DIY Miniature Haunted House (Kit Bash)

Hi guys, it's Cath. I have a very exciting project for you today just in time for Halloween. We're building this gorgeous Provence Lavender kit in a haunted house style. This kit has a bunch of vintage elements that'll make it perfect for a haunted house transformation. I didn't use all the pieces as they were intended, and I'll also be using some additional materials which are always listed in the info box below. Let's get started. First, I'll unbox this kit and show you what it contains. This kit is packaged quite nicely and has several smaller boxes than within the big one. There are also bags filled with countless more pieces. Another box. These bigger pieces which make up the structure of the house. And all of this paperwork. Let's take a closer look at the instructions and the colorful printouts. The instructions are printed in color, but unfortunately it's not in English. However, I have the link to the English version in the info box below. This kit also contains these pattern cutouts and these gorgeous sheets of colorful printouts for flooring, wallpaper, and a bunch of accessories. Next, let's dig into these three boxes. The smallest one contains a music box. The second one contains this cute pink car. And the biggest box has a few accessories including this bathtub and this big ziplock bag. This bag contains a bunch of windows, railings, some stairs, and other house fixtures. These are the two bags in the kit. The first one has these dark blue pieces which make up the roof of the house. The second bag has even more bags within this one. It contains fabric, greenery, furniture pieces, more walls, a lighting kit, more wooden pieces, and so much more. Here are all the big structural pieces. We have these cream walls, the base of the house, these acrylic sheets which can be used to create a dust cover, and this foundation piece. This huge piece is for the foundation of the house. The kit gives you a paper template to glue on, but we'll be making our own. I first used the base of the house to trace the shape I need. Then I glued green felt down to all the areas that will be outdoors. I have various shades of dark and light brown to both the felt and the bare wood. You can see this process in detail on my DIY terrain video. We're going for the look of an abandoned and unkept plot of land. The house is raised off the ground, so take these short square dowel pieces and glue them to the inner edges of the wood. For some hay, I take some twine, unravel it, and trim off some short pieces. Then I just glue them to the grass. For some rocks, spread out some air dry clay, wait for it to dry, and then break it into tiny pieces. Mix in some gray paint, and you have some realistic looking rocks. Glue these onto the wood and grass. Put this foundation piece to the side for now, and let's work on the house itself. Take the base of the house and its color printout. Cut out the flooring image and glue it to the base. I just squeeze some paper glue onto the wood, spread it out with a brush, and glue the paper on section by section. Then to distress it a little bit, I take some sandpaper and sand across the image. Look at the texture of the sanding added. To age this outer flooring, I dry brush on some brown paint. It makes it look super dirty. I use the same brown paint and add on some plank details. Don't forget the nail heads. For the indoor aging, use gray paint and dry brush it across the floor. The reason we're using gray inside is because it gives it the look of dust. Add random splotches across the floor. It looks much older already. Next, let's add some walls. Grab these 3 cream pieces. Before adding them on, let's just stress them. I'm using this needle file to roughen up all the grooves. I also take this x-acto knife and cut out small sections of wood. Do this for all 3 walls. The back of these walls is bare wood, so we'll add wallpaper to it. Cut out all the wallpaper images from your color template sheet. See the groove on this wall piece? That's where the wires for our lighting will go, so let's do that first. Take the bag with the light bulbs and a battery case. Besides those pieces, this bag also contains this tiny square of sandpaper and this long sticker. Oh, and this little hinge. The kit uses 2 AAA batteries, so make sure you have those on hand. In this bag, there are 8 of these little lights. Each one has a positive gray wire and a negative white one. Let me show you how this works. Simply connect negative to positive to light it up. Gray to black and red to white. Add a light into the groove and make sure the wire is laid flat. Now we can paste the wallpaper on. I'm going to tear small pieces of this wallpaper off to give it an aged look. Paste it on with regular paper glue. Then cut out any openings. Lastly, just sand the image. Add some wood glue and attach this first wall to the left side of the base. Before we can add more walls, make sure the holes of the base are also in the paper. I just use this file to punch through the paper. Repeat the wallpaper and lining process to the other walls. Add an L-shaped wall to the right side. Make sure to pull the bulb wires through the hole. Now just add it to the front wall. This house is really coming together. Grab the smallest Ziploc bag with wall pieces and spill it out. Take the smallest rectangle piece and distress it. This will be the door for the power box. It fits snugly into this lower right opening. Take the small hinge and glue it to the right edge. Once that dries, this door can swing open and shut. Take your battery pack and glue it behind this opening. Make sure to pull the red and black wires through the hole in the floor. As you can see, we have a lot of wires going on. But don't worry about that until the end. Position your house onto the foundation. Don't glue it on just yet because we'll need to do the wiring later. For the front steps, take these two pieces and cut out these