I’ve put off posting about the bar roombox while I finish up some small details that didn’t seem exciting enough to post about on their own. Back in March I added brick to the outside of the roombox, using Magic Brick like I did on the front. I thought it would be easier to do all three walls at once than to try to match up the pattern at the corners, so I started by wrapping the sticky templates all the way around the roombox. I protected the junction box with masking tape.
The bricks on the front part of the roombox came out disappointingly flat, so I made a point of spreading on the brick material very thick this time.
You’re supposed to pull off the template no more than five minutes after spreading it on. With this much area to cover, that wasn’t going to happen!
It worked out okay, though. I took this picture while the bricks were still wet. Some are a little messy and on the right you can see a spot where I accidentally stuck my finger into the bricks and smeared red color into the grout line, but overall I’m much happier with these bricks than the first attempt.
Here’s a comparison – the new bricks on the left and the first ones on the right. See how some of the original bricks don’t even have texture, just color? I think I just didn’t use enough of the brick material, plus it was too watery, so the texture that did stick ended up flaking off after the bricks dried. That’s happened a little bit on the new batch, but overall they’re much more brick-like. Even so, I don’t think I’ll use this stuff again. It’s a cool concept but I think egg carton bricks look more realistic.
Next I added a logo to the door. I came up with the name Blackbird Bar early in the project because I knew black was going to be a prominent color in the decor, and it just sounded cool. I have some glossy sticker paper left over from my mini Absolut bottles and life sized spice jars, so I decided to print something to go on the front window of the bar.
Initially I was thinking of a simple blackbird in silhouette, but when I started Googling I discovered several real life bars named Blackbird. This is the logo for a bar in Milwaukee.
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
