instructions for making this Christmas living room was my 2002 contribution to the Swedish miniatures magazine. There, I described how to build the room itself and everything in it, except for the printies.

For more about the magazine and my other projects in it, please visit the page Miniatyrvärlden.

Architectural features

The window is of a type used extensively in late 19th century Swedish town houses. I cut it from card and painted it, and glued a postcard of Stockholm by night behind it. The window was then glued onto the wall.

Crown molding and a ceiling medallion add to feeling that the room is situated in a turn of the century house. I liked the room to look significantly older than the furniture in it, so that it reflects the look of flats in central Stockholm, and so the room can be used with older furniture designs too. In the DIY projects section of this site, there's a how-to for making the ceiling medallion.

Furniture and gifts

I based the leather sofa on the design "Klippan" in Ikea's catalog.

The table is very basic. As I was writing for a mostly larger-scale audience, I mainly wanted to make the how-to's as easy as possible. And, I only used supplies that are available locally.

The wrapped gifts are just blocks of wood. The largest of them is the shape and size of a classic dollhouse from Lundby of Sweden. If you'd like some mini giftwrapping hints, visit the DIY projects section.

Exterior

The outside is covered in giftwrap paper - a logical choice for a Christmas room, though I didn't choose a very Christmassy paper. I finished the front edges of the box with narrow strips of matching giftwrap ribbon.