succumbing

The very same day I wrote my previous post I browsed an old dollhouse catalogue, looking for ideas. My attention was drawn to an item I had certainly seen before but never considered because it wasn't pertinent.

 After I have made all the fantastic Georgian furniture from kit I have more confidence in my ability, even though this is half-scale and still more demanding. On the other hand, this is not an x-acto quality of kit; in fact, it is recommended for children (although not below 3 years). However, on closer consideration I decided that I still wanted to try and make things myself. After which I went on ebay to see what was available in half-scale, and the first thing I saw was this very furniture kit. Now, there are certain things that are available in abundance, but this was the only one. I strongly believe in cerendipity. It did say "used", but I decided that 99p was a good investment. So here it is. Yes, very much "used" - about half of the pieces missing, but enough left to make a start. And because all templates are intact I may even be able to make the missing bits myself. Watch this space!

Plastic house, part 5

This room was a bit complicated because of the door. The two panels with windows had to be made separately. The wallpaper and floor are printies.

Now the interior is finished, and I am going to do some furniture. I am not used to thinking in 1:24 scale, and I have no furniture that would fit. As usual, you can buy anything from a shop, and there are many things available on ebay (although significantly less than in 1:12 or 1:16). But it will be fun to make everything myself or find objects in right size. I have already found a clock. I made it long ago from a button, with the clock face cut from a catalogue.

Plastic house makeover, part 4

The challenge of this room was that it had a shelf that I had to remove before I could put up wallpaper, but I don't think I am putting it back.I am not sure what it was supposed to be - possibly a magazine stand.

This will be a kitchen. Now, my idea of a 1:1 kitchen is pure white, but I am not going to live in this house, and it's more fun to use a lot of colour. Both the wallpaer and the floor are printies. I have learned how to scale printouts to the exact size. The next step will be to make kitchen furniture and appliances.

 

But before that, there is yet another room to re-decorate.

Plastic house makeover, part 3

One I had figured out how to do the windows, it wasn't a huge challenge to do the same in other rooms. For bedroom wallpaper I used Japanese handmade paper that I photocopied. The wooden floor is a printie.

The challende of this room, however, was the outer wall with a half-circle floor that folds into the room. I don't quite see the point of this construction, especially the circular shelf that I haven't yet decided what to do about. But this wall required some work. The picture below shows, once again, what a huge difference it makes.

I could not do anything about the corner because it has hinges. And I haven't yet decided whether I want to put back the blue clothes hanger, and generally I am not sure what to do with this wall. I have tried to put a small wardrobe on the shelf, but because the shelf it circular it doesn't look tidy. I am sure I will think of something interesting. Meanwhile I must make a bed.

This is what the upper floor looks like now - and what a contrast with the ground floor!

Plastic house makeover, part 2

I hadn't finished the exterior of the house yet, but I was eager to test what it would look like on the inside with some effort put into it. I painted the ceilings white. The first room I decorared will eventually be the bathroom. The wallpaper is a printie. I decided to have the same pattern on the walls and the floor because it a small scale it feels too much with two patterns.

I cut out the shape of the windows, cut out window frames from white card, then glued transparent film and another pair of frames on the back of the wallpaper .

This "before" picture is a reminder of how ugly it was

 
before it turned into this:
 

To be continued.

Plastic house makeover

Naturally, as soon as I posted a notice about summer break, I made some progress on the plastic house that I am eager to share.

I bought this horrible thing in a charity shop for £1. I felt it would be a challenge to make something really nice with it.

It's roughly 1:24 scale. It opens in the middle, and it has some movable parts, such as the balcony and the half-moon extension on the left.

The first thing I did was paint the house on the outside with sand paint. It makes a nice surface that can be then painted white. It took a long time, because the paint didn't stick well on plastic.

The front of the house has embossed decoration which I decided to keep.

I painted the roof dark grey. I very deliberately took these pictures to show the before and after.

Here is the before and after of the balcony.

 

 To be continued.

Summer break

If anyone wonders why I have been so silent on this blog: summer is the garden season, not the dollhouse season. I do have some new projects, but they will only develop if the summer is very rainy, and I hope it isn't.

Among other things, I am making over this plastic monstrosity. Please come back in autumn.