Oprah Magazine: Styling the Bennett House

I had a great opportunity back in December to style an entire Bennett House by brinca dada for the March 2015 issue of Oprah Magazine. The job came at a great time, since I had off from work over Christmas break, and I completed it in a little over a week (for comparison, my Ladies' Home Journal styling job took place over a few months). It was intensive but very fun.

The article is about how to "spiff up" your home for spring, so I had a framework from the editorial team to get me started. The photo editor knew that they wanted a modern, clean interior with specific things such as a large mirror in the entryway, plants on the upper level, a fireplace with birch logs, etc. So even before I had the house in hand, I started to consider what would work best from my collection.

About that house...I had to completely assemble it as part of the job. So, it was shipped to me flat and I immediately got to work. I'll be honest--it took me many hours to identify and organize the pieces and also get the adhesive off the windows. There was a lot of mental and physical elbow grease up front, but the results were great. It's a fantastic house that is a joy to style. 

Here is the completed house:

Once it was assembled, I had a much better sense of what furnishings would work. The house is closest to 1:16 scale, although 1:12 will also work. I realized the one thing I was lacking was a complete modern kitchen in 1:16 scale, so I ended up purchasing a Lundby Smaland one from a dollhouse store about an hour away.

Once I had the Lundby set, the rest of the kitchen came together quickly. The ceiling light is from IKEA and came in handy, and the clock is a favorite of mine from Bandai. I paired some colorful Reac Eames chairs with a custom dining table by Patie of Minisx2 on Etsy. The doggie was not planned by the magazine, but I added him in, and he made the cut! I love the way this room turned out.

The foyer also came together nicely. I ended up using a great 1:10 scale Bodo Hennig table, which worked well in that double-height space, along with a great graphic rug from minimodernistas. The mirror is a craft item, and I paired it with some funky fur boots by Re-ment. The light is a pull chain for a 1:1 scale ceiling fan from Lowe's, and the plant is AG Minis.

Yup, that's me

The biggest challenge was coming up with a modern fireplace and realistic birch logs. I ended up creating a fireplace with some wooden and plastic pieces and then actually found some real miniature birch logs at Michael's. I sent the magazine two different options and they ended up choosing the white one, which looks great with the picture frames by Paris Renfroe.

I was thrilled to be able to use a great "Long and Low" couch, pillow, and print ottoman by minimodernistas. They all worked really well in the space. 

The bedroom features a vintage German bed and a dresser, which I was not convinced would work in the space, but they did. 

The magazine was careful not to have the rooms be overtly midcentury modern; this was, of course, my original direction :)

No Eames for you!

No Risom, either!

They went for a Bodo Hennig chair instead, along with the globe fixture from minimodernistas.

The rooms went through some iterations, but not many. It was nice to see the house come together.

And yes, they kept the Mini Cooper, too!

Since the magazine hired a studio to take the photos, I had to pack up each of the furnishings and label everything according to its location. I also took pictures of the placements just in case. I then boxed up the house and drove it into New York City, directly to Hearst Corporation, which publishes the magazine.

My two older ones helped get everything safely into the Oprah offices :)

Here is the final spread, along with views of the individual pages. Very exciting!

The magazine added a red door, as well as a closet in the foyer

And my credit!!!

"Dollhouse Stylist." I LIKE IT. Hope you enjoyed the results!

Dear Girls Above Me: My First Book Cover

It seems fitting to mark the start of my fifth (!) year of blogging with a little (big) announcement!

I am consistently amazed at the depth of this mini universe. It's been incredibly rewarding to meet and connect with hobbyists, design aficionados, artisans, and the generally curious since I started this blog in 2009. Some of these connections resulted in collaborations, such as the styling and photography spread I did for Ladies' Home Journal on real-life clutter, the exhibit featuring a fully-furnished Kaleidoscope house at my local Design Within Reach store, and interviews, articles, and other coverage in publications around the world. In each of these cases, there was a genuine fascination with the modern twist on miniatures, which made these events and interactions even more gratifying. Without a doubt, the article on modern miniature design in the New York Times in 2010 definitely helped to spark people's interest in this emerging side of the hobby.

Just over one year ago, I was contacted by Crown Publishing Group, part of Random House, to design a cover for a book by first-time author Charlie McDowell titled Dear Girls Above Me. McDowell, a comedian and filmmaker (and son of actors Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen) has an incredibly popular Twitter feed about the actual "girls" who live in the apartment above him. This is Charlie:

Profile photo from Twitter

He cannot help but listen to their chatter, and he shares very entertaining bits of their conversations, addressing them "Dear GAM" ("Girls Above Me"). A few recent ones:

Dear GAM, “Hey Claire, can I borrow your car so I can pick up my car from the shop?” You might wanna also consider borrowing Claire.

