For my Beacon Hill project, I decided that, as the house is in disrepair, I wanted to add broken windows. However, as I really don’t enjoy breaking things, I decided to try something to make them LOOK broken.
I started out with a piece of clear plastic from a vegetable container from the store.
I am just showing this piece as an example. Obviously, it is much easier to use a piece that doesn’t have a large sticker on it!
After picking out your piece of clear plastic, cut it so that it can slide into the existing window, over top of the existing plastic or glass. I made mine just a hair larger so that it could be popped into place and hopefully stay put!
Cut to size
After the plastic is cut to the desired size, I used an xacto knife to carve cracks, holes, bullet holes, etc into them. Here are some examples:
Spider-webbed, with a hole.Bullet holes. Notice that a lot of bullet-ridden glass has smaller spider-webs around the holes, as the bullet passes through with so much force.
After you have your broken windows prepared, gently insert them over your old windows, popping them into place. I placed my windows on the INSIDE of the house, so that they aren’t bumped as often, as they might fall out if jostled.
Inserting the new window over the old.
You can also keep some of the ‘shards’ left after making your holes, and drop them on the floor of your dollhouse, as broken glass.
You could leave slivers of broken glass around the edges of the pane, so it looks like a giant hole. You could make the whole window spider-webbed. The possibilities are endless!
So, during lockdown in 2020, I was lucky enough to find a reasonably priced Beacon Hill Victorian mansion for sale on marketplace. I purchased it, made some repairs, and decided to redecorate it as an aged house, fallen into disrepair.
This is my Beacon Hill on the day I purchased it. The porch had become detached and it really needed new paint on the exterior. A few minor pieces were missing but nothing I was concerned about, as I planned to make it a neglected house.
First things first, I needed to reattach the porch, which, luckily, was included with the house. I used wood glue and painstakingly pieced it all back together.
This photo shows the reattached porch, plus the beginning of the first layer of new paint.
Next step was a layer of light gray paint. I used some leftover house paint that I had laying around.
For the next step, I found some dark gray paint, and, using a stiff-bristled brush, I scrubbed this paint into the cracks and crevices to look like weathering and dirt. I scrubbed the brush up and down and side to side, wiping away excess paint, until i had achieved the look I wanted. I continued to do this over the whole exterior of the house.
Adding some green.
After the dark gray was looking the way I wanted, the next step was to add a bit of dark green. I wanted it to be very faint, so i brushed it on with my stiff brush and then wiped it off. The trick to this was to make it not uniform. I tried to make it more pronounced in areas that I felt might have more water runoff, for instance, and on areas of the boards that might be more exposed to the sun. In real life I have a white house, and have had to clean my own siding, so I have observed this to an extent.
I still need to paint the base, but I haven’t decided how I want to make the base look, yet. I may go with a cinder block foundation, which would require a different look, so, for now, I chose to leave it.
I plan on changing the shingles to a fishscale look, so I didn’t touch them at this time. It does look fine with the shingles that are on it, but I really wanted the fishscales, and will add them at a later time.
For my first dollhouse project, I found this plastic dollhouse at the local Goodwill store. I like the Victorian style and thought it might make a nice haunted mansion for Halloween.
First off, I peeled off all of the stickers. Then I chose a paint that would work for a good base coat. I chose Rust-Oleum’s 2x ultra matte, in a dark gray. Their 2x paints are formatted to bond to plastics, as well as many other materials. I followed the instructions on the can.
Rust-Oleum’s 2x paints will bond with plastic and many other materials. I chose a nice dark gray.
I put on a good base coat.
First coat in progress. The matte paint will lose its gloss as it dries.Looking a little spooky already!
Next, after the paint has dried overnight, I dug into my acrylics. I chose a mixture of Cerulean blue and Mars Black for the shingles. I eventually switched to Payne’s Gray instead of the black. I used the black (or payne’s gray, which is a very dark gray) in a more watery mixture to paint in the cracks of the shingles. Then I used the cerulean blue on a drier brush to brush over the raised portions, in a way that left the dark areas in the cracks undisturbed. This layering made the shingles stand out more.
A mixture of Cerulean Blue and Payne’s Gray (and some black) was brushed on the shingles to bring out more of the texture.
Next, I took a mixture of Deep Magenta and Payne’s gray to work on the siding.
Deep Magenta and Payne’s Gray were used for the siding.
I brushed them on much like I did with the shingles, using a more watery brush for the payne’s gray on the siding first, to fill in the cracks, then going over it again with the magenta, using a drier brush so it wouldn’t reach into the cracks.