images from the template sheet. Glue on the top piece and the side edges. When both are covered, glue the small one on top of the big one. Attach it to the front of the house. Just like we did for the porch, dirty up the steps with some brown paint. Then add in some plank details. As you can see, I glued the steps to the house and not the foundation. Let's move inside the house. Take this bag B which contains all the kitchen pieces. Spill it out and pick out all the pieces for the kitchen counter. These are all the pieces you'll need. Attach the sides on first. Then add on all these pieces to the front of the counters with detail. Lastly, position the countertop in place. I'm going to paint over all the blue areas with white for a uniform look, but that's optional. Then with some gray paint, dirty up these cabinets. Add the paint to the edges of the doors, the areas close to the floor, and even the countertop itself. To go a step further, I used my knife to cut away at some of the edges. Now simply place this counter over the battery pack. Don't glue it in place because you'll want to be able to move it to change out the batteries later. The kitchen table is made up of these two pieces. Simply glue them together and it's done. Super easy. The kit comes with two chairs. You can impose them according to the instructions, but I'm just going to glue the wooden parts together. Add on the back. Then add a drop of wood glue to each corner and add on the legs. Super cute. Make the other chair as well. There's also this bench that's so easy to put together. Position these pieces inside the house next to the kitchen. Right off the kitchen is the living room, so let's make that furniture. With a second letter B bag, pull out the following pieces to make your sectional couch. These are all the pieces you'll need and this is how they'll be organized. For the fabric, grab bag E which contains all the fabric. We'll be using this cream leather looking vinyl. Let's upholster the armrest first. Use fabric glue to glue one side of the wood to the back of the fabric. Trim off the excess vinyl. Do the same for the other side so the armrest looks like this. Then cut out a strip of vinyl 1.5 inches in width. Fold in the side edges and iron it flat. Glue that to the armrest starting from one side and pulling it over to cover all the wood. Trim off the excess vinyl. Do this for both armrests. For the rest of the couch, pull out the white felt from the fabric bag. Glue all the C pieces to the felt and cut them out. Do this twice so you have a thick layer of batting. Then glue all those pieces to the back side of the vinyl, felt side down. Cut some slits into the sides of the vinyl and wrap it over the wood. This doesn't need to look perfect because it's meant to look used. Cut off any excess fabric and glue all the pieces together. Add on the armrest. Don't forget these tiny legs. Lastly, grab this lace fabric from the bag and drip it over one side of the couch. Glue it down and trim off any excess. I love the ghostly look of this lace. Once you're satisfied with the look, add a section onto the living room. For the front of the couch, let's make a coffee table. These are the pieces you'll need. Simply glue the sides onto the white rectangle. Then position the brown countertop in place. Very simple. Next piece for the living room is very fun. We're making a grand piano. These are the pieces you'll need. Glue the side pieces to the base of the piano and add on the back of the keyboard area. Cut out this long strip from the printout template. Glue it into one side piece and wrap it around the back, making sure to curve it. Trim off any remaining paper. Then glue on the three legs. This piece will be the piano lid. But before we keep going, let's paint the entire piano black. This is totally optional. You can absolutely keep it white. For the keyboard, take this tiny white rectangle and its image. Glue the image to the wood, making sure to fold over the side edge. Glue the keyboard in place. In order to position this lid in place, we need some wire. Take bag E with the wires and pull out a thick white one. Trim off a half inch segment and glue it to the right corner of the piano top. Now glue the lid in place. Paint the white wire black to camouflage it. To finish off the piano, take the thick gold wire and trim off three half inch segments. We also need two one third inch segments. Line the three longer pieces up and glue a short length to the bottom of them. Glue the other short length to the other side. Now glue this whole contraption under the middle of the piano to act as the pedals. The piano bench is super easy and made up of these three pieces. Glue them together and paint it black to match. How cute is this set? Add it to the house near the right side window. Now we're ready to add on a second floor. This square piece is the ceiling of the first story and the floor of the second story. This bare side is the floor of the second story, so I cut out this image of hardwood and tile. Before I can glue it on, I need some lights for this L-shaped guru. Take two bulbs. Each one will have a white wire and a gray wire. Pull the plastic coating off the ends of one to expose the wire itself. Attach the exposed wire of one bulb right beneath the bulb of the other. White to white and gray to gray. For the light fixture, the kit gives you two bags of beads. Let's just use the plastic beads for now. Take these two flower-shaped clear beads and loop the small one over the light bulb. Glue the big one underneath it. Now you can string the wires through the ceiling. On the back side, push the wires into the grooves. Pull the exposed wires through the next hole. Then pull the second bulb through the furthest hole. For a more intricate fixture, I take two more flower beads and seven raindrop-shaped beads. Loop the smaller flower bead through the bulb like we did for the first one. Using E6000 glue, glue six of the raindrop beads