A beautiful beach hut

It’s taken a couple of years, but I’m over the moon with how my latest project has turned out.

During the pandemic, I was seconded to a communications team within the NHS for 17 months. Obviously you get to know people well during such a lengthy, not to mention intense, time but I was still really surprised – and absolutely delighted – when part of my leaving gift was a 1:12 kit for a beach hut, as well as some lovely bits and pieces to go inside from Shepherd Miniatures. 

Just before I left, the team headed to a beach hut to celebrate the NHS’s birthday so it had a special meaning. I immediately decided I would be painting it in ‘NHS blue’ but it’s taken a while to complete it.

My first attempt at decorating and overall, I love it.

As usual, my dad was very efficient and built the kit for me almost immediately but I was nervous about the painting so put it off for a while. That’s not to say I wasn’t scouring every exhibition and website for things to go inside in the meantime.

Finally, I took the plunge, got my Frog tape out and started the painting. It wasn’t quite as scary as I thought it was going to be but I really wanted a striped door, and that’s where things started to go wrong. My first attempt was a disaster – those little grooves are TINY. On reflection, it would have been much easier to paint the door before the kit was assembled but I’ll know for next time.

Whose idea was it to do stripes? This is the point I gave up... for a while.

I put the beach hut to one side as I didn’t really know how to fix it. That is, until a photographer was due to come round to take pictures of my collection. There’s nothing quite like an impending deadline to make you finish a project!

I’d bought a paint pen with a very fine tip that helped with the stripes but I also decided a rustic look wasn’t the end of the world. I finished off the roof (tiles cut from sheets of sandpaper), sprinkled some sand over the steps, added some greenery where I thought tufts might be growing, cut the floor to size and made curtains using lollipop sticks as curtain poles.

I knew I was saving those lollipop sticks for a reason.

As I gathered together all the pieces I’d collected over the last couple of years, I realised I had a lot more than I thought. The actual furniture – mainly a table, bench and cupboard – was one of the hardest things to source. I searched Pinterest for life-size beach huts to get some inspiration and eventually settled on a kind of shabby chic look.

It's the details that matter.

I also had my heart set on a cool box filled with ice and drinks. It turns out they’re impossible to find in the UK but eventually I found a 3D printed one in Canada. It now sits on the veranda, ready for a little evening tipple.

A bottle of bubbly chilling. 

For my birthday a couple of years ago, my dad made some sandcastles complete with mini flags, as well as the NHS bunting you can see on the outside of the hut, and it made me very happy to finally put them in place. He also turned his hand to making a surfboard, fishing net, cricket stumps and bat and a bat and ball set.

Look at the tiny flags! 

Excuse the wonky pictures - this one is so hard to photograph.

Dodgy paintwork - but look at the lovely seaside knick-knacks.

I think it would be almost impossible to have electric lights in the hut but actually it’s more realistic to have the one battery powered lamp – it lights up the space perfectly.

Lit by one 'oil' lamp, which is actually battery powered.

I’m sure I’ll be adding more bits and pieces in the future but for now, I’m so pleased with how this project has come together, and it's a wonderful reminder of my time at the NHS.