Need Help On Ideas For Disney Themed Extreme Home

[!@#$%]

Hello all. Just stopped in for a little help on ideas. I have a 1400 square foot home that we are remodeling. Every room is going to be an extreme theme. The living room is done. Disneystyle I may add; its a rainforest. Complete with canopy, vines, native statues, and live and lifelike exotic plants, parrots, trees, plants, and such. Its done. It resembles a mixture of the brief rainforest section of Living with the Land & the rainforest section (where Tarzan swings) of The Great Movie Ride. With 2 big aquariums it kinda looks like Rainforest Cafe too. <b>Its done. I dont need any help with it; just threw that in so you'd have an idea of how off the wall this will be.</b>

Our next room is the kitchen. We have bright lavender (purple) countertops and everything else (so far) is pure gloss white. We are getting closer to the part where we start theming this room, and cant figure out what to do with the floor. The theme will be Disney & candy. Or "Disney candy", whatever you want to call it. Our kitchen table will be a perfect rectangular cube, built stationary onto the floor, attached permanently to the floor. The central heat vent will be under the table, and will disperse through the chairs & out the table to fill the kitchen with warmth. The entire table/chairs will be enclosed like a giant cube. (Borg ship for you Trekkies... Thats another room...) The chairs will slide out on rollers and guides, and when pushed under the table, the backs will be will be flush. In short, imagine an unopened Kleenex box. The backs of the chairs will be large flat plywood rectangles. We plan to get several candy companies to sponsor a side of the table each, as our long range goal is to get our extreme home on one of those extreme homes TV shows.
Money isnt as much my problem (though we definately dont have Disney's budget), Time isnt my problem, its ideas. I'm running low. I need a really creative floor idea. The problem is everything is so boring and "standard". I once saw a floor made of old license plates, schallacked. That was neat, but wont work here, and I dont like the schallack idea; I want something VERY durable and lasting, and VERY low maintenance. Obviously hardwood, tile, or linoleum is too ordinary. (Besides, 98% of it is earthtones) We saw a rubber floor that was pure white with big flakes of colors, which resembled a jawbreaker. It was quite pricy, and the white color (of the floor at least) worries me. after all, we have 2 young kids and a golden retriever puppy, and live up on a big hill thats muddy at times. Anyone have any wacky ideas??? I'll take any, no matter how far fetched. They might give me other ideas!
The den was much easier as we just stole all our ideas from Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, Rainforest Cafe, etc. The kitchen is becoming quite a challenge. Not sure where to start, and since we dont shop or buy candy at Disney... I'm not an expert on that one. What candies/ goodies is Disney known for?
Any "positive" ideas accepted and welcome.

PS Please dont say this is the wrong place for this post. Its all relevant.

PSS Yes! I am for real. My Ebay ME page is devoted to my extreme home. I'm not making this stuff up as some might think. No, you might not do it... but does that mean I cant? Extreme homes bring top dollar in the rarety that they go up for sale. This one wont be for sale in my life time.

Now... tips? ideas?

 

[mickeymedic]

Wow! Can't wait for you to post some pictures of this. I can hear my husband now screaming "don't give her any ideas." I have a disney themed kitchen...albeit not nearly as extreme as what you are planning. Disney Home store has all kinds of Disney-themed kitchen wares. Many of theme are in traditional Mickey colors - red, back and white. But I have several stainless steel items including a dish rack, a papertowel holder, a napkin holder, a trivet, a teapot and a toaster. The toaster is the coolest - it burns (or should I say browns) an impression of Mickey's head into every piece of toast and it plays the Mickey Mouse Club theme song when the toast pops up (don't worry, you can turn off this feature if it starts to drive you crazy.)

Purple is a tough color for me - all I can think about is Barney...and I know that's not the look you are going for. A few images come to mind when I try to think about a Disney theme using the color purple: The Castle, Epcot - specifically the geosphere at sunset, princesses, the Caribbean Beach Resort. Those are in no particular order mind you.

Hope that helps. I'm so intrigued by you plans.

 

[shades]

Sounds like you are having fun decorating your home! I shopped the candy stores at WDW and I can't remember what the floors look like because my eyes were focused on candy However, for something durable and different - perhaps you could use 1" tiles and form Mickey heads all over the floor spaced out with white tiles. Don't forget to put a hidden Minnie in your house in one of the rooms. We all know there is only one in all of the WDW parks!

