Starting a miniature castle

The first thing I needed were some cabinets to use as the base of the castle and I needed quite a few because the castle will be 6' square. So I've been buying a variety of cabinets and dressers at garage sales, and finally, with the above purchase, have enough to begin the castle.

As you can see in the picture, there are two empty areas that will be part of the basement of the castle in these two new cabinets. I have other similar cabinets as well. I figured I could do some interesting lower rooms, such as a wine cellar and perhaps a grotto.

Another castle floor

This is another floor I bought at a garage sale. I have no idea what the original intent was. I'm not sure yet where I'll use it, but I'm thinking about it. I thought it was an interesting design. It's hard to take a picture of because of the super glossy finish.

Wood Parquetry Floor

I bought a hand-made marquetry tray at a garage sale. The owner said her grandfather had made this. Well, it just looked like the perfect floor for one of the rooms in my castle, so by cutting off the sides of the tray, I ended up with an 11 1/4 by 17 1/4" floor. I'm not sure what room it will be for the castle, but I couldn't resist it!

Rummage Sale Find

Today I got all of this food and related minis from a garage sale for a total of 10 cents for the lot! Yep, it's a fun find, even though I prefer to make my own. But it was like Christmas getting all of these in a bag for a dime.

Remodeling The Castle

This shows painted but not yet filled and covered with stucco walls as part of the remodeling. Builder's foam was used again and wooden dowels for the posts. The picture is taken outside where I was working on it.

Builder's foam is available at lumber yards and comes usually in 4 by 8 foot sheets. The technical term for what I call builder's foam is "extruded polystyrene insulation." Dow makes one, and it's blue in color. I prefer using that one because it is more smooth. Corning makes one too.

I use builder's foam for many projects in miniature.

Having had the perfect castle to me, a decade ago, after so much building, scared me. I was done. So I tore apart a third of it, and began again. This is a picture of my kitty, Keeper, crawling through the builder's foam walls.

I picked up Keep as a kitten, in the middle of a road, a pour little feral. He and I fell in love immediately, and he's been with me for 13 years. Great cat! And he's totally afraid of going outside (he still remembers the bad life out there) but he still loves, and don't most cats, the feeling of an enclosure. Safe and secure!

I'd turned to builder's foam because I saw that even outdoor plywood warped over time. That's something Colleen Moore wrote about and so her castle is made out of aluminum. Given I couldn't afford that, I went with builder's foam. I'd discovered it along a roadside, being trashed, decades ago. Hey, this is great--low weight, easily cut and decorated. And that's pretty much what I still use for mini scenes today.

I've always loved Colleen Moore's dollhouse castle and decided I wanted to build my own. I've been playing with that for decades. I also love making any medieval settings, Halloween miniatures, haunted things, and Christmas scenes. Above is how my castle once looked--it's now getting remodeled. It's made from plywood and builder's foam for the structure.