Whitledge-Burgess, The Little Dollhouse Company, Mulvany and Rogers

I wanted to take a moment and talk about the people who helped me with this project, my teachers and friends. I live in an area where the dollhouse hobby is not very popular, so I go online and purchased a lot of books and magazines. Every person has different techniques and opinions for making miniatures. Here are the 3 which I chose to follow.

For the construction of the dollhouse and most of my purchases, I turn to THE LITTLE DOLLHOUSE COMPANY in Toronto.

 Maria and John have always been good to me. They sell a  booklet called Dollhouse Details Tips and Tricks with step by step instructions and hints on construction, wallpapering, trim....that I have consulted and followed carefully. I have called them often with questions. John is always helpfull with construction and Maria always goes out of her way to get anything I need. Their friendship has been wonderful.


For interior finishing techniques, I could not have done much of anything without the help of Ray Whitledge and Scott Burgess of WHITLEDGE-BURGESS

In 2006 they wrote a magnificent 4 part article in Miniature Collector magazine on how to build a Panneled Library. Their step by step instruction on faux-finishing, applying moldings, which materials to use and many other techniques proved to be the most important I have learned and I think every miniaturist could benefit from their knowledge. I have contacted them with questions several times and they were always so kind, helpful and willing to share what they know with me.

My favorite miniature book is Magnificent Miniatures from MULVANY AND ROGERS.

 The book has great pictues of the most beautiful miniature reproductions ever built. It is packed with information, techniques and stories that can help anybody build beautiful room. I always carry the book with me and take it out weekly, just to stay inspired and motivated. It is wonderful to look at and gives a lot of  good information.
Links:
http://www.thelittledollhousecompany.com/
http://whitledgeburgess.com/studio/
http://www.mulvanyandrogers.co.uk/

Plans and assembly

The first thing I did was take out all the pieces of furniture I've collected over the years and create rooms that would fit everything. I did a lot of research and made a list of the rooms I wanted. After many variations, the rooms are as follow:

1st floor:
Kitchen                        20" x 24"
Dining Room                16" x 20"
Great Room                 31" x 30"
Entrance and Staircase 12"x 34"
Music Room                20" x 36"

2nd floor:
Dressing Room            20" x 24"
Master Bedroom         16" x 20"
Girl's Bedroom            14" x 17"
Boy's Bedroom           17" x 14"
Bedroom Hall              15" x 31"
Gallery                        12" x 20"
Library                        20" x 36"

The 3d floor dimensions are not finalised yet, but there will be a Nursery, Housekeeper's Room, Bathroom and Sewing room... at least.

The plans were, to put it mildly, overwhelming. I decided to build the structure in 5 sections. Since I wanted to use MDF I knew it would be extremely heavy and I also needed to be able to fit the pieces through doors and my staircase.
I'm lucky enough to have a great father-in-law, Tom, who is always ready to help, encourage and find solutions to my problems. Well, he was patient and listened to all my concerns, and in the end he became the best accomplice I could ask for.

We brought the plans to our hardware store and asked that they cut the pieces in 1/2"Mdf.. By the time I got the pieces, checked them, and had a dry run, I realized they had cut all 87 pieces in 5/8" MDF instead of 1/2". After a mild panic attack, I looked over the plans, did some measuring, and went back to the hardware store. I didn't want to bring back all the pieces, so I had them re-cut about 12 in 1/2 inch Mdf ...the rest I could work around.
 I then drew all the door, window and fireplace openings onto the Mdf and cut them out using a Dremel with a multipurpose cutting guide and  #561 Multipurpose Bits. I made sure I used metal rulers held in place with clamps to get perfect cuts. the dremel worked great!
The final preperation was making channels for wiring. I decided to use the hard wire system. In the past I've used tape wire and it was more trouble then it was worth. I'll discuss wiring later on. I used the dremel with the same multipurpose bit, this time adjusting the cutting guide so the channel would be 1/4" deep. All electric channels go to the back of the house and the power bars will be in a section of the attic

To assemble the shell, I first glued the pieces together using Yellow carpenter's glue. I waited a week and drilled 1/4"holes and added 1 1/4" wood dowels to make sure the structure was solid. The next step was priming the whole structure with Behr Premium Plus Primer and Sealer.

Building from scratch

I've built 3 dollhouses from kits. It was a great way to start and learn. By the third one I felt my work was getting pretty good:

The 3 first kit houses have been given away. I made a list of what would be the perfect miniature project:

-Front opening
-Floor plan must be realistic
-Rooms must be large enough to hold my collection

After a long search for a new kit I realised it might be easier to build one from scratch. I've always loved the charm of old English manor houses. Since my only limit was my imagination I got to work on several house plans. One day I saw a Stephen King mini-series about a haunted house that was absolutely perfect. I started to work on plans and making cardboard models...2 years later, I was finally happy with the plans and ready start work on my dream miniature house:

And here is the final cardboard model built to scale.

It's amazing how a simple little dollhouse wound up measuring 39 inches deep by 100 inches wide and 56 inches high.  I wasen't sure I could tackle such a big project, but I finally decided to go for it. I have a bit of an artistic side, so I made detailed plans, drawings and figured out exactly what I wanted the rooms to look like.

Then, I spent about a week drawing out how the pieces could fit on each sheet of Mdf. I listed each piece and their measurements and had the hardware store cut the 87 pieces out of 6 sheets of Mdf. When I got home and taped the pieces together, the result was even more daunting then the cardboard model:

It's big, but it's exactly what I had envisionned. And then the fun began...

In the beginning

Hello all,
My name is Giac and welcome to my blog. I've been a miniaturist since 1997. In the past I've built 3 dollhouses from kits and have decided to try building one from scratch. The hobby is not very popular in the Montreal area and I thought this blog would be a good way to share my ideas, what I've learned and get help and feedback from others. I started construction on the dollhouse in August of 2010 and am now confident enough to create this blog. I hope you enjoy my work.

Giac