 

[mommyceratops]

I love the Candy store. Our favorite part was the slushy machine where you make your own disney cup. They were goofy hats cup bodies then goofy feet. They had mickey, Minnie, Stitch, princess, I think that was it. But they were to adorable.

DH loved making a candy apple...hmmm but that didn't answer your question!

I would love to see pics. I wish I could do that to my home....Right now I am saving up to redo my kitchen....hmmm

 

[bunny213]

please please post some pictures!! It also sounds like you're having lots of fun.....Barb in Texas

 

[MinnieGirl33]

Maybe this sounds crazy but...

Have you ever seen those pictures they make with jellybeans in the clear plexi frames? What about a floor that way? You know how the Millionaire set's floor is clear plexi over lights? You could do jellybeans (or other candies) with a thick layer of plexi over top - I'm no engineer & would have no idea how to calculate the strength needed but it was the first thing that popped into my head.

Or you could do a blonde wood (to match the lavender & white) floor & put "portrait" accents into it - like a 24x24 square inserted into the floor here & there.

BTW, I have a Mickey kitchen in red/white/black & yellow & I LOVE IT! Glove door pulls, curtain rod & spoon rest, MM tv, dishes, papertowel holder, curtains, s&p shakers, pot holders, etc., etc., etc.

Have fun!

 

[sahbushka]

The thing that comes to mind when I think of disney candy stores are the mickey shaped flat lolly pops and the taffy in the barrels...I like the idea of the plexi glass over candy or maybe just sections like that with specially made disney tiles...black and white checked reminds me of the old time candy shops disney likes to emmulate. good luck and I'm with everyone else who would love to see photos!
Sarah
P.S. I want that rainforest room!~
P.S.2 What about a Blue Bayou room/pirates room! That would be cool, with maybe a waterfall feature near the top to make it feel like you've come down a waterfall into a pirates cave, or something with the lightening bugs.

 

[!@#$%]

Actually, believe it or not, before we decided on the disney candy room we had full intentions of doing the kitchen in a Pirate Ship Galley theme! We had planned to arch/curve the walls concave to create a inside-the-ship look, plank floors and ceiling, treasure chest for table, microwave oven inside a ship head... etc. We just couldnt come up with a way to do it effectively without it being dark, and the rainforest is still pretty dark even with 8 lights on. We definately wanted it bright, so we went with white instead. And the candystore was created. Keep the ideas coming! I had forgot about the swirly suckers. My son always gets one of those. Thats definately going to be in there somewhere. And believe me, there will definately be hidden mickeys!

 

[Snow Brite]

How fun! Lavender and white makes me think of the princesses...a little sparkly pink and cinderella blue and voila!

When I think of a candy store I too think of the black and white checkered floor. Maybe you could do it in a pastel though or different pastels. If you did it as a 9 patch from quilting pattern...you could do the checkered tiles and the mickey heads. That would be really cute and have a disney theme. Not all that extreme though. You could add in a few of those plexiglass candy squares too.

The only other thing I thought of was those ads at the supermarket that are on the floor. I wonder if you could layer those kinds of pictures on the floor like a depoucage (sp?). If you could do different pictures of candies and disney things that might look kinda cool...not sure though. You could play with it beforehand pretty easy though.

Good luck and do post pictures!

 

[!@#$%]

Now THATS an IDEA!!! A floor of decals... Ive seen those in stores too, but not sure how they do them either. My neighbor is self employed and does commercial floor maintenance, waxing, & tilework. I just left a message on his machine. That idea might lead to something!

I appreciate all the ideas! You guys are great! And so far no flames. Thats good.
Keep them coming!

Off the subject...
Anyone here planning to attend mousefest next year?

 

[tmt martins]

Well heres some stuff I did with DD room train garden is in process ( I have a monorail coming very soon.

 

[deadhedjen]

One of my co-workers has a printing business that can transfer images onto ceramic tile. It can be a photo, clip art, text, etc. I saw a beautiful example of her work today. It is very reasonably priced IMO. She also does images on dinner napkins, towels, aprons, plates, cups, etc. I think I heard her say they have over 200 products that can be printed on. The colors are soooo bright and bold too...not like the washed out ones I usually see. I've never seen transferred images so bright and crisp. Maybe check around in your area for someone that does that kind of tile work? I was thinking more for a backsplash, but you sound sooooo creative, I'm sure you can come up with some other wonderful ideas. Maybe a shop like that could make specialized adhseive grocery store things like someone else mentioned??

