BUILDING HALF SCALE FIREPLACES

Entry posted by Alamom August 10, 2010

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I know that building fireplaces for our dollhouses is not new, but, for me half scale is. I have made a modern and a victorian style fireplace. I'm going to show how I did the modern one and then I'll show what I used to do the victorian one. The process is basically the same. Also, I used what I had on hand so don't feel that you have to use exactly what I did. Experiment, That's what I'm doing and having so much fun!

My supplies:

1. Thin cardboard ( mine is from packaging, but could also be posterboard)

2. Foamcore ( my piece was from the Dollar Tree)

3. 1/12 scale crown moulding ( pieces left over from my McKinley, save bits and pieces)

4. Brick printie ( got mine from Jim's printies, he has half scale sizes)

5. Two small bead spacers

6. Thin wood for fireplace front

7. Asst. pieces wood for side trim and mantle

Step 1:

Decide what size you want, I went with a 2x2inch base. Cut a piece from cardboard, foamcore and thin wood.

Step 2:

Cut fireplace openings in foamcore and thin wood. I eyeball things alot, so I just did what I thought looked right. remember the opening in the foamcore will be slightly smaller than in the wood.

Step 3:

Cover the foamcore with brick printie and put a piece on the cardboard.

TIP: Go ahead and finish the interior opening of the thin wood piece that will be against your brick. This way you don't have to worry about getting paint on your brick printie.

Step 4:

Glue these three pieces together with the cardboard on bottom, the foamcore in the middle and the wood on top.

Step 5:

I used stripwood down the sides and to make the mantle. I used my crown moulding under the edge of the mantle. If you don't like cutting crown moulding, you could just use a flat strip. Make sure to sand wood smooth. I also covered a piece of wood with the brick printie for the hearth.

Now, for the fun part, decorating:

Here, I've added bits of wood and my bead spacers for decoration.

Here it is, all finished:

It's been painted and attached to the hearth.

NOTE: My grate is a piece of cardboard that I rolled around a paint brush handle to shape. Then I glued four sead beads to the bottom for feet and painted it black. Then I glued little twig pieces to it. Once the twigs dried, I put glue on top and sprinkled with black , red, orange and yellow chalk shavings. After this dries, spray with a little sealer.

FOR THE VICTORIAN STYLE:

Here is what I used:

1. Thin cardboard ( back and the hearth)

2. Foamcore ( the main fireplace shape)

3. Moulding ( under the mantle and on top of pic frame)

4. 1/12 scale picture frame ( cut in two pieces, fireplace decoration and fireguard, on the hearth)

5. Asst wood strips ( mantle and sides)

6. Cording (around the arch of the opening)

7. Filigree bead cap, slightly flattened (fireback)

8. 2 small gold beads ( on the fireguard corners)

9. 2 small seed beads (one on the center of the filigree and one on the cap front)

10. Cap from a hot sauce bottle ( cut a piece from the back so it's flat)

For the embers I did the same as for the grate in the modern fireplace.

Here is my modern fireplace in my half scale Rosedale. This is going to be it's home:

I made the firescreen from a filigree that I cut. I punched two circles from cardboard with a hole punch, cut one side flat and cut a small slit in the rounded side. The filigree was then pushed into the slits. I used a toothpick to apply a little glue and when the glue dried I painted the feet. The item in the corner is a flat screen tv that will hang above my fireplace. I found a pic in a newspaper ad, backed it with cardboard and then glazed the top with paper glaze (found in the scrapbooking aisle) to make it shiny.

Hope you all have been inspired to build a half scale fireplace, I certainly had fun! :ohyeah: