Brinca Dada House on TV

Fans of the show, Divine Design, will recognize Candice Olson featured in this Brinca Dada house post. As a long time watcher of the show (super inspiration about decorating modernly)I was thrilled to see her segment at the start of the show featuring the one and only modern small house we are all so fond of. Good design gets around and this adult toy (bad choice of words) is no exception. We love you Candice!

Lights, Batteries, Action!

When I built my Emerson house and plugged all the wires together, with baited breath waited for there to be light and....nothing. After checking coneections, emailing Brinca Dada (and NEVER hearing back by the way), I finally decided to dig around inside the secret panel in the chimney. I swapped out the batteries and Voila! it worked. A solar paneled small house is pretty cool. I have since disconnected the two halves of the house because its just too damn heavy to move around when its together.

Real Life Examples: Part One

I was semi shocked when I saw the photo of the house online on some modernist website. It is very similar to the Brinca Dada Emerson house. The chair I had never seen before so I thought it was a strange design when it was included with the furniture line, until one day I found this green beauty online and now know the designers had a reason for it. The blue picture of stairs with Sarah Jessica Parker is from the movie, 'First Wives Club' and the stairs are strikingly similar so I thought it deserved an honroable mention in the post.

Damaged Goods

In this installment, you can see the roof warping for a terrible fit. One sliding door of the bedroom slides great, and the pocket sliding door is barely movable. It was almost like one of those red Japanese toris (sp) with the ends flipped up. I wish I could match the grey paint since the driveway was scratched in shipping and my tapping block chipped the grey foundation where the glass walls 'fit in'. From what I am being told I have the earlier lightwood incarnation of the Emerson house. You can see there is a burn or stain mark on the upstairs in front of the fireplace. Not happy...not happy.

Bloggers Own Emerson House...

You can see my stacked stone wallpapered wall through the house. 

The accent wall on the stair landing is a nice compliment to the house. 

Up on a pedestal.

My factory layout. 

I will be adding custom upgrades when time permits. 

I bought a partial furniture set on feebly that included a red chair and sofa so my house has two of each. I do use the green roof as a pied a terre. 

Here is the initial set up of my very own Brinca Dada mocern home. Undoubtedly when time permits I will be adding more stuff to it. Most noticable is that I left the factory green protective covering on some of the windows and doors. I think it adds a nice, retro dimension to it absent in other Emerson houses.

Assembly For The Brinca Dada Emerson House (A Cautionary Tale)

I included this post for several reasons. One I wanted to highlight what a chore it was to build. I had read the poor reviews on ToysRus before ordering on Feebay so I knew I was in for a challenge. I am handy, allowes 2 days to construct and expected frustration. I still was not fully prepared for the ill-fitting parts and factory damage from inadequate packaging. You can see in the photo all the different tools I had to use in addition to the phillips head screwdriver indicated in the instructions. They were better (and funnier) than Ikea instructions but it was as if they knew what a b**** this is to assemble. WARNING: Do NOT use a hammer and tap block to get things (clear walls) in place. Since the wood is warped it is not going to be a perfect fit and chances are the largest sliding door will not slide easily after building. I tried to 'make' it fit and all I did was chip the grey floor paint along the outside edges. I did have to drill additional holes in the underside of the roof to make the screws fit for sturdy construction. Thank goodness I have a drill with all the bits. I can see angry comsumers taking it back in a big pile-o-pieces if they are not tool handy. The roof warping kind of made it not perfect as well, but overall the hosue got built in about a day and a half and the flaws are not that noticable. Naturally the lights did not work, another mood killer. I did manage to get them working which is outlined in another post.

Emerson House Furniture Factory Packaging

I like the artwork on the furniture box, too. As you can see from the last photo they come pretty beat up. I was able to make repairs with wood glue, but it was still an inconvenience and now they are imperfect. Hopefully future manufacturing can package them better.

Emerson House Factory Packaging

I am very happy with the box itself. I am keeping it along with the shipping carton as no doubt in 20 plus years it will increase the value. The fault of the manfacturer comes in the packing of the parts as you can see in this post is just not substantial enough. Any plastic toy I have ever gotten has bags that are seperated by cardboard partitions to protect shifting and scratching. Being that these are heavy Birch wood and easily scratched acrylic and they are being shipped literally around the world from China to USA, it is unexcusable that the parts are almost certainly damaged upon receipt of product. I did the best I could with assembly which I will elaborate in another post.

Custom Photos From Adoring Fans

I am amazed at how creative people are and the investment made in the furnishing of these houses as small scale designer furnishing dont come cheap. Great job ya'll. The LED lighting really shows it off favorably. I welcome submissions of more photos.

Furniture Factory Photographs

The factory photographs look great, included in this post is the alternate orange sofa living room. There is also the alternate colors for the dining room chairs. They come in burgundy/grey or red/orange color combos. The only piece I dont really have a use for is the bidet, which os there because its a European designed house, but my Emerson house is in America, so its an extra piece I set aside.