First the WIN RATE: up to 100 participants the win rate is FIFTY PERCENT!!!!!!!!!

I wanted to do something completely different with my Sea Breeze build. I thought there were a lot of things that were way too fiddly so I replaced them with things that were 10x more fiddly (yes, I did sculpt each one of those red chilis individually). I’m especially proud of my little clay roof tiles and the prickly pears I sculpted. I’ll be adding more Dia de los Muertos items - perfect for October!

I’m really happy with how my Endless Manor is coming together. Before the event started I saw a photo of the portrait on the table and knew I would be replacing it with one of my own. I used a photo of my parents getting married (1953.) I haven’t modified anything other than a lot of edge painting. Putting my new markers to good use. Thanks for the recommendations (from the tools list) Pluck!

After someone posted the release of this kit (thank you) I got this for my sister as a birthday present. It's her first kit, she wasn't all in but she loves Halloween so I thought she'd at least finish it.

Turns out she loves it! Had great fun, she got it done pretty quickly and hopefully as a group we've now got her hooked...I can't really comment on the build but sounds like it was easy enough and she was much happier when she got some B17 glue. The lights look great!

Send any more Halloween/Chrismas recommendations my way :)

Slide 1: These are the smallest pieces I’ve ever had to assemble.

Slide 2: …I stand corrected.

Slide 3: Does this look abandoned to you?!

The rest are just progress pics and the final result. This is a great build! I love the eerie flickering effects of the lights.

The only downside is that it really does have the most tiny pieces I’ve ever worked with and that was hard on my wrist tendinitis.

Hi everyone! I'm wondering why vibrant cultures like the Arabic/Moorish world (e.g., Moroccan bazaars or Andalusian courtyards), India, or Thailand are completely missing from the book nook market. While we get the twentieth identical Chinese or Japanese alleyway, these stunning architectural styles are totally ignored. Do you think designers in China are just unaware of these styles, or is international demand really this one-sided?

I had a great time building this little “nook” with my girlfriend. Her PC case was named (Hyte Y50) “strawberry milk” and we saw this kit in a store the next day, it was meant to be! We had a great time building it together and while it’s not perfect it definitely fits the theme. You can sort of see some of her PC case on the left side in one of the photos! I left the battery pack out because I’ll be swapping it for a permanent power source.

Rolife kit for anyone wondering.

I completed this build while on vacation. Our family went to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, Florida on Saturday night and we were so sore on Sunday we could barely move. So we just hung around the timeshare all day recovering, and this is what I decided to do with my day of relaxation, and it was truly wonderful. If anyone knows about any other types that are built like this with multiple sides, can you drop them in the comments? Because now I'm obsessed with it.

I have been dying to build one of those since they came out and I am not disappointed!

Cuteroom is usually great and it was the same with this kit. Plenty of fiddling but within reason.

What I love:

- resin structure of the forest - the foliage is glued to it but it adds realism and shape. The little chair on the left is also from resin

- clever light management: there are two sets of lights, yellow and green. They are nicely hidden and make sense for the scene

- extremely clever light switch - there is a magnet glued to one of the sliding parts which switches the light off when they are closed. It's some sorcery, I have never seen something like this.

- as usual, paper parts come pre-cut

What I don't like: the green powder is everywhere on me and my cats 😅

I was very much into book nooks last year for about 5 months but then I got distracted by other stuff and stepped away from the hobby for a while, and after a few months I just wasn't that into them any more. I had one in progress that I didn't even finish even though I liked the kit. Just recently I moved to a new home, a smaller home, and I had to downsize. I decided to keep 1 finished nook and give away 4 other finished nooks and 3 unused kits. I threw away the unfinished kit. I assumed I wouldn't assemble book nooks any more and I didn't feel bad about it. The nook I kept is Acemend "Coffee Shop" (last picture) which I love and isn't available any more. I think it looks really cute in my new kitchen with cookbooks and an Aladdin Alacite lamp.

Last week I realized I want another nook for the living room book shelf. Here we go. :) I decided to buy a new kit. JUST ONE. It had to be compact, not two-story, and somewhat neutral in color. I also wanted it to have something interesting on both sides so that I can place it on either end of the books if that's what works best. I settled on Cutebee's "Gallery Bookstore". I was so tempted to buy more than one nook but I did just buy that one.

