Mermaid Tiny House

I’ve said this before, and I hope to say it again: This was my favorite Tiny House to build! The bummer is that it’s so small (a one-room house) so it took very little time. Still, I’m going to keep it around until I see my friend Jess in Jasper National Park in a couple of months (I hope one of daughters might want it), so maybe this one will stay in my imagination longer.

Here is the final product; the footprint is about the size of my Kindle.

It’s hard to see what’s inside, so I took photos during the construction process.

Back Wall

Here’s the first stage where I can’t imagine what this sucker will look like (especially because the only photo of the assembled piece is on the cover of the box and has been photoshopped to look like it’s under water).

Pretty unimpressive, eh?

I added a dresser with a rounded back to fit the rounded exterior I’ll build later (like an Airstream, come to think of it). I’m particularly proud of the upholstery work on the armchair; the plaid on all the pieces line up. Can you guess what kind of fruit is on the little round table? It looks to be garnished with salmon roe.

Clamshell Bedroom

This clamshell-shaped bedframe was a beast to create. The faux leather is super thick and hard to pinch into pleats, and I had to wrap it around a thin wire frame that was supposed to mimic a clamshell. I didn’t include photos of the back on purpose.

Still, it looks comfy.

I had cut the blue throw badly and wanted to cover it, so I put that sailboat pillow right where the two throws overlap. Later I changed my mind and carefully cut the sail pillow off (too much glue!) and made my own seashell with a pearl inside as a focal point (and to hide the throw mishap).

Yay, a Chandelier! Etc.

These always look impossible until, voila! This one looks much nicer in real life; I couldn’t get my camera into the little house to get a decent shot.

There’s also a very cute bedside table and flipflops at the welcome mat—for the mermaid’s guest, of course.

Seashell TV

Okay, I don’t think mermaids need TVs, but I couldn’t think of anything clever to put in this spot. What’s most annoying is that the image I was provided is the one that usually comes with a Macintosh desktop computer. Maybe this is the mermaid’s video portal to the world on land.

Entrance and Interior

All done!

Don’t look closely at the curtains. I had them painstakingly pleated, then covered in netting and tied at the bottom with ribbon. Then the instructions called for me to cut them off at the top so I could glue them to the rounded entrance, and cutting them meant cutting where I’d glued together all the pleats. They fell apart! Just, move along. No one needs pleats.

Outside Ocean Life

After finishing the furniture, I added a layer of plastic, then plants and shells and fish to the outside, on both sides. These photos don’t show those off well because I have the blue running lights on, which were a challenge in themselves.

Each set of fairy lights had to be strung through the three arches on each side, then connected to the battery in back, along with the wiring for the chandelier. In trying to interpret the instructions (Chinese, maybe?) I cut the ends off one of the fairy light strings, and I couldn’t get it to splice back right. After the magic of asking a friend on Facebook, I learned that I had to scrape off a weatherproofing layer from the wires. Ta da! Watery blue lighting.

Two Layers of Bulkhead

To protect the plants and fish, I added a second layer of plastic. Again, like an Airstream: we have an outer layer of aluminum, then a frame and insulation, then an inner layer that are our walls.

Here you can see the plants and fish and such in their own protected frame around the trailer. I mean, mermaid house.

I love this tiny little underwater house, no matter how illogical it is. Gotta use your imagination.