Posted on 12/01/2007 1:27:05 PM PST by Tennessee_Bob
Ok - first things first.
I am logged in.
My beeber is set on stune.
This is a series thread.
I took a shower this morning before work.
Does anyone out there build dollhouses? I found a good deal on a Greenleaf Willowcrest that had been opened, but only barely touched.
It's something I've always wanted to do, but never had the money to purchase - but for the price, I can't resist. I have a fourteen year old daughter, and one that is about 10 days away from being born, and I thought this might be an interesting project to put together.
Any hobbyist Freepers out there with any suggestions, tips, clues, warnings, rants, etcetera, that I might find useful?
When I was a little girl, my parents got me one of those “modern” aluminum dollhouses with plastic furniture, which I thought was neat but bored me rather quickly, as it was all done for me.
As an adult, I’ve done a few dollhouses (around five), generally from a kit. It can be very addictive. There’s all sorts of cool things you can do to make it “yours”. I’ve made brick and “rock” (pebble) fireplaces, beaded chandeliers (out of a basic three-prong fishing hook, no less!), a “bearskin” rug out of an old fur collar, and dipped tiny, tiny candles using thread and old candlewax.
As for tips, I highly recommend following TheWriterTex’s suggestions: if I had done so, it would have saved me a LOT of grief! I would only add that if you’re making it to light up, do that before final assembly also.
Rather than spending money on expensive miniature wallpaper, I use contact paper, or fancy single sheets from a party supplies store or scrapbooking store. You can carpet a room by using a foamie sheet as your pad, and a small-patterned or plain upholstery fabric as your carpet.
You can create miniature family portraits from black and white photocopies and frame them in square or oval buttons. Really, your imagination is the limit, and you will look around at the world in a different way to see how you can use something in your dollhouse.
It is something that your daughter will likely treasure forever; I have donated some of mine to sell at charity auctions, and they fetch a really good price.
This could be LOTS of fun for you!
Best of luck to you! I never finished the one I started, but as an avid miniaturist (”scale miniaturist” sounds even better), I just switched scales to 1:6 instead of the 1:12 you’ll be working in - and proceeded to make roomboxes and dioramas for and with Barbie dolls.
It’s tons of fun, so I wish you the best. Also, look around at the miniatures websites (there are artists who do things you won’t believe!) and you can find some wallpapers and tiny printed items you can just make on your own computer printer.
And I’m sure your little house will have a compauer, so be sure to make a screen with the FReeRepublic masthead on it - and even a copy of this thread, reduced by 1/12th. You can even print it on acetate to be transparent on the monitor.
For inspiration, look for web pages on the Thorne Rooms in Chicago and Fort Worth (try the Art Institute of Chicago first); also Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Publications like back issues of the former Nutshell News and now DollHouse Miniatures Magazine have tons of tips. There are also books and one of my favorites is of the White House in Miniature, a fabulous edifice by the Zweifel family that used to tour the US, but I believe is now in a museum somewhere, but I’m not sure where.
Hope y’all have “mini” hours of fun!
and besides the “compauer” it will have, buy it a “computer,” too - lol at my stupid self
It is at this point that I become confused.
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If you are not good with tools, or such, like me. Pay the man...
Congrats on baby on the way.
I have 3 girls, then a boy. Boys are retarded...
Yikes, I built a doll house from a kit many years ago. I purchased some of the furniture, but I also found a book in the library for templates of furniture - I made some of the furniture out of balsa wood. I still have the doll house and plan to restore it, someday. Michael’s crafts has a lot of supplies.
I never played with dolls of any sort so I never had a dollhouse but I had a friend in elementary, Andrea, who had the most kick ass doll house ever. It was huge, her dad built it for her and she loved it like you wouldn’t believe. If I close my eyes I can see it like it’s in front of me. Almost made me like dolls. Almost. LOL
http://www.hench.net/2005/DOLLHOUSE.htm
That definitely hits a lot of old-school FR memes.
I figured I’d go through, read the replies, and then go back and reply to them - but I have to reply to this one first.
That’s a Willowcrest by Greenleaf - I know, because that’s the one I’m building. I was paging through CraigsList one evening a few days before Thanksgiving and saw the ad in there. I’d always wanted to do one of these, but could never afford the money they wanted for the kit, never had a place to do it, etc, etc.
The lady who was selling it was wanting to get rid of it as it was just taking up space. I e-mailed her and she said that she already had someone interested in it, but would let me know if the deal fell through. It fell through, and they e-mailed me - and I picked it up last night!
If you have to buy one, get Divorced Barbie’s Dream House, it comes with all her stuff and half of Ken’s.
Thanks again.
And if you want to go for the Southwest-style look, red kidney beans make marvelous roof tiles! (Every family who ever had a fifth grader in a California school probably knows this, when it’s time to make California Mission models!)
What a wonderful idea! Both your girls will treasure them ... because YOU made them.
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