Fixing up my old dolls house
Oct. 1st, 2014 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frualeydisWhile I've been away I have mostly been working much more than I really should, but I have also started fixing the old dolls house that my dad made for me over forty years ago. And like always I get totally obsessed when I start a new hobby.
Even if it's a new hobby it is far from a new interest. Besides playing with dolls houses as a kid I have since my early teens had recurring periods when I have been very interested in dolls houses; reading bookd and dreaming about owning a large dolls house. When I was thirteen I repainted the dolls house my dad had made for me when I was three, to make it vaguely historical. I regret this a little, because it means another layer of paint to get rid off - plus that I wasn't very good at removing wall paper before painting. On the other hand I had lots of fun with it at the time.
Both my twins and Maja has played with it so it's not as nice as it was when freshly painted. The paint was remnants from when we painted our house, except that the pink was mixed by me, we didn't have any pink rooms.
I started with removing old paint and pull the painted over wall paper from the walls. Most of the original wall paper was gone, but I found some of the original wall paper. The orange one was from the basement in the house that my dad live in until 1980. The green one I don't remember at all.
Sometime quite early my dad painted the floors (and ceiling and the whole outside) dark green, so the whole dolls house was in different shades of orange and green. It msut have been quite early, because I actully had no memory of the linoleum carpet that was below two layers of paint. Unfortunately it was impossible to get rid of all the paint, so the floors will have to be painted over again.
After removing as much paint as I could I took it to my sister and brother-in-law to use their sander. Then it was time to use the spackle paste, which I was rather generous with. White spray paint so that the old paint wouldn't be visible through the new paint or wall paper.
Next project was to add another wall. My dad was obviously inspired by the classical dolls houses from Lundby from the 1960s-70s (an example can be seen here in this blog). But since this dolls house is on a bigger scale what in those houses only is a few steps difference in height within the same room here became high enough to make it impossible to get over without a proper stair and a room of it's own. Since I wanted more rooms I added a wall from plywood.
I painted the front of the dolls house green, the ceilings white and the kitchen yellow ( a first layer). I also put wall paper and flooring in the room where the family will sit and listen to the radio, sew, or whatever they do in the evenings. The house is inspired, though not a copy, of my grandmother's house and she was very fond of yellow.
From a book about dolls houses that I got from the library I learned how to make it look like wooden tiles on a floor: first one layer of stain or paint and then you draw lines with a pencil. Add another layer of satin or paint and you're finished. The book only talked about staining wood, but I thought that it would work with paint too.
The floor in the kitchen comes from Skala Minimal, a Swedish dolls house shop on the internet. I wanted a darker colour, more like the typicla carpet made from cork, but it is okay and will have to do.
The bedroom got a striped blue wall paper, white skirting board and windows. I also tried putting a carpet my mother made as a little girl in the room, just to see how it would look.
The windows are in the back of the house because my dad (correctly) thought that it was easier to make holes in the back, which is masonite, than in the walls which are particle board when I wanted windows. Because of this I don't need to have windows that can open, but can make them from narrow wood strips. The boards around them are popsicle sticks.
A photo of Bengt and Brita in the dolls house. Yes, that's the name of the children who will live there once it's finished. They are original 1940s-50s dolls that used to belong to my grandmother. The furniture is from the early 50s and I have bought it on Tradera, a Swedish auction site. Unfortunately it is the wrong scale for the house, so I may have to get an antique house in the lundby scale too eventually. Oh no.
The bathroom got tiles. I had originally planned to let the tiles go higher, but I needed some of it for Maja's dolls house so this is as far as it gets. I have some remnants which will be put where the bathtub and wash stand will be.
As I have already said the stair was a problem. But last weekend and yesterday I sort of free-formed them from cardboard and wood strips. I have a sore throat and a temperature right now, but when the paracemtamol is working I can do some small stuff on the dolls house. The stairs were first built from above and down, to about one third of the length and then I started from below and eventually they met. It is far from perfect, but it's the best I could do without rebuilding the house.
Keeping it in place with duct tape.
I used the same "flooring" as in the radio room to cover the stairs, painted the back and sides and then varnished the paper. It hasn't been added to the house yet, because it isn't the most stable of constructions, so I prefer to finish all the other stuff before adding it.
After trying out the stairs I could finally put wall paper and flooring in the room where they will be. The corner where the stairs will be is painted in a different colour, trying to make it look more a separate part of the house. The colour is similar to the walls in the stairs in my grandmother's house.
Today's plan is to work on more window's, to stain skirting boards with strong coffee and add skirting boards. It is often quite uneven where the walls and floor meet, which makes this an interesting job.
