The Perfect Midcentury Modern Gingerbread House
Midcentury modern architecture and design are a mix of nostalgia and panache. Here’s how to pull one off as a gingerbread house!
Every year for Christmas in July, my family and I make elaborate gingerbread houses. It’s a fun way to take a break from the summer heat and reminisce about the holidays. This year I decided to explore my favorite era of home architecture and design, Midcentury Modern, with this split roof one-storey house with a carport.
Rather than gingerbread, I built this house from graham crackers. They’re easy to cut, hold glue without peeling, and and are flat and thin, so they provide straight walls and clean corners. You may, of course, decide to make your own gingerbread instead, but since the walls and ceiling aren’t directly visible, it doesn’t make much of a difference. I also used graham crackers for internal architectural supports for the roof.
My preferred glue is from this recipe from Kids Activities. It’s very simple to make, dries quickly, and it’s quite strong. It’s as simple as mixing powdered sugar, water, and meringue powder.
The design itself is very simple, with a split roofline, attached carport, and two doors with a covered porch step. The trim is tape gum. The driveway is red Nerds, while the porch astroturf is green Nerds. The walkway stones are made from Laffy Taffy. The tree is made from two different colors of sour candy tape folded over and threaded onto an old fashioned hard candy stick.
The pillars for the porch roof were also hard candy sticks. The wreath was made from sour candy tape. I cut very thin strips from three different colors of the tape and braided them together, than pressed strips of the red candy tape into the shape of a bow. The trim lights around the roof are miniature Chiclets.
The most intricate detail of the the house is the lattice wall that supports the carport roof. I glued Lifesavers together flat on the table, then placed the entire finished lattices onto the board when adding the roof. The lattice is load-bearing.
The rear of the house had just two square windows. The stones of the chimney are Jelly Belly jelly beans from their Donuts pack cut in half.
The options for Midcentury Modern gingerbread house are endless, and I could have easily created a completely different design. It helps that colors of candy are well-suited to the design colors of this era!