A closer look at The Brookwood and it's ties to SW Florida

This was a great house to build. I looked forward to it for years, and planned it in my head over and over again. I'm a South Florida native, born and raised on the beach and on the water. Many of the features in this house are specific to Southwest Florida, and all of the shells in my collection are local.

The Brookwood by Mini-Shack

When I decided to build this house I didn't have a clear view of the final results, just the determination that it would be a beach house. That's a bigger category than I realized however. There's the Cape Cod beach theme, the Bahamian bright colors theme, the tropical palm tree and neutral natural colors theme, the cartoon-ish bright colored beach balls/beach umbrellas/beach chairs theme, the blue and red nautical theme....see what I mean? As with all my creations - I go with what I have on hand, what I can make myself and what actually "speaks" to me. I'm so pleased with the end results of my Brookwood, it turned out to be a combination of a beach house / boat house. The two folding panels behind the house that show a lighthouse and a coastal scene belonged to my close friend Susan who passed away in 2010. She loved lighthouses and collected all sorts of them. I have several of her lighthouses and treasure them, and anytime I see one I think of her...including building this house.

The Brookwood by Mini-Shack

I stayed true to the kit on the exterior of the house. I added the large anchor in the center of the main front window. I like to have something large on my houses that makes it easily identifiable. I have one on my Arthur house too. I also added the navy blue railings on the balcony. The balusters are actually the discarded pop outs from the porch railings on my Arthur house. A nod to Greenleaf, as the shapes of their balusters, windows, etc are easy to spot on a Greenleaf product. I made the front deck that comes with the kit a deck that resembles a boat dock. Once I did that, well of course I needed a boat! Picked up a little boat at the craft store and added a few little necessities you would need if you wanted to jump in and go fishing.  Including a lamp, cast nest, fishing nets, a life jacket and fishing rods.

 

On the balcony I placed a birdhouse that I found in an antique store in Arcadia, FL. It's a small lighthouse made by Lenox in 1995 as part of a series. The small light blue ceramic ships wheel that is sitting on the table next to the chair was found in the same store, as was the ceramic sailboat sitting in the window in the bathroom.

The front deck has a bench with a cute little sea bird, and a lounge area. I made the railing posts with 2 different sized dowels, cut and stained, wrapped in twine glued on, bent paperclips drilled into the tops for the rope. I also made the windsock hanging by the front door. Easy with ribbon, string, hardware and glue. The palm boxes are the flower boxes that come with the kit, I added extra trim and color coordinated it with the house. The bottom of the entire house is trimmed in basic brick. The front wall with the kitchen window is all brick, but painted white to match the white stucco of the rest of the house.

Inside the home I made a few minor changes to the kit. The fireplace stack originally had the 2nd floor fireplace a rounded opening, so I made that square. The 1st floor staircase ended up being floating stairs, because the space is limited in that area. I also didn't use the trademark Brookwood brace that runs across the front of the home, it really just didn't look right and the structure is sound with just the bare minimum that I left of the brace. I trimmed as much as I could with rope to give a more nautical feel. The bar area felt smaller with the half wall so I discarded that and used an open nautical railing instead. I also did that with the railings on the 2nd and 3rd levels. I added ceilings beams to the living room as decoration, they don't serve any structural purpose. Other than that the kit is built as designed.

Some of the features on the first level that I love the most are in the small details. My favorite living room item is the display plate with the ship on it. I got it off eBay so I have no idea of its origins. The book ends I made with balsa wood and charms from the craft store.

I hand made this shell in a glass case which is on display in the corner cabinet. It's a shell from my collection glued to a small dowel, glued to the base with a small bit of moss. The cabinet itself was also made by me - purchased as unfinished so I painted it, added the background to the shelves and painted an anchor charm red and glued it to the bottom. 

I made the ceiling fan with popsicle sticks, beads, twine, button, wood dowel. I added the ceiling beams extra for an added touch. I hand placed the shells on the fireplace. They're placed in paperclay, then covered in sealer, then painted. The rest of the fireplace stack is stucco. The mantle and bottom was made with sample tiles, sealed and glossed.

I painted the oars that came with a little wooden boat I bought that is in the bar, then aged them slightly and used them as wall decoration. The mini magazines were made by me - Boaters World, Coastal Living Florida magazine and a few newspapers, and the magazine holder is a Shackman with an anchor charm glued to the outside. The hanging lamp is gorgeous when the light shines through it, its a beautiful shade of blue.

On the patio I placed a terrarium that I made so easy: its real dirt, real sand and artificial succulent. I staged a coffee scene with a cute set of yellow china that I bought on eBay. The pelican is actually a trinket box.

In the kitchen I wanted to stage a lobster dinner, since I already had the food plates and a few loose lobsters that I could put in a copper pot on the stove. I collected as much copper as I could because I wanted to keep the kitchen colors simple, and copper goes well with blue and white. In all honesty I did not put in as much effort in the kitchen as I could have. I hand built the appliances and counters because it's an awkward sized room, standard 1:12 furniture does not fit. The chalkboard sign says "Dinner at 7:00 <3"

The bar was a lot of fun, and it has several local items in it. The main focal point are the chart maps on the stairwell wall. The bottom one is the Boca Grande Lighthouse and the top is a SW Florida chart map featuring many sport fishing species. The aged map on the wall above the shelves is of the Gulf of Mexico, and the larger chart map above the bar is an antique map of the Atlantic Ocean that actually came from a book of scrapbook paper that I bought. There's plenty of alcohol in the bar as well. I hand made the shelves with the glasses on it, it's just a mirror from an old make-up compact with stained wood shelves glued on.

The bedroom was one of the first rooms I finished. I hand made the bed by using the pop out wood from the front window arch as the headboard. I sewed all the linens and pillows and made the rug on the floor as well. The furniture was all hand decorated and the shells are all local. The service tray was originally wood, I painted it white and sealed a beach scene on the base. The hanging light over the reading chair is hand made out of a champagne cork holder, empty scotch tape plastic roll with hanging beads glued around it. The ladder is built in as part of the kit. I used the pop outs of the ladder as the steps.

The art studio in the loft contains mostly paintings done by my adult son. I originally asked him to paint a few for me to decorate the house with, but then got the idea to do this studio instead. I tried to make it as messy as possible, as you can tell. I also wanted a portion of the space to be relaxing, so you could also take a break up there. I have the chair with the binoculars sitting next to it, imagining that the beach view from the skylights is spectacular. There's also a large round window on the back wall that would have water views, so I feel like this is a perfect place to create art.

The bathroom is an attachment to the house, you build it separate then secure it at the end. The color is truly not what I wanted, I blended it myself and I liked it at the time. But when I got to the end I wished I would have done better. I hand made the shower. It was easy: sample tiles, balsa wood, the shower fixture I bought and a piece of glass out of a small photo frame from Dollar Tree. The bamboo floor mat is coffee stir sticks. The painting was also done by my son, I added the shell (a real shell painted white) and embossed the word "beach". The row above the bathroom door includes an actual tiny sand dollar, real sharks tooth and real beach shell.

For detailed photos of the house see my blog posts below this one, I have a video of the exterior/interior and also a video of the construction process step by step, from start to finish!

Here is my YouTube Channel as well: Mini-Shack 


Thanks for looking!

~ Mini-Shack