The pp that mentioned the plexiglass floor with candies underneath really has a good idea. I think that would be AWESOME! Also...have you ever seen the floor at Toys R Us in NYC??? Kind of hard to describe, but there is one area that has a lighted portion that when the kids step on it the image moves. Not sure it would be great for a kitchen, but it is a really cool floor.

I know what would be really neat...How about using big round colorful swirl lollipops, but use one larger one and 2 smaller ones and making Mickey Heads out of them?? Maybe one of the DDA's could help you create that....then have that image transferred onto tiles or those adhesive grocery store floor thingies.

Or.... how about making the floor look like a jumbo CANDYLAND board game??? You could use a white floor and then use colorful tiles to make the "path".

What got in to me tonight, lol. I am getting too creative. I'd better stop before I hurt myself, lol.

HTH.
Jennifer.

 

[NOLAminnie]

I've seen some really creative textured cement floors with cool designs painted in them, depending on your color scheme you could get different patterns with candy. Red & white peppermints would be cute or multi colored jelly beans. Wow, sounds like you've done a lot of work. Hope you make it on extreme homes.

 

[BlindTyldak]

For durability, I would suggest looking for high-impact mosaic tiles in bright rounds that would look like candy drops. Another suggestion that wouldn't be quite as bright is stone tiles . . . very common in old candy shops where it was made in the back room because it was highly cleanable, or so we were told at the old Heberts Candy Mansions in Massachusetts. Every candy shop storefront I have been in has been frankly just black and white linoleum. Maybe stone around the cooking areas and the linoleum in the dining area to give a prep and serve feel?

Speaking from experience do NOT go with a plexiglass floor! You would not believe how easily they scratch, even though the maker claims they don't. I worked at a horror themepark and one year we decided to do a plexi floor . . . it was trashed in a week. Though I'm sure you don't have thousands of people walking through your home every day, I'm sure you don't want to replace it every year. If you want the truely scratchproof kind, you probably would need a Disney budget.

 

[Joann]

For my Bird room we just built onto our house ( I have 8 parrots so we added a 600 sq ft room onto our house for them hehe) We have a guy starting monday doing our floor my house is all african tropical and hes doing a concrete floor where we can do anything you can think of any shape colour any stone from outside ect he hand does the whole floor in a thin layer about 1 and a quarter inch thick I can add any picture of anything he hand carves it into the concrete it is so cool a house I seen they had thier basement done and at the bar area he had bunches of purple grapes with the vines and leaves everything it was amazing! you should check into that because the skies the limit atleast with our guy and for 600 sq feet it is only 4600 dollars finished and top coated I checked the cheapest tile at stores and it was gonna cost us min. 5500 for plain cheap tile installed

 

[PiperPizzaz]

I vote for linoleum! It is durable and easy to cut into shapes. It comes in tons of colors.


My first thought is making candy shapes with it like the swirl lollypop, a piece of candy with the twists on each side, etc.

 

[DVCLiz]

There's a great candy store in NYC called Dylan's Candy Bar (Dylan is Dylan Lauren, daughter of Ralph Lauren.) The steps are fun - each one has different candies, like a Butterfingers bar, imbedded in the step. Not sure how they do it or what exactly is there, but you could certainly call and ask them!!!!

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

How about the Yellow brick road?

You could do a basic floor (white, maybe, or even green like grass) and have a yellow brick road winding it's way around your kitchen (it would be cool if you could make it continue around a corner, or down a hallway or something)...maybe have it stop at a wall (or a door) with a mural of the Emerald City painted on it? Candy reminds me of the munchkins, and all the fun colors of Munchkin Land!

 

[disneykid4ever]

colored concrete? It's very durable and they can make it any color you want. You can even have different colors poured in sections or designs. I've seen it used on design shows on t.v. before and it looks great. Very contemporary.

 

[twinz]

I know you are all talking about the floor, but I was thinking how about for the handles on your cupboards...you can use candy as the handles. Maybe shilack them...eg lollipops, those big different coloured twisted lollipops...etc. Also what about using plexieglass for the backs of your chairs, and filling the backs between two sheets with candy? That would be cool!