Kawaii desu ne?

After my adventures in lamp crafting, I decided to take a mini-break. I'm liking the current set up of most of my rooms at the moment, and want to enjoy them for a little while longer. Perhaps more importantly, Lost was on last night, and I don't walk around distracted during that show. Also, I may be taking down the Voila House temporarily since the arrival of the new sofa necessitated a furniture rearrangement. Be sure, it (or something in its place) will be back soon.

On a semi-tangent, I'm on a work embargo today and am going to look for a replacement dollhouse table. The Voila House currently resides on a floor model side table that my father randomly bought for me at Home Depot. It doesn't really fit with the rest of our furinture - it has scroll work along the edges and legs, not to mention that the legs are a bit wobbly. Ideally, I'd like something with storage underneath, and on rolling casters . . . all the better to turn for the best light exposure, yes? What do you guys display your dollhouses on?

Back to the topic at hand, I decided to memorialize one of the first rooms I set up in the Voila House before it gets disassembled. It's not in any modern aesthetic, but I loved the furniture set (and it took such a supreme effort to locate it) that I've kept the room installed the whole time I've had the house up.

What swank home wouldn't be complete without a retreat for some meditation and relaxation? The Pinky girls have their tatami room. My first encounter with a Japanese tatami room was while visiting a Navy friend of Husband's in Japan. His one bedroom apartment in Yokosuka included an entire separate room, spread with tatami mats. He had an inflatable mattress for us set up in the living room, but both Husband and I preferred to sleep right on the super clean floor in the tatami room.

The kotatsu table is a table that has a heater underneath (in real life). The blanket traps the heat inside and warms your feet and legs in the winter as you are seated. This set, which includes the table, cushions, table settings, tatami mats and blankets, and two cabinets (Reina is sitting on one of them in pic below), is from Sylvanian Families. It was a special release in Japan to commemorate the 20th anniversary of SF. Re-ment also recently released a miniature kotatsu table set:

Looks pretty similar, right down to the bowl of tangerines. I purchased it, of course, but haven't opened it yet. I suspect, like the other Re-ment miniatures, that it may be scaled much too large for a 1:18 or 1:12 room setting. Like most other Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters furniture, the SF Japanese room set is closer to 1:18 scale. The SF set also comes with more table accessories, like cups, a teapot, a can of tea and even a bowl of little adorable rice crackers.

Credits:

Japanese room set, including cabinets, tatami mat, blankets, kotatsu table, cushions, table settings, mini-bonsai and wall decor, is Sylvanian Families.

Shelving is from ebay (a search for Japanese dollhouse furniture will usually get you this and similar furniture, like here).

Other accessories are Petit Princess, Re-ment or Megahouse.

Reina and Moe, wearing their yukatas, caught in mid-gossip.

Hm. I could really go for some grilled squid on a stick right now.