The Magic Faraway Tree

Angry Pixie's Music Room

I don't know why I have made Angry Pixie's room into a music room, because it doesn't mention that in the book. But as Enid Blyton did not really describe inside his room, this was my interpretation of how I think Angry Pixie would live. (Maybe it is the distant memory of my old junior school teacher who always appeared angry)!

One of the problems I have faced with this room is the fact that none of the walls, floor etc are even. I should have considered all this with the papier mache, but hindsight would be a wonderful thing. It is certainly a lesson I have learnt for future projects. I started this room by making the fireplace. This is made of balsa wood that I have painted. I covered the inside of the fireplace with pieces of cardboard egg box to make it look like bricks, and painted this to give it an effect. The pot hanging over the fire is made from a piece of copper pipe that I found at a DIY store, and I have glued an acorn on top of it.

To stop the Angry Pixie falling out of bed, I made a bookcase (again out of balsa wood) and I added some spindles to the top of it. The spindles are made out of cocktail sticks, with paper wound tightly round one end. These were all painted to match.

That is not the Angry Pixie sitting on the bed, that's Watzisname just trying it out for size! The ladders are also made of balsa wood. The chair is my pride and joy in this room. I copied the pattern from the 1 inch minis website.

This has been a fantastic website for inspiration and instructions on how to make so many things. I would love to have time to make just about everything on the site.

So this is how my chair turned out after copying her wonderfully detailed instructions.

The finishing touches to my room were a little violin and piano which I found really cheap on eBay. The rug in this room was found at my Mother's house, on her coffee table. She had a set of four that she uses to protect wooden tables....she only has a set of three now (I wonder how long it will take her to notice)?

The picture frames were made from cardboard with a lace trim and painted gold. I made the little books from foam board and printed the covers from pictures from the internet.

So voila... the Angry Pixie's room.

Saucepan Man's Steam Punk Room

I know steampunk was not invented when Enid Blyton wrote The Magic Faraway Tree, but I had decided on this room right from the start of building the tree.

One of my favourite characters in the book as a child, was always old Saucepan Man. Being as Enid Blyton never described the inside of the room that both he and Watzisname lived in, I thought it was down to my imagination.

Now what sort of room would you think a Saucepan Man lived in? I thought it could be a steampunk poker room. The sort of room that two men could play cards or darts and have a few drinks. This is probably not the best influenced room for children to play in, but its what I fancied building!

I decided to make some sort of beer making boiler machine to go against the back wall first.

This is made from cardboard boxes that I sprayed with black enamel paint. The front part is from an old clock face, and I used other parts of clocks to decorated it. The top pipes are just drinking straws painted silver.

I had originally used a small garden bench that I bought off the internet as their chair, but I changed my mind and decided to make a curved bar bench. I made this from balsa wood and card and I used some batting to make the quilted seat.

The poker table is made from a small wooden barrel that I bought from a hobby store. I made a top for the table from cardboard and covered it with green felt.

The really fiddly thing to make was the darts for the darts board. I used cut down dressmaker pins as the body for the dart and used punched holes out of patterned paper, carefully stuck together to make the flights.

The wall unit is made from an ice cube tray which I spray painted black. I made the miniature bottles from old pens, which I heated over a candle to get the shape.

The beds are made from balsa wood, and I used some cut out wooden shapes for the headboards.

Silky's Fairy Room

As per usual, I had no idea what I was going to do with this room. I knew how I wanted the bed to look, and the rest would then have to fit in around it.

So I started to make the bed. The base is made from a piece of balsa wood. I sprayed some small twigs with gold paint to use for the legs and the posts of the bed, and glued them to the base. My first attempt at making the valance for the bed was quite a disaster, as you can see in the first photos. The material was much too thick and looked like it had just been stuck on. I am only showing these photos so that you can see the sprayed legs and then after I added some flowers to the twigs.

Stupidly, I forgot to take another photo after I had changed the valance, but you can see the completed bed in another photo.

I then decided that Silky needed somewhere to cook, because in the book she was often baking. For some bizarre reason, I chose to make her a pizza type oven out of air drying clay, which I moulded into shape and left to dry. I coated it in cream paint that had been mixed with a little sand to give it some texture.

My husband's favourite is the little flower pot, that I made to look like a miniature tin of baked beans.

Next was the chair. I again followed the instructions on the one inch minis site mentioned earlier. This website has been such an inspiration to me. The chair is made from cardboard and covered in fabric.

The final touches were a teddy bear made from a pipe cleaner, a picture, a table and some curtains.

Washalot's room

Washalot's room was one that I knew how I wanted to be before I started. I knew that it needed only basic furniture, and nearly all washing stuff.

Because the book was written in the 1950's there were no washing machines, so I thought I would keep to that and make it only hand washing.

I again started this room with the bed. I wanted it to be small and did originally think about a pull down from the wall, but this seemed too complicated, so I opted for a fold out bed.

I began with some pieces of sponge and my chosen material. I covered two pieces in the same fabric and covered a small roll to form the pillow. I then chose a piece of contrasting fabric for the back of the chair bed.

I stuck the covered two squares and the roll to the backing material using fabric glue and then folded the chair up to make sure that it all fitted.

For the sink, I cut out a piece of balsa wood to fit the side of the room, and cut a hole to fit the sink into. The sink was made from a small plastic jam pot, that you find in restaurants. I sprayed all this with several coats of white enamel paint to give it a good gloss finish. I made the tap from a piece of wire and a few beads. The scrubbing board was a piece of corrugated cardboard that I sprayed silver.

I then added some curtains over the front of the sink to make it look like an old cottage type sink. Finally some washing lines were strung around the room, and obviously, some washing hanging from them.

And as a final touch, did you notice the posters?

Moonfaces's room

I was looking forward to doing this room as everything was to be round. But like most of the rooms I have done, my ideas always seem really easy in my head!

I started off by creating a curved couch. This was made in the same way that I had made other chairs in the house. I started with thick cardboard which I cut out and curved into shape. This was then padded and covered in fabric.

I decided to make Moonface a round waterbed type of bed. I made this from a round cheese box which I covered in a soft leather type stretchy material, that I have had lying around for years. I did want to fill a large balloon with water for the mattress, but no matter how big a balloon I bought, I could not get the shape of the balloon to rest correctly in the bed. So I ended up scrapping this idea and just had to give him a padded round mattress. I made two small bedside tables and a headboard to sit behind the bed and again covered them with the leather type fabric.

I cut a cardboard tube from kitchen roll and sprayed it blue to make the cushion holder needed for the slippery slip. I later added some cushions that were just sewn from off bits of fabric.

On the back wall I stuck some small round plastic pots to use as small shelves. The egg chair had been an idea I had originally wanted to use in Silky's room, but it was too big. This was a pre made paper mache egg I had bought from Hobbycrafts at Easter. I think it is meant for children to decorate. I cut a segment out of it then covered it in Decopatch paper. The base is made out of the stem of a plastic champagne type cocktail glass, which I painted. I then made some cushions to fit inside and trimmed the outside and bottom edges with tassels. The picture below is the egg chair in yellow for Silky's room, but as you can see, I recovered it in blue and I think it suits the room much better.

So this is the final finished room.