Small home made dollhouse 1920s style

Living in a small house, but wanting a dollhouse of my own, I came up with the idea of designing and making my own dollhouse that will sit on top of my bookshelf. With the help of my Dad, I got the wood at Home Depot and my Dad cut the wood for me. The worst part is gluing and nailing the wood together. How do carpenters get those nails in straight? Anyway, here is the bare bones of it.



Here is my photo bomber again, either checking out my work, or trying to get attention!



Here is my first interior choice, a tile floor. This type of flooring with different coloured tile would have only been in poshier homes in the 1920s,  but since I've had this self adhesive tile for a couple of years, and it's not smart to go buy something plainer when I have a perfectly good kitchen floor already. We'll just assume the owner of this house was doing well financially when the house was being built. Oh, and I should have put the tiles in diagonally.



Starting the attic turned out to be a lot of fun. The popsicle sticks are stained, and the curved ends are cut off. Then, just laying and gluing them at staggered intervals.





Also in my stash is a piece of wood in a v shape that will be at the apex of the roof , and after it's stained, will make it look so much better than leaving it bare.



The third floor will be the 2 bedrooms. They both have polka dot wallpaper which is period accurate.
Happily, I had some edging already in my stash and once I figured out how to cut the edges, it went smoothly.The ceiling and wall edges look so much better. The hardwood floor should be a bit darker, but all my stain is too dark, so I just varnished them lightly and will just have to be happy with it, Besides, the lighter coloured walls look good with it.





The second floor will house the living room and bathroom. The light blue and white is quite delicate, but I like it. It's a good thing that I've been scrapbooking for years, and just had to look at my paper collection to find some great "wallpaper". The bathroom is yellow/amber and I quite like it.

The first floor will have the dining room and kitchen. The wallpaper for the dining room is a little weird, but close enough to 1920s style. I just don't know what to do with the floor yet. Decision making is the hardest part in making dollhouses. I don't know how interior designers do it all day, making those decisions!



here is an update of what I've done.



The roof is a nice grey shingle that was glued with weldbond, because I don't like hot glue. Hope it holds up.



Here's the rooms with the top molding glued in. 3rd floor.



2nd floor.



1st floor. The dining room is sporting a darker hardwood floor. Once the wall kitchen tiles are installed, the baseboards will be glued in.



Since my family is Dutch, putting in a dutch tile for the kitchen is a no-brainer! Using my silhouette cameo software, I made a pdf file of these cute blue windmill tiles above plain white tiles. After printing them I am trying to Mod Podge them to make them look more like tiles. The copy paper has wrinkled a little, but maybe it will still work out, otherwise back to the drawing board!



Let's start dressing this dollhouse! One of my fav pieces is this sink from Aliexpress.com When placed in the kitchen, it does cover up my windmill tile, but I could always change the tile, and place a row along the top.






This stove is just a stand in for now, it is a little old for the 20's, although it well could be in kitchens at the time. Some people hang onto their appliances until they need a new one, and then they upgrade.



This lovely kitchen hutch holds the blue delft china.


Here it is in place. The kitchen may get a small table so I can put a baking or cooking scene on it.



Here is a beautiful Hutch for the dining room.



Possible furniture for the dining room. I also have a white plain dining set. Will have to do some more research to see which is more appropriate.



White ice box for the kitchen.





Bathroom ceramic set looks nice in the room, but has to be washed. Also, a mirror has to be added.



I found this hamper online that reminds me of my grandmother's hamper (hers was brown)





Sitting room has a sewing machine.



The piano is gorgeous.



Fancy chair and comfy chair don't really look good together, they will be replaced when I find something more suitable. The corner shelf I've had since I was a little girl.



The fireplace was found at Value Village and batteries can be inserted so the fireplace glows! Beside it is a wood holder like my grandparents. Next spring I will go out and trim some tiny birch twigs to replace the dark wood.



This beautiful dresser with mirror I got online.



Bed with a bedspread from a child's dollhouse bed.


This writing desk is just a placeholder until I get a nice bedside table and lamp.



Bedspread on this bed is a crocheted doily that my Grandmother made.



The rug is a gorgeous handmade rug I got at a miniaturists retreat silent auction. It is one of my most prized pieces.





This piece is a little too big for this room, and a little too fancy, but I will hopefully get a bedside table and lamp for this room.


The attic is still pretty bare, but I can easily fill it with broken furniture and toys. Maybe a trunk with vintage dresses?



