Decor details

The devil is in the details... at least that's what they tell me.  And we zipped through the house pretty quick the other week.  So I thought I'd show you a few of the little details that I really had fun figuring out and working on.

The one thing I especially like about the dollhouse is the foyer/entrance hall or whatever you want to call it.  Vestibule?  I'm keeping my eye out for a few little rugs I could either buy or make for just inside the front door and at the foot of the stairs.  I'd love to put a runner with brass rails on the stairs but that will have to wait for a while.  Something in gold or a good rich maroon maybe?

But I worry the whole entryway will look too cluttered if I put too many rugs in it.  So maybe no runner for the stairs, or only one rug near the dining room and then a runner?  We'll see.

The other issue is whether or not the front door needs some sort of curtain added to the window.  I'm not sure I'd want people able to look in my house through the front door.

In the mean time, here's a little shot of the hall table.



I'm thinking I might make an umbrella for Mrs. Doll and Dolly girl. Or a parasol?

And another shot as if you were looking in the front door.  Pretend that the rear of the house has an actual wall.  Though that could be a fun project... I wonder how much work that would take?  Hmmm...

If you were a doll this is what you'd see from the front door.

The silver basket is from Miniatures.com and the table and mirror are from Hobby Lobby.  The silver box next to the basket is a charm from Hobby Lobby that I took some of the hardware off of so it looked less like it was meant to be hanging from something.

I like how they look together.  Shiny marble floor and shiny marble elephant.

I've had the little marble elephant forever.  Can't remember where I got it.  But it's the right scale for the lower shelf of the table and I like how he looks down there.

He looks pretty good there.

The other thing I love about the entryway is the grandfather clock.  I'd been looking for one that wasn't cheap looking and this was gorgeous.  It actually works if I push the little clock stopper in!  Reminds me so much of the one in my grandmother's house.

My working grandfather clock.



The upper hallway is another place I liked putting in some finishing touches.  One thing I had a lot of fun looking for was artwork.  I really loved finding miniature pictures.

 

I love how the frame matches the sconces and the picture has blue tones in it like the wallpaper.

I decided a vase of flowers was better for the bureau in the hallway rather than the Sears catalog.  And the white contrasts nicely with the wallpaper and dark furniture and floor.

 

And it looks good under the painting. 



And opposite the sconces on the same wall as the stairs is another gorgeous piece. Gold frame again of course.  And a simple landscape scene.  Restful but attractive right?

And its nice that the frame matches the painting opposite. 

I think this picture came from Denise.  I'm not entirely sure though.  But it's perfect for the bedroom.  I love the black and white with the gold frame.

I don't think it quite matches the era of the house but I still like how it looks.

Speaking of the bedroom...

I also thought you'd like to see a little more detail of Mr. Doll's bureau and his accessories.  I got this as a set from Ruetter Porcelain via Ebay and can't regret paying for it because its so perfect!

I remember my Dad had something like this, only doors on both sides.  It always seemed very adult to me.

Mr. Doll is a very proper, well dressed gentleman.  He wouldn't dream of going out without his hat and gloves.

I love the little clock too. 

Here's a closer look.  After all, that pocket watch is very nice isn't it?

I'm still amazed at how real it looks.  The hat is like one of my Grandfather's church hats.

I thought you'd also like to see the pastries in the parlor.  They look so yummy don't they?  The three tiered serving tray was found on Ebay and so were the pastries.  The table is from Denise.  It's the perfect height for next to the sofa.

I could really go for some chocolate cake right now...Yum...

 Here's another view, from above. 

One of those fruit twists or turnovers would really hit the spot right now.

I also put out the coffee set that reminded me of my grandmother's set as well as another tray of pastries.  It's laid out on the coffee table.  I guess that's why it was called that?  Because people used to have coffee there?

I love how the china part of the coffee cups look like they have coffee in them.

And I have a few knick knack's added to the organ top.  Just little mementos.



I think the balloon is my favorite.

And here's a better view of the painting in the parlor.  I just fell in love with it when I saw it. 

Very romantic, at least to me.

I took a few pictures of the liquor cart too.  It's another Reutter Porcelain purchase and the details are so worth the price.

Olives and pineapple!  And a seltzer bottle!

I also did some work on the dining room.  I put the entire china set away and set out the wine glasses.  Man I went through a lot of zots to do this.

All nice and organized.

A closer look at the top of the china cabinet.  I love the look of platters and bigger pieces balanced back against the wall.

That big platter is so pretty.  I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

The sideboard got an addition or two.

A nice tray for after dinner coffee?

And the table looks a bit more finished with the glasses right?

I love the scalloped edges to the bowls.  So pretty!

So that's it for our little decor close up today.  Though I do have one more thing for this house.  We can't neglect Mrs. Doll can we?

