What is Next for Wes Christensen, architect and modern mini house pioneer.

The Christensen Family

"My lovely and very supportive wife has put up with all my hobbies since we met, she and my three children have really taken an interest in the Modern Miniature world since this endeavor began." Wes said.

 "My oldest daughter and I have been designing and re-designing an ultimate mini house for her, but she is a lot like her dad in that a design is never finished!!

                                       My shop


At this time we are living in Spanish Fork, Utah and I am working for a commercial Architectural firm in Provo Utah. I am designing and overseeing construction of large educational buildings, high schools, elementary and secondary schools and loving every bit of it. However, I love expressing a little creativity in the mini world to help give some variety in my life of design," he concludes.

Thank you, Wes for taking the time to tell us about your work and share your beautiful family with us. As a major "player" of dollhouses I can only underline how good the MH1 is to play in. I find it brings out the best creativity in my designs and I use it more than any other mini house I have. I am so happy to learn all this about it's background. Cheers, CM

Modern Dollhouse: Creativity with the MH!

The MH1 is easy to play with. Not just for carrying around but for reconstructing any way you want! Above I added an antique Triang facade from #50 that had been ruined and I had spray painted stainless steel in 2009. Also a piece of glass and the top to a conservatory. I have more pictures on my modern design blog http://leftcoastmini.blogspot.com/ but for the moment will show a little more about the triang hack  than on the other blog.

               Before: ruined steel Triang facade, horribly over painted

                   During: sanding off old paint

After: in 2009 when I did this I thought it might be a shock to the Triang Neighborhood. (The house on the left with the apalled brunette neighbor is the actual replacement facade in better shape.) I have to explain because my sentiments on destroying, or making that change to any antique Triang requires explanation.

                       After, added to the MH1

I expanded the interior using vintage German linnoleum from a kitchen roombox, and a rug made from Silpat. Yes dear, that's why it disappeared...

Tomy vintage spraypainted sink

At times I filled in the open space out to the support and added a kitchen.

And the MH1 inspired this masterpiece from Pubdoll.

Made from Legos, no less!

She gave me permission to send you to her blog for more information about this structure and her work with legos.

http://Pubdolls.blogspot.com/

So the MH1 leads to all kinds of creative formations! Thanks Wes, CM

Wes Christensen's Modern House 1

This modern house

model by architect Wes Christensen is my all time favorite house. And that includes my red roofed Gottschalk with the pull down garden and the German late 1800's house Ann Meehan told me is a Christian Hacker. (OK even the adorable Albin Schonherr puppenstuben, not to belabor the point) much.

It is so perfect for modern design. It showcases cutting edge mini furniture like the work of Paris Renfroe, Doris Nathansen of the incomparable minimodernistas, and the Peter Tucker and pinchofpepper I own.

Wes will be commenting each week as we explore this house and  his work and said today,

"I developed MH1 in 2009 in a response to the many requests from people in the Modern Mini world. There are so many choices for traditional or Victorian mini houses on the market and just a small few Modern houses available. When I read this I figured I could design a Mini house, especially a Modern one. So, I worked up a design that was clean and simple (being influenced by the shipping container module from a project I was working on building a guest house out of a shipping container) and MiniHouse1 was born. I posted some computer model images to the modern mini community and the response was wonderful, Wes"

original 1/1 structure

by Wes Christensen, landscape design by Greg Gorby, Tuscon, Arizona

Here is what the MH1 looks like in my house 1/12 scale

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It is a sculpture. There must have been something about it being just the right house at the right time because I have really used it over and over again for scenes. It is not too heavy being made in two main parts and I have carried it all over my house, up and down stairs! I think it is the kind of mini house that frames the design and does not impose limits on what you can do in it. It is also not overwhelming. It is a 1/12 scale which is important as my favorite furniture is too. Don't even get me started on how my Paris Renfroe kitchen looks in it...

Since 2009 there has been great growth in mini houses. Yes we thank you pioneer bloggers Mini Modern, Oese, Pubdoll, Annina, Mini Dork etc. and the ancient historians like the Shopping Sherpa and Rebecca... (tongue firmly in cheek) and we are proud of the whole new crop of mini designers and our media darling Call Small who makes us all noticible. We've come a long way babies. (and I haven't even scratched the surface of all the new house designers out there, remember this was from way back in 2009)

but hey this is my original modern love. C

So cool she had to slip on her jacket...

Colette was known for her art collection but she wondered if the Marilyn Minter decal Christmas tree was too much.