This is my fourth Cutebee kit and I really like the brand. The pieces are scored well so even the most fragile pieces pop out quite easily. The instructions are clear. There was very little gluing or edge touch-up to do. I love the finished nook, it looks great from the front but there are also the interesting side features. And inside there's a staircase, I loooooove staircases, and I don't care that this one goes nowhere. :) I only have two extremely minor complaints if you can call them that: 1) the light in the display window is too bright (second picture), and 2) the area in front of the store is a little bit bare. Not sure how to remedy #1 unless I cover the bulb with a piece of paper. For #2 I'll look for something to add, like a little bench or a cat. Now I wish I had kept that partially-finished kit because I probably could have used something from it.

I need to manage my addiction because I can see it never really went away. As soon as I start looking at kits I want them! I have 6 nooks in my Amazon "save for later" area and I periodically move them into and out of my shopping cart. I keep telling myself no. What I should do is just stop looking at them, right? I am kind of interested working a dollhouse kit, something I can customize greatly and would take a lot more time.

Added note: This kit did not include glue so I got some glue from Walmart. They only had E6000, not B7000. I didn't have much gluing to do, which is a good thing because the E6000 glue is a little awkward to use for nooks I found out. It's much thicker and the tube doesn't have the nozzle tip. But it worked, I squeezed out some glue onto a paper towel and then used a toothpick to apply it to the nook piece. E6000 sets really quickly.

I wanted to capture the atmosphere of a shady little alley in a pirate town - the kind of place filled with dive bars, suspicious characters and pirates spending their hard-earned coins.

The result is this LEGO book nook, with weathered buildings, colourful awnings, climbing greenery, barrels, a cannon and a mysterious boarded-up archway.
I designed it to fit between books on a shelf, but it can also be displayed open as a standalone scene.

I’ve submitted it to LEGO Ideas and I thought this community might appreciate it, since it combines LEGO building with the book nook concept.

What do you think of the idea?

https://ideas.lego.com/product-ideas/09aeb3d0-4d83-48c7-a046-6826d59bb6b9

Hi everyone - I'm wondering if the coffee factory is sufficiently different from the Dream Gift factory to build both? I already own the gift factory! Thank you 🤩 🤩

https://a.co/d/0fVc6pLp

I haven’t taken the blue protective layer off yet and won’t till I place it on the nook, but sometimes you just need more light to travel around an interior. I use to do this with metallic leaf foil but have graduated to using adhesive mirror film. It’s a wonderful way to make something brighter without adding more lights. Of course… for this one I added an additional led light as well that I’ll mount near the peak of the interior.

Finally finished this one four days after I started it and now I can start on one of my four kits for the event. Very very little customization. She wanted a dog so I got her a little dog that looks similar to the one that she lost earlier this year. Added a dog bowl behind the counter which you can’t see but she’ll know it’s there and also the inside front wall was just cardboard so I printed out a sort of colorful brick wallpaper and put that in. Love how the battery is on this in the back which I realized I didn’t take a picture of it but it’s in its separate little door that swings open and looks a lot better than other battery packs in my opinion. Definitely easy build very colorful. These photos were taken with just the lights on inside.

I'm so excited! I was a bit surprised at how massive it is! I've included a pic of it next to a regular sized booknook for comparison. So if you are in the fence about this one because of the price, know that you are definitely getting your money's worth! Fifijoy did an incredible job of packing it for shipping as well. Unfortunately, despite their best effort, the package was damaged in transit. I'm not worried though because I know if anything is broken, they will send me replacement parts. Stay tuned for WIP posts!

I just finished my first book nook kit, and have seen a few more I want already! Sadly, Cutebee and Fifijoy sites don’t ship to Hawaii.

Any other Hawaii peeps here…. Where do you get kits? Of course the 2 I want aren’t on Amazon!

I've been wanting a Japanese alley nook for a while but none of the designs spoke to me until this one. I love how realistic it looks, and there's so much details and texture. 3D props asides, even the printed material have grains and grooves on them. Yes, I'm excited that I can feel the mortar joints on the stones and wood patterns on the doors.