It's just a clearance item, not sure what it would be for originally.

But with a little trimming of the feathers...(fluff everywhere...the kitten was terribly amused for five minutes).  We have this:

Any ideas?  No?

Surely you understand that every gentlewoman who attends the theatre must do so with a fan to keep herself refreshed?  A fashionable lady would never be caught dead without her ostrich feather fan.

A little dark but you get the idea. Right?

We have one addition to the kitchen.  Some much needed help.

A cook!  She's obviously been busy.

And now...a little preview of some modern knick knacks.  For the beachhouse.

Something for a shelf? Or on the fireplace mantel?

He was a bead that I unscrewed the loop from.  Isn't he cute?

And a nice modern frame...for a picture or mirror...not sure about that yet.

Another find in the bead/pendant aisle.  I love the scrollwork.

So that's it folks.  I've been doing some painting of the new dollhouse walls and I'll show you guys what I've accomplished in a little while. 

In the meantime have a great holiday weekend!

Modern Beachhouse Inspiration!

 

So this might be a weird post because I'm still formulating and figuring in my head what I want to do with this new little dollhouse.

 

I know I want it to be modern.  But not the sharp shiny modern that's so cool to look at but doesn't seem like it'd be comfortable you know?  I want the Bungalow to be just off the beach, maybe on the same property as the Gothic Victorian.  Maybe it's occupied by a great grandchild of Mr. & Mrs. Doll, Dolly's granddaughter or grandson.  Or maybe the property is rented out for the season or its a guest house for the current owners of the big dollhouse.

 

Whoever is living there, I want them to be comfortable but definitely living in the same world I am.  And that means they have proper electricity, and a floorplan more conducive to casual living.

 

When I was a kid we used to rent a cottage up on Lake Delton (I think that's the spelling) and I remember the furniture was older and everything was a little hodge podge.  As if when something broke it was replaced with a new whatever but no one ever bought furniture or appliances in sets.  The fridge wouldn't match the stove or sink, and there was no dishwasher.  My mom was the dishwasher.

 

Come to think of it that must have been a sucky vacation for my mom. She still had to deal with us kids, still had to cook, do laundry and dishes.  She just didn't get to do it in her own home.  Not much of a vacation really. 

 

But that's the feel I want for the Beach Bungalow.  Mismatched, comfortable, but modern.  With all sorts of touches that make the people who live there feel like they haven't traveled back to the seventies.

 

So my inspiration...well I've got some pictures to show you.  I want to wire this dollhouse and that requires more than a modicum of planning.  The dollhouse shows the upper and lower floors divided thusly.

 

I'm not sure I like how small the rooms are with the dividers.  Not very modern is it?

So my thought is to take out two of the dividers.  I'll leave one in upstairs, to separate the space for a bathroom.  But the one that makes a upstairs hallway and the first floor divider?  Yep, those are gone.  Like, gone gone gone.

So big open spaces.  One main room with the kitchen and family room merging into each other.  I want the kitchen on the left I think.  There's enough room for a sink, a stove and a fridge and some shelves maybe or a few cabinets.  This is the sink I have in mind.



It'll be so pretty under or just to the side of the big window don't you think?



 
As for the stove, I don't want anything too modern.  But let's not make it completely difficult to cook right?

An Aga stove!  Just oddball enough that it works but its not a coal or wood burner!

And Denise gave me a kitchen set with a cute little fridge.  It's white.  I'm wondering if I could wire it to light up when it opens.  Wouldn't that be cool? No picture but its a nice little wooden piece.  But it can't be a huge kitchen because of the stairs, the window and the living/family room need space too.

Which leads me to something else I dislike.  I really don't like those stairs.  They're awkwardly placed.  And if you walked up them you'd smack your head on the eaves of the roof when you got to the second floor.  So what I want to do is something like this...

Isn't it pretty?  And space saving too.

It would leave more room for the furniture and kitchen.  So I could have cabinets or something rather than the stairs taking up all the wall space.  Or it could be a little office area.  I mean we need a spot for the laptop don't we?

The opposite wall near the front door has a decent amount of depth before we run into the front door.  See?





 

 



See? It looks like around an inch and a half.  Which leads me to the idea I had for that wall inside.  This is my inspiration photo.  I love how this looks.




Isn't that lovely? I don't know if I could do the windows, I'd have to see. But I love how that looks.

But I do have a fireplace...
 


It matches the floors. So I could do the shelves in white I think.

 
I want to wire this dollhouse for electricity and a chimney is a handy place to run wires through.  And the dollhouse comes with a chimney for the roof.  So I find my position, make a chimney for the outside and shelving for the inside.

And for the ceiling fans for the first floor, I want to do something like this:

I can hide some of the wiring inside. 

This is something else I absolutely adore.

