Progress at the Miniature Half-Scale Diner

Things are moving along in the half-scale mansion! (*See latest post; others are listed in left column archives. Click photos for full size. *See exterior so far. Am adding flowers and windowboxes yet.)

While most people build this brownstone-style mansion as a modern three-story single-family home, I wanted to do something different. That's why I decided to put a diner on the first floor. I'd never made a restaurant and thought it would be fun to do in half-scale. Always looking for a challenge and trying something new, even if some parts of this can be pretty difficult.

 I know you already saw the food I made so far, the eggs and a hot dog plate. (Yeah I see the top moved; will fix that.)

I have to make some more food, too, and I found another sandwich plate I made, but that's for other tables once I get to that part. This time, I finished the front customer counter, adding the front logo and putting out the food, drinks, and menus. I like how it came out but this had some pretty hard parts.

The stools are from MiniEtchers. I have one more to add here but I wanted to show the logo on the counter. The counter was a wood block I covered a while back with painted wainscoting. The top is wood covered with the same marble paper as on the second floor fireplace.

I'm really happy with the menu set-ups, even if there was a bit of aggravation with that part and I probably have to make a few adjustments yet. ha! The salt & pepper shakers are tiny silver bead findings with an 1/8" circle on top. I used the same size cut-out to put the initials on the front of the beads. The ketchup and mustard are cut from the mini Lite Brite pegs, with teensy tips of toothpicks glued on and the whole thing painted. I shrunk down vintage-type menus and glued everything to sparkly glitter card.

Added: FYI: The peg I used is from the mini Lite Brite game. Here's a comparison. The larger peg/regular game is 1 3/4" long. I cut off the straight part on the small peg. It's slightly pointed but I couldn't get it right sanding so I gave up though it would be easier in one piece. I may try again.

The back counter partly shown in the back has since been spray-painted silver (the top surface and right lower section) and looks pretty good. I wanted to add some necessary pieces like grill dividers, knobs, faucet, etc. before I show it. Also am figuring out some food for the grill. I have some embossed silver pieces (cut from a coffee can inner liner) that I'm hoping to use as a tile strip around the back of the counter's top. I also have some food signs and shelving to glue on the walls. I do have to make a couple more ketchup-mustard bottles yet (which I'm dreading!) Don't ask how many pieces got dropped and lost. haa!

Shows are coming up, though I hate to wait until April to buy some needed things like half-scale pots, a couple cafe tables/chairs sets, and maybe a few shorter shelf units or a bookcase I can use for a display shelf for gift and holiday items on the left side of the room. It would be fun to be able to change this for holidays if it isn't too hard to get inside once I get it covered. So, that's the plan!

Thanks again for visiting! Be sure to come back soon. More to come!