I bought the bar that will go inside the Blackbird Bar for $15 at a miniature flea market. It has a label on the back that says “Handmade by the Mini Wizards” – I don’t know who these wizards are and haven’t been able to find any details online. If you’ve heard of them, please […]
Category: Dollhouses (Page 10 of 28)
After working nonstop on the Victorianna almost all year I decided to distract myself with a smaller project. In the early 2000’s I had a grand but short-lived plan to enter one of Miniatures.com‘s annual contests with a bar roombox. I bought some furniture and mini bottles but never got around to doing anything with […]
I started cross stitching a rug for the Victorianna’s nursery in July and finally finished it this week. It shouldn’t have taken that long, but I’ve been working on a life-sized cross stitch project and have only been squeezing in a couple of evenings a month on the rug. I adapted this pattern from a […]
With work on the exterior towers (mostly) done, it seems safe to assemble the Victorianna’s second floor porch railing. I was putting it off to prevent knocking into it, plus the porch has made a great platform for holding tower pieces as I’ve been working on them… There were some gaps between the porch floorboards […]
With the 1:48 gazebo bashed beyond recognition and the spiral staircase finished, it’s time to assemble the Victorianna’s cupola. The first step was to glue crown molding around the top for the cupola to sit on. I used a scrap of wood as a spacer to ensure the base would be flush with the tops […]
My first experience using Gallery Glass was in the Oak Shadow roombox, in a Guys from Texas class a million years ago. This was a 1:12, Craftsman style window with a very simple design, and we used silver tape to create the lead lines. I never got around to creating a gallery for this roombox, […]
Like the big tower roof that I completed in September, the roof of the Victorianna’s gazebo-turned-cupola is made from a wooden bell that I bought off Etsy. It’s slightly smaller than the octagonal base it’s sitting on, so I had previously added 1:12 crown molding around the edges of the base. That helped, but having […]
Continuing with the Victorianna’s spiral staircase — I wasn’t happy with how the stain turned out on the top step, so I painted it to match the landing. I filled in the laser cut part with wood filler. That piece needed to be “bad side up” for it to face the right direction, so the […]
The cupola on the Victorianna’s right-hand tower started out as a 1:48 scale gazebo. But because there’s no separation between the cupola and the tower room below, I wanted the cupola to be enclosed rather than “open air” like a gazebo. The bottom level of the towers has 1:12 corner blocks underneath the windows. They […]
I’ve finally reached the point on the Victorianna where I can glue on the front roof pieces. Yay, progress! My plan was to add fishscale shingles to the top portions of the towers. I got these from Alpha Stamps. I don’t know why, but even though it looked great in my head, I hated this […]
The back-to-back Victorianna has two towers, which I enclosed with French doors to turn into little rooms. The one in the master bedroom will be a small office / writing room. The other tower is attached to the nursery, and I couldn’t think of anything that a baby would need in an enclosed room besides […]
Continuing with the Victorianna’s “copper” tower roof — it doesn’t take long for pretty, orangey copper to tarnish and turn blue out in the elements, so I need to dirty it up. To do so, I bought a set of Vintaj Patina paints. This set is appropriately called Weathered Copper and includes three colors: moss, […]
Edit 9/24/17: As I continue to look at pictures of “gazebo thingies” at the top of turrets for inspiration, I’m starting to think that what I’m making would more accurately be called a cupola, not a widow’s walk. I changed the title of the post to reflect this. Last time, I posted about the bell-shaped […]
For months, I’ve been looking into options for the Victorianna’s tower roofs. I didn’t really like the look of the roof that comes with the kit, plus I suspected it would be hard to assemble. You can see what it’s supposed to look like in the box photo. The Victorianna is a half scale version […]
The Victorianna’s nursery is coming together. I’ve been working on trim, starting with the built-in corner cabinet. I can’t add crown molding until the ceiling is glued in, but I cut the pieces before gluing the cabinet into the room. I then glued them together, using the cabinet as a guide but not actually gluing […]
Last July, I got started on the Victorianna’s exterior bay windows. I finished them in September and moved on to the second floor bays in March. Those have sat unfinished until now. They’re not particularly difficult, they’re just boring — lots of cutting and fitting and painting small pieces, which are not my favorite things […]
As promised in a recent post, here’s a tutorial for an upholstered bench in 1:24 scale. The bench is made the same way as my half scale sofas. There are two versions – one with tall arms and one with short arms. (They’re shown side by side at the bottom of this post.) Supplies needed: […]
It’s toy time! Painted ceramic beads make good toys in half scale. I already used a bunch of these in the downstairs little girl’s room. For the nursery I picked out safari-themed beads from Shipwreck Beads, to go with the wallpaper. I haven’t ordered from them, but The Crafty Bead also has a nice selection. […]
The master bath and nursery are on hold while I wait for some supplies, so I’ve been working on furniture for the master bedroom. This bed is 3D printed from Shapeways. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to put in a mattress with that open bottom. I’ve made beds before, both scratch built and from […]
As I mentioned last time, that zebra’s butt sticking out the side of the corner cabinet was driving me crazy. I was seriously thinking of building a new, slightly bigger cabinet to cover up the ass-end of the zebra. Then I realized I just needed to add strip wood to the sides of the cabinet […]