Well this is what I have so far. Stuff to do yet: Pictures and mirrors on the walls,
                                                                           Add toys and books
                                                                           Bathroom curtain installation
                                                                           Clothes in dressers
                                                                            Researching 1920' s accessories for the home

Harry Potter Gryffindor Tower dollhouse project

Finally, after years of thinking about it, I am starting to make the tower. The base is a piece of plywood, cut to 23 inches by 23 inches.



Using black foam board, the next layer is the base support. Using this nifty knife (double blades), a circle was cut in the foam board to hold the tower up. The inside of the circle is 21 inches across.





using two more sheets of black foam board, one side was cut every 2 inches, (not all the way through!) Then it was bent backwards until it sort of snapped, but the paper on the other side holds it together.



Now the board can be shimmied and glued into place.





It certainly looks tall, and that is without the cone roof yet! Unfortunately the furniture has already been made in 1:12 scale. This makes my tower quite large!

Now the decision to be made is do I start with the inside or outside? My plans for the outside is to use foam pieces to make the stone. If it was flat surface, instead of curved, I would just use sheets of foam board, and just score the stones, however, no project is that easy!

The inside is tricky as well. The common room in the movie is not circular, so if I add flat walls and curves, it takes up space. So my common room will be a bit smaller than I'd like. Here's what it should look like:



We'll just have to use our imagination, and disregard that the common room is not part of the tower. It is a magical place anyway, and I can see the castle changing each year to accomodate the students.
 The height of the common room I've estimated as 20 feet.

The boy's dorm room will work great in the tower. The dorm room also has a high ceiling. But I don't have to make a decision on it yet.




Working on the outside "stone": Using inexpensive foam board, marking off the size of the stones, and cutting part way thru in a v notch. The stone of course, will be staggered as normal construction, no Minecraft here! Each stone on the end that is a half stone is removed, so it can be interlocked with the next sheet of foam board.




Looking like stone already!



Here the three sheets can be fitted together.



Texturing the stones with aluminum foil pressed into it really randomizes the imperfections.


painting the "mortar" a light grey.



The paints that were chosen were variations of grey, and each stone is painted randomly. Also, in order to add more interest and texture, sand was mixed in the paint, with varying amounts of sand.



Walls of the tower are scored black foam board.



My hope was to glue each sheet  on to the black walls, however, it wouldn't form to the concave walls. So, each row is cut and glued individually.



Thankfully, there is only one window in the common room, because windows are not easy!



Here is the little attention freak photo bombing as I am trying to take pictures of my project.
By the way, she rubbed against some grey paint onto the side of her face - thank goodness the paint is non-toxic!




Using my silhouette cameo for planning purposes, a floor plan is drawn out and placed on the base.
Forever frugal, the fireplace hearth floor is actually laminate samples from Home Depot.



Laying down the hardwood floor. This floor is previously used, which is perfect for the common room floor. Hogwarts is supposed to be Gothic/Medieval period, and then when our story begins, it is the 1990's. So a little wear and tear is warranted.



Working on the window was the most challenging thing so far in this project. This is the inside which is lined with egg carton stones.




Using the silhouette cameo, a window was planned with many layers on each side of the window. The window is 2 pieces of acetate from packaging with embroidery floss glued in a diamond pattern.
My painting of the cardstock should have been done before assembly, as some got on the window.




Dry fitting the window in the hole.



Glueing it in permanently, adding more layers ( to avoid nasty drafts) and a window stone. This styrofoam (light blue) is a builders foam for the outside of basements, and comes in 8 foot long sheets! Thankfully, I was given some during a class at a miniaturists convention. It sands smoothly, and glued well with weldbond. It was painted with acrylic paint mixed with sand for texture.



The outside turned out better than imagined.



The inside looks good as well.

Making the window's stone on the inside of the tower.
 Using foam board as the base, the glue I used was styroglue and ultimate glue (which expands, so use sparingly) Then egg carton stone is glued and painted.



The arched top was made with folded egg carton for a seamless look, and each stone had to be hand fitted and cut. It is an interesting challenge to make it look natural, and kind of funny because you'd have to stick your head inside the tower to see it! It's still satisfying to do all this detail even if no one ever sees it. Fitting the window casing into place.




Working next on the wall that has the doorway to the stairs to the dorm rooms. Here, I can reuse my experience with the arch to assemble the doorway. As a start, using a paper template helps to position and plan.



The foam board is layered by the doorway to make it thicker. Then egg carton is folded over to make it look like stone. Painting the foam board where there will be stone will look better than leaving it  black, where cracks will show.



As we don't have the room to make an actual staircase, a photo was sized from a movie still.  The first two steps are real, and made from laminate samples from Home Depot and foam board, glued with weldbond. I later sand off most of the acrylic paint and am happy with the worn look.



Stay tuned for more!