WIP-MOC: My apartment

[antp]

Edit: You can find a summary of the whole MOC here:

https://antp.be/lego/moc/apt.php

Here below is the original first post I made here.

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Hi,

Usually when I post a MOC, I do it only when finished. This time, I'll post the several building steps so I can (maybe) take in account the comments.I will take better pictures with a good light when all is finished.

So a few weeks (months) ago I started making my apartment ("condo" in US-English?) in Lego

As there is probably no one here who already came to my home, I also include a plan/drawing and photos, or else it has less interest...

The mini-pictures can be clicked.Here is the plan :

As convention, 1 stud = 20 cm. That matches the doors, and more or less the windows.

However, the width of the walls is not right: inside walls are only 10 or 15 cm, but here I have 2 studs (to have a different color on each side). Globally I was able to achieve a coherent scale for everything (or almost, that will be for a next post).

I started with the bedroom, in blue, then the next room (office/storage), in green, all on green baseplates. Then I expanded for making the living room:

At that point, I already moved the bedroom/office part from the original baseplates to other ones to add the living room.

In reality, the bedroom looks like this:

The light wood floor will be represented by reddish-brown. The closet however is in tan. I use the parts that I had

For the walls, it is easier, the medium-blue and sand-green are close enough to the real wall colors.

In the office, there is normally a double window like in the bedroom (in a narrower version), but as Lego does not make 1x2x5 windows, I used a single 1x4x5.

For the living room and the hallway, it is normally a very light yellow, so I prefered white rather than classic yellow (or even Lego's light yellow, too rare anyway).

The door frames are in greenish MDF (we were supposed to paint that, but I still haven't done it ), I choose dark-green for these.

I made a Bricklink order for 1x6 plates in dark-green: I needed 28 (increase to 30, then only 26 in the end), and by chance one (and only one) belgian seller had 30 of these. The 1x1 bricks in dark-green from the pick-a-brick wall were well used.

At the same time I also ordered 1x2 plates with Arm Up, used for door handles, since I didn't have enough. I tested several systems for the doors (I should have done a photo), this one is the one that seemed the best.For mirrors, I placed aluminium foil behind windows, it is the only non-Lego part.

Then I thought that the baseplates were maybe not the best solution, for the final result that would look a little bad.So I transfered everything to dark-bluish-grey plates :

All the grounds will be covered with tiles in the end. As I didn't have enough dark grey, I used other colors for the parts that weren't visible on the edges.

Pink bricks are there just to hold plates together until walls or furniture do it.

For the furniture, I already made the radiators, and I am pleased with the result.Then I finished the doors and started the bathroom:

I couldn't make the bath tub deep enough, so I used 1x2 trans-blue tiles to make like if it was filled.

I would have done the same for the photo, but the cat was already in place.

Then I replaced the 1-brick-height medium-blue frieze by two rows of blue plates separated by white plates, as seen on further pictures.

Next, I started the kitchen area of the living room:

Here I also had to change colors. After a few attempts with reddish-brown or tan parts, I was still nowhere, so I thought that ready-to-use white cupboards would give a better result, even if it is a little too white.

The white tiling will be continued across all the living room and hallway... but I do not have enough 2x2 tiles And no belgian Bricklink seller has enough of these

However, on the Lego S@H pick-a-brick that part is at a good price (0.08€) and with some luck I'll be able to find some in the pick-a-brick of the Lego store of Lille when I'll go there in January.

The microwave over was difficult. It will look better when I'll replace the two cheese slopes by a 1x2 tile in trans-black.

It is not attached, as I could't achieve that despite many SNOT trials.

For the refrigerator and the over & cupboard over it, however, all is fixed, but it wasn't easy to have everything right, especially for filling the side behind the doors (with the small offset).

Next episode for later

Edited September 3, 2020 by antp
replaced dead mocpage url

[larsyuipo]

looks very cool

[TheLegoDr]

Neat idea. It puts other LEGO houses/Modulars to shame!

I considered building my house in LEGO, but I won't do it in minifigure scale I don't think.

[antp]

I may try making my whole building as next MOC, but not at minifig scale (28 apartments on 5 levels)

[monsinjor]

Looking good. Don't forget to put that cute cat inside :)

[timmyc1983]

Looking good. Don't forget to put that cute cat inside :)

I was thinking he/she should've been in the bath, maybe he/she was being washed in the LEGO bath (not in real life, cats don't like that )

But this is a fantastic project and you have certainly done a wonderful job so far in the replication! There are some fantastic little builds in the furniture you have made so far. I will eagerly await the next update!

Great work and happy building

[antp]

Thanks

Here is the continuation, with the laundry/utility room and WC.

Here is how I made the WC:

Installed in the room, with the washstand (and the thing above with the 1x2 blue tile is the lamp)

The laundry/utility room looks like this:

The washing machine with crates over it:

It is here that there was a scale problem. One stud was missing in width for WC + washing machine, so the back wall won't be "double" like the others... not a big deal.

Here is the result with the meter:

I also made the wall of the "inside" part of the building, i.e. the one between my apartment and the other ones / the floor hallway:

Next thing to do is the outside wall in tan & dark-red (as now I have taken apart the Robie House seen here in background, I have some 1x2 plates), then the whole inside/furniture.

[xinbei]

Amazing! I have been working on a moc of my apartment as well, and I really love to see your design and ideas!

