This is a Kleeware set. I don't like it because of its shiny plastic look.
I once repainted a plastic sofa, and thinking back I hope it wasn't a valuable vintage piece (it is in storage so I cannot check). These are undeniably valuable vintage pieces, but I don't think I will ever use them in any project. They are also slightly larger than the rest, so as you see, if I put them in the room, there is almost no space for anything else. I have a lovely Barton three-piece which will fit in nicely.
Most of the other furniture is Barton. I am not tremendously fond of Barton or early Lundby, because they are crude and clumsy, made of far too thick wood, and the finish is not nice. But they are period-correct for 1950s so I will keep them and add details that will make them look prettier. I need to remind myself that both the house and the furniture were once playthings, not collectibles.
Some of the furniture was broken, and I repaired it carefully.
The sideboard was easy to mend, although it is still a bit lopsided. I will not repair it further. The dollhouse family probably got their possessions second-hand in the years just after the war. Or it simply got worn out, and the family cannot afford a new one. (The family, I imagine, is the father, a war veteran who makes a living at a toy factory, former ammunition factory; the mother who drove ambulance during the war and is now a homemaker, and two children, a boy and a girl. Oh no, bother, there is no space in the house for children's bedroom).
I don't know yet where the sideboard will be. If I decide to have a dining room, that would be the obvious place. I can make a mirror or a period-correct painting to hang above and put various ornaments on it. See how cleverly I have covered the damaged floor!
The table and chairs are the way the are - valuable cultural artifacts. I have many suitable plastic plates and cups, as well as food. The tall-case clock has no face, but it's easy to glue on. I have upcycled many wooden clocks; perhaps I shouldn't have, but they are not very rare.
There was one drawer missing in the dressing table.
Once again, I haven't got all my supplies so I couldn't make a nice drawer, but at least there is no gaping hole. I will make a better one in due time. Guardians of cultural value probably say I shouldn't. But I am not gluing it in so it's easy to remove.
The dressing table is accompanied by a wardrobe, which has no defects at all. I will make hangers to put on the rack and maybe some shoe boxes and hat boxes. The rug hides the damaged floor, but it is wrong scale, so I will make a better one. I will also make a little bench or stool to put in front of the dressing table. Or maybe I have one somewhere.
The bed had no bedding - I suppose it was lost sometime in the past fifty years.
I made the mattress from a sponge cloth and sheets from fabrics I had at hand. I also made three pillows.
The bed will be in the alcove, only partially visible unless you look closely inside.
The mysterious object by the bed is an electric heater. I had never seen one like this, neither in real life nor in a dollhouse, but a friend who grew up in the UK in the '50s recognised it immediately and said that they were enormous hazard.
I will put some period-correct pictures and photos on the wall, make a bedside lamp, and there is space by the window, for instance, for a sewing table and a chair. They won't be visible at all. In that corner, I will also put an electric tea light. It will create a fantastic effect through the window.
The drawing room, minus two of the three plastic monsters, has a fireplace, a book shelf and a radiogram.
What Lily's adults didn't bother about and Lily probably didn't notice is that a fireplace needs a back, as a minimum. Ideally, a fireplace needs a chimney breast, and I have seen one in older Triang models, but I won't make one for this room. However, you definitely cannot see the wallpaper through the fireplace, so the first thing I did was glue a piece of black card to the back. I will add some glitter to make the fire more realistic. The fireplace is too small to insert a flickering tealight, as I did in my Victorian house. But I will make a fireguard.
The book shelf is straightforward, although it's tempting to glue on a variety of spines - that would certainly be sacrilege. But I had some books from a different project that are just the right scale. The book shelf neatly conceals the damaged floor.
The cuckoo clock is modern, but I think it fits, at least for the time being. The rug is from another project and wrong scale, but the cats are right scale - in my large dollhouse, I pretended they were kittens.
Now, I didn't even know what a radiogram was, but my friend assured me that her family had one exactly like this in the '50s. It was broken, and so far I only added a turntable with a vinyl disc. It is supposed to have a lid, and I will make one in due time.
This brings me to the kitchen, which usually is the most interesting feature in a dollhouse. The appliances that came with the house were tin Brimtoy. This is a new brand for me - I have never seen them before.
Both are in poor condition. The sink bowl is missing, and both are bent and falling apart, held together with a fifty-year-old tape. They are part of a set, and other pieces are available on ebay, but I am not sure I am keeping these. I have a lovely Kleeware kitchen set with table and chairs, sink, hob, washing machine and zillions of small stuff so they will all fit in very well. I have another Barton fridge - I bought this one recently at a car boot sale for 30p. It is full of food.
Two details to draw your attention to. I have made huge progress cleaning the floor. When I took the picture it was still wet so hopefully when it dries you almost won't see the marks. I will then use the technique I have read about: chalk pastels - to smooth it over. I am still not sure that a kitchen would have parquet floors, but at least I have more or less restored it to the original state.
The second element is the stair carpet. It is only attached with white tack, and if I decide to keep it I will use glue stick that is easy to remove. The pattern is from the web, and I resized it, replicated, printed out and glued onto a long strip of paper. It's a bit too glossy coming from a laser printer, but I think it looks good. It is not sacrilege because I have seen Triang interiors with stair carpets. If I keep it, I will add carpet rods.
What about the bathroom, you might ask. I will have to choose between a bathroom and a dining room. I could have the dining room table and chairs in the drawing room. Poor maid will have to carry food upstairs. And the room will be crammed. Maybe they were in the 1950s.
I have a lovely Barton bathroom set, much better than this. The toilet seat is missing, and there is no matching sink.
I am still not sure that a bathroom should have wallpaper and parquet floor. I have just seen a picture of Triang 64 on the web with white floor tiles in the bathroom. I need to do more research.
There were also two small plastic bathtubs. Perhaps Lily had twin baby dolls.
I have not shown the garage at all. Here it is.
The brick floor is water-damaged. I have brick paper that I could use to replace, but in a garage it doesn't really bother me. It's spilled oil. The walls are bare. Well, maybe that's appropriate. I don't have a car for this garage and don't want to buy one. So the garage will be used as a shed. These are just some things I happen to have around.They are not right scale.
Anyway, a lot to do and not much I can do now because I need my other furniture to decide exactly which rooms will be used it what way (although except for the bathroom/dining room I think it's pretty clear). Not least, I need to decide what to do with floors and wallpaper, which is a big decision, so I think I will put this project aside for a while and focus on something else. But I will be back soon, I promise!
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