Saturday, November 30, 2013

Lulu's Maison

This is Lulu's Maison completed.
This is a house I made for a little girl named Lulu. From what her mom told me she sounds like the sweetest girl!  She has a fantastic brother named Emmanuel.  But this dollhouse is just for her.
The vines all come from the floral department at Hobby Lobby. I just cut off the connected ends and hot glue them  on individually.
The roses are mulberry roses and the pink and light yellow flowers are Heathers from Hobby Lobby.
I put a little bird on the window box.  I made the window box from 5 pieces of leftover wood. The dots are hot glue. I painted it all white and aged it with a little gray paint and brown stamp ink.
I made the chandelier with 3 wire arms. Tutorial for chandelier is here: http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2011/11/chandelier-tutorial.html
 This house is electric. So there's a bulb in the middle of the fixture. To hide the center bulb I made some small roses.  Here's how I make these: http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2010/07/easiest-fastest-mini-paper-roses.html
The siding on this house is thin veneer. I used that same veneer to make the very simple shutters.  I wanted a very clean look like you see in Swedish country houses.  I stayed with a grey and white palette.
This is the kitchen window.  Anytime you see brown aging this is the brown ink pad for stamps. It's just a perfect way to easily age anything.

This side of the house has the little plug for electricity.
You can see the bedroom through here.
The interior is very sweet, girly and shabby chic.
I had to make the furniture a tad bit bigger because Lulu's doll is 7 1/2" tall. But I still kept it close enough to 1/12 scale so that she could use any dolls.
The kitchen island I made and had a tutorial for here: http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2013/02/quick-and-easy-dollhouse-kitchen.html

The sink cabinet I made from this tutorial:
http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/2012/01/kitchen-cabinets-how-to-make.html
The front wallpaper is by Pip Studio. It's called Feeling Paper Good. Just do a quick image search on Google Image. Go to whatever site it shows. Save the full size picture. I like to print it out in 1/2 size because usually when you print full size it's blurry. The crackle wallpaper behind the stairs and the wainscoting paper underneath is from the scrapbook section of the craft store. These two came from Hobby Lobby.
I paint my rugs on book binding. It's a very thick and sturdy fabric. The chair covered with lace I make myself. I'll have to do a tutorial on those too!
Upstairs is the bedroom.  Here I wanted a very calm space for Miss Dolly. I only did one wall with pink and cream polka dot paper(scrapbook). The floors are white the curtains are very light pink tulle. All the curtains are stiffened into place. I use hairspray.  Some people are afraid it will yellow. But I would love if that happened! It would look so perfectly vintage. I have yet to see any of my fabrics turn yellow though.




I made the bed from veneer wood. I find all the veneer at Hobby Lobby.  I just draw out a design on paper, lay it on the wood and cut it out with a sharp box cutter/utility knife.
I made the doll out of air dry clay. She has twine hair and a hand dyed cotton dress.






The pillow on the chair is just a square of felt I embroidered.



I put a glitter house in this room too.  It can serve as a doll's dollhouse.
Thanks so much for coming by!  I'm so glad you all have such an incredible interest in our work. I can't believe I'm nearing 400,000 page views. Wow! Thank you!

Friday, November 22, 2013

Lulu's Maison & Thank You Genevieve!

Lulu's Maison now has all the chandeliers in place. I also did the exterior with Swedish style siding.
I'll be painting the siding white or some shade of white.
This is the side where the stairs are inside. So no window at the bottom.
This is the kitchen window.
And now a special thank you...
to Genevieve of  http://genevieveminiacollection.blogspot.com/ for the giveaway prize I won from her blog.  Look at that tiny cross stitch! Thank you Genevieve! I'm so glad to have special little treasures that you made.  I will cherish them always!
A big hug♥ to all of you. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Lulu's Maison

The past 3 days have been filled with more plaster, paint, furniture and a bit of wallpaper for Lulu's Maison.
 I started by putting the upstairs bedroom together. First I trimmed the windows. Then I plastered the walls. A couple of you asked why do do this step.  I plaster the walls to cover up imperfections, tape wire and to make the dollhouse stronger for travel. The plaster bonds the corners together. It's just an added measure to prepare for shipping. 

I also put my accent wallpaper on one wall. It's a pink paper with cream tiny dots. And I laid down the wood floor.
I white washed the floor. This is just 1/2 water 1/2 paint to allow the wood grain to show. 
I made a bed for Lulu's doll.  The doll is a little bigger than 1" scale so I adjusted all the furniture accordingly.
A grey painted bed with roses is a must for a shabby chic bedroom!
Here's the bed all dressed up.  I'm not going to glue down the bedding on this one. I'm sure Lulu will want to tuck in her doll.

I also made a lace chair for the downstairs.
Now I'm moving on to the exterior!
hugs♥

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Lulu's Maison Day 3

Today I put in the wood floor downstairs. I used Popsicle sticks. I painted them with a mixture of 1/2 water 1/2 cream colored paint. This way the wood grain shows through.

I also put in the first chandelier.  Here's my dollhouse chandelier tutorial:
http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2011/11/chandelier-tutorial.html

I bought molding  at Michael's. And I found a great tutorial explaining how to make the molding inside corner cuts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRwuONmNQEg
 Testing my stairs in here. I chose this design because you can see through them and they don't take up too much space. They'll be getting a coat of white paint and then a shabby chic treatment later.

 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Lulu's Maison Day 2

I plastered the downstairs of Lulu's dollhouse yesterday. Remember I also put in my wire tape for electricity before I plastered.  The plaster is finally completely dry.  At this time, if I was just going to paint my walls I would sand the plaster smooth. But I'll be wallpapering so I can skip this step.  My wallpapering job will be very easy in this house. But if you are using complicated paper with places that need to match up you probably want to make templates of the walls with the window cutouts at this time.

I am framing my windows on the interior.  I always put my "glass" on the exterior.  To frame the 3 downstairs windows I used bits of wood I have left over. You can get thin veneer from Hobby Lobby and cut it into strips if you don't have thousands of strips of wood lying around like I do.  : )
I glued the strips around the windows using a strong white glue.  Next, you'll need to paint over all the plaster walls and ceilings to seal the plaster. I'm also painting over the framing of the windows. 

I'm wallpapering the front wall first. I printed this paper off the internet. It's an actual wallpaper for real houses. I print the image off 1/2 size. This paper is a collage of book pages in all muted cream colors.

By the way!  I use to water down my white glue to make my wallpaper paste until I found this glue. It's already pretty runny. I don't have to do anything to it. I just smear it around with a paintbrush. It cost $1.99 for a large bottle.  I bought it at Hobby Lobby. 
The other wallpapers are from the scrapbook section.  I have white ridged paper that looks like wainscoting, a white paper that looks like a tin ceiling and a faux crackle in creams.
I applied all the papers to the dollhouse.
I cut slits into the ceiling paper so I can easily find my wire tape when it's time to put in my chandelier. 
Till tomorrow!
Happy building!