— Charlie McDowell (@charliemcdowell) January 11, 2013

Dear GAM, "Poor Lance Armstrong. It's embarrassing enough that he has erectile dysfunction." Different performance enhancing drugs.

— Charlie McDowell (@charliemcdowell) January 14, 2013

Dear GAM, "I wish I knew a veteran so I could get some of these great deals at Nordstroms." Life. Liberty. Discounted pillow shams.

— Charlie McDowell (@charliemcdowell) November 12, 2012

While I had not heard of McDowell, I became enamored with his posts and was excited by the prospect of doing the cover for his book. My contact at Crown, designer Jessie Bright, provided me with some very rough sketches, a color palette, and some screen shots from my blog that she thought would provide good starting inspiration. The basic concept was a cover that had Charlie sitting on a couch on the bottom half and the legs only of the "girls" on the top half. They asked that I keep the setting very minimal, i.e., do not create two whole apartments, and they also wanted me to use dolls so that it looked intentionally artificial. They wanted Charlie to have a retro/hip look and for the "girls" to be very...yes..GIRLIE!

The first step were the dolls. I normally do not use dolls in my scenes, but had some Kaleidoscope House figures, so I started experimenting. I decided to use my Citadel for this job, since it has the open double-height space.

This doll was not quite right (although they liked his legs), so they asked me to research other "modern" dolls. Jasper from "Twilight" was mostly just for fun...and he cannot sit!

I then suggested the Dad that came with the TOMY Smaller Home and Garden dollhouse.

Courtesy of Andy&Shel on Flickr

Crown LOVED this look for Charlie and were not deterred by the fact that his legs did not bend. I thought I had one in my collection, but couldn't find him. I put out word on my Facebook page to see if anyone would be willing to loan one in pristine condition, and the lovely Susan H. came to the rescue! She kindly loaned him for four months as I experimented with Crown. Thanks again, Susan!!!!

In terms of the setting, I researched some modern lamps and Crown liked this one from miniatures.com. The AG Minis topiary was a winner from the beginning. The flooring is wood grain paper from the Paper Source, and they asked that the backdrop be green, to make it easier to PhotoShop the final walls at the end. I shot "Charlie" on a few different couches. Here are some shots showing various couch options:

Too stylized

Too big

Too small

Too uncomfortable

Too contemporary

Just right! We all liked the grey couch best (created by the lovely Annina), so Crown asked that I do some shots from different angles with a laptop so that we could come up with Charlie's final pose:

Too passive

Too high above

Not quite

YES!!!

With Charlie figured out, I turned my attention to the "girls." I tried a few Kaleidoscope House dolls, but they did not make the cut.

It was a good process to accessorize the space, but Crown decided they wanted it even more minimal. As I was figuring out the furnishings, I suggested using Barbie dolls, since we were going for a truly "girlie" look. I have to admit that I was intimidated by the large scale. I also had to confront the issue of making them stand and pose without stands, since I needed to keep my hands free to photograph. Here's how I did it...

Painter's tape, while crude, did work!

And then I added a third gal, at Crown's request.

The painter's tape approach did work. No Barbies were harmed during the shoot!

I think they worked really well with their lovely little legs! Crown requested that the girls be positioned closer together, and that the middle girl have a more form-fitting skirt. I got some black adhesive felt, which did the trick. I styled the background with one of my favorite vintage Bodo Hennig tables, a Barbie by Jonathan Adler pink lamp, and a cup/saucer and clock by Re-ment. The couch is AG Minis, and the pillow is by minimodernistas. The bag is Barbie's.

With the girls completed, I submitted the photos to Crown in May and they did their magic with the backdrops. As it turned out, Crown had to amend the TOMY doll's face to comply with legal, so he had a bit of a face lift and shirt makeover. They also used the Kaleidoscope Dad's bent legs! But everything else fit into place. 

I am really pleased and excited. The book comes out in June and it's neat to see it on Amazon already.

Cool, right??

This was a great learning experience, and the folks at Crown were a real pleasure to partner with on this project. I'd love the opportunity to do more covers and styling in the future!

Thanks, Crown, and best of luck to Charlie McDowell and his book! I'm definitely getting a copy!!!