Clara's House
This
is the second in my Niece's Dollhouse series
-- the first one, a modified New England saltbox
that I made for my nieces Kelly and Shannon,
was finished back in 1998 but unfortunately I
didn't have a digital camera in those days so
there are no piccies of the house. I'd bought
the kit for this house (an Alison
Jr. from Real
Good Toys) back in February of 2004, intending
to make it for my niece Clara's birthday in April.
Eighteen months, two birthdays and one Christmas later, my sister called me and pointedly said, "So, she is going to be getting the dollhouse this Christmas, right?"
"Why, gosh golly, yes indeed she will!" I said brightly, because Stacy may be small but she's wiry. This was back in October -- normally I like to take about six months to build a house of this size. Clara's house, however, would have to be built in six weeks, since I had to have it ready for shipping at least two weeks before Christmas.
It was my own damn fault for delaying so long, however, so thus began the great 2005 Dollhouse marathon. If you're a reader of my journal, you'll notice that my entries for late October, November and early December are few and far between -- that's because every night after work, I'd come straight home and work on the dollhouse (except for the week where I had to make a costume for someone, but that's a whole 'nother story). During the marathon, I changed jobs and took a week off, figuring I could use it as down time.
Ha. Hahahahahahahaha. Not quite -- I pretty much spent that entire week locked in my office working on the dollhouse. And, in fact, I worked on it every free moment until this afternoon, December 11, when I finally put the finishing strips on the base and declared it "done." The plan was to ship it this afternoon via UPS, but by the time I actually got everything broken down and bubble-wrapped for shipping, it was almost closing time and I still hadn't put the box together for it.
Oh, did you know that it's very difficult to find a box that will hold something 36" x 32" x 18.5"? I finally had to get two 36" X 20" X 25 boxes from the UPS Store, use one to hold the house itself, and use the other as a lid. Considering that I've essentially double-walled the box, I'm hoping it'll be sturdy enough to get the house to Chicago in one piece. If something goes wrong in transit, Auntie Mellie will spend Christmas hunting down the UPS employees responsible and making of their lives a living hell. Because, you know, I'm just like that.
Anyway, more pictures:
The front door, complete with Christmas wreath and urns full of flowers on either side of the step. And I just realized I didn't glue in the window for the door -- ARRGH! |
The Addition from Hell (kitchen downstairs, bathroom upstairs). I call this the Addition from Hell because I didn't get the kit until after I had the body of the house put together -- trust me, cutting door holes into the side of an already-constructed house is not fun. The "grass" is actually green velvet -- it looks almost black in the right light, but hey, it was all Hobby Lobby had and quite frankly, if anyone asks it's Bermuda Grass. I plan on making some shrubbery and taking it to Chicago with me for installation. |
The interior of the house.
I added finishing strips to all the room edges, as well as internal trim such as crown molding, baseboards and wainscoting. The living room, dining room and family room have hardwood floors, the kitchen and bathroom have tile floors, and the bedrooms are carpeted. |
The master bedroom, with Mom and Dad in bed (hey, I had to stick them somewhere). I saw the purple and white striped silk wallpaper and thought, "Oh, yeah -- Stacy and Clara will LOVE this." I replaced the original green fabric on the bed with white, and I'll be making pillows, pillowcases and a duvet over the next couple of weeks. I also made the occasional table next to the door. The jewelry box, brush and hand mirror are resin miniatures. |
The bathroom. I love how this turned out -- the marble and white wallpaper is actually scrapbooking paper (how I love the scrapbooking craze), and the Greek key tiling is ribbon. I made the mirror (didn't like the one that came with the bathroom set), and the little table underneath the window. The cool thing about this house is, it contains three pieces of square-cut marble I picked up at the Hötorget flea market in Stockholm -- the black marble became the tabletop in the bathroom, the pink marble became a tabletop for the occasional table in the master bedroom, and the green marble is a cutting board in the kitchen. The pictures are frames I got from Through The Keyhole, painted gold and filled with images of tiny Victorian women that I found on the web. |
