When I chatted with Jim Marcus about the Little Belle, he commented that it’s hard to paint a house like this because you have to be a really good painter to do justice to all the small details. He pointed out that when the house is all white, the shadows serve as a sort of accent color. He suggested painting the Little Belle’s shingles, stairs, door, and base in shades of gray, and leaving the rest white.
You can see the effect in his Russian Embassy house, which is based on the Westerfeld house at 1198 Fulton Street in San Francisco. (At one time it was a nightclub run by Russians, NOT the former location of the Russian consulate — all the mini magazines get this wrong!) More pics of this dollhouse can be found on the James D. Julia auction website.
I liked that idea and was planning on it (because I am *not* a good painter!) until I saw the Texas Showcase Little Belle with its brown shingles, and for some reason I really liked that. The Haze paint I used on the house has a tan tint to it and I thought brown would go better with that than gray.
I got a rich brown Behr sample named Chocolate Truffle. Home Depot had just started offering samples in other finishes besides flat, so I tried it in eggshell for a bit of a sheen.