underneath the bigger flower. Look how pretty that is. Glue the last raindrop to the center. Now position this whole piece on top of the other flower bead. Now both your chandeliers are in place. On the back, glue the wires down into the groove. You can finally glue your flower image in place. When that's dry, you can position the second floor right on top of the first. Move the kitchen out of the way so you can glue the wires into the corner. Let's move outside to the front porch. Grab these four cream posts. I covered them with dark brown paint. This will help hold up the weight of the second floor and enclose the porch area. Grab these smaller posts and paint them brown as well. Add on the railing pieces and place a small post between each piece. For the look of a broken banister, I leave this last post slanted. On this side, I leave the railing piece off the porch completely. While we're here, let's put in all the doors and windows. Take bag A with all these blue window pieces. Paint them all dark brown. For the door, grab this arch window and these other pieces from the same bag. Glue the tiny rectangle to the door and then add the brown window behind it. As with everything else, distress this piece by cutting away at the edges. Now glue into the door frame. For the steps, we'll need these three blue pieces. Add wood glue and stack them together. Then paint them gray. Add a few wavy lines for the look of cracks in the concrete. Then just place these steps right underneath the door. Add on the white door frame parts. Position all the other windows in place. Under this window is the hinged door for the battery compartment. Let's make a handle for that. Grab these burgundy pieces. Glue the sticks around the small semicircle, one on each side and one in the center. Then glue the bigger semicircle on top. This is an outdoor table that doubles as a handle. Glue this piece to the hinged door. Once it's dry, you can use it to open and shut the battery compartment. No haunted house is complete without a porch swing, so let's make that next. Glue these two pieces together. The kit wants you to use wires for the armrest, but I'll use coffee stirrers instead. Cut out two 3 4 inch pieces and two half inch pieces. Glue the short ones to the front of each side. Then position the longer pieces on top of it. Paint the whole bench dark brown. From the wire bag, pull out the brown rope. Cut it in half twice so you end up with four pieces. Glue two to each armrest. From the beads bag, pull out these two bell-shaped wooden beads. Add one bead to the top of each set of rope. Add some extra glue for security. Once that's dry, cut off the excess rope. Now you can glue the beads onto the ceiling of the porch. The last accessory for the porch is this light right here. Take these blue pieces and this clear rubber tube. The first thing you want to do is take this thin stick and cut it into four equal lengths. Then cut the rubber tube in half. Split one of those tubes in half lengthwise. For one light, we'll need one of those halves, two cone shapes, and two sticks. Using some gem tack glue, add a cone to the top and bottom of the rubber. Then add a stick to each side. Super easy and it looks great. Make two of these. We'll save the second one for later. Add an over the light bulb behind the swing. Let's make the staircase next. You'll need these exact pieces and all the burgundy rectangles from bag A. Add the steps to the rails using some wood glue. Again, I'm going to paint this entire piece brown. Then cut away at the edges to give the staircase an aged look. Now just position it in front of the kitchen counter. To add to the spooky effect, let's add some curtains. Take this ruffle lace fabric from the fabric bag. It's pretty rigid so it'll hold its shape well. For the curtain rods, I'm using these extra long toothpicks. Cut off a two and a quarter inch length and use some fabric glue to attach the fabric to it. Cut off the excess and you have a finished curtain. Make one that's three inches long as well. Position the curtains in front of the windows and glue them in place with some fabric glue. Last piece for the first floor. Let's make a floor lamp. Take this brown lamp base and this paper cutout. Roll the paper into this lampshade and glue the ends shut. Now cut two half inch pieces of wire. Form those into an X shape and add it to the top of the lamppost. Add a lampshade to the top of it. The first floor is now nearly complete. Before we go upstairs, just add a second light sconce outside by the side door. For the second floor, grab all these small wall pieces and distress them. Cover the backs of them with wallpaper just like we did for the first floor. Take this white lattice piece and glue it to this cutaway area. Now place this wall right between the tile and wood floor. Add on the rectangle wall to the right hand side. Next, we need this angle piece. There's no need to wallpaper this one. Add it to the outside edge on the left side. The holes are for the music box. Open up the box and take out the contents. Place the music box by the wall and screw it in. Attach the handle as well. Next, take this thin wooden piece. This will be the interior wall so add some wallpaper to it. We'll need a light fixture so take this plastic cone shaped piece and a light bulb. Cut the plastic in half and we'll only need one. Glue the bulb inside of the sconce. For some detail, take this thin lace ribbon and glue it to the front of the sconce. Cut off the excess. Thread this light fixture through the wall and glue the sconce in place. Now thread the wires through the hole in the base of the lattice wall. Pull it through and glue the wall in place. Glue the final wall to close off the second floor. Pull the wire ends through the hole in the corner of the bedroom and glue it down. These two wires are too short to reach the battery pack so we'll need some extension wire. Cut out two 6 inch lengths. Score the plastic ends to expose