The hallway, with side table and mirror. This was actually the first room I finished papering. The stairs are the only original part that came with the house -- I picked up some newel posts and railing packs from Hobby Lobby, and added a 1/16" slat of wood instead of balusters (figured it would be sturdier, as this was a toy rather than a display house). |
The family room, complete with Christmas tree (the ribbons and tinsel are from Hobby Lobby, and the ornaments are made from cloisonne beads). I also made the bookcase in the corner (of COURSE this house will have a bookcase -- a writer built it, after all), and the entertainment unit is from Hobby Lobby. I still have to finish a sofa for this room. The rug is from Things Remembered. |
The girls' room. I was originally going to install a double French door in the wall here so that the kids could go out onto the roof of the addition (which would've gained a higher railing instead of just gingerbread), but time and the realization that I'd have nowhere to put the crib caused that plan to fall by the wayside. The eldest daughter is taking a nap with her three stuffed animals (a koala bear, a small teddy bear and a ginormous bunny), and the baby is napping in her crib with her even tinier bear. There's also a sled and a train in the room as toys -- more will be added in the future. |
The living room. I actually had to break up the furniture set because I didn't have enough room for it all -- the entertainment unit and low chest of drawers went up in the family room, and I kept the loveseat and chair down here. I found the rug at Through The Keyhole and picked the wallpaper to match. Hidden underneath the stairs is a coat rack and an extremely gorgeous miniature Japanese scene carved in cork and displayed in a glass box. This room still needs some pictures, but those can be added later. |
The dining room. The china cabinet contains two sets of china -- one good set and one ordinary set (i.e. the partial set that I've had lying around here for years), plus a carved soapstone box on top, and there's a plate of snacks sitting on the table. |
The kitchen. Against the far wall is the baby's high chair (it was the only place I could put it). You can also see the green marble cutting board, with cheese and bread that's been set out for lunch, jars of pasta and flour, and copper molds on the far wall. The upper cabinets (taped because I was moving the house into the kitchen for final paint and wrapping) contain cans and boxes, the lower units contain copper cooking pots and silverware, and the refrigerator currently contains milk, Coke, bread and a bowl of salad. Yes, I'm over the top when it comes to miniature food. |
Another shot of the kitchen. I'm really pleased with the hood for the stovetop -- that didn't come with the kitchen furniture, so I made the hood shape, cut the wood trim from some door trim, and miraculously found a bottle of paint from my Quilt Shoppe cottage that almost perfectly matched the countertop green. I think it all looks very cheery and warm. |
We require -- a shrubbery! In the tradition of the Knights of Nee, I decided that the dollhouse required some nice greenery around the edges, and decided to take a crack at making some. While I was at my favorite dollhouse shop over the weekend to get a turntable, I also picked up a kit for a lily pond. It's a precast plaster base painted dark gray -- I sponged on light gray highlights and a dark green base for the water, put together the "lily" flower (paper and a dried flower bud for a stamen) and leaves, and applied the varigated foliage and blossoms to the rock walls. |
Close-up of the lily flower and pad details. Every part of the lilies, by the way, is paper, except for the center stamen (that's a dried flower head). This was also my first time melting and pouring plastic "water" -- turns out that the leftover mini tart tins I'd bought for Thanksgiving dinner's Yorkshire puds were perfect for heating the pellets on the stove, plus I could press a spout shape in one end and control the pour better. I'm a little disappointed with the second pour -- it didn't quite reach the walls of the pond on all sides, but it still looks pretty cute so I'll live with it (and chances are I'll be the only person who even notices this). |
Once the pond was done, I started making some bushes. These turned out to be hella fun -- they're made from green floral styrofoam, which I cut into bush shapes (three rectangular and one rounded cone). The shapes were then sprayed with adhesive and railroad model foliage (essentially fine shreds of foam in various green shades) was patted onto each shape. The excess was then shaken off and the bush resprayed lightly with adhesive to seal on the foliage. |