I don't want anything quite so extreme but some built in shelves against the bedroom wall common to the bathroom?  That'd be neat right?

I'll admit, I really debated what to do for the ceiling on the second floor.  I thought beams at first with beadboard between them but then thought the roof came so close to the floor that it wouldn't be practical.  So I figured paint it and then just see where inspiration took me.  So it's not as planned out yet.

But I did find other ideas for the main floor.  I'd absolutely love to have an island instead of a kitchen table. With little stools around it to eat at.  So I found this.



The cabinet doors actually open!

And in order to make it more table or bar like I figured I'd find something to extend the top of it for the squared off part.  So cabinets on the kitchen side and then high stools on the opposite for dining.

I'm trying to figure out if I could make a pot rack to hang above it?  Or if I don't have enough ceiling room.  Maybe I'll do a pot rack over the stove or something.  But I love how pot racks look.  I bought some dark copper and bright copper wire so maybe I could make one.  Still not sure about it.  But this is gorgeous. 



So pretty.  But very large for such a little dollhouse. 

Denise gave me a couch, love seat and chair in a pretty blue that will just go with the fabric I found for the curtains.  More on that in a minute.  But I don't want to be too matchy.  So what I was thinking was a daybed/trundlebed.  Just in case who ever rents the house has guests or kids. 

I found this on ebay pretty cheap.  I'll have to make the trundle bed but that won't be too hard at all. Some nice bedding and no one will notice. And its more subtle than a murphy bed.




See? Enough space beneath it for a trundle but with some pillows and covers it can double as a couch or love seat.

Inspiration dishes!  These are adorable but still a little too formal for the casual house.  Almost too pretty to resist though.  Must resist! 

I want something with bright colors, almost like Fiestaware but in miniature.  Have to keep looking.


Love the bright little flowers!

This lamp would go perfectly in my color scheme...



Brown, cream, bronze... and it would match the daybed.

And I'd like to cover one of the chairs in brown, so the whole living room doesn't match.  Kinda like this brown.  It's sold now though.



Love that fabric!

Here is a shot of the fabric that inspired the color scheme.  I want to use it for the curtains on both floors, some pillows and finishing touches to pull the house together.  The main floor kitchen/family room is going to be blue and brown.  The second floor is going to be more cream and brown with touches of pale blue.  The walls are going to be the same throughout the house but the bathroom will have white tiled walls near the tub.

Love the dark and light blue and mix of tan and brown and cream.

 I'm kinda excited because I think I know how I'm going to make the curtains and curtain rods.  I've got some chopsticks that are too big to use as curtain rods for the other dollhouse but they're the perfect length for the windows in the Bungalow.

I can either make the curtain hooks or buy some little jewelry findings and sew them onto the curtains. Still working that part out.  But I'm so in love with this fabric and the idea of a color theme throughout the dollhouse.  It's such a contemporary idea you know?  Or at least its contemporary to me.

So? What do all of you think?  Are you as excited as I am?  Husband is teasing me that I have an Ebay addiction... he might be right. I think I might have to snatch up that spiral staircase!



Bits & Pieces

Which is what I feel like I'm made up of, and sometimes like I'm flying apart into.  Oh well, such is life.  Right?  Meh.

Anyway, work got hectic, life got insane, and as a result I pretty much did nothing but sit on my butt when I got home every night this week.  No writing, no dollhouse, no blogging... you name it, it was not done.

So today I am determined to accomplish something.  Anything. 

Nothing like aiming high.

But I did manage to get a few things done.  I found my little girl doll and put her in the house.  And of course took a few pictures of her in various poses.  She's just about to go into her new room, already took off her bonnet and everything.

Is it me or does she look like she has no chin? Maybe that was the fashion back then.

It seems like a dark hallway but that's mostly because I'm not very good at taking pictures.  Like at all.  Can you tell? 

New Room!  First look.  I hope she likes it.

So she must feel comfortable, the first thing she did was throw her bonnet on her cabinet.  She needs a hat stand or something.  Or maybe she should put it in her dresser?  Hmm...



She's actually standing up on her own.  I was impressed.  I think the stiff ruffles help with that.



And now she's just thrown her apron on the bed.  Young lady! That is not how we behave!  Children these days.

Her mother would not be pleased. At. All.

I've got to do something about the collar on her dress.  It simply won't lie flat.  Needs some stitching I think.  But she's obviously enjoying her room so far...  After all she got right into her rocking chair.

She seems to like her bear too. 

I think she's planning on reading him a story before bed.  Reading is a suitable before bedtime activity for a young lady.

I think we have a historical anomaly here.  Was that title written during Victorian times?  I know it was after the Civil War. 

I think someone is trying for a snack before bed.  Better remind her to brush her teeth if she eats that cake!