The siding is very dark, with hints of magenta, to give it a weathered appearance.I added a little dark green to the bushes and a few of the shingles, to make it appear mossy. I also added a little cerulean blue to the flowers on the side of the house. Any colors you want will do, but to keep the appearance haunted-ish, I would recommend keeping the colors muted with dark gray or black.
I’m rather pleased with the results thus far. I will probably get some sort of clear coat to spray over the paint when I am finished with it, to protect against scratches. I will post more on this project as I go! Enjoy!
If your child enjoys stuffed animal toys as much as mine does, you may be in need of a storage solution. I love her stuffies as much as she does, but OMG it can be so overwhelming to get them out of the way!
After a long search on Pinterest, I got the idea to make a bin that is much like the ones they use in stores to keep beach balls in. It consists of a framework of wood, or in my case PVC pipe, with bungee ropes strung through it to keep the animals in. You could also use this for balls, toys, or whatever you want, really.
After some quick calculations, and seeing the sheer mountain of her animals, I decided to make my bin 6feet high, 2 feet deep, and 30 inches wide. This may seem a bit much, but, believe me, she has a lot of animals!
Needlenose pliers, if available, although probably any pliers would do
To start, I bought 1-inch pvc pipes from the local home improvement store. I needed to buy 5 10-foot lengths, plus an extra 5-foot piece. Then, using a hacksaw, I cut the pieces into 8 lengths that are 3 feet long, 6 lengths that are 24 inches long, and 6 lengths that are 30 inches long.I needed 4 of these doo-hickeys, that I ordered off Amazon. They were called 4 way 1-inch tee PVC fittings. These pieces are for the midsection supports. I needed 8 of these things. They are for the top and bottom corners. They are called 3 way 1-inch pvc fitting elbows. I used PVC glue and Primer to connect the pieces. This is easily obtained in the plumbing section of a home improvement store.
For this piece, I will need a total of 8 pieces of pipe that are 3 feet in length (for the vertical supports of the frame), 6 pieces of pipe that are 30 inches long (for the longer sides), and 6 pieces of pipe that are 24 inches long (for the shorter sides). I measured with a ruler, marked it with a sharpie, and then cut with a hacksaw.
After cutting the pieces, it was time to assemble them. I started with all of the 3 foot long sections. These are the vertical supports of the structure.
For each 3 foot length of pipe, use the PVC primer and glue to fasten a 3-way elbow to ONE END of the pipe. You should end up with 8 lengths of 3 feet pipe with a 3 way elbow on each end. BE VERY CAREFUL TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PIECES BEFORE YOU GLUE! To be certain, I fitted each of the pieces together and formed the whole structure before I glued anything, just to be sure I had the right lengths and quantities, etc. Next, attach the 4-way elbows to the opposite end of the pipe, so that there is a 3-way elbow on one end, and a 4-way on the other. Be careful to have the ends line up angle-wise, to that when the pipe is laid down, the elbows sit like legs and don’t rock. This was the best way I could think of to keep the angles straight. If each end goes off on a different angle then your whole piece will be out of sync. That glue dries fast, so you must be very careful to get the angles correct while placing. Next, attach the 2nd length of 3-feet pipe into the 4-way elbow. Do this to all 4 corner pieces. Then add the 3-way elbow on the end. You should end up with 4 sections that look like this, with the 3-way elbow on each end and a 4-way in the middle.Now, use the 2-foot sections to connect two of the long sections together. Repeat with the other two long sections, so that you end up with these two big sides.Glue the remaining poles (they should all be 30-inch) into the vacant holes on one of the sides.Connect the two sides together. Note the bottom pole on the left is missing-I miscalculated and had to run back to the store for another short section of pipe. Next, I drilled holes using a 5/16 bit, using a ruler to space them evenly across the pipe-3 holes per side. I drilled the holes all the way through both sides of the pipe, so that bungee can pass all the way through the pipe unobstructed. I ended up using the tip of a utility knife to carefully score each mark to help the drill stay in place as it was starting out. The drill bit left some rough edges around and inside of the holes, so I carefully trimmed it away, to make it easier to pass a bungee through the hole, and also to keep it from scratching little fingers.Holes need to be drilled through the top, bottom, and middle. You won’t need them on the vertical sections, as the bungee won’t be passing through them. They need to all be in approximately the same areas, otherwise the bungee will be zigzagged. Be sure to measure! The pallet underneath helped support the structure while i drilled the holes between the boards.When all of the holes are drilled, and everything is glued and secure, it is time to paint! I find that this 2x spray paint from Rust-Oleum works decent on plastic. I ended up using about 2 cans of spray paint to get this covered well. My spray painting isn’t the greatest, as it’s still a new medium for me, but I am still pleased with it.Next, for the bungee! I singed the end of it with a lighter, and squished it with my fingers so it would fit through the holes better. This particular bungee was purchased through Amazon. The home improvement store also had some that was black.Beginning at one end of the structure, push the cord through each hole and pull it through. Needlenose pliers helped a bit to pull it through the other end when it was being stubborn. Keep working, pulling it through each hole working from bottom to top.When you get to the other end, tie a knot. Go back to the end you started on, pull the bungee tight and cut it off, making sure to leave enough rope to tie a knot. Keep tight hold as you cut it, or it might bounce out of the hole. If it does, just pull it back through and tie it off.Keep going!Completed! This thing is now ready to move into the house!