Then she wondered if she put it high enough.
Credits: MH1 by Wes Christensen, minimodernists confetti chair and red couch, logs from nature, "I'll fly away" painting by Jo Searle, "Candelabra" mini sculpture by Linda Davy, silver ball lamp from the 1980's marked made in Taiwan, Buddah from Texas Tiny ebay store, Caco doll, wall switch from Delph Miniatures, England.

for Pubdoll:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Minter

Be advised some of her work could be considered graphic. My elder Assistant thinks she is all about gender roles. She discovered her at SFMOMA when she was at Cal.

Mini Dork Visit!

Mink Dork of Modern Mini Houses Blog http://modernminihouses.blogspot.com/ crossed the Bridge to come visit.

It was so wonderful to talk with someone who shares mini passion!

It was kind of like talking with you guys.

I put out some of my favorite DDR German furniture and my daughter laughed when she saw it and said, "When you said you had a friend coming over I didn't know you meant to PLAY".

We did and it was fun. She made a scene in the MH1 house and we both photographed it.

She is a web designer and she had a lot of good information for me about my blog.

She was quoted in the recent NYT article about mini modern furniture and is beginning her own design studio. She created these purple modern lamps. You know the lack of lighting accessories in mini modern design, how creative are these pictured in the header?
Thank you for coming Mini, come any time... and let me just tell you, she is NO dork! CM

Stainless steel kitchen

OK so this is my first attempt at spray painting. and I LOVE IT! This is my old Fisher price stove and an extra TOMY sink set that I updated. I am VERY happy with it. Especially as I had the spray paint.


MH1 house

I left the refrigerator in so you could see the original yellow color it was.

Oh oh. There are the stairs parked outside the house going nowhere...

Need to crop this one but no time!

The blank wall

I have often wondered what it must be like to be a designer and then see your creations out in reality.

I had to laugh when Wes Christensen gently let me know I did not have the chimney aligned with the fireplace. Or the stairs in the right spot of the MH1. Doh! I hadn't noticed. So I fixed them.

Does Doris know I carried her red sofa back and forth from my daughter's house to mine so many times over the holidays I rumpled a corner?

I hope they are not shocked. I play hard with these. There is an interplay between form and function. And I mean this literally...

This is why I don't really enjoy playing with the Imagination House. The colors overwhelm everything in it.
But I took Pubdoll's advice and decided to do something totally different with it.
I looked at the post Rebecca had on her blog about it and the version of the Imagination House on the Apartment Therapy blog and came up with the following.

Colette was under the weather. She had a head cold, body ache etc.







She went to the mailbox and found a present. A natural colored afghan made by a friend of hers. It made her day.







She felt instantly better.
She laid on her couch and rested her head.


Then the glaring bare spot over the tv began to bother her.


She looked over at the rest of the mail. There was an invitation to a gallery opening tomorrow. Maybe she would go and see what she could find.

MH1 kitchen

The area under the stairs of th MH1 is small and does not accomodate a 1/12 scale kitchen. I put in Fisher Price and Tomy kitchen pieces.

I think what I will do is spray some of these pieces with silver paint hoping it looks like stainless steel.

Or I could remove the stairs when I do a kitchen scene. Any thoughts? C

Colette's new home!

She glanced around her living room and pinched herself to see if she was dreaming.

(Minimodernistas couch
Bozart lamp
child's rubber block, side table
German vintage chair
imported contemporary carpet)




As Colette signed the papers, the real estate agent opened a bottle of wine to toast the deal.

(Minimodernistas case bed and hanging pendant lamps
vintage American art deco chair
unknown wooden chest came with Strombecker furniture
Bozart art and vases )

Colette sat out on the grass terrace and looked around her and sighed. Then she got out her cell phone, made a donation to Haiti and said a prayer for all the people in need. Living in California, Colette knew "There but for fortune, go you, go I", lyrics by Phil Ochs

(antique German Korbi wicker setee, chairs and table possibly made by Karl Schreiter Co. 1920's Germany, from Curly Creek Antiques. Bozart wooden sculpture from Kalidescope House collection, contemporary imported asian garden stool side table)

Apologies for the cramped and poorly lit shots. I set it up on my bedroom floor to immediately start playing with it and need to put it in the right spot with wider shots and natural light.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Wes.

Minihouse 1

Minihouse1
Originally uploaded by wesquatch

The agent emailed this picture to Colette and said. "We hear tomorrow".