This room I ran out of wall paper for and I won't get more until Friday probably, so I can't finish this window yet.
Even if it's a new hobby it is far from a new interest. Besides playing with dolls houses as a kid I have since my early teens had recurring periods when I have been very interested in dolls houses; reading bookd and dreaming about owning a large dolls house. When I was thirteen I repainted the dolls house my dad had made for me when I was three, to make it vaguely historical. I regret this a little, because it means another layer of paint to get rid off - plus that I wasn't very good at removing wall paper before painting. On the other hand I had lots of fun with it at the time.
Both my twins and Maja has played with it so it's not as nice as it was when freshly painted. The paint was remnants from when we painted our house, except that the pink was mixed by me, we didn't have any pink rooms.
I started with removing old paint and pull the painted over wall paper from the walls. Most of the original wall paper was gone, but I found some of the original wall paper. The orange one was from the basement in the house that my dad live in until 1980. The green one I don't remember at all.
Sometime quite early my dad painted the floors (and ceiling and the whole outside) dark green, so the whole dolls house was in different shades of orange and green. It msut have been quite early, because I actully had no memory of the linoleum carpet that was below two layers of paint. Unfortunately it was impossible to get rid of all the paint, so the floors will have to be painted over again.
After removing as much paint as I could I took it to my sister and brother-in-law to use their sander. Then it was time to use the spackle paste, which I was rather generous with. White spray paint so that the old paint wouldn't be visible through the new paint or wall paper.
Next project was to add another wall. My dad was obviously inspired by the classical dolls houses from Lundby from the 1960s-70s (an example can be seen here in this blog). But since this dolls house is on a bigger scale what in those houses only is a few steps difference in height within the same room here became high enough to make it impossible to get over without a proper stair and a room of it's own. Since I wanted more rooms I added a wall from plywood.
I painted the front of the dolls house green, the ceilings white and the kitchen yellow ( a first layer). I also put wall paper and flooring in the room where the family will sit and listen to the radio, sew, or whatever they do in the evenings. The house is inspired, though not a copy, of my grandmother's house and she was very fond of yellow.
From a book about dolls houses that I got from the library I learned how to make it look like wooden tiles on a floor: first one layer of stain or paint and then you draw lines with a pencil. Add another layer of satin or paint and you're finished. The book only talked about staining wood, but I thought that it would work with paint too.
The floor in the kitchen comes from Skala Minimal, a Swedish dolls house shop on the internet. I wanted a darker colour, more like the typicla carpet made from cork, but it is okay and will have to do.
The bedroom got a striped blue wall paper, white skirting board and windows. I also tried putting a carpet my mother made as a little girl in the room, just to see how it would look.
The windows are in the back of the house because my dad (correctly) thought that it was easier to make holes in the back, which is masonite, than in the walls which are particle board when I wanted windows. Because of this I don't need to have windows that can open, but can make them from narrow wood strips. The boards around them are popsicle sticks.
A photo of Bengt and Brita in the dolls house. Yes, that's the name of the children who will live there once it's finished. They are original 1940s-50s dolls that used to belong to my grandmother. The furniture is from the early 50s and I have bought it on Tradera, a Swedish auction site. Unfortunately it is the wrong scale for the house, so I may have to get an antique house in the lundby scale too eventually. Oh no.
The bathroom got tiles. I had originally planned to let the tiles go higher, but I needed some of it for Maja's dolls house so this is as far as it gets. I have some remnants which will be put where the bathtub and wash stand will be.
As I have already said the stair was a problem. But last weekend and yesterday I sort of free-formed them from cardboard and wood strips. I have a sore throat and a temperature right now, but when the paracemtamol is working I can do some small stuff on the dolls house. The stairs were first built from above and down, to about one third of the length and then I started from below and eventually they met. It is far from perfect, but it's the best I could do without rebuilding the house.
Keeping it in place with duct tape.
I used the same "flooring" as in the radio room to cover the stairs, painted the back and sides and then varnished the paper. It hasn't been added to the house yet, because it isn't the most stable of constructions, so I prefer to finish all the other stuff before adding it.
After trying out the stairs I could finally put wall paper and flooring in the room where they will be. The corner where the stairs will be is painted in a different colour, trying to make it look more a separate part of the house. The colour is similar to the walls in the stairs in my grandmother's house.
Today's plan is to work on more window's, to stain skirting boards with strong coffee and add skirting boards. It is often quite uneven where the walls and floor meet, which makes this an interesting job.
This room I ran out of wall paper for and I won't get more until Friday probably, so I can't finish this window yet.
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