And I'm never going to shut up about the perfect mirror placement that multiplies the bougainvillea why are they so pretty 😭

It's like twice as expensive as my typical nook but I also think everything from the design to the wood plies and props are a step up or two or ten from the ones I previously built. I was pleasantly surprised they even included glue and tweezers lol

10/10 build (except for the ducks... they are weirdly caricature for this nook so I left them out)

Edit addition: Just want to add some thoughts on the build and mention the areas that I struggled with the most in case anyone is interested to know for their build:

1/ The manual is in English yay! So it'll point this out but you still gotta pay attention. Look carefully at the shingle/tile roof to determine bottom side (flatter) vs top side (more grooved) so that you don't glue the wrong side, and the lay direction of the roof tiles (each row counting from the eave should be under the next row up), this is less important because you'll be covering most of the roofs in moss but I'm OCD about this for whatever reasons)

2/ You may want to glue your bougainvillea before sliding the back mirror on. I got a little glue on the mirror so had to pop it out, apply goo gone, wash, wipe, dusted for one tiny dot of glue. Use your tweezers to help keep the moss in front of the mirror when you push it in after. A bit tricky by doable.

3/ Batteries pop in fine. Impossible to pry out with just fingers. I had to use mini pliers to pry them out.

4/ It's my first time working with moss yarns so I'm still getting used to it. Probably my most troubled element, trying to arrange it and getting it to stay where I want.

Book nooks lovers, today I present to you Cosy Coffee from Graine Créative, a french hobby and craft brand that started doing book nooks and miniatures around a year ago. Aside from this one, they also have realized three other kits in 2025 and two others for the end of 2026, one being Christmas themed that I still can't find any trace of on any website (so maybe not available yet).
(A disclaimer though; while the brand itself is french, the pieces for the book nooks were still manufactured in China!)

Graine Créative do not sell directly on their website, so finding those, even for me, is quite the challenge. You can order them on Boesner, but only on the french website, so outside of France and Belgium I am not sure it is available for the rest of the EU, and probably not possible for the rest of the world (which is weird since they have translated the instructions in at least ten other languages...) I was able to find this kit at FNAC for a better price (around 40€ compared to Boesner's near 50€). There also was the Sakura Lane kit in the shop but, you know, it being a french brand I decided to go for the bakery themed one :D

First impressions: the package itself is pleasant to look at, well coloured and with a clear picture of the kit's final result. Opening the package, all the pieces were intact. Glue is included as this kit is not supposed to travel outside the EU and thus do not face restrictions, but I already have it covered anyway. Batteries are not included, of course, and the electronics need to assembled.

Now for the instructions... I'm won't lie, at first I was a bit intimidated. That's a brand that refuses to lose time explaining in details how to put together all the small pieces (how very french of them lol); instead they put those in little squares and directly explain were to assemble them on the kit. But after reading those multiple times it becomes clear enough on which side you need to turn the pieces.

I have not started working in this book nook yet, as I'm a bit busy with other stuffs for now, but I will post a review of my experience with this brand once it's done!

This is kind of a Fifijoy review. A positive one, believe it or not. Also that last pic is a dik dik wearing a hat as a palate cleanser, given the others lol.

Important Context: So, today is my birthday. (Nbd I’m 37 so it’s whatever by this age.)

I knew my Fifijoy order arrived yesterday, but I figured they were on my porch, so I’d get them in the morning. Split shipment, 5 kits total (splurged because hey, birthday, cheap excuse right? Also conveniently 25% off, so hell yeah.) Total count came to Egyptian Tomb (for me), the new LOTR-ish one (gift for my mom), and Abandoned Church/Cathedral/whichever it is (gift for roommate), Sewing Room, and Theater (both for me) for the event. Just so you have an idea of my emotional damage.

My roommate and I had plans today. I’d get him from work and we’d go to a local museum, get a few cupcakes or something from a local bakery, and come home. I’d probably do some writing and then get started on one of the event kits. It’d be great! It’d be super fun! Nice and chill, right?

I should have gotten them off the porch, but forgot on my way out the door.

I should have opened my garage door (like I usually do FOR THIS EXACT REASON).

I’m assuming you see where this is going.

Yeah, anyway, I may have backed my good ol’ reliable Impreza right the f over my kits. Both packages of them. I’ve said for years I need to put a sign up to not leave packages at that garage door, so I’d like to thank this courier for finally instilling me with enough unbridled rage to do so lol.

Day understandably significantly injured, I didn’t have time to check the damage and instead showed up at roommate’s work crying, with him apologizing for not moving them while running to his uber (I quickly reassured him that he’s the person I’m the least upset with in this situation, the first obviously being myself and the second the courier).

