Events › Kids Activities › On Holidays at Linden > Design your perfect home

On Holidays at Linden > Design your perfect home

If you could live anywhere, where would that be? What does your perfect home look like? Is your perfect home by the sea or in the mountains? Will your home have a fence, windows or levels? Everything is possible in this activity!

Linden New Art have produced this activity inspired by the Design Fringe theme of ‘home’. We have used materials that you can easily find in your home, and we encourage you to use any other materials to describe the shape, colours, and idea of your perfect home design. We think Linden New Art is the perfect home, so we have made a Linden inspired design.

Download the activity in PDF

MaterialS

Cardboard, brown craft paper, cardboard from recycling
Scissors
Brown kraft tape, masking tape
String
Skewers
Marker and pencil

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 1

Take a piece of brown craft paper and draw the doors and windows of your perfect home with a pencil or marker.

Cut the windows out using scissors.

Step 2

We cut two levels of windows and doors.
Now create folds in the card – this is like an accordion and called a concertina.
The folds are the shapes of the walls of the outside of our home shape

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 3

Use the leftover pieces we cut from the doors and windows to create more detail on the windows.
Cut some of the pieces in thinner strips.
Tape them to the back of the card across the hole of the windows.

Step 4

Use a bowl to trace a round shape on a new piece of cardboard.
Cut the circle from the cardboard – the square shape with the hole will become the base of the home.

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 5

Using the rest of the scrap pieces, fold some pieces in half to make tabs.
Tape these pieces to the bottom and on the back of your card, underneath the doors and windows.

Step 6

Hold up your card with windows and doors and turn it to form a circle.
Place it into the base we made with the hole. Then use masking tape to tape the tabs to the underneath of the base. This will attach the home shape to the base, and it will stand on its own.

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 7

Now we will make the balcony of Linden house. Take a fresh piece of brown kraft paper and use the cardboard circle to trace a circle on the card.
Draw a larger circle around the first circle and cut around the larger circle.
Draw three tabs on the inside of the small circle and cut the centre out, leaving the tabs. Make two shapes for two balconies.

Step 8

Fold the tabs on both round balcony shapes.
Place one over the round home shape all the way to the bottom. This will become the lower balcony.

Tape the tabs to the main shape on the underside.

Repeat this with the second balcony shape. Place the second balcony on the middle part of the main shape and tape down.

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 9

Now your home will stand tall with two balconies.

The next step is to use skewers to create posts that will support the balcony. This will also create a handrail on the top balcony.

Use a screw to create a small hole in the balcony and thread the skewer through the hole.

Step 10

Make six holes on the top and bottom balcony. Thread long skewers to create the posts.

Make many holes on the top balcony. Cut your skewers in half and place them around the edge of the top balcony. This will become the top handrail.

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 11

Use string to thread and weave between each post of the handrail. Weave in and out between all the posts as many times as you like. You can tie them together at the end.

Step 12

We are almost finished!

Cut a piece of brown craft tape and place on the top of the handrail.
Fold over to create a handrail that covers the tops of the small skewers.

autumn flora sculptures

Monet, The Galette

Step 13

Use the same brown kraft tape to stick underneath the top balcony to create something that looks like a gutter.
Take a new piece of cardboard to make a roof.

Step 14

To finish our design, we have placed plants and flowers from the garden inside the house.

Our perfect home has a garden that grows from the inside of Linden house.

autumn flora sculptures

We encourage you to use as many different materials as you can find around your home. You can use recycled materials such as plastic bottle tops, paper or cardboard, lids, containers, wire, string, old buttons, coloured string, wool, old wrapping paper, coloured paint and pencils. Happy making!

We would love to see your creations!

Share it with us!

Upload a photo of your artwork below and we will share your creations on this page

IMAGES > Activity and images by Linda Studena