Welcome! This blog post features a guided tutorial of how to craft a DIY mini room and challenges the creator to think like an interior designer. The goal is to make the mini room have a sense of UNITY, which is an important principle of design. Unity in art can be achieved when the visual elements have a sense of connectedness. Although colors, textures, patterns and more will VARY, the elements can still work in a connected way to achieve effective interior design.
Additionally, this is a great lesson to encourage artists to work develop their skills of craftsmanship, and using tools to create work that is neatly presented. Technical aspects such as clean cut edges, proper measurements, and neat glue application are so important to ensuring the mini room look visually pleasing!
This lesson can be finalized with so many different art materials. In this tutorial, the materials that I will be using include:
- Foam core board or cardboard
- Patterned and colored paper
- Fabric swatches
- Scissors
- Hot glue
- White glue
- Craft knife
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Random found objects
- Old magazines for collage
- Assorted Wood Pieces and Shapes such as this set from Amazon #sponsored
*Hey educators, scroll down or a ready-for-the-classroom lesson of this project featuring a slideshow with tutorial, key terms, grading rubric and more!*
PRIOR TO BEGINNING:
Choose a swatch of fabric or paper to serve as your design “inspo.” Create a few thumbnail sketches to explore how to visually tie it all together in a mini room that includes a bed, a carpet, a window/artwork, area rug, and at least 1 3d furniture element such a night table, bookshelf, dresser, or table. Additional items can be considered such as a lamp, desk, accent chair, and much more! Consider a limited but repeated color scheme of a few colors to tie it all together.
Step 1:
Cut a piece of foam core board or cardboard to 10 ” x 11″.
*Sizes can be completely customized. This size results in a manageable, mini model.*
Step 2:
Use pencil and a ruler to draw lines at 5″ horizontally and 5″ from vertically. As seen in the image, this will be create 4 sections which will make 2 walls, a floor, and a ‘X’ section that will be removed.
Step 3:
Use a craft knife to remove the ‘X’ section. Save this piece to repurpose into other parts of the mini room, such as the picture frame, bed, etc.
Step 4:
Along the pencil lines, use a craft knife to “score” the lines. Scoring is where you cut a line but not all the way through the surface. Once the lines are scored, gently bend upwards.
Step 5:
Bend the scored lines up to create the two walls. Use hot glue or a method of your choice to connect the walls to form the 3d mini room.
Step 6:
Begin designing your mini room by choosing what the walls will look like using either pre-cut templates to trace or measuring wall 1 (5″ x 5″) and wall 2 (5″ x 6″).
Patterned scrapbook paper worked great for this step!
Step 7:
Glue the walls onto the board.
Step 8:
Design the floors and cut to 5″ x 6.”
Step 9:
Glue the floors on.
Step 10:
Add an area rug.
Donated fabric swatches of curtain samples/carpet work great for this step!
Step 11:
Add an artwork or window for the wall.
It is fun to look through old magazines and books for this step! Consider which found images tie in nicely with the rest of the room.
Step 12:
Using found objects, fabric, and leftover foam core board, create a bed for the mini room!
Step 13:
To make cute little pillows, glue three sides of fabric together leaving one side open. Stuff with polyfill or crumbled paper. Then, glue the open side together.
Step 14:
Get creative with materials to add a piece of 3d furniture. In this tutorial, a small block of wood, markers, and beads were used to make a little dresser.
Step 15:
Consider additional details you can use to make the room feel at home. In this image, you can see a bit of fake leaves glued into a bead to make a cute little vase.
Final step:
Add your final touches, such as a lamp, table, desk, accent chair and more!
I completed this lesson with my middle school art classes. Many said it was their favorite project they did all year! The final products were creative and so fun to look it. I loved seeing how students repurposed found objects and got creative with adding additional items to their rooms. It took about a 5-6 45-minute class periods to complete. Here are a few examples….
*Hey teachers!* Click here for my TpT shop if you’re interested in this lesson, which features a full slideshow presentation, printable drawing guide, and a project specific grading rubric.
Also, my family and I have been obsessed with designing these mini rooms! Check out this example below created with my 2nd grade son. I helped him with the craft knife and hot glue, but he worked really well independently on this! He really pulled off this design choices despite my skepticism after he chose that vibrant patterned wall LOL! He also had some fun adding some LED lights, which really brought it to life!
Here is another example of the “bird” room created independently by my 4th grader. I love all the cute little elements she added to her room and pulled together a nicely unified neutral color scheme.
Thanks for checking out this blog post. I would love to see your creations if you use these steps to create your own mini room. Feel free to tag me on Instagram and possibly get featured in this site! Also, please follow Make a Mark Studios on Facebook to keep up with the latest posts! Thanks in advance!
-Stephanie Villiotis, art teacher and creator of Make a Mark Studios