Time for Tea

Last year I received a beautiful gift from my mother, a gold trimmed china tea set on a tray. The set is by Reutter of Germany and beautifully made in real china, so it's nice and weighty.

I can't wait to work it into a dolls house setting, but for the moment I am contenting myself by doing mini photo shoots with it.

Time for tea?

I just noticed that the tea set matches the background, how cute!

Endless possibilities for this set!

Love the look of the chaise in the background

Tea in the garden, anyone?

Jubilee Terrace: Taking Stock

The part of making my dolls house boutique that I have been most looking forward to is making the stock that will fill it. And though I have lots of work to do before I even begin filling the displays, I couldn't help myself and went ahead and made a dressed mannequin and a hat for my hat stand.

 Both were made from scraps of fabric and lace I had lying around, using a mixture of fabric glue and hand sewing to fix them in place. I've had the mannequin and hat stand for ages, waiting to be clothed, and now I've finally started I can't wait to do more!

Mannequin and hat stand were both purchased from Maple Street.

Project No. 1: The Jubilee Terrace Shop Front (Cont'd)

One of the worst things about it being winter, and winter in Ireland, is that the amount of daylight available each day is so slight that I find myself chasing the sun to take photos. But I finally got a chance this morning and yesterday morning...

My work in progress, the Jubilee Terrace Shop Front, has been abandoned over the Christmas period, due in part to the new dollhouse kit and selection of beautiful accessories I received as gifts. I have them laid out for admiring and haven't touched them yet, but I'll write more about them later.

This is my shop front, soon to become an exclusive ladies boutique of the Victorian era.

In my mind I imagine this shop is the dream of an ambitious  lady, intent on bringing the fashions of London and Paris to her own town.

I love the style of the building, the fact that it looks 'small town', and is simple in it's interior layout.

This house isn't nearly as intricate and detailed as houses from the Dolls House Emporium, but I think it is a sweet starter kit for a beginner like me.

The red brick effect is printed paper, and isn't as 'red' as it looks in the pictures - but is more of a rust/natural redbrick colour.






The house came with unglazed windows, which in hindsight, had I been more organised I could have bought glazed windows to replace the ones already in it. But ah well!

As it is, I've put perspex panes into the two front display windows, and left the others unglazed.

The kit came with these frames and lintels, which I painted white. They are quite basic though, so I hope the window boxes and the future addition of elaborate drapes will disguise the simplicity and lack of window panes.

The window boxes started out as an experiment and ended up as a success and are made from heavy grey card painted in a brown 'wood stain' colour.

I layered strips of the card to achieve the authentic wood paneled effect, and the flowers used were purchased from an online craft store years ago and never used until now.




 


 I also fashioned some leaves on stalks to dot among the flowers from painted masking tape and wire.

All three windows on the second and third floors have these same window boxes. Thankfully, they have taken the bare look from the windows on the exterior view.






 
The roof is my favourite part of the project so far, and I had so much fun trying to make it as authentic-looking as I could.

The 'slates' are again made from the same grey card as the window boxes. I first cut them to size, and used a round cornering machine, generally used for card crafts, to round off the bottom two corners.

I then glued these slates onto strips of the same card, spray painted them black and let them dry.

When they were dry I used a piece of sponge dipped in grey paint to give the aged, realistic look.

  I love the end result. Next to the red bricks, the roof looks fantastic, and the uneven painting makes it look like a 'real roof.'

The texture is also brilliant. The card dried to a hard finish, so it was perfect for overhangs on the roof edge and above the roof window.

I used any left over strips and slates to make the trimming for around the top window.

 The kit came with a door which I stained in a dark wood effect also, and I added the brass knocker, purchased online.

The door wasn't a great fit for the doorway given, so I've had to leave it open, glued in place. I like the welcoming open door effect it has now though, giving you a peep inside.

I continued the red brick effect all around the window fittings too, as you can see from the picture.

This is in the interior view of the first two floors.

As you can see the layout is basic, with a single room per floor and a stairs complete with bannisters, newel posts, etc.

I've carpeted the entire house in cream plush stick on fabric, and the wallpaper is in shades of gold and cream, with a border and separate lower section to create some depth instead of a repeated print.





 

Next on the list is to install my lighting, which, I should have done originally before all these other bits, but you live and learn I suppose!

I have purchased these chandeliers for the three floors as I want to do them as separate 'departments', but each with the same look and appearance.

I would have loved to purchase more elaborate light fittings, but I couldn't afford most of the really spectacular ones I had seen. But after thinking about it, I don't think the owner of this establishment would have been able to afford them either!

So, this is what I have done so far with my first kit build. I have been looking through other blogs for inspiration and am bowled over by the beautiful creations others have made, the imagination and expertise is just astounding. I can't wait to dig in and find more advice and fantastic pictures to fawn over, not to mention blogging my dollhouse creations of 2013.

Before I forget to say it, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Project No. 1: The Jubilee Terrace Shop Front

Other dolls house collectors may share with me the feeling I sometimes have; that maybe a grown adult shouldn't have a guilt-inducing collection of dollhouse paraphernalia, or that maybe I should have grown up and stopped playing with them long ago.

But it has been a love of mine for as far back as I can remember, instilled in me by my fantastically imaginative and creative older sisters who could concoct a dolls house palace from only a chiffon scarf draped across a tabletop (true story!), or a chic miniature boutique complete with feathered hats on stands and dressed mannequins.

Throughout my teenage years I hid the truth, terrified that one of my peers would discover my mortifying love for anything miniature-related or find out that my bedtime reading of choice was the Dolls House Emporium annual catalogue.

Jubilee Terrace Shop

Years later, I finally gave into the obsession and asked for a dolls house kit for Christmas.

My bemused boyfriend obliged and I got the Jubilee Terrace shop unit kit, from the Dolls House Workshop.

But inexperienced and over-enthusiastic as I was, I immediately glued the whole thing together and proceeded to paint it entirely white.

Looking back now I have no idea why I did it; I was left with a character-less wooden shell, like a white bookshelf with doors and windows. The house itself was beautiful, well made and thought-out, with intricate carved newel posts and bannisters, but I had botched it up completely in my haste to put it together.

Feeling utterly disappointed I put the house aside, hiding it in the spare room as a a monument to my dollhouse failure after years of wishing for one.

And it stayed there, hidden away for years until only a couple of months ago.

I don't know what came over me; it might have been the desire to work on a new craft project, the inability to accept dollhouse failure, or my husband (the 'bemused boyfriend' of years ago) being sick of constantly falling over it in the spare room that prompted me to try and attempt it again.

With renewed vigor I attacked the house, intent on 'doing it properly' this time.

I have wallpapered, carpeted, slated a roof, glazed windows and painted a front door, but my vision is far from complete. I intend on recreating the boutique that lingers in my memories from years ago, complete with feathered hats and dressed mannequins, and I intend on documenting my progress here.

If you have ever looked at the BBC's latest series 'The Paradise' and loved the style of the time, the design of dress and atmosphere of the Ladies Department, you will understand the look I am trying to recreate.

It could go horribly wrong or wonderfully right, but either way, would you like to join me?