The Old Country House Custom Dollhouse

My newest dollhouse is The Old Country house. This is a 2 story custom house built from scratch.

On this house I used a ready made door and 2 ready square dormer windows. All the other windows are custom.  This dollhouse is 19 1/2" tall(including the chimney) x 13" wide x 14 3/4" deep.

The colors are a light taupe for the siding with white trims and a light grey roof. The chimney is concrete.

I am including mailboxes on all my houses since I made the trailer! I just love them.  I also made a little crate and 3 flower boxes.

 The underside of the porch turned out fantastic with the planks looking all weathered.

And this porch has a swing. I had not done a swing in quite some time.

 The battery and switch and hidden in the chimney.

 The siding is birch.

There is only one coat of paint on the siding. It gave a marvelous vintage look with the grain of the wood showing through.

 The chair is my own creation. As it the little wooden table, chandeliers, rug, clay houses, paintings, box of photos. 

 The stairs are purchased.

 I also purchased this little metal table from the fairy garden department at Hobby Lobby. The little chair that comes with it is on the porch. The box of photos is something I saw on Pinterest. Easy to do!

 This is a pie cabinet sold at Hobby Lobby. It comes in a brown finish. I stripped off all the varnish and repainted it white, aged it with brown ink and finished it off with random grey paint streaks. The dot paper I used in the door is a translucent paper from Michael's Craft store(scrapbook).

The ceiling is scrapbook textured paper which has been aged with a brown ink pad.

This is the area in front of the stair landing. Super aged, super vintage!

 Upstairs I made a bed, a bench a clay house and books.  The nightstand is a purchased piece. I removed 2 drawers for a more rustic look.

 All the curtains are sprayed with hairspray so they stay perfectly in place and draping like real curtains.

 The chandelier is crystal seed beads. You can find the tutorial by clicking the tutorial tab at the top of the page.

 These little benches are easy to make and add tons of character to a room.

 I made a messy bedding this time. My last house had the bed perfectly made. Someone has already jumped in this one to read a book. :)

I made these 4 sketches of villages and sealed them with modge podge.
That's my dollhouse! I am listing it on Etsy.(cinderellamoments.etsy.com)
Thank you so much for your company! I hope you have a wonderful day.

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♥,

Dollhouse Cutting Tools I Use

I'm often asked what I use to cut out my dollhouses.To tell you the truth I have not found that perfect saw. If you are a saw manufacturer out there and you think you have the perfect compact tool to work on dollhouses contact me. I'd love to share your product with my readers. Until that happens let me tell you what I use.

They are very simple tools actually. My favorite thing to use is box cutters.  Along with a metal ruler they do an excellent job with precise, clean cuts. If the wood is a little thick I cut both front and back sides. It usually works.
But when the wood is way too thick and too hard it requires a power tool. A few years back I bought a Dremel Trio. Come to find out it's been discontinued!  The good thing about the Dremel is that it's pretty compact(compared to most saws and routers). The bad thing is that the cuts are pretty ugly!  After I cut out windows and doors I have to sand each side straight. And don't forget earplugs or your ears will be ringing for hours. 
Before the Trio I had tried several rotary tools like the Back and Decker and Dremel with saw attachments. But the saw blades burn out. And I must admit it's a little scary to have that little spinning wheel of sharpness ready to take off digits with any false move. 
Maybe a scroll saw? I'm not sure. If any of you have experience with a scroll saw leave a message after this post. I'd love to hear your opinions. At this point I've decided to stop wasting money on useless tools that don't work for dollhouse purposes and keep piling up in my workspace. But I'll keep looking. If that perfect cutting tool should ever fall into my hands I will most definitely share it with all of you. 
Good luck and be careful out there!
hugs♥,

Dream Cottage Dollhouse

I've been working on the Dream Cottage Dollhouse from the Greenleaf Orchid kit.

 Here are some pics of how the construction progressed.

 This house will have a few pieces of furniture. I made this little bed with  a design made from hot glue. When it's painted it looks just like a carved bed.

I made the dollhouse bed  ruffled covers.

I have to finish the dormers with shingles and make some artwork for this house and it'll be all done!