I found this dollhouse on Marketplace for $20, and I just love the simple design! It reminds me so much of a 1700’s colonial, that I am going to decorate it for that era, as well as I can.
When I found this dollhouse on Markeplace for $20, I just had to have it! It reminds me of a 1700’s colonial (first period home), with its simple design and nice wood siding.
Wouldn’t this be awesome with a walk-in fireplace?The inside needs some definite updating.
The first thing I did when I brought this huge, heavy dollhouse home was to scrape off the old shingles. They appear to have been made out of sandpaper, which seemed to have worked well enough, but they were in such poor, water-damaged shape that I felt I needed to wash my hands thoroughly after handling it.
This handy tool holds a razor blade that I can use for scraping paint and whatever.
Next, I used a handy-dandy paint scraper, and went to work scraping off some of the peeling paint from the floors, walls, and ceiling.
While scraping the paint off. I focused more on removing any peeling paint, as I plan to put a thin coat of plaster on the walls, with some thin wood supports in walls and ceiling, to give it a more primitive effect.
So far, I plan to apply a thin coat of plaster to give the walls a more uneven white texture, with thin pieces of wood applied to walls and ceilings to suggest supports that I can hang things like dried herbs and baskets from. Because of this, I was only interested in removing flaking paint (which there was a lot of).
Using methods similar to those used in the farmhouse, I applied jumbo craft sticks to mimic real wood floors. I cut the rounded tips off the sticks with poultry shears and then applied them with glue, weighting them down in places that wouldn’t quite stay put. I used an xacto knife to trim around doorways and walls.
Next, I decided to work on the upstairs floors. I want to go with a pine board effect, similar to my farmhouse, but I would like the floors to look more weathered and stained. I plan to score the wood lightly with an xacto knife, to add wood grain, and then lightly stain them before varnishing.
Update:
This is the updated roof! After removing the paper shingles that were in poor shape, I made slate-like shingles (described in another post) out of vinyl floor tiles.
Next, I painted the walls white, using a thick paint so it looked like a thin coat of plaster. I took wood from an old flowerbed border fence, so it would have some nice weathering to it, and used that to make some wooden support beams for the lower floor. I carefully opened up the area under the stairs, so I can use it as a storage closet (I will eventually make a door for it).
A current photo of the lower floor. I have been experimenting with different flooring in the main room, and at the moment have settled on a combination of small ceramic tiles and leftover pieces of linoleum. I have tiny candle bundles hanging from the wooden beams, as well as baskets and a lantern. The fireplace is a ceramic walk-in style that I found on ebay.
Several months ago, I happened upon a photo of an antique dollhouse on Pinterest. I’d never been particularly interested in dollhouses, although my mother was (and still is) interested in miniatures while I was growing up.
That photo sparked my interest. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted, no NEEDED an old-fashioned-looking dollhouse that I could decorate for the holidays, especially Halloween and Christmas.
I looked online for ideas. I read about different dollhouse styles. I discovered that many people, much to my delight, would buy or build a dollhouse, keeping in mind a specific era in which to decorate it.
So, in essence, you could use your hobby to research a certain era in history and try to recreate it in your own little world? How awesome!
It happened that one day while at work, a coworker reminded me of a large, work-related box that I was expected to bring home that night, and instructed me to keep this in mind during our lunch hour, as the town we worked in was having its annual garage-sale event. Of course, I accepted the challenge and decided to stop at a couple of sales during our break.
For some reason, I was drawn to a particular road that I passed on occasion, and it so happened that the second sale I stopped at had exactly what I was looking for.
This farmhouse was purchased on the last day of the sale, for half off its original asking price of $65.
It barely fit in the back of my small SUV!
