The Birth of a Victorian Dollhouse

I am about to embark upon a huge project…a Victorian dollhouse that was supposed to have been made many many years ago.  As I was cleaning out for my downsize,  I found our dollhouse kit.   My husband was going to build pieces of furniture and embellish the outside design. I hoped for a wrap around porch.  He was a fantastic woodworker and had built glass front bookcases, dressers, etc.  When he passed away, the dollhouse became a insignificant project pushed out of sight. During the process of cleaning out the house and downsizing, I found our precious dollhouse.  It is up to me to perform this task now.  This dollhouse will not be as illustrious as planned, as I unfortunately do not have the wonderful woodworking skills as my late husnand had.   I was to be the interior decorator embellishing and painting furniture and walls, wall paper, drapery, as well as the exterior enhancer with traditional Victorian color scheme, flower pots,  porch swing, anything else that struck my fancy.  This is a project long over due…so very long over due.  Here we go!

I noticed that, after 25+ years, various pieces were missing.  At least, I have not yet come across them in my cleaning.   No problem though, as I’ve always been pretty good with Plan Bs.  I do a lot of wandering around on the web and thought to try and find dollhouse parts and pieces.   I just so happened to type in the name of the manufacturing company of the dollhouse and Bingo!  Hit the jackpot when  coming across the company, Radmark Internatinal, Inc,  E. Brunswick, NJ, the makers of my starter kit dollhouse is online and still in business.  They now make dollhouse kits along with various other pieces and parts that will be very helpful in the completion of the project. This is now going to go along a lot better than I thought.  There was no such thing as the Internet when the dollhouse kit was bought so I feel extra fortunate having come across the plethora of information on what is available for purchase and just where I can purchase pieces.  One link lead to another and another…you know how that goes.   I was uncovering  many different sites, even eBay,  to buy whatever I may need all over the Internet. 

  Had to created a new bookmark folder to keep track of the sites selling parts for when the time comes I will be able to find them quite easily.

There is so much to-scale furniture available right down to an old fashioned toilet, a stove/oven in which to cook a tasty cake,  scrumptious looking food on fine china for the dining table.  

  If that wasn’t enough, several pairs or shoes and a shoe horn to put into the bedroom armoire was available. There was not anything I could not find to make a gorgeous Victorian Dollhouse.

The roof will need shingles.  Four hundred fifty shingles to be exact.  These nice cedar shingles ought to do the trick nicely.   Will give it a very realistic look and might even paint them a charcoal color to resemble slate tiles they used way back when.  Back home in Massachusetts I was able to get real slate tiles to paint welcome signs or name plaques.  Slate is such a beautiful piece of stone, especially as it glistened after a rain storm.  When inside a house with a slate roof added a very special patter to the raindrops.  There is a lot to be said on how things were made in the past compared to now.  The old products lasted longer up to 150 years.  The color variations with the grays and blues of slate could be patterned with beauty.  Yes, I think slate tiles will be perfect, for my dollhouse faux slate that is because real slate is very expensive.

I started to see all sorts of dollhouse creation, fairy houses, and troll houses as I wandered about the Internet.  As usual, I got sidetracked and started to look at these fairy and troll houses. What amazing things you can do with popsicle sticks and various wooden cutout pieces.  

  Amazingly large or every so tiny. Regardless they were all bedecked with intrigue and mystery. 

   Several years ago, I had seen the tree stump with flowers planted in it. Now, I am inclined to make the lower stump a troll house.   Do you not think that a troll house with a fern and flowers atop is far more fun to have in the yard.   I remember visiting Iceland and seeing colorful little troll houses spotting the countryside which gives such a fun air to life.  So many wonderful legends of trolls filled their folklore.

This project just became a whole lot more fun!!!!   As with many things I end up doing, it is snowballing into other projects.  Of far more importance, finally I know some little girls and one not so little girl who will be thrilled with a Victorian Dollhouse.

“To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics;
and to endure the betrayal of false friends.
To appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson