Sea Breeze Kingdom Instructions: Mediterranean Book Nook Build Guide with Videos

The Sea Breeze Kingdom is a little Mediterranean street in a blue and white box: white walls, blue shutters and railings, a small shop with shelves of coffee, a bookstore full of tiny books, a table set for dinner, a balcony with plants, steps down to a patch of sand and pebbles, street lamps, wind chimes and bead curtains in the doorways. A mirror at the back makes the lane look deeper, and a clear starry top lets you look down onto a ceiling of crystal tube beads that catch the light. It's also one of the most hands-on kits we sell: very little comes ready-made, so you build almost every prop yourself. This guide walks you through it in five stages, with the matching build videos under each one.

Sea Breeze Kingdom: Quick Facts

• What you build: two small buildings on either side of a lane (a shop with shelves of coffee bags and a bookstore), a balcony, an outdoor dining table with chairs, steps, a sand and pebble corner, street lamps, and a roof panel with rows of crystal tube beads under a clear, starry top.
• Build time: the complete build in the videos runs about 14 and a half hours over 15 sessions, and that's with some repetitive steps sped up and the glue drying off camera. Plan for 15 hours or more.
• Difficulty: demanding. The builder in the videos calls it "a step up in the difficulty range" because so much is made by hand: coffee bags, books, plants, rose petals, cushions, signs and two bead curtains.
• Lighting: three LED strings (one with six lights and two with three), a switch and a battery box.
• Size: 15.9 x 9.2 x 20.5 cm. It's a closed box with a finished outside, so it works between books or on its own.

Before You Start: What's in the Box and What to Have Ready

You get the pre-cut wooden parts, large printed sheets that glue onto the walls, sheets of printed cut-outs (they're paper, not stickers), a piece of card stock, clear plastic sheets with templates, a plastic mirror for the back, the lights and switch, fabric, lace, leather, twine and string, moss sponge, all kinds of beads, glass tube beads, seashells, stars, sand and small stones, plants and flowers, tiny dishes and cutlery, and a manual illustrated with real photos. The bag of tools in the videos had a small craft knife, tweezers, scissors, a ruler and some sandpaper. Our guide to the tools and supplies you need to build a book nook covers the basics. For this kit, have ready:

• Three kinds of glue: a clear craft adhesive that gives you a few minutes to adjust (it's what the videos use for most of the wood), super glue for small wooden joints, and a hot glue gun, which ends up holding the lights, the beads and many tiny props. You'll also want white glue: the manual asks for it on the fabric and the sand.
• A sharp craft knife and small scissors for dozens of paper cut-outs.
• A couple of small clamps and something square to hold the walls at 90 degrees.
• A long skewer or a piece of stiff wire to pull light wires through tight holes, and a fine needle for placing beads.
• A small file to flatten the bottoms of the bead plant pots so they stand up.

Two tips before you start. Read two pages ahead before you glue anything. On day one the builder glued a piece that was supposed to wait, and later had to pull the mirror off to get the wires through. And don't expect many measurements: the manual only gives a few, so match the photos as closely as you can.

Part 1: The Box, the Lights and the Coffee Shop

The first three days build the outer shell, fit the lights and start on the first small shop. The printed sheets are glued onto the walls and floor, the corners are squared up, and the mirror goes in at the back. Then the three LED strings are threaded through the floor and fixed in place, and the small printed props are cut out. The rest is the coffee shop: tiny bags of coffee on shelves, lace curtains and the windows.

• Check which way the printed sheets go. On the side walls the blue edge goes up, with the paving stones at the bottom.
• Leave the protective film on the mirror until near the end, as the manual says.
• Thread the wires through the floor holes before closing anything around them. The builder extended the six-light string with heat-shrink tube and fixed each light with a dot of hot glue.
• Test the lights before gluing them all in. It's much easier to fix a string that's still loose.
• Glue the card-stock sheet down before cutting out the pieces, and use scissors for the straight edges. Cutting them all out took the builder over 20 minutes.
• The coffee bags: the beads meant to make them look full were too big for the bags in the videos. Fill one or two for the front and fold the rest flat for the back shelves.
• Glue each window to the plain back of its frame, not the decorated front, with a dot of glue in each corner.

Part 2: Signs, Plants and Shutters

Days four to six are all small props. A shovel and an open sign are made with the wire templates, the doors get handles and lace, and then come the plants: bead pots filled with moss sponge, roses from crepe string, a hanging basket, a stool with a cushion and a fabric canopy. The shop signs are glued onto both sides of their wooden boards, the tiled floor goes down, and the shutters are made.

• Bending the wire parts is fiddly. The coating strips off at tight corners. The builder made the shovel, then skipped the fine wire scrolls around the signs and used a spare bead as a door handle.
• For the rose petals: untwist a short length of crepe string, roll it back up tightly round a thin stick, glue the end, let it dry and slice it into small pieces. The manual asks for ten rolls; two were plenty in the videos.
• File the bottom of each bead pot flat before adding plants, or it won't stand up.
• The manual skips steps on some plants ("cut into small pieces"). Use the photos as your guide and don't worry about matching them exactly.
• For the canopy, spread white glue over the fabric, let it dry, then cut it out. The glue stops it fraying.
• The shutters have paper slats that are hard to fold and glue. The builder cut thin strips of card instead and glued them across the frames.

