The Mansard Victorian’s upstairs ceilings look lower than they are, due to a 5/8″ strip underneath the roof trim that hangs down over the top of the rooms. Originally I thought about putting flourette bulbs or LEDs behind that trim piece, since they’d be hidden, but instead decided to take advantage of that space to […]
Tag: Electricity (Page 1 of 2)
I wasn’t planning to electrify the bay window addition on the Mansard Victorian, but a few weeks ago I nabbed two Clare-Bell sconces on eBay that match the chandelier I’m using in the living room. And hey, you can’t have too many lights, right? (Don’t answer that.) I already have wallpaper on the other side […]
Every time I’ve sat down at the Mansard Victorian lately, I’ve stared at it for about fifteen minutes and then got up and walked away. I have done a little more with the electricity following my last post — I was waiting to post about it until I was a little further along — but […]
I’m adding a bump-out to the Mansard Victorian’s kitchen. It will be similar to this one on the Queen Anne Rowhouse, but with a Lawbre French Canopy for a Mansard-style roof. I previously cut a hole in the kitchen wall. (Well, Geoff cut it, but I told him where!) The Cassidy Creations sink will sit […]
When I mentioned that my next task in the Mansard Victorian would be to add lights, both Geoff and my dad said, “I thought you were never electrifying a dollhouse again?” It’s true, I’ve said this many times. Miniature lights (especially 1:24 scale!) are delicate and finicky and expensive and something always goes wrong. But […]
About a month ago I learned that Dollhouses, Trains, and More will be closing, and I’m pretty depressed about it. I used to live five minutes away and went in there about once a week. Even after I moved, I’ve been making the trip every few months to buy strip wood and other supplies. Their […]
After one of the wires under my Queen Anne Rowhouse burned up, I decided I should clean up the rat’s nest of wires to prevent future damage. When I started electrifying the Rowhouse back in 2012, I was regretting that I connected the Fairfield’s lights under the floorboards, where I couldn’t easily access them if […]
Fixing the Queen Anne Rowhouse’s wallpaper requires installing two new lights, which always has the potential to go horribly wrong. The Rowhouse is wired with tapewire, and all of the lights are attached with brads to the tape underneath the house. There are also two outlets plugged into the tapewire, in the two bedrooms. On […]
The main reason I waited so long to fix the wallpaper in the Rowhouse’s stair rooms is that I didn’t want to destroy the lights. Since the wires run through to rooms that are already finished, there would be no way to replace them. I finally jumped in on the rehab when I came up […]
Almost three years have passed since I packed up 17 dollhouses (yikes), ~20 bins of furniture and supplies, and more kits than I care to count and moved from one 1:1 scale house to another. Even though the move was only 25 miles, getting the houses packed up, transported, and unpacked was a huge effort […]
Now that the bar is electrified, I’m done adding tapewire to the roombox and can finally get moving on the roombox interior. (I originally intended to finish this project in December so I can get back to the Victorianna, which I’m hoping to finish in 2018. Oops.) I decided early on that the bar’s main […]
Before gluing in the bar shelves I built, I wanted to add lights. The bar needs to be removable from the roombox (it would be much too hard to add accessories if it were fixed in place), so this means the lights need to plug in to an outlet. And of course I didn’t want […]
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 […]
Two days until Christmas! Gotta get this roombox finished, or it’ll be embarrassing. :o With the wallpaper and cabinets finished, I glued in the baseboards and crown molding. This hanging basket is another Hallmark ornament. I had one of these already but had removed the bottom basket to make it more in scale. Since the […]
The Hallmark stove ornament I’m using in my Christmas breadbox roombox comes with a cord sticking out the back that you’re supposed to plug into a string of Christmas tree lights. I cut mine off long ago, but the very ends of the wires were still peeking out. When I started the breadbox project, I […]
For years, I’ve been holding on to these Hallmark ornaments without anywhere to put them. They’re about 1:12 scale but look way too small when you put them with 1:12 cabinets (especially the fridge). And I love the detail, but didn’t necessarily want Christmas stuff in one of my dollhouses year round. Then there’s the […]
With the Gull Bay’s exterior finished, all that remains is interior trim. Since this house will be displayed fully closed up, the only view in is through the windows, so you really only get a glimpse. Because of this I considered not bothering with molding and baseboards but the house felt unfinished to me without […]
In a continuation of the easiest electricity ever, I added the ceiling lights to the downstairs rooms of the Gull Bay cottage. Normally with a ceiling light I would snip off the plug, drill a small hole in the ceiling, and run the wire to the floor above. But with the Gull Bay I wanted […]
After my not so great experience(s) adding lights to the Queen Anne Rowhouse, I swore I’d never electrify another dollhouse again. But since the Gull Bay is enclosed on all four sides, it would be impossible to see inside through the windows without lights. Luckily it’s a smaller house, and the way it’s constructed made […]
I have been working bit by bit on the rowhouse bathroom and plan to post a blog about it soon, but jumping ahead a bit, I wanted to show off the “etched” privacy window I made this weekend. The plexiglass in the bathroom window had a small scratch in it that I decided to cover […]