Have you ever had a dollhouse? I did, when I was a child my father built me a dollhouse. It was a beautiful house and I played with it for hours. I remember my Grandma taking me to the miniatures shop and then out to lunch afterward so I could furnish my very first home. Not having the money to buy all the beautiful things I saw in that wonderful, magical place I decided I would make my own things. My mom helped me, giving me bits of fabric, lace, and whatever could help me make furnishings and decor for my dollhouse. I even tried making shades with toothpicks and string.
A Dollhouse Found
Years passed and the dollhouse, which I now know to have been the Greenleaf Pierce, is now a distant memory, not even pictures remain of my lovely little mansion, and to be honest, while it never left my mind completely it was nothing I really thought about being something that I would enjoy as an adult. Things change though…
One day my husband called me from work and asked me if I wanted a dollhouse. One of the women he worked with had one she just wanted to get rid of, one that her mother had found on the side of the road. Me being my said “Yes!” and so this sad little abandoned dollhouse arrived. It needed a lot of work, but I was in love. With the dollhouse, somewhat, as it will be a lovely home when completed, being the Artply Cambridge, but with miniatures. When it first arrived it looked like this…
Yes, the house itself is upside down with the roof sitting on the base. It is dirty, has broken windows and shingles, is missing pieces, and it not holding itself together well anymore as seen in these pictures.
As I started cleaning the dollhouse and taking inventory of which pieces were there, broken, and possibly missing I found the broken floor and a chimney without a fireplace. The chimney is an architectural feature only I am sure, but it screamed “I need a fireplace!” to me.
I got the house cleaned up and Eric and I decided on paint colors. Being a victorian we wanted bolder colors and picked a darker blue, burgundy, and a cream color, and they were all colors I already had on hand. I set about painting the outside because even though I had never made my own dollhouse before, and even my childhood one was not wired, Eric wanted me to wire this one. Since I would have to order the wiring kit I knew I would have to start with the outside of the house.
Here is the house with the blue paint on it but the rest still has the original paint colors. I also realized after I painted it that I will have to take off the bay window and steps and remake those as well. Also, see that clunky, ugly banister on the top of the porch? That has to go, so I made a couple of paper templates that will give a more realistic look to the railings. Here is a picture comparing the original railings to the templates. the one on the far right is the one I decided on.
I will be working on these as well as getting the bay window and porch steps off of the house. If you want to see my daily progress you can follow it on Merrywood Miniatures on both Instagram and Facebook.