Part 3: The First Building, the Lamps and the Books

This is where the street starts to take shape. The first side is built onto the base: the small shop against the mirror, the door left slightly open, the balcony with its rails, plants and a stool, the window with shutters and a wall light. Then come the street lamps with their plastic lenses, the steps with a planter trough full of moss, a lattice screen, the books and a bookshelf with a seashell and a lighthouse picture.

• Threading beads onto string: hold the string, not the bead, and pick the end up with tweezers as it comes through. A dab of clear glue on the tip of the string helps.
• Put the shovel higher than you think. In the videos the balcony rail ended up partly covering it.
• Score the plastic lens sheet lightly with a craft knife and it folds into a neat box for the street lamps.
• For the books, score each fold only once. The paper is thin and tears if you go over it again. A tiny dab of super glue on the spine holds them best.
• The lattice has no marks, so space the slats by eye, keeping one side flush.

Part 4: The Bookstore, the Bead Curtain and the Dinner Table

The bookstore is fitted out with shelves, books, plates and small decorations, then gets its windows and its sign. A hanging sign is wrapped with twine, the first bead curtain is threaded, and the dining set comes together: a small table with a glass and a candle, a chair, a cushion, a plate with steak and crab, and a glass of lemonade with ice and a slice of lemon. The last plants and the wind chimes are made too, and the bookstore front goes on.

• Put the books on each shelf before gluing the next shelf. That way you know how much room to leave.
• Keep the hole for the light clear when you decorate the back wall of the bookstore.
• Wrapping the signs with twine: anchor the end with hot glue at the bottom and work round, pressing it into the corners with a pick.
• The bead curtain: the strands with the most blue beads (five) go on the outside and the shorter ones towards the middle. Glue them across the top of the doorway with clear glue and add a second line of glue over the strings.
• Make the cushion small. The first one in the videos came out too big for the chair.
• The wind chimes need knots in tiny string. A double knot holds, and there's a template to get the lengths right.

Part 5: The Second Building, the Crystal Ceiling and the Finish

The last three days make the rest of the furniture and put the whole street together. Two chairs get cushions, a menu board and more shutters are made, and a second bead curtain is threaded. The street lamps go on the lane, sand is glued in beside the steps, the bookstore is fitted into place and the second building goes in with the dining area. Then the roof panel gets its rows of crystal tube beads and its stars, an LED string is fixed along the top of the mirror to light them, the wiring is finished and the outer panels close it all in.

• Leave slack in every light wire. The wire for the bookstore light was too short to reach its hole, so the builder made a new hole behind a shelf.
• The paper floor under the bookstore flexes. Support it well and let the glue set fully before adding weight.
• For the sand, spread white glue, sprinkle the sand on and shake off the excess.
• The crystal tube beads: the manual asks for 40 on strings. The builder stood them upright with hot glue instead, did one row of about a dozen, and added a bead on top of each using a needle. One full row gives most of the effect.
• Glue the LED string about 1 cm down from the top of the mirror, then dry-fit the roof panel before gluing so the beads clear the mirror.
• Clamp the side walls while the glue sets, and check the lights one last time before the outer panels go on.

Common Problems and How Daniel Fixed Them

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to build the Sea Breeze Kingdom?

Plan for 15 hours or more. The complete build in the videos is about 14 and a half hours over 15 sessions, not counting drying time. For a general view of build times, see how long it takes to build a book nook.

How difficult is it?

It's one of the more demanding kits, not because of the structure but because nearly every prop is made by hand from paper, beads, string and fabric. If it's your first kit, have a look at our list of the best book nook kits for beginners first.

Does it fit between books?

Yes. It's a closed box of 15.9 x 9.2 x 20.5 cm with a finished outside, so it looks good between books or standing on its own.

Does it light up?

Yes. Twelve small LED lights on three strings, with a switch and a battery box, light the shops, the street lamps and the crystal beads under the roof.

What glue should I use?

A clear craft adhesive for most of the wood, super glue for small joints, hot glue for the lights and beads, and white glue for the fabric and the sand.

Is there a PDF of the instructions?

The kit includes a printed manual with photos. We don't host a PDF, but the videos in this guide show every step of the build.

Ready to Build Your Own?

If a long, detailed project sounds like a good few weeks of evenings, the Sea Breeze Kingdom kit comes with everything you've seen in the videos. For something you can finish much sooner, see our TARDIS book nook guide.

About the Videos in This Guide

The videos come from Daniel Builds, who filmed his whole build of this kit (on his channel it appears as the Sea Breeze Book Nook) in real time over 15 days, including the mistakes and how he fixed them. We aren't connected to his channel; it's simply the most complete walkthrough of this kit we've found. If it helps you, give him a subscribe.

In this guide there's one player per stage. Each one starts at the first day of its stage and carries on through the following days in build order.