The wooden casita
Wood plank walls in a bright color, a corrugated zinc roof, wooden shutters instead of glass, and the whole house raised off the ground on posts, with steps up to a small balcón.
Puerto Rican guide
A room reads as Puerto Rican because of a handful of details: a zinc roof, rejas on the windows, bright paint with white trim, a caldero on the stove. Get those right and everything else follows.
Wood plank walls in a bright color, a corrugated zinc roof, wooden shutters instead of glass, and the whole house raised off the ground on posts, with steps up to a small balcón.
The house of the 1950s–70s building boom: concrete block, a flat roof, a marquesina for the car, white or black rejas on the windows and door, and aluminum ventanas Miami with louvers you open with a crank.
| Detail | Real | 1:6 | 1:12 | 1:24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zinc roof, rib to rib | 2⅔ in | ≈ 7/16 in | ≈ 7/32 in | ≈ 1/8 in |
| Losa criolla (cement tile) | 8 × 8 in | 1⅓ in | ⅔ in | ⅓ in |
| Ceramic floor tile | 12 × 12 in | 2 in | 1 in | ½ in |
| Balcón railing height | 36 in | 6 in | 3 in | 1½ in |
| Rocking chair seat | ≈ 16 in | 2⅔ in | 1⅓ in | ⅔ in |
Peel the top paper off corrugated cardboard to expose the ridges. B-flute cardboard, with ridges about ¼ in apart, is closest to 1:12. Most shipping boxes are C-flute, a little coarse but still convincing. Thin E-flute, used for most pizza boxes, suits 1:24. At 1:6 the ribs are about 7/16 in apart, so use the coarsest A-flute cardboard (about ⅜ in). Paint it silver-gray, then dry-brush rust brown along the edges and nail lines. Cut it into overlapping sheets, about 2 in wide at 1:12, like the real thing.
Print a reja pattern on cardstock and cut out the openings with a fresh blade, or bend thin craft wire with needle-nose pliers. A white paint pen on clear plastic works for windows you want to see through. Paint them white or black, the two classic colors.
Glue thin strips of silver cardstock, or strips cut from a disposable aluminum pan, across a window frame at a slight angle so they overlap like louvers. Add a tiny crank handle at the bottom corner from a bent pin.
Paint the walls a bright color with white trim. Dab a lighter shade on with a sponge for texture, then add a faint darker band along the bottom where rain splashes up. That one band makes it look lived-in.