DIY Network

Rustic Miniature Furniture Go primitive with an all-natural miniature. From "B. Original" episode DBOR-116

Get back to nature with this rustic miniature.

Miniatures offer a wonderful opportunity to B. Original with found objects—even objects you find in the back yard.

Host Michele Beschen challenged herself to build a rustic miniature house out of reclaimed barn boards and furnish it with all-natural materials. She created a house full of furniture and even some miniature people from natural materials like sticks, stones and foliage. Only a few of her materials didn't come from the back yard—scroll down to see how she did it.

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Michele Beschen’s miniature treehouse—built form old barn boards—needed furniture to match its rustic charm. Here’s how she furnished the home and created a few matching people to live there.

Rustic Miniature Furniture

	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

Materials:

sticks and small branches, various sizes
pruning snips
glue gun and glue rods
small saw
acorns and other nuts
small shells
dried leaves and flowers
artificial foliage and flowers
leather chamois scraps

• For bedding, cut a scrap of leather car chamois 2-3 inches larger than the finished size of your bed. Hot glue the ends of the chamois to two small sticks and roll the chamois onto the sticks. Glue some small sections of sticks to the bottom as feet, and you have a primitive sling bed (figure A).

• Slice a section from a small branch to use as a tabletop. For a pedestal base, use a section of smaller branch, cut level on each end. Hot glue together to assemble.

• Use small branch sections as chair bases. Hot glue small shells to the top as seats (figure B). Small pine cones also make good chair legs.

• Rocks make excellent footstools and chair bases.

• Decorate with pressed leaves and dried flowers. Glue pressed leaves down with a mixture of white glue and water to use as rugs.

• Use artificial foliage to build furniture (figure C). It’s stronger and more flexible than natural leaves, but will help keep the project’s rustic feel.

	Figure D
	Figure E
	Figure F

Rustic Tree People

acorns
sticks
18-gauge wire
drill
needle-nose pliers

• For each person, cut eight small sticks about the same length. Drill a hole lengthwise through each of these sticks, wide enough for the 18-gauge wire to pass through.

• Cut a thicker stick slightly longer than the other sticks. Drill two holes crosswise through this stick, one near each end.

• Thread a piece of 18-gauge wire through the holes in the larger stick (figure D). Thread two smaller sticks onto each end of the wires, leaving some space in between. These are your person’s arms and legs.

• Bend the arm and leg wires slightly to form elbows and knees. Use pliers to curl the ends as hands and feet
  (figure E).

• Choose an acorn for the person’s head. Either glue the head directly onto the body, or glue it to a small brad nail and press the nail into the stick.

• You can use wire and artificial foliage to dress your person, if desired (figure F).