But it looks so good!  Uh oh, get the cat down here, there's a mouse under the table.

It's always good to be respectful of your elders. Say good night to your mother before you go up to bed.



She must look more like Mr. Doll than her mother. No blonde braids here. 

Good night!  It's been a long day.  And new houses are always unsettling!

Night night!

Last But Not Least... Well Not Technically Anyway!

Okay I was going to type and I had a witty remark to go with the title but then I got distracted by a commercial that had a scorpion putting its tail (and presumably venom) into some sort of alcohol.  And now Steve Cobert is talking about pistachios.  Seriously if I didn't know TV ads were stupid I'd think I was high.

I cleaned today too. In addition to writing all these posts to entertain you folks. And also so I don't feel guilty about ignoring everyone in favor of reading and screwing around on the computer.

But I cleaned off my desk.  You've never seen my desk or you'd understand exactly what a chore that was.  When I mentioned it to my husband he started laughing and didn't stop for five minutes. 

There's a reason for the cleaning though.  I'll tell you later. 

In the mean time...I think we left off in the third floor hall.  Right?

So here we are again...

Nice and safe right?

And now...we have... well.  We have a reason for Mrs. Doll to go upstairs.

She likes to sew.  I imagine she's pretty good at it.

After all, she has all the tools she needs right?



A sewing machine and a disturbingly large pair of shears.  Let's just hide those so Mr. Doll doesn't become alarmed.

She also has a table (thank you Denise) where she can keep her things and cut out the patterns.

More scissors, thread, a piece of embroidery and a sewing box.  The sewing box is really cool.  It moves.

See?  I love this thing. It's so neat looking.

See? The hinges move and the top goes back and forth as well as the lids lifting up.

I took the table out of the house so I could get some better pictures.

 

See how it opens?  I had one like this years ago.  So cool!

Another view.

 

So pretty.  Reminds me of sewing in my mom's rec room.  Thread everywhere.

One more,

 

I'll have to see about doing some little embroidery of my own for the girl's room. 

 

And there's a cabinet and hutch to keep more cloth and a place to hang a half finished dress.  Also thanks to Denise.

 

 

With a nice view of the rug I got for free when I ordered the others.  Pretty nice huh? Matches the wallpaper.

And now we have the servants quarters.  I've shown you the room before once it was finished.  But I changed the layout a bit since then.

 

It doesn't show everything from this angle and the maids still need bedding.  And clothes.

 Here's another angle.  They've got a stove and lamp now.

 

An old fashioned hurricane lamp.  Nothing spectacular for the servants. 

I think I like this layout better than the old one.

 

Even with the bottle trying to tilt over.

And then we have the girl's room across the hall.  I toyed with the idea of having a regular nursery, a boy and a girl, but the room didn't seem big enough and I didn't have a little boy doll.

 

I still like this layout the best.

Added a few touches as well.  A girl needs certain things after all.

 

Every girl should have something beautiful to look at, Monet seemed appropriate.

And of course she needs books right?

 

The books actually were more charms. I pulled the holder out of the spine and voila, books.  More colorful than what's in Mr. Doll's library.

The teddy bear is something I found this weekend.  His little arms and legs move and I thought a girl who's growing up would still want something from her childhood.  I've yet to make her a doll (still working on that one) but the bear seemed like it would be sweet.

 

Dolls were actually used as practice and models for dresses as girls learned to sew.  The theory being they could use scrap fabric to learn and nothing would be wasted. 

 

She's obviously been working on her embroidery too.

 

She's been practicing a long time. She even has a sampler.  See?

 

The idea was that the stitches got harder as you progressed making it more elaborate the more you worked on it.  I saw a real one at the Historical society in Lombard.  So pretty!

And of course she has a hope chest, along with a pretty stove.

 

I love that her stove has pink on it.  I'm going to redo her bedding so it has more green and pink rather than white.

 

 

Oh, and I forgot to show you this addition to the kitchen.  We all need some good copper pans right?  Okay. I do.  I don't have any but at least the dolls do right? 

Shiny! 

I'm debating if they make the kitchen look too busy.  Not sure. 

So remember that I cleaned off my desk?  There's a reason for that.

Dun dun dunnnnn...!

Yep.  I caved and I'm starting another one.

So if you want to see the inside of it you can find it here:

http://www.miniatures.com/Beachside-Bungalow-Kit-P22975.aspx

I got mine at Hobby Lobby though. It was only $99  and I got to use a forty percent off coupon.  So only $60.

Score!

And I got a chest to put all my tools in.  Much easier to find them now.

I'm planning on this dollhouse being much more modern.  As in computer using artistic doll could live there.

I'm very excited.  Hope you're excited for me. 

Anyway that's the big news!

 

 

So we have more of this to look forward to.