Shabby Chic Cabin Roof & Porch

I have been having fun working on my Shabby Chic Cabin project.  

Here is a progress photo of the roof and porch.

The cabin was a club workshop project that the local miniature club did a while back.  We put together kits to build the cabin and invited regional members to Tulsa on a Saturday to build the cabins.  The cabin came with a small piece of foam core for the floor, a couple of small posts and a small roof.  I decided to do something a bit more grand!

 Here is an AutoCAD drawing that I did to study the porch and roof.

I browsed a few architecture books and Pinterest to do some research on eyebrow dormer windows, then drew a few options of the dormer to see which one I liked.  I had decided to do the cabin interior in a "Shabby Chic" all white palette.  It's basically an upscale 'She-Shed'  This drove my decision on the eyebrow to the curved window mullions.  

One of the dilemmas I had with the cabin furniture placement was that there isn't really enough space inside for a nice seating area, a kitchen and a table and chairs, so I decided to make the porch deep enough to comfortably house the table and chairs.  

The floor and wall of the cabin are made from 1/2" thick foam board.  The exterior of the cabin is covered with vinyl flooring that is cut into strips. I found some square wooden posts at the local hobby store that were roughly the same width as the "logs" on the walls.  I figured that the posts would look like the same wood that the walls were constructed of.

The floor of the cabin and porch are covered with scrap book paper.  I like the color of the wood print, but the boards were a little out of scale.  I divided each of the boards in half with a black pen to make it seem more like a believable scale.

Here is the paper glued in place and the corners cut out for the posts.  I also removed a piece of the vinyl flooring on the walls where the posts tie back into the structure.  I figured it would be more structural and easier to glue to the foam core.  I also used wooden dowels in the foam board between the porch floor and cabin floor to add extra support.

I stained the posts and glued them in place.

I decided to keep the ends of the porch open at the gable ends for a more contemporary look.  The roof is made from 1/4" foam core.

I transferred the measurements from the cad drawing to the roof and cut a hole for the dormer.

I cut the front of the dormer out of mat board and glued it in place. I constructed a framework out of bass wood and glued it in place with tacky glue.

I painted the underside of the structure white.

After the framework was dry, I glued a piece of cardboard to the room and frame members.

 I finished off all of the exposed edges of the foam core roof with thin strips of balsa wood and sanded and painted them with the same technique that I was using on the rest of the project.  ( brown paint, crackle finish, then a coat of the white paint)

 The kit came with corrugated cardboard for the roof.  I found a piece to do the same on the porch roof.  I painted the cardboard with a coat of metallic looking craft paint, but it was too shiny.  I did several washes of dark colors over that.

This was the piece that fits over the porch.  The dormer pokes through the hole.

Here a few shots that I took with some furniture.

I added some vinyl pieces around the base of the cabin and porch to finish it off.

Up next, I need to finish the stone on the fireplace chimney outside.  I have saved a few rough textured cardboard packing containers and I want to see what I can do with those.

Wish me luck!