The Orangery

In another dolls house development - I've built an orangery. When I bought the house, I bought the basement as an added extra, and when you stand the house on it, the french windows from the kitchen open out onto nothing! My idea had been to construct a conservatory or orangery next to the house with a flat roof which would be a roof garden, and I was going to build it from scratch because none of the kits I could find were the right size. But then I found a Dolls House Emporium Orangery which has been discontinued for a few years) on eBay. This was just about the right size, nd although didnt hve a flat roof, I was fairly certain I could adapt it to have one.  It was a plain MDF kit, so plenty of opportunity to decorate it the way I wanted to.This the first time I had it out of the box, just checking it fits, and you can see the hanging french windows.

The first thing I did was a "dry build" where you put it together held with masking tape, so you can work out how you're going to decorate it etc. I decided to paint it in sections, before assembling it. All of the windows came in multiple pieces and had to be assembled - very fiddly, and everything took several coats of paint.

I went for a pale green and white theme which I thought matched the house, and looked a bit French! I wanted to make the inside very sumptious and lush, so had already decided  on a marble floor, and wanted some sort of tiled effect or murals in the arches at the back. I downloaded and printed loads of pictures and experimented with them, until setting on Alfonse Mucha's the Seasons - could only use 3 so missed out winter! 

Eventually I had it all assembled and I was able to put it next to the house

My next trip was to Miniautra, the miniatres exhibition in Birmingham where I conentrated on buying plant and garden material - I got quite a haul!

I made myself a pond using the stone trough, some plants, some goldfish I made from Fimo, and solid water. You can see it in the finished roof garden

Actually it's not finished - I'm still experimenting with it. Nothing is fastened down so I keep moving things around to see what looks best. I've even got some veg and an apple tree by the back door. All of the pots and beds I bought empty and made myself

Inside the orangery I'm still experimenting with what to put in it. This is what it looks like at the moment

Lots of plants, a chandelier, a table set with champagne, vases and garlands. I'm looking forward to putting a Christmas tree in, and lots of fairy lights!  I'm quite pleased with it, but it will probably remain a work in progress for a while.

Decorating the fourth wall

Right  it's definitely time I posted about my Dolls House - its over a year since I did! Not that I haven't been up to stuff, but I haven't got round to writing about it. One of the things I was thinking a lot about last year, was what to do with the inside of the doors that you open to see into the house. I had originally just painted them cream, and then added some curtains to some, but it didn't look right. So, I decided to decorate them to match the rooms. I've since found out it's called the fourth wall.

I started with the nursery, and painted the walls as close a match to the wallpaper as I could, and then cut out the balloons from the wallpaper and stuck them on upside down. Did something similar with a mixture of paint and wallpaper in the pink room - was quite proud of the results!

Then I started on the other rooms. I tries wherever possible to match up skirting boards and picture rails, and the wallpaper and any border. Some I painted to match. I managed to find curtains or blinds to match every room, and added as much detail as possible by sticking things to the wall. This is ground floor hall for example.

and the kitchen

The lights are battery operated so no need to wire them in.

The window seat I change occasionally, sometimes with flowers and champagne, and at Christmas it had a small tree, champagne and fruit meringues!

All of the fourth walls are now finished, and I think it makes the house look a lot more finished.

My next task will be to decorate it for Halloween with all of the pumpkins, candles and toadstools I've made from polymer clay.

First polymer clay miniatures

In case you thought I'd forgotten the Dolls House....

Of course I haven't, just not blogged about it for a while. Exciting post to come about the "fourth wall", and the orangery I'm building, but what I'm really excited about at the moment is building miniature things for it out of polymer clay.  I've bought loads of beautiful things for it from dolls house shops, from the Miniatura exhibition and from eBay, and all have been beautifully handcrafted. So I thought I'd have a go myself.  Bought a few different colours of polymer clay and set to work. Of course, I soon realised it was harder than that, and I needed tools, chalk pastel paints and liquid clay. But, I'm persevering, and these are my first attempts

A bread loaf, two cheese, tomato and cucumber rolls and a red rose in a black vase:

Some lemons, clementines, apples and pumpkins for Halloween

And some sweet things - a strawberry cheesecake, a kiwi tart, a lemon custard tart, and two cupcakes.

Just realised there's nothing on the pictures to give you an idea of scale, but each tarts above is smaller than a penny.  Not brilliant, but not bad for a first attempt! 

