World's Coolest Mother's Day Present: Living Room & Kitchen

The Living Room

The fireplace wall was a key feature of the real living room that I wanted to reproduce in miniature. Rather than make the individual stones, I started with an unfinished textured plastic stone sheet that I cut to fit and painted in numerous layers to get the natural look I wanted. Once the painting was done, I used tinted spackle to grout the whole thing. I built the wood mantle and the hearth to match the real fireplace as well. I took photos of the process so at a later date I'll post a tutorial on it.

A coffee table to match the real one, with some of Fran's favorite magazines. More magazines are stashed in the holder next to the couch.

One of the special items A. wanted to include was a replica of his father's guitar. I found a close match, then modified it and added some painted details to make it as exact as possible.

The real fireplace.

The Kitchen

Of course the true heart of any Italian home is the kitchen. I built all the cabinets from kits and custom-stained them to match the real ones. The floor is done with peel-and-stick marble tiles and then grouted. The door leads out to the garden.

Every year V. and A. send Fran delicious Georgia peaches, and she then uses the same box to send them fresh tomatoes from her garden. This miniature box is addressed to the kids, and full of ripe and unripe tomatoes individually wrapped in newsprint.

Fran's favorite cookbooks reproduced in miniature, along with vitamin bottles and a bowl of fresh fruit for her yogurt smoothies. I also repainted a blender to match her real one.

Next up: The Garden!