How To Turn Anything Into A Cute House (Patreon)

I love drawing cute houses out of everyday objects or foods, because it immediately opens a tiny world of possible characters who might live there!

It’s really quite simple to turn anything into a house - you just need to choose an object, add some essential house elements like windows and a door, with maybe a few homey touches like a chimney or a footpath.

I recommend starting with objects that are quite round or boxy to give you lots of space to add your elements, so foods like pumpkins or apples are great, or objects like teacups or books. But you truly can turn anything into a tiny home for a little character so experiment with it!

Doors

So start by thinking of an object you’d like to try turning into a tiny home, and then think about where you could add a front door. It’s not completely necessary to see a door but it definitely makes it easier to make the object look like a home.

If your object is rounded at the bottom and it feels strange to have a door at the base of it, you can either bury it in the ground a little bit (like I have in the carrot above) or add some steps up to it (like I have in the example apple below).

Windows

Then you’ll want to add some windows, and I find it helps to curve the windows to fit the shape of the object.

Keep in mind that the size of the windows and doors will show the scale of the character who lives there, so if there are lots of tiny windows and a tiny door, it suggests that the character living there is really very small.

I usually just have one or two windows to show that the character isn’t that much smaller than the object.

Extras

Then you can customise the home with some cosy extras like a chimney, maybe a little flower garden around it, some curtains in the window, and a garden path leading to the door.

Here are some ideas for homey elements and some examples of how I apply them to a couple of objects:

  I hope you enjoy drawing tiny homes as much as I do!

💖