Wednesday, December 4, 2013

A Tour of The Dollhouse

Today, we go on a tour of The Little House of Sometimes, the dollhouse project I've been working on lately.



First, we visit the kitchen! We love our sunny mornings here, making oatmeal and tea!  (I made all the appliances and corner shelf with cardboard, glue and paper.  The wallpaper in this room is made from pages from an old shorthand magazine from the 1940's that my mother subscribed to.  She kept all the issues she received.  I love the way the little black squiggles look!)

Let's stroll through the doorway into the cozy livingroom...
We love how warm we are here in this room,
even on the gloomiest of days!

(I made the corner table and fireplace from cardboard, glue and paper.  I added a battery-operated candle to the fireplace for the look of warmth.  Bottlecaps make cute picture frames.  The chair and ottoman are a pin cushion set that belonged to my mother.  The white swan vase was one of my flea-market finds.  The tiny china tea-set belonged to my grandmother. Flocked decorative paper in different shades papers the walls and carpets the floor.)

We are so comfortable here, just dreaming our dreams...

Now, for a tour of the second floor...

Two little beds for two little girls.  Evelynne Rose and Charlotte Framboise sleep here.  (I made the beds from cardboard, glue and paper.  Pillows and mattresses are made from some of my mother's old handkerchiefs, the ones that were worn at the edges.  I made the comforters from printed silk and the edge of the re-purposed curtain I made into the facade, as I wrote about in this post.)


...we peek through the transom above the door,
into the cozy sitting room...


...and through the curtained door we go...


Such a cozy place to stay on warm spring mornings and cold winter nights. (More pictures, framed in bottlecaps decorate the walls. I made another fireplace for this room, with a battery-operated candle, similar, but not exactly like the fireplace for the livingroom downstairs.  I made the settee from scraps of eggplant-colored crushed velvet and cardboard.  The silver tea-set on the mantlepiece is one I've owned for years!  Lokta paper in vivid purple makes a rich-looking carpet.)

 
So warm and happy in the sunshine!
(The pastry tray in the foreground is made from an old doll's
sugar bowl that had lost its lid and I covered with paper and made
a tray to go on the top.)

In a third floor attic room, we keep our collections...
old keys, 
broken stop watches,
tiny spoons,
buttons from an imaginary elevator
and
other precious objects...

In the final room in the attic, a special room for all of the pets!
(I made nests for them from fluffy cloud-like batting
inside decorative cupcake papers and a vintage souvenir
tea cup from The Queen Mary!)

Here we are in the garden in front of our lovely house!

It is always sunny here and the flowers and trees
are always in bloom.

(The lawn is made from lokta paper and bordered with flocked paper, to mimic the parterre garden designs we saw at the Tuileries and the courtyard of the Musée Carnavalet in Paris.  I made a small flowering tree from a decorative cupcake paper, some white beans, glue and a vintage sprig of little paper flowers.  The purple flowers are paper hydrangeas that I had left over from having made favors for our wedding.  I used an old, chipped soap dish for the pool in the center of the garden and a glass bottle top makes a pretty, flower-shaped fountain.  I found some little black rocks in our yard to use in the garden.  The heart shaped pool at the front has a small, moss-covered rock in the center for Mr. Snappy the turtle to sun on.  I made the topiary tea party garden by covering old, mis-matched porcelain doll's dishes with green lokta paper and glue!)


Thank you so much for visiting with us today!

Won't you please come back soon to visit
the dollhouse at night?

6 comments:

  1. What a special doll house! I think it must be a French cottage, because it looks so homey and warm. Plus the striped wallpaper just has to be French inspired. Even the pets have such a wonderful room all for themselves. The round pictures hanging in the rooms are very stylish! It's exactly the kind of place I'd like to live in. :-)

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  2. What a brilliant doll house, I wish I would have been there with my camera!!!!
    I guess you have had a lot of fun creating this little wonderful world:)
    XX
    Becky

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  3. I had a very small dollhouse when I was a child and I made a tall one in the sixties. Sadly I have no room now but I am in love with your very pretty cottage! Wonderful! xx

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  4. THANK YOU so much to everyone who has come to visit the dollhouse!

    Biggest hugs to all,

    Betty

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  5. It was such fun to visit your lovely magical dollhouse Betty! I love your sense of play and whimsy - you still have that magic we all had as kids and that is truly a gift indeed. Thank you so much for sharing and adding to my dollhouse inspiration! ♥

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