Dollhouse Custom Construction Part 4 - Featuring Lilac Cottage

This is the final part for building your dollhouse!

 Upstairs, I added the last 2 chandelier. 

 I pulled all the electric together upstairs and hid it in a chimney. The chimney is made of 4 pieces of cardboard. 

 Everything got covered with concrete I applied with an artist spatula.  This is Dap's Ready Mixed Concrete. The chimney has little rocks added to it once the concrete had dried. I just drop these little mounds of concrete and shape them into rocks so they are 3 D.

 The bump out is covered with clapboard I bought at  Hobbylinc. I also made a little vent with craft sticks and clapboard cut into narrow little pieces. 

I carved cornerstones while the concrete was not set. I wait about 5 to 10 minutes to do this. If the concrete is too wet the lines just disappear.  To carve the lines I use an old X-acto knife.

 The roof got a little trim made of craft sticks. 

 I put a little trim on top of the chimney to finish it off.

 I painted the clapboard white and the stucco(smooth concrete) a very pale shade of purple. It's so light you can just get a hint of the purple hue. 

 Now the roof. The main part of the roof is shingles.  To color these shingles I make different paint "baths".  Here I have some grey tones, brown tones and darker brown tones.  Just add some paint to water in a container. You want just enough paint mixed in with the water to show up on the shingle.  Something like 1 tablespoon of paint to a cup of water. It's a color wash.  
I covered the porch roof with a piece of cardboard. This is so you won't see the wire under the fabric piece that will be my awning.
The stones on the foundation are painted greys and creams.  The corner stones are white.

 The bump out roof is "metal".  This is actually cardboard (those gift boxes that are white on one side and grey inside) cut into strips.  They are about 1" strips on the bottom. And each seam is covered with 1/4" strips. Paint grey, silver and age with white.

 The awning is a striped fabric.  I glued it onto the roof with Aleene's tacky glue. 

 I added flowering vines to the house. These vines are from Hobby Lobby: http://www.hobbylobby.com/Floral-%26-Wedding/Bushes-%26-Garlands/Garlands/Green-Baby%27s-Breath-Garland/p/8668
The Flowers are here: http://www.hobbylobby.com/Floral-%26-Wedding/Floral-Stems/Purple-Statice-Spray/p/1850
To fit on the house just cut the vines and the flowers into little pieces and glue on with hot glue.  My hot glue gun is a high temperature/professional glue gun.  

 I had also trimmed the awning with wood pieces to look neater.

 For the front yard, I used sand for the walkway. This is the sand you put to with candles.  I applied a generous amount of regular white glue.

 Then I poured on plenty of sand.  Tap down to make sure the sand is in contact with the glue. Once the glue is dry tap off all the excess sand.

 The bushes are air dry clay rolled into balls and left to dry completely.  I then paint them green.  I use Aleene's glue to glue on moss. Let that dry completely and then you can use scissors to trim and shape each bush.

 For the grass I use a moss mat. It already has a sticky backing to it.

 I make templates of the places I want to cover with grass and cut the moss mat. 

 Here's the sticky back.

 Voila!

 I added a little fence and more flowers and plants in the yard. And the house is all done and ready to be moved into.

 The finished front yard.

You can now make this house into your dream cottage with all the furniture and accessories of your choice.  I hope you will try to build your own house now that you see it's not that difficult. 
Lilac Cottage is for Jennifer.  Thanks Jen!

hugs♥,

Dollhouse Custom Construction Tutorial Part 2 - Featuring Lilac Cottage

Let's continue building the custom dollhouse with this part 2 tutorial post. Since the last step, I added a front wall to the bump out section in the front of the house. It has 2 long narrow windows.  Plastered this wall and painted it with primer paint. 

 The next step is putting on your wallpaper. I picked a floral, a ridged cardboard and a linen fabric.  The floral paper comes from the internet. Pinterest is a great place to find printable paper. Just type wallpaper in the search and you'll see tons appearing.  The ridged paper is my wainscoting. This one comes from the scrapbook isle of the craft store. As does my linen fabric.

 After the wallpaper, I did the ceiling. I also used a 3D textured paper from the scrapbook section. It has a very subtle design. Then I did the beams. These are just Popsicle craft sticks. They are 3 sided box like. I make these directly on the ceiling.  Then I do the wood floor also with craft sticks. I like my floors to go from front to back. I feel like it makes the space more open and clean.

 You can then start all your trims. They are all done with  craft/Popsicle sticks. I have a double trim for the crown molding near the ceiling, a single for the baseboards, and some to frame the windows and walls too. This wall with the window will be the kitchen area. So I'm not putting baseboards here for now. I'll wait until my sink and stove are in place.

 The stair opening is also framed with craft sticks. I always leave a space with no trim where the mantel will go because I want the mantel to fit right up to the wall.I also left room free of trim where my stairs will go.

 Here you can see the front wall of the bump out with its 2 windows.

 I also added 2 pieces of wood to make my landing upstairs. And I wanted to add a vintage look with these 2 planks showing downstairs.

 The trim is now painted. I used a white wash. Just add a lot of water with your white paint.

 The floor color is several steps for depth. First, it gets the same white wash treatment as the trims and beams. Let it dry. Sand partially and do another wash. This time with grey paint mixed with water.

 My french door is from Ebay.  I painted it white. The door came with an interior trim so I glued that in place with Aleene's Tacky Glue(an all purpose white glue). I also installed my chandelier. Here's the tutorial for chandeliers: http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2011/11/chandelier-tutorial.html
I also added a light above where the mantel will be. I used a jewelry end cap on top of the bulb as my light fixture. You can glue this to the ceiling with regular glue or hot glue. I get my LED lights here: http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/mi.html  They also have fire kits for inside your mantel.
I have painted some stairs and glued them in place. These are from Hobby Lobby. http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/miniature-simple-stair-kit-606889/  They are 14.99 plus you can use your 40% off coupon.

 I then started the upstairs. I put on a front wall that is 15 1/2" x 3" tall. This is so the roof is not too slopped for the rooms upstairs. Otherwise, you get tons of unusable space. This also makes the upstairs taller.  I had the two triangles for each end of the upstairs from a kit. I decided to use them here. I propped them up on a  bottom piece of wood so they would be the correct height that corresponds to the front. These two side walls are now 18 1/2" tall.
I did my upstairs wood floors exactly like downstairs. Don't worry about upstairs walls for now. Just do the entire floor with craft sticks.And paint.

To make the back look finished I added trims around the edges. All 4 sides have trim.

 Here is the exterior view of the side walls.

 Here you can see the stairs. They are painted white with grey treads and banister.

                                                     

 The last step for this second part of the tutorial is to make a little triangle top for the front bump out section.  I plastered it and painted it with primer paint(paint with primer already mixed into it).  This wall is now 14 1/2" tall.

 

Today is Lizzie's birthday! She's 6 years old. We have a big party planned. Her favorite song is "Happy Birthday". So she will be thrilled that everyone is singing it for her. It's a miracle she is here on earth. This tiny girl had a rough start with her birth and had subsequent health problems. But we have found a way to manage. So celebrating her is an absolute must. She's definitely a survivor with a love of life bigger than anyone I know. Happy Birthday sweet Lizzie!
Thank you everyone for coming over. I hope you are enjoying the building tutorial. If you see anything I forgot to explain please leave a comment below.  Have a great day!
hugs♥,