Fancy Lit Restaurant Diorama

In honor of Hannah T.

Bean McLean/Frijole/Se(?) I remembered.

E.J.!

This is a diorama with working lights. I made it for a very special lady who's food is so delicious and fancy, it seems like it is from a restaurant.

This picture wasn't the best, but it gives you the basic idea. It's with the lights on. Hope you like it!

You'll notice there are drapes already on the tall windows, I'll show you how to make them in another step. And the kitchen doors are there, too. I don't have a pic for the main doors, but you can see their cut-out on the right in the first pic for this step. The making for this diorama was very scattered, my bad!

This step also includes how to put the wallpaper.

First, you make the cuts in the box. A rectangle or square for the kitchen doors, and the windows. I'm not too sure what shape the windows are, they simply look like rectangles with semi-circles atop.

The main doors are similar to the window shapes, but a lot shorter.

The cardboard that was cut out you can cut in half. If you'd like the doors to be equal, you should measure the width and divide into two.

Before you put the doors into the box, wallpaper the inside walls. Take measurements of every cut-out and glue the desired color of cardstock or construction paper around the cut-out. Please do this before adding the doors or curtains. Or else it will be very difficult. I learned the hard way.

The window "glass" is plastic from a spinach container. Organic Earthbound Farm, I think. But that doesn't matter right now.

You can either take a big flat piece and glue it from the outside, or you can measure the window and cut the "glass" to size and tape it in.

I painted some design on the windows using white nail polish. Even though you can't really see it because of the drapes, it makes more sense to add them than to not.

The drapes are the same ones like the one in my "Old Cozy Room Diorama". Basically, you take a straw of any color, cut two long strips of lace, glue the lace onto the straw, then the pearls on either side.

Start by cutting out a big square or rectangle on the left side of the box. Divide the cardboard piece into two rectangles. Cut out small windows on the top of each rectangle and add some of the "glass" plastic on any side. Then you can add the white paper over the cardboard and tape on some aluminum foil rectangles if desired.

To make hinges, place the rectangles in their original place and use duct tape on only one side. Preferably the side that won't be visible namely the outside of the box. You can cut the duct tape to size by placing the not sticky side onto a platform and holding a ruler straight up on the sticky side, then using a blade to slice the tape.

The main doors are quite similar to the kitchen doors. Except for the shape. Cut out a piece of cardboard big enough to be divided into two, then cut out windows. I made the doors straight with a fancy curve at the top and moon or semicircle windows. Then you just add the plastic and the paper. Kitchen doors usually don't have handles because waiters need to get in and out with their hands full, so they have swinging doors. That isn't the case with the main doors, so I made clay handles and painted them black.

I used actual floor tile. You may have to adjust and add extra pieces of the tile, and add glue to stick it on the floor because its own adhesive doesn't work that well and gets quite gooey.

This one took a lot of inspiration through YouTube videos.

First I took lots of transparent beads. Clear or a soft gold. I then took a pipe cleaner and slid the beads on it. I bent the sides so the beads wouldn't slide off, and then took a paper towel roll (drum shade) and cut 5" (five inches) of it and glued the beaded strings all around to the inside of the drum. A glue gun is preferred.

Once the beads are done, you can decorate the drum shade however you see fit. I used aluminum foil to cover the outside of the drum and then sticky gems.

To hang the chandelier, I used a fancy string that looked like a small golden chain. I cut small holes on either side of the drum on the top and pulled the string through the holes. I tied a knot at the top and made another hole through the roof where I attached the string. The string pulled into two, and you want to keep it that way because the hole has to be big enough to fit a few of the string lights inside.

Start by cutting a circle of cardboard and gluing it to a tube of aluminum foil cut to length. Then glue a patch of white cloth over the cardboard circle and sewing the sides that stick out, loosely. Then you can take a pearl and snip off a small branch of artificial flowers and glue it into the pearl's hole. Once that's done, you glue the pearl onto the table.

The chairs' leg was made sometimes with a candle and other times with a Lincoln Log. It varies.

Start by cutting a circle of cardboard and a piece of cloth the same size. Glue the cloth over the cardboard and twist a white pipe cleaner into a fancy shape, then glue the ends to the circle.

For the candle leg, use a knife to cut the candle to length, and then use a sand block to smooth it out. Then you just glue the candle under the chair.

For the Lincoln Log Leg, just glue the smallest size to the bottom of the chair.

Don't tell my brothers, but I used their Legos for this part.

Take three small jumbo (oxymoron, I know) Legos and stick them together. Cut four pieces of tile, one being taller than the rest, and glue them on every side of the Legos. Cut out a square to cover the top and glue that on, too. Make a small paper and write whatever you want on it, names, scribbles, etc. Then tape the paper on the top.

Once you have that done, cut a small strip of paper and label the lectern, "Reception". You'll notice I have another piece of paper below the label. It has a "D", standing for "Délicieux" which is French for "Delicious". But that's just what I named my restaurant. You can name it whatever.

I placed the lectern beside the main doors. The tables each had two chairs, and one menu was glued over each table. I placed one table in front of the window on the left, another one in front of the window on the right, beside the lectern and the last in front of the table on the left, nearest to the kitchen doors.

So I made a whole bunch of holes in the roof and stuck all the lights in. The remaining ones that I didn't want, I wrapped in duct tape so that they wouldn't be visible.

Once the lights were in, I used white glue to stick them since using liquid cement would most probably be explosive with so much heat.

I covered most of the surface with red construction paper but it looks pink in the photos. Oh well.

For the chandelier, I stuck in four to six lights in.

I covered the outside of the diorama with red construction paper but in the final photo, the red looks like pink. -_-

I don't have to explain this, you can see for yourself.

I thought the diorama itself looked a lot more realistic due to the view through all windows.