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The Orchid Dollhouse Construction Blog

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About this blog

The Challenge

The Greenleaf Team Builders are challenged by Community Members in this rare event… Battle Orchid! This blog is the the work of the Team Builders. See the Orchid Construction Blog (Community) to checkout the fine work of our community members. Both groups did a fantastic job... they're all winners! Greenleaf thanks them all for making both blogs possible.

The Orchid Dollhouse Kit is one of Greenleaf's most popular dollhouses. It strikes the prefect balance between price and design. You may find this blog useful for tips and decorating ideas as build your Orchid Dollhouse. Bookmark the page and visit as often as needed.

Entries in this blog

How to use the Orchid Dollhouse Blog

The Best way to navigate this blog is to select a members name from the tag that is under their post. This will give you a list of only that builders post.  As an example, please see this link:  'Follow Minis On The Edge's Orchid'.  As you can see, only Tracy's entries are visible. Please keep in mind that the order of the blog entries change as people add comments, so we recommend that you look at the dates of the different posts and start with the oldest.  As you move forward in time, y

Mini Man

Mini Man

FINISHED at last!

I am finally finished with the Orchid! Or the little brick house, LOL, whichever one you want to call it. Although I am pleased with the exterior of this house (the pictures don't show it well but the outside is a very light blue), I am not very thrilled with my wallpapering job. It wasn't my best .... Anyhow, here it is!

LPCullen

LPCullen

Final entry: the proprietor & family

The Ananda family have moved into the store and are gathering to give thanks to Lord Ganesh for the opportunities for success in my little community. The family includes Mamma Ananda, Mrs U.S. (Laksmi) Ananda, Mr Upani Shad Ananda, daughter Parvati and baby Sita.

havanaholly

havanaholly

Putting on the Porch

My wallpaper is now COMPLETELY done, although I am not real happy with it. It is not one of my better jobs .... As of now I'm leaving the stair case out, because I can't find what I did with some of the stair treads... Time to put the porch posts on the house. Because I bricked the house and the little slots are NOT going to fit in there, I cut the slots off the back side of the porch railing. I'm gluing these on with white glue, but I'm also using a little technique t

LPCullen

LPCullen

Installing Windows and Trim

Now that my wallpaper is done, it's time to install the interior windows, and I use white glue (Elmers) only when gluing in windows. Of course, I have to use my special handy dandy weights for that .... I'm probably going to leave a lot of the outside trim off the house, mostly because I don't think it will go well with the brick. Here's what the outside of the windows are going to look like. Compliments of LPCullen

LPCullen

LPCullen

How to Remove Excess Wallpaper

Because this house has double hung windows, cutting the wallpaer at the windows is a bit tricky. You have to trim the wallpaper large enough for the double hung windows to go in, and sometimes the wallpaper doesn't want to come off the wall when you trim on the inside. Like so: I've already used a razor blade to cut around this window to where I want the wallpaper to be. So, to remove that paper that didn't come off I take a wet washrag--not dripping but good and wet--and wip

LPCullen

LPCullen

Working on Wallpaper

Been working on the wallpaper in the Orchid. It's coming right along. I chose this for the livingroom. And this for the kitchen. And this for the bedroom. As most of you know, I like to "lay over" my wallpaper at the edge of the walls in my house. This is how I did that partition in the upper rooms. I had to cut it, lay the top edge over first, and the bottom edge over second. Compliments of LPCul

LPCullen

LPCullen

Finishing the Porch

I've painted the base coat of the bricks all a nice wash with Brown Iron Oxide. And then I went back and added some Dark Burnt Umber, some Hippo Gray, and then I changed it out a bit and added Burnt Sienna instead of Red Iron Oxide. Same results, I think. What do you think? I still need to clear coat the bricks, but it's raining here so I will have to wait for it to stop raining .... Now, on to wallpapering .... Compliments of LPCullen

LPCullen

LPCullen

Putting on the Porch

I was so impressed with Tracy's porch, that I've decided to copy it, sort of. So, I had Jimmy go ahead and attach the porch to the house. Then I started covering it with paperclay. Now, to make my brick patterns. I'm only putting bricks on the outside of the porch, so I have to make some measurements all around and I'm using the little tool that I got from Rik Pierce's class. I make indentions in the clay all around using the smaller end of that tool. I th

LPCullen

LPCullen

11th Session, 27-30 November

The family who own the store are of Asian Indian heritage but proud citizens of the US, so much so that Mamma Ananda named her baby boy Upana Shad; so the store sign quite correctly reads "USA General Store". