Dollhouse Diaries

Dollhouse Diaries

Welcome to Dollhouse Diaries, where two lifelong friends bring dollhouses to life — one tiny room at a time. Follow along as we share before-and-afters, restoration stories, and dollhouse adventures!

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  • Kathleen’s Dollhouse Diary Part 1

    I was thrift-store shopping between appointments when a Barbie dollhouse caught my attention. Before I had a chance to do anything more than check the price, which was $50.00, someone stepped right in front of me and scooped it up.

    “Excuse me,” she said, “I am buying this for my daughter.”

    Suddenly, I wanted a dollhouse. I never had one when I was a little girl, and I remember wishing I had one, but I thought that only rich people had toys like dollhouses. Now, I realize how rich we were. We had a home and food on the table.

    I left the store without a single thing and headed off to another similar shop. As soon as I walked in the door, there was another Barbie dollhouse priced at $60.00. Of course, I had to buy it, though my Scottish Nana whispered in my ear, “Why do you need this dollhouse? What are you going to do with it?”

    Then my thinking went a little sideways.

    I have a friend named Brenda who has a daughter. This talented young lady has built a business with miniatures. “She must want to redecorate this dollhouse.” was my sideways thought. Of course, she would. I phoned Brenda and asked her opinion.

    After consideration of less than one minute, she said, “Buy it.” And so, I did.

    The dollhouse remained in my garage for a few days, until I learned that the talented daughter mentioned above was not interested in redecorating an old Barbie dollhouse.

    Queen Mary’s Dollhouse

    During that time, with a memory rising, I dug through my old travel books and found a tourist program about Queen Mary’s Dolls House. My tour there was twenty-five years ago, and I still remember walking around that wonderful work of art and being so caught up in examining tiny details, like wine in the miniature wine bottles and delicately embroidered bedding, that I was the last one on the bus that day.

    Queen Mary was Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother on her paternal side, known for her love of ‘collecting,’ tiny things. The Doll’s House was the idea of her cousin, Princess Mary Louise, and a way of raising funds for some of the charities that Queen Mary supported. Built between 1921 and 1924, the miniature, 12:1 size, intricate items include the Crown Jewels and even the Royal automobiles of the time. The library has hand-written originals by AA Milne and Arthur Conan Doyle.

    Queen Mary’s Doll’s House took over two years to build in a specially designed room in Windsor Castle. After completion, it was on display at the World Fair and the Empire Exhibition before returning to Windsor Castle and it has not been moved since.

     www.rct.uk A visit here is where you can find videos, close-up pictures, and even book a tour on your next visit to Great Britain. Over one and a half million people still visit the Doll’s House annually.

    .

    My New Adventure in Miniatures

    I’ve decided to keep the Barbie Dollhouse for myself.

    With only a little encouragement, Brenda caught my enthusiasm and found a dollhouse that inspires her. She will tell you all about it in her blog. There are several to choose from online. As it turns out, she didn’t have one when she was a little girl, either. I can hardly wait to see how it will look, as this particular friend has excellent taste in her manners and style.

    My dollhouse project will be completely different from the way it looks right now. I’m separating it into shops with an apartment on top. There are five rooms, but with one more simple divider, there will be six. I may add an attic, and there is also a spot for a rooftop garden. The back of the con-joined building will be done in a couple of ways. Partially old red brick and partially slats, as I’m envisioning it as an old building. The heart-shaped pool and hot tub will be flower gardens surrounded by some sort of stones, with benches and a streetlight or two.

    There will be a row of three shops on the bottom level. A bookstore, an ice cream shop, and a tiny shop of some kind in between. The elevator will lead to a private suite with a kitchen, dining room, and living room. A spiral staircase will bring us to the boudoir suite, with an outdoor garden on the rooftop.

    I’m expecting my ideas to evolve and change as I work on them. My writing teacher, Nikki Tate, always closes our class by saying, “follow the words and see where they take you.”  In the same way, I’m following my imagination and seeing where it takes me. So much fun.

