M112 PODS & Mini Modern Furnishings By Paris Renfroe

Paris Renfroe established Paris Renfroe Design in San Francisco California in the summer of 2002. Since then he has worked with numerous clients in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul areas.

Influenced by Mid Century Modernism, he considers himself an 'Industrial Modernist'. Much of his work consists of custom furniture, built-ins, closets, storage, and space planning. He specializes in affordable, modern furniture with clients ranging from young professional Urbanites to Empty Nesters relocating to the urban city.


above: Paris Renfroe of Paris Renfroe Designs

But that's not all he does. Much to my great joy, I discovered he has created a line of miniature container pods called M112 PODS, based on the growing popularity of abandoned shipping containers being used as a resource in green housing and construction.



We've seen modern architectural miniatures and dollhouses. Lord knows, I've written several posts on them ( Peter Tucker's roomboxes, Mark Turpin's architectural models, Gideon Bing's Bauhaus models for Resene, Kathy Osborn's miniature bauhaus dollhouse, and the replica of Arne Jacobsen's Villa as dollhouse), but this is the first time I've seen a miniature container pod, and these custom ones by Paris Renfroe do not disappoint!

Available in white, orange, baby blue, apple green, yellow, grey or a special rust finish, the M112 PODS have these standard features:

* Baltic birch interior ceiling, walls, and floor
* Window wall with frosted upper and lower sections
* Two bypassing sliding panel clear doors for easy access
* One solid sliding panel door
* Port hole in floor and ceiling for stacking and roof access
* Metal tube rung ladder to upper port hole



The M112 PODS are sold unfurnished, but as you will see later in this post, Paris also designs and sells miniature furnishings like leaning wall mirrors, wall art, coffee tables, chairs, beds and more.

Standard dimensions: 20” L x 8” W x 8 ½” H (available in 40” length for an additional $100.00)
Standard colors $175.00 each: Apple Green, Blue Sky, White, Orange, Grey
Special finishes $250.00 each: Natural Rust
Available in custom colors, interiors, and configurations. Slight variations may occur – each unit is hand constructed, finished, and signed by the artist.

Prices are per unit and do not include taxes, shipping or handling. Allow 2-3 weeks delivery for standard units. Custom units may take longer for delivery.

Now, tons of photos for you:

Rust Finish:




Orange:



Yellow:






Grey, white, yellow and apple green:


white and baby blue:



The following images are from the Herman Miller Grand Opening for their Culver City store which commissioned these from Paris Renfroe for the event:






The window wall with frosted sections serves as one of the ends of the container:


The metal tube ladder that leads to the porthole entry, which can be closed off with a pivoting piece of plexi:



The little modern chairs you see in many of the pods are by REAC japan, but Paris also designs and sells his own miniature custom furnishings like the ones shown below:









See his miniature furnishings for sale here.

PRD is currently operating his business from St. Paul, Minnesota, but will soon be relocating to the Las Vegas area.

Please visit his website at www.parisrenfroedesign.com, to see some of his full scale designs.

Four Artists Have The Same Big Idea With Mini Figurines

In advertising, when attempting to come up with a fresh idea or execution, it is often said "it's been done". The same can hold true of many art related disciplines and clearly the juxtaposition of miniature figurines with ordinary objects has proved to be but one of the concepts often executed.

Here are just four (and there are more) artists/photographers who have created visual narratives by placing tiny human figurines with ordinary and mundane items.


1. Baktana by Ami Drach and Dov Ganchrow

Ami Drach and Dov Ganchrow are artists/industrial designers who combined their talents in 1996 to form an Israeli-based design studio located in South Tel Aviv. They collaborate on everything from lighting design and furniture to medical products and dinnerware (you may have seen their "hotplates" on designboom).



One of their lesser known projects, Baktana, is a series of miniature figurines juxtaposed with found objects, creating little narratives. I just love them, so I wanted to share them with you. The tiny monochrome figurines are those often used in architectural models or with model trains. By placing them in and around such mundane objects as pencil sharpeners, wire brushes and keys, they create stories of their own.









All these itty bitty set-ups fit one one table:


See more of their work and projects here.

2. Vincent Bousserez Plastic Life

Another artist who creates narratives by combining miniature figurines with found objects is talented photographer Vincent Bousserez and his Plastic Life Series. Coincidentally, he even uses some of the same objects, like the brush:


A few more images from Vincent's Plastic life series:




He has an enormous amount of images in this series, and you can see them all here.

3. Jason Barnhart

San Francisco photographer Jason Barnhart has also shot a series of HO scale figurines with found objects- or in many of his images, food. You won't find these images on his site but he contributed them to JPG magazine under the name CultureSpy:






See more of Jason's miniature images here.

4. Slinkachu

An anonymous street artist who goes by the name of Slinkachu, has a series named "Little People Left In The City To Fend For Themselves." What make his or her work slightly different than the others is that the series is a street art installation, placing these out in the world, as opposed to being created in a studio. The images below show the narratives as close-ups and then as they are seen in the environments.


in situ:


in situ:


in situ:


in situ:


in situ:

See more work by Slinkachu here.

And there you have it, four talents with the same big idea of tiny people.