Porkpie, a bar and wet feet

Last weekend I went to Miniatura at the NEC - an exhibition of tiny things and Dolls Houses! We'd had about 48 hours of snow leading up to it, so was a bit apprehensive and it didn't get off to a good start when Stuart spent 10 minutes trying to get the car to the top of the road to take me to the station for an early train. No luck as it just spun and skidded, so I set off to walk. Unluckily I'd put the wrong boots on, and my feet got very wet! Got there OK, and had a great time, despite the wet feet.

On only the second stall I visited I saw this:

It's a Tall Bar, made by a company called Bespaq, and I've been looking for one for ages. So, I had to have it. Unfortunately, it cost more than I'd taken with me, so I ought to have left then. But didn't. I soldiered on, still with wet feet, and bought loads of little things. Some things I knew what I wanted them for - I wanted lots of stuff to dress the bar with so bought bottles, glasses and a beautiful cranberry glass punchbowl and cups:

Others I just buy because I like the look of them. Since the last Miniatura I'd wanted a very realistic salad from Mags-Miniatures, and as it was coming up to Easter I wanted something chocolatey, and was pleased to find a basket of chocolate eggs. I stopped to chat to a man who made miniature food, and fell in love with his pork pies - he very proudly showed me the jelly in them! And as I love beetroot I couldn't resist a board with all the ingredients for pickling beetroot. I even found a wobbly jelly and some rhubarb. He's my stash of food:

Eventually I ran out of money, and by now had trench foot, so trecked back to Birmingham New Street station when because I'd misjudged timings, I had an hour to wait. I hate that station. And it was freezing! But, got back home to find Stu had a whiskey mac waiting for me and a roaring fire to sit next to, so all was well. Here's what I came home with:

I've had fun the last few days putting most things in the house - and the bar looks great. This isn't a great picture, and I might redo it  this week but gives an idea of what I want to achieve:

The Devil is in the Detail

By Christmas I had all of the rooms of my Dolls House decorated, and with enough furniture in them to look real. My next task is to continue to "dress" them. To make them look lived in, with different scenes in the rooms.  This is fiddly, and quite expensive if you buy everything. I'm trying to make as much I can and pick up pieces where ever I can.

The pink bedroom (this belongs to a teenage girl I think), has a box of chocolates and box of photographs

as well as various toiletries on the bedside table and a gift box on the floor

and jewelry, shells, combs and mirrors on the chest.

It's important in the nursery to have toys, and books on the bookshelf (all of these are readable)

as well as bottles, nappies and bedding for the baby:

My dining room is set for a sumptious afternoon tea

and I'm trying to get as much detail in as possible, so there are glasses and bottles in the dresser, and cutlery in the drawer

In the living room there are ornaments, flowers, teapots and even a goldfish in a bowl.

Finally the kitchen - there's a dresser with coffee and grinder, herbs and various bits of crockery, as well as a table set for breakfast and a vegetable preparation area:

Oh, and I almost forgot, the music room now has a banjo in it:

Dolls House Christmas

I had a great time decorating the Dolls House for Christmas. I started with some trees - plain green ones bought from various places. I used small beads, glitter, sequins and tinsel to decorate them. In total I did 5 of various sizes - here's three of them almost finished.

I bought an assortment of mini decorations, and also made a lot, then set to work on the house. i've always wanted a big hallway with a tall tree with lots of presents under it, so that was first:

The kitchen had a small tree, and some mincepies and a Christmas cake on the table

The living room had lots of decorations, as well as an array things to eat on the coffee table, including the Christmas bowl of nuts, and a couple of g and ts

On the next floor, the hallway had a bright ponsettia, holly and door wreaths, as well as fibreoptic tree which had red lights - one of my bargains from Poundland!

I decided to do the music room blue and silver, and it became my favourite room. The silver tree was also fibre optic and glowed blue.

The dining room was decorated in green and gold with a big swag on the fireplace with gold roses, which I made using the roses I'd decorated candles with at our wedding 10 years ago. I knew they would come in handy again....

There was also a feast set out with a boars head, a turkey, crackers, Christmas cake and even a bowl of brussel sprouts!

The hall on the third floor had some simple white and silver decorations

and the nursery had some old fashioned paper lanterns and some small decorations - had run out of ideas by the time I got up here - will try harder next year.

The games room in the basement had a tree and a Christmas table with sweets, cakes, wine and fruit.

The two clusters on the back wall are a pair of my Christmas earrings!
Phew. All taken down and packed away now for next year.