    Invitation

    Does this sound like fun to you? Join in any time. Find an old dollhouse to renovate. Share your method and process. I want to learn from you.

    I will be ordering a few miniatures, but making a few things, too. How hard can shelves be?

    The plan is to post a blog every week, and complete one room or project per month. We are going to have a lot of fun with our dollhouses and invite our granddaughters to play and help decorate. You’ll soon see that Brenda and I have different methods and processes. I tend to do things wrong the first time. I’ve already ordered the wrong size toilet. Small enough for a ladybug.

    Pinterest holds a treasure of information about miniatures. I’m thankful for the artists who generously share their crafts and resources. I think that Pinterest is a ‘Show and Tell’ for grown-ups.

    So far, I’ve moved the dollhouse into my craft room, which involved clearing a table buried deep in books and brushes and half-done paintings from my last project.

    The bookshop will be the first room I work on and a package of books the size of postage stamps is en route.

    Method Hints:

    ·      It is not a good idea to paint over stickers. Goo Be Gone might remove them.

    ·      The floors will be made from wooden tongue depressors. (Thrift store find for 50 cents.) If you stain the tongue depressors first, and dry them flat, they might not warp when you press them onto wet glue. Place a weight on them until dry. Sand the bumps out.

    I’m looking for a desk for a tiny person to stand behind and take payment. I thought I saw the perfect miniature man on a shelf in a thrift store the other day, but by the time I circled round the counter, he was gone. He had a full beard and moustache and was wearing a vest, an elegant study in browns and greys.

    Note of Worth

    My dollhouse project is somehow alleviating my stress. The gentle art of distraction keeps my mind from going around in circle about things I have no control over. I’ve noticed this benefit before while writing or painting. I highly recommend arts, crafts, and music of course, for relaxation and escape, a short holiday from reality, and a little bit of fun. Actually, I’m having a lot of fun.

    I admit that The Dollhouse Diaries is keeping me from working on other projects, like selling my recently published book, ‘The Blue Stone.’ And yet, and yet, when I relax my creativity starts to sing. And I like that.

    Blogging is part of my marketing plan, so I’ll keep blogging about my dollhouse project.

    I hope you follow Brenda and me.

    Maybe you’d like to join us or maybe you know someone else who would.

    In the picture of my Barbie Dollhouse, Frankie the kitten is making sure there are no mice.

    All comments are welcome. Don’t be shy.

    #NeverTooOldForDollhouses #BarbieDollhouse #QueenMary’sDollsHouse #Miniatures #1:12Miniatures #Dollhouses #Proje #BlueStone #ChawtonCottage #DollhousesForSeniors #RethinkingBarbieDollhouses #JaneAusten #FarmhouseFinishes #FirstTimeAuthors #OldGirlsStillWannaHaveFun

  • Brenda’s Dollhouse Diary Part 1

    I never wanted a china cabinet—never wanted to display a china set. Yet my late mother’s cabinet takes pride of place in my condo, with three sets of dishes, one inherited and two that I purchased for purely nostalgic reasons. But that is a story for another day.

    Similarly, I never wanted a miniature dollhouse.

    And yet…I was minding my own business, doing nothing in particular when I got a text from my dear friend. Kathi had found a dollhouse at a thrift store and thought my daughter, Carleas might want to fix it up on a video blog. “It sounds like the one the girls had when they were little,” Kathi said.

    I thought about it for a good half-second and agreed.

    “Buy it,” I said, thinking I would send her the money, and about how thrilled my daughter would be to redesign a dollhouse like the one she had as a child.

    Carleas has been in business for five years creating dollhouses and accessories for dollhouses on a 1:12 miniature scale. She keeps two 3-D printers busy producing her designs. I help her by making six-inch macrame plant holders from crochet cotton. I admire her work, but mini macrame is the extent of my creative miniature experience.