I can not fit my MOC into the minifigure scale, so I decided to make it brick-figure scale. I have been using tons of tan bricks for the walls and floors and I easily run out of them... Maybe I should do walls in different colors as you have done which looks very nice.

I like the curtains, especially the shower curtain. It is a pity that my tiny bathroom doesn't have any spare space to do a shower curtain myself:

With regard to bathroom mirrors, I can not find a big enough LEGO reflective sticker to mimic the effect I wanted, so I resorted to some craft store to buy a big piece of silver sticker. Haven't applied it to the wall yet...

[antp]

I can not fit my MOC into the minifigure scale, so I decided to make it brick-figure scale.

The scale of the bathroom seems similar to mine though. In height my MOC is probably not minifig scale, as the proportions of the minifigs aren't "normal".

I am surprised that this kind of MOC (apartment-replica) isn't more common. Good luck with yours

Edited December 23, 2013 by antp

[Csacsa234]

Im in love with your toilet, it looks very awesome:D (i mean the Lego one).

[The Architect]

Woah! Geez thats incredible! Great work!

[jonwil]

I made a somewhat-replica of my (now former) apartment building once. It had no furniture inside and was definatly not minifig scale (nor did it have the right colors). And it had a flat roof while the real thing had a sloped roof but it was still cool (and appeared on at least one club train layout)

[antp]

Woah! Geez thats incredible! Great work!

Im in love with your toilet, it looks very awesome:D (i mean the Lego one).

Thanks I hesitated to post a photo of the actual toilet, not very useful I guess.

Here is the next steps. I finished the outside; first the balcony:

I didn't have many grey bars, so in the end I did it like this:

After a first trial with "plate 1x2 with ladder".

I may try other solutions, as the solution with grille tiles looks a little "heavy".

With the complete wall:

The other wall has a part "raised", in red bricks:

(I do not have a good photo, it is taken from Bing Maps, I didn't want to ask to people from the parallel street if I could take a picture from their garden )

It is here that the 1x2 plates from the Robie House were useful.

But also caused a problem...

In height, 3 plates = 1 brick

but 24 plates > 8 bricks... at the top of the wall there is a very small difference; the grey tiles at top aren't completely fit on the inside wall.

The grey tiles in front of the windows represent bars that are attached there. For that maybe I should try to get grey bars, same kind as what I used for hanging curtains, it will probably look better than the tiles...

Next step: continue with the inside furniture.

Edited January 2, 2014 by antp

[antp]

Some progress, even if I didn't had much time for it lately.

I made the bedroom furniture. As reminder, here is what the bedroom looks like:

The floor is made with tiles from a pick-a-brick visit last year :

In the corner, the hi-fi system. In grey, the speakers.

And once all put in place:

Seen under the other angle:

Under the bed:

I care to make the groove on the side of the bed (for the drawers under the bed), but it is nearly not visible on the photo; black isn't an easy color to photograph :D

The desk:

It was difficult to do, very fragile while making it. I added some 1x1 round plates to fill the void between SNOT parts or else it all felt apart when I pressed a little too much on a side.

The other side has parts holding just by being stuck against stud rather than being properly attached, but as there is no stress to the parts it is good enough.

[neonic]

That looks very nice Like it a lot. the Kitchen looks great.

Maybe an idea for myself, I study for interior architecture.

[Strikeman]

Very nice, especially the details of the furniture ! I like it a lot !

When I was a child I also did this once; I recreated the home of my parents but my furniture was totally not as intricate as yours ... You're giving me an idea to start building my own house now :)

[ReplicaProfile]

Those doors are beautiful

[TheLazyChicken]

Wow, great progress so far can't wait for more. Keep up the good work!

[SandMirror38]

This is awesome!

And truly inspiring as well, seeing it baisically step by step!

You have offically refurbished my passion to build for my project

[antp]

Next step, the second room, used as office/storage (I could convert it to a Lego-room)

In real it looks like this:

The floor with tiles is done in the same was as the bedroom seen previously:

Once filled:

In the left corner of the first pic, it is a glass table that is not visible on photo of the real room.

And in the left corner of the second pic, it is a tower for storing CD, the same kind as the one visible between the display case and the wardrobe (but not made in the Lego version).

Due to the offset of the "low" display case, I could not attach to it the CD racks (represented by white grilles). So I attached these to the wall. And I had to take apart the wall to add support:

Once all rebuilt, I took it apart a second time, as I didn't notice that there was a one more plate at the bottom of the black CD rack...

In background, you can see that I added a pillow and a white border to the bed, as I was suggested elsewhere.

I also finished the laundry/utility room seen previously, with the shelf and the vacuum cleaner Panasonic MC-CG661:

[antp]

Note much progress lately.

I am lazy for starting the biggest part (livingroom) so I made the hallway.

In real it looks like this:

On the left there is a combined shelf & coat-hanger, nearly not visible on the "real" photo.

The wooden furniture is shoe storage. I made another one first (as well as one for the shelf) but I wasn't happy with it:

I didn't make a replica of the cats' litter boxes, not enough room.

Next steps:

- livingroom

- improving the balcony

[Mutant Orc]

'I didn't make a replica of the cats' litter boxes, not enough room.' :laugh:

This is great! Inspiring too. The small details and your accuracy is great! This is a really good clever build!

[3BrickFriends]

I love the way you are building all the excellent small elements. Great MOC.

[kovacs]

Very good MOC! Great work!

[henrysunset]

love the "coat" hanging on the coat hanger. great little detail.