My newest acquisition. I was told that this dollhouse has been passed down through generations, and that it was made to resemble a family home. The previous owners decided that they didn’t have room for it and there was no longer an interest in keeping it, and so I purchased it.
Unfortunately my family recently lost the beloved real home of my grandparents, so this dollhouse came at a good time for me. It lost its family, and I lost a house. Maybe together we can find a little closure.
My ultimate plan is to turn this into my own family heirloom, as it slightly resembles my great-great-aunt’s house, which I have loved since childhood. It will only require new paint to emphasize the bricks, the addition of some small architectural details such as decorations in the roof peaks and some fancy brickwork, and replicas of a few family heirlooms.
This house doesn’t fit in my real house-it’s about 3 feet square. As a consequence it resides in my garage until I can get a bigger house, or make the door bigger! It’s fine, though, as I spend a lot of time in my garage. Anyway…
First things first, I decided that I need to get functional windows made and put in, to keep out any mice or insects.
Using instructions posted in another article on this blog, I made all of the windows. Yay! Next, I wanted to make brick designs that go over the windows, to more closely resemble those found on my great-great-aunt’s house.
Fortunately for me, the house came with a few strips of wood with ‘bricks’ left over from the siding. It wasn’t quite enough to do the whole job, so I made more by gluing sandpaper to popsicle sticks, and then cut the sticks into brick-sized pieces.
Some of the old bricks and some of my ‘new’ ones made with popsicle sticks. They were virtually the same.
Now on to paint!
When I am done with all sides plus the windows, my plan is to put a watered-down gray wash over the whole thing to add some weathering.
Here are some photos of the inside, which has not been touched (or unfortunately cleaned) yet.
This house has lots of nice details, like closets and some built-ins, and the rooms are very big! The attic is only accessible by small windows. It does need some minor repairs, but it will be fun!
I am not sure how old this house is. When they say ‘generations’ it may just be made by grandma and given to grandchild. There is no real telling as I can see some updated items, and nothing points to this being an actual antique. It could be older, though, under its newer paint and flooring, as some houses are updated through the generations. I can say fairly confidently that it is one of a kind.
I can’t wait to get more done on this! This is my 13th dollhouse/structure. It’s nice because most of my houses have little projects that can be done on them, so I can pick and choose what I feel like working on on any given day. After the initial outside work, this house will be mostly a furniture-project house, as the inside is mostly decorated nicely already. Stay tuned for more updates!