    I texted Carleas about the phone call from Kathi. She wasn’t keen on the video idea. When I told her it was not a miniature, but the Barbie doll house that she had as a child, she was more interested in seeing it done than in doing it herself. It would take time and space, and she didn’t have either. She was too busy to take on the project.

    What do I do now?

    Kathi had already purchased the dollhouse. Did I want to take it on myself? Maybe we could do it together. My final thought was that I would buy it from her and fix it up for my great grandchildren, whenever they came along.

    Kathi, in the meantime, had ideas of her own. We would fix it up and blog about it. We could do it together, or I could buy one and we could each do our own.

    I had some thoughts, too. Exciting venture. Terrifying plan. Stupid idea. Kathi can do it herself. No interest here.

    Kathi and I are going to Bath this fall to the Jane Austen festival, and I have a lot to do to get ready. I have no time for another project. Unless it’s Jane Austen’s house. I could reproduce Chawton Cottage, where Jane Austen revised her first and wrote her final novels.

    Carleas found a house for me on Marketplace. In fact, she found two. Originally purchased at Ikea, one of these houses was close by, still in the box, and one was assembled and at a better price, just outside of the city. I could choose.

    I chose both. Chawton Cottage is an L-shaped structure, so if I put two houses together in an L shape I could replicate the outside. Inside I could choose the rooms I wanted to do. Of course, the roofline would have to be changed, and I would have to cut out, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,10 windows and three doors. And I’d have to make brick. How do you make brick? Am I nuts?

    I am nuts! What was I thinking? Where would I work on it?

    Kathi wants us to blog about it. I can blog. I can do that. She started sending me ideas from Pinterest. I watched a few YouTube videos on making brick. I need a lot of bricks. Carleas suggested some online sites that she’s used in the past. She also told me she could replicate the wallpaper if she had a good image. I found a good image.

    “Where will you work on it?” Carleas asked me.

    “At the table of course.” I showed her the picture of Chawton Cottage.

    She looked at picture, then at the two doll houses on the table next to the china cabinet. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

    My dollhouse front, back and yet to be assembled.

     “It will take some time, I know. But there is lots of information out there.”

    “So, you’re done collecting china, you’re going to start collecting dollhouses now?”

    I didn’t say anything. After all, Kathi and I haven’t yet been to Jane Austen land. We haven’t seen any of the structures in person. Who’s to say what our trip will inspire?

    Photo by Skye O’Neill

    Chawton Cottage had been through several iterations before Jane’s brother, Edward Austen Knight, inherited Chawton House, the nearby manor house from his adoptive father. While his family lived in the big house, he made a few changes to the cottage. And then his mother, and his sisters, Cassandra and Jane moved in with their friend, Martha Lloyd. It was Jane’s home for the last eight years of her life.

    After the passing of the Austen women, the building was used as a multiple-family dwelling, and more changes were made. It is not clear what the house looked like when the Austen’s lived there, but one change in particular was ascribed to Edward. He had the large front window in the drawing room shut up to give the women more privacy from the street traffic and added a similar one on the more secluded garden side.

    I like the symmetry of the two large windows on each side of a center door, as it was back then, so I chose that façade for my replica.

    On my first house, I will add eight inches to the front and four inches to the side. This means a trip to Home Depot to purchase half-inch plywood for the floor, and quarter-inch plywood for the exterior walls. My second house will remain much the same. Only the roof will change. It will become the kitchen and servants’ quarters.

    I have new blades for my electric saw. I’m waiting for the windows and doors that I ordered, so I can take accurate measurements before I make the cuts. Can’t wait to get started.

    #NeverTooOldForDollhouses #BarbieDollhouse #QueenMary’sDollsHouse #Miniatures #1:12Miniatures #Dollhouses #Proje #BlueStone #ChawtonCottage #DollhousesForSeniors #RethinkingBarbieDollhouses #JaneAusten #FarmhouseFinishes #FirstTimeAuthors #OldGirlsStillWannaHaveFun