It was the last day of the sale, and everything was half off, including this not-quite-so-little gem. For $32, which was all the money I had on me, I acquired something that took up the whole back end of my vehicle, and a lot more of what little free time that I have.
My 6 year old daughter quickly took to filling it with toy dragons, puppies, and kitties.
Inside view, shortly after acquisition (and after my daughter’s toy animals took possession.)
I’m still deciding on an exact time frame in which to decorate, but am leaning toward it being a rural farm that hasn’t quite gotten electricity, yet.
My mini cast iron stove fits in pretty well, except it does take up a lot of room in the small kitchen. I may have to re-think this in the future. The original wallpaper in the kitchen. I just love this pattern! It reminds me of something that my mother used as a border in her kitchen for a while. Unfortunately, this paper is poorly applied, and the adhesive that they used has stained it considerably over the years.
One of the first things I did was to rip out some of the old wallpaper that I didn’t like. It wasn’t too difficult to remove with a warm hair dryer, and a vinegar-wetted sponge for the more stubborn areas. As you can see in progress photos, I’m still not done with that task.
Bathroom Floor
I acquired, through Amazon, some mosaic tiles of real glass to use for my bathroom floor! I plan to order a few more sheets of them to add to the walls, also.
The individual tiles are made of real glass, and come in a sheet mounted on paper. You cut the paper to the size you need, and then glue the tiles down with paper-side up. Then, you use a wet sponge to pull the paper off the tiles.
The individual glass tiles (ordered from Amazon.com, from seller Melody Jane) come mounted on a sheet of paper. You trim the paper to the size you want, and can also nip the tiles to fit. I didn’t need to nip them, fortunately for me, as they fit the space I needed perfectly. I then glued the tiles face down (so the paper side is up).
Tiles glued down. Note that some pieces of paper backing still have to be washed off.
After the glue dries, you next use a wet sponge to break up and wash away the paper backing. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t glue my tiles well enough, and some popped off, so I had to also use this step to re-glue loose tiles.
After removing the paper backing and making sure all of the tiles were glued securely, I bought a tube of mosaic tile grout.
Tile grout, after the tiles have been grouted.
I followed the directions on the tube, and filled in the cracks between the tiles with white grout. It was easy-just cut the tip off the tube per directions, then gently squeeze out the paste along the cracks in the tiles. I used a small square of cardboard as a squeegee, pushing the grout deep into the cracks and smoothing it around the tiles. When I was sure that the cracks were filled, I used a damp sponge to gently wipe the wet grout from the tops of the tiles, without pressing so hard that it washed the grout out of the cracks. All in all, I am very pleased with the final result. I plan to eventually purchase more sheets of these tiles to use as backsplash on the walls and around where the tub will be.
Second Level Flooring
The flooring on the second level was pretty rough-outdated scraps of dingy carpet. I made quick work ripping that out. Leftover glue and/or material was easily removed with a damp sponge and vinegar in a spray bottle.
These jumbo craft sticks worked well for flooring, and also for many other miniature crafts.
I decided on a pine plank look for these floors, as I have seen plenty of older homes with simple pine boards on the floors. To achieve this look, I found some jumbo craft sticks at the local Dollar Tree. I cut off the rounded ends using poultry shears, so they would be more board-like, and then staggered them across the floors to make the board ends more random. (Side note-a previous owner of our house installed the wood floor in our kitchen in such a way that the board ends are almost all lined up, and it looks awful. It’s really torture to an OCD person. Please, don’t do this to people).
I staggered the sticks to make the board ends more random.
I used an xacto knife to cut the pieces to fit around doors and corners. I used elmer’s glue to glue all of the pieces down, and set heavy glassware on top of troublesome boards to keep them flat (I tried to avoid warped boards as much as possible).
I sanded the floorboards after the glue was dry, to smooth out rough edges and fill some of the cracks between boards with a little sawdust.
After the glue dried, i took some sandpaper and sanded with the grain of the wood, trying to level out rough edges and get a little sawdust into the cracks between boards.
After sanding, wipe the boards with a damp sponge to clean sawdust off the surface before varnishing.
After sanding, I wiped the boards with a damp sponge to remove excess sawdust and prep the surface for varnishing. If you decide to use stain, now would be the time to do it, before varnishing.
After several coats of varnish.
I applied varnish according to instructions on the can- putting it on with a brush, letting it dry, sanding lightly (I used a torn piece of paper to sand, as it doesn’t take much), and then applying another coat. I applied several coats until I was satisfied. Now, my first-level flooring is jealous!