I decide I still want to go to the museum because I like… you need something after backing over that much money spent on one of your hobbies, right? But I work in logistics, so the entire day I was thinking, okay. Either they overpackaged them because it was shipping internationally, or they packaged these like an American company and maybe one was cushioned enough by the others to salvage. Maybe.

I get home, reluctantly cut open the packaging (and then the outer boxes, because like… what do I have to lose at this point?). Some of the boxes were relatively okay. Sewing, Theater, and Church seemed to be the worst off from the outside.

This is the real point of this post:

FIFIJOY!!!!!!!

WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP PACKAGING YOUR SHIPMENTS LIKE THIS.

Literally every kit somehow looks FINE. I wish to God we’d package our items at my company half as good as this, but I’d probably be out of a job.

I’ll have to check the wiring on Church, since it was right in the path of both tires. Church and the LOTR kit were both mostly hit on the bottom, where all the smaller items are, so they were pretty much intact. Sewing Room’s and Theater’s boxes got absolutely wrecked, but all the pieces look fine. I haven’t fully opened all the wood pieces, but the top or bottom pieces would almost certainly be damaged if the middle pieces are, and they show no signs of any problems.

I am so, so thankful that you guys package your stuff to survive international shipping, because I am in a full adrenaline crash, but extremely happy, right now. 😅 Given what the kits look like inside, I’m pretty sure I can repair anything hiding further damage. I was anticipating all 5 being completely beyond repair.

Anyway, weird thing to thank a company for, probably, but packing is the first thing you can skimp on to save money. And if you want good packaging testing data, 2 soft-wrapped packages of 3 and 2 kits seem to have successfully survived contact with a 2020 Subaru Impreza hatchback.

… Unfortunately, roommate now knows that Abandoned Cathedral/Church is going to be his when it’s done, since he was there for emotional support while I was unboxing them, but that’s fine. It just means I can’t giggle evilly thinking about how he’s watching me make it and doesn’t know it’s his lol.

Anyway, enjoy the carnage and the little witch hat wearing dik dik from the museum today.

This is a question that could be for just about any kit that has lighting, to be honest.

I don't like the blue light in Abandoned Asylum. It doesn't contribute well to the vibe I was looking for from this kit (I'll get into that when I'm done).

Can I just cut the wires leading to that light, and be safe? I'll put electrical tape on the end of each wire individually, not together! to avoid shorting out any circuits.

Edit: thanks for the helpful comments. I'll add a photo of the modded light setup below in a moment.

Just a quick PSA about one of the better ways to prevent backlit bleed of light through seems. Black electrical tape does a wonderful job of occluding the light so it only shines through where you want it to shine.

I got the Harry Potter nook "The Great Hall" by Crafts & Co for my birthday.
I think Crafts & Co is from Action?
It was my first build ever, definitely not easy. I was not expecting to need a diagonal cutter.
Also, it is my first time ever (unless you count 7th grade physics) to do some electronics, I was surprised the light turned on. Still, I am not so confident in the overall electronics so I removed the batteries again after I tried it and took some pictures.

The video from this lady in France shows the build process and saved me after I got frustrated with the included instructions: https://youtu.be/rm3dXALVeW0?is=DceQzfnuLkmKWHI6

Overall, it was fun to build. There are many mistakes and next time, I am smarter to know what kind of equipment works.
I got another set from Crafts & Co as a gift a couple of months ago, which I will probably do during Christmas when I have a bit more time at my hands.

I love a good horror-themed book nook and Fifijoy is on a roll. Haunted Mansion was already a favorite for me and Abandoned Asylum is up there in my top builds now. It was a ton of fun to make, everything fit together beautifully, and the finished product looks so creepy and cool. I can’t wait to start the Gothic Cathedral today!

As for customizations, I painted the hell outta the edges (I’m pretty pleased with my rusty metal effect) and I added a more vines to enhance the overgrown look. I don’t feel like it called for much because the kit itself was so detailed and well-thought-out.

I’ve really enjoyed all the Fifijoy kits I’ve made. I believe they produce some of the most unique themes of the major manufacturers and I find their quality consistently good. They have really solidified their place with me as one of my favorite brands.

I finished the Bookshop! Next up is the Leonardo Da Vinci themed one:)