What sort of house am I making?
I've decided to make an English Victorian style house as my first attempt at making a house, akin to the many terraced houses that can be found across most of the UK. This style was chosen for a few reasons:
- being as much as a novice as I am I'm taking the easier option and creating a house without stairs to start with. Stairs seem to be, from what I've read, the hardest part of building a house. The house I'm making will be four floors with some artistic licence with the omitting of a stair case
- if I decide later on to make another Victorian house, I will have the option of joining the two together and making one large house with a stairwell in the middle
- there is tons of information online about Victorian architecture, decorating and furniture that I am using to help
- I have some quite comprehensive plans for a Victorian house in one of my books on Doll's House making
- when we were in the UK Nigel and I visited the Charles Dickens Museum in London where Dicken's lived from 1837 to 1839. Seemingly dull from the front, this house is very charming inside.
So basically I'm making a Victorian style house with the interior based very loosely on one of Mr Dickens' places of residence (albeit brief), and the exterior based on houses such as this one.
Why a Victorian house?
I really admire the variations that can be found in Victorian houses, while they still retain features that make them iconically Victorian.
I'm not one for lavish colours or fabrics, and rooms filled with ornaments and decorations that characterised many of the houses belonging to the Victorian middle and upper class. However I am drawn to the challenge and detail that this invites in relation to creating and decorating a doll's house. Of course there are many beautifully decorated Victorian houses that exist today (ones with the interior retained as it was in the time of Queen Victoria's reign) and my intent is to capture a tasteful yet accurate representation of the houses of this time, in a miniature scale.
Next post: making the house (not decorating though)...
Saturday, May 29, 2010
The Doll's House
When dear old Mrs. Hay went back to town after staying with the Burnells she sent the children a doll's house. It was so big that the carter and Pat carried it into the courtyard, and there it stayed, propped up on two wooden boxes beside the feed-room door. No harm could come of it; it was summer. And perhaps the smell of paint would have gone off by the time it had to be taken in. For, really, the smell of paint coming from that doll's house ("Sweet of old Mrs. Hay, of course; most sweet and generous!") -- but the smell of paint was quite enough to make any one seriously ill, in Aunt Beryl's opinion. Even before the sacking was taken off. And when it was . . .
There stood the doll's house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow. Its two solid little chimneys, glued on to the roof, were painted red and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a little slab of toffee. Four windows, real windows, were divided into panes by a broad streak of green. There was actually a tiny porch, too, painted yellow, with big lumps of congealed paint hanging along the edge.
But perfect, perfect little house! Who could possibly mind the smell? It was part of the joy, part of the newness.
An obvious opening I know, but the excitement, anticipation and grandeur that a doll's house can provide is detailed so beautifully by this story that I couldn't resist borrowing a paragraph or two. I will admit that Katherine Mansfield's words were not the inspiration or even a slight influence on my desire to make a doll's house, as much as I recall enjoying the short story in sixth form English.
The earliest I can remember being interested in doll's houses was when I was around 7 or 8. I would frequently take delight in looking at the pictures of the period houses in the big orange book on our shelves that was The Reader's Digest Things to Make and Do. I don't know if I ever went so far as to ask Dad to make one for me, but looking at the photos was satisfying enough. Shortly after arriving in New Zealand we made friends with the next door neighbours, they had a doll's house. It was fantastic! Rachael and I quickly became friends and playing with the doll's house occupied many a wintery days for us. Especially during school holidays.
Several years later, in 2001 I recall a particularly wet windy day during the holidays in which I decided to make my own doll's house. I will be the first to admit, like many projects I took upon myself during my teens, it didn't turn out too well. It consisted of three cardboard boxes stuck together, and for some reason painted forest green. I have a feeling it was the only colour paint I had at the time. I recall the day so well as it was the day Sir Peter Blake was killed by pirates in the Amazon delta. I caught the news updates in between my painting and gluing.
This recent interest in the creation of my own doll's house was ignited about 6 months ago when Nigel showed me a book at his work about Queen Mary's Dolls House This truly magnificent house is something so impressive and beautiful it can't be anything but an inspiration to someone with a slight interest in making a doll's house. And from that grew what is becoming a keen interest of mine. Several books have been purchased and poured over. Websites about architecture, period furniture and decorating, and how to guides on making houses (of the doll variety) have been looked up and book marked. And now I'm at the point where I'm starting to actually make the house.
As excited as I am to be doing this I'm also under no illusions that it's going to be a long, and expensive project. I'm also well aware that I'm not experienced in such projects and maybe tricky and possibly will not turn out exactly like my plans. But so far I'm enjoying myself and all being well, in however many months it will take, I too will have my very own perfect perfect little house.
There stood the doll's house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow. Its two solid little chimneys, glued on to the roof, were painted red and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a little slab of toffee. Four windows, real windows, were divided into panes by a broad streak of green. There was actually a tiny porch, too, painted yellow, with big lumps of congealed paint hanging along the edge.
But perfect, perfect little house! Who could possibly mind the smell? It was part of the joy, part of the newness.
An obvious opening I know, but the excitement, anticipation and grandeur that a doll's house can provide is detailed so beautifully by this story that I couldn't resist borrowing a paragraph or two. I will admit that Katherine Mansfield's words were not the inspiration or even a slight influence on my desire to make a doll's house, as much as I recall enjoying the short story in sixth form English.
The earliest I can remember being interested in doll's houses was when I was around 7 or 8. I would frequently take delight in looking at the pictures of the period houses in the big orange book on our shelves that was The Reader's Digest Things to Make and Do. I don't know if I ever went so far as to ask Dad to make one for me, but looking at the photos was satisfying enough. Shortly after arriving in New Zealand we made friends with the next door neighbours, they had a doll's house. It was fantastic! Rachael and I quickly became friends and playing with the doll's house occupied many a wintery days for us. Especially during school holidays.
Several years later, in 2001 I recall a particularly wet windy day during the holidays in which I decided to make my own doll's house. I will be the first to admit, like many projects I took upon myself during my teens, it didn't turn out too well. It consisted of three cardboard boxes stuck together, and for some reason painted forest green. I have a feeling it was the only colour paint I had at the time. I recall the day so well as it was the day Sir Peter Blake was killed by pirates in the Amazon delta. I caught the news updates in between my painting and gluing.
This recent interest in the creation of my own doll's house was ignited about 6 months ago when Nigel showed me a book at his work about Queen Mary's Dolls House This truly magnificent house is something so impressive and beautiful it can't be anything but an inspiration to someone with a slight interest in making a doll's house. And from that grew what is becoming a keen interest of mine. Several books have been purchased and poured over. Websites about architecture, period furniture and decorating, and how to guides on making houses (of the doll variety) have been looked up and book marked. And now I'm at the point where I'm starting to actually make the house.
As excited as I am to be doing this I'm also under no illusions that it's going to be a long, and expensive project. I'm also well aware that I'm not experienced in such projects and maybe tricky and possibly will not turn out exactly like my plans. But so far I'm enjoying myself and all being well, in however many months it will take, I too will have my very own perfect perfect little house.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)