the wire. Do this for both ends. Now just attach them to the bulb wires to extend them. I've removed the kitchen counter to have more space to work with. Pull the wires through the hole in the corner. Now you can add the kitchen back. While I'm down here, I decided to push over and break the dining chairs. Cut out these poster images from a template sheet and glue one to the bathroom wall. This kit contains this little bathtub that's painted blue. I used some acetone and a cotton pad to remove the blue paint and take it back to plain white. Glue that to the bathroom. We'll need some railings around these stairs and they're made up of these four pieces. Simply glue them in place. Before I forget, add this wallpaper to the outside of the second floor wall. We'll get to the bedroom but let's finish the front balcony. Dirty up the floor with some dark brown paint just like we did for the porch. Add in the plank details as well. Now just add on the railing. There's no need to line them up perfectly because you want them to look old and worn. Blob-sided rails are your friend here. For an added creepy effect to the balcony, we'll need a rocking chair. Take these three pieces from the kit. Glue the side legs to the base of the seats. The instructions tell you how to create this cushion look with fabric and batting, but I'll make an easier version. Take this piece which is meant to be the top of a nightstand and cut two globes into the sides. You're aiming for this t-shirt looking shape. It fits perfectly into the back of the rocking chair. Lastly, drape some lace over a worn armrest and position the chair on the balcony. Now let's work on the bedroom. Take back C and dump out all the contents. Make the side table by gluing these gray pieces to the small orange rectangle. Then add the bigger rectangle to the top. The bed is made up of these pieces. Glue the small rectangle to the big bed base. Glue the posts to the headboard. Then attach the headboard to the bed base. It's super easy. Cut out a piece of white foam and glue it to the top of the bed with some fabric glue. Take the blue fabric and cut out a 3 inch by 3 and 3 fourths inch rectangle. Glue it to the top and front side of the bed. This will give extra volume to the bedding we'll add on. Cut off any excess fabric. Then take the velvet fabric, fold over the top edge and drape it over the bed. Cut off the excess velvet and you're done. Add it to the bedroom. Add one of our post-its to the top of the bed and one to the other side of the bedroom. Almost done guys. Let's add on the roof. These roof pieces are blue but as usual, I'm painting them dark brown. Are you sensing a theme here? Cover both sides with it. Then glue each set of roofs together at an angle. Once they're dry, simply add them to the tops of the house. Now the structure of your house is all complete. Finish it off by adding in all the windows. I leave this one off to the side to add a dilapidated look. Take these four blue sticks from the kit and paint them brown. Add them right underneath the roof line for detail. The kit comes with these pointed rails for the tops of the roofs. They have a rounded top so I cut them into a pointy spike shape for a more dramatic effect. Do this for all the points on both rails. Then paint them black. Add them to the tops of the roofs. I love the effect these simple additions add. Finally, we can wire this baby up. As mentioned earlier, the battery pack has a black wire and a red wire. The rest of the wires are gray or white. Attach the ends of all the gray wires together. Then attach them to the black wire. Attach the ends of all the white wires together. And then attach those to the red wire. Here are your two bundles. Take the white sticker and use it to stick the wires down to the base. Now your house is all wired for the lighting. We can finally glue the house to the foundation. Add some wood glue to the base. And position the house back on top. For some detail outside the house and this is completely optional, take these lime green pieces for the planters. Paint them dark brown. I break this long piece just to add to the aged look. Add the pieces to the front of the house to form the planter. Do the same for the side of the house. Now take these two bags which contain the greenery. I want to use this one and save the lavender for a future project. Squeeze some paper glue into the planter and then stuff in some greenery. It doesn't need to be neat. The messier the better. It'll fit this theme of an abandoned house in an overgrown lot. For the last accessory, I turned this cute pink car into a rusted old junker. You can check out how I did that in my abandoned car video. Add it to the front of the house. Now for some final details. Add some greenery to the top of the house. A good tip is to brush on some glue and then sprinkle some greenery on top. I also used these twigs to create the look of a broken tree that crashed into the car. Add some greenery to that as well. Add some brown paint to age the look of the wood. Crumble some of the rocks we made in the beginning around the terrain. Feel free to carve into any areas that look like they need a bit more disruption. Then use some gray paint to dirty up the inside of the house. Use brown paint to really age the outside of the house. That's it guys. Flip the light switch on and watch the magic happen. Well, you really can't see the light here. Let's fix that. This is such a beautiful kit and I love how the vintage style made the perfect foundation for a haunted house. Thanks to Banggood.com for sending me this kit to review. I had a ton of fun putting it together. I love the fact that it comes with so many accessories including the cart and a plastic cover which I didn't end up using. If you guys want to make your own, the link to the kit is in the info box. I really hope you guys liked the video. Give it a thumbs up if you did and make sure to subscribe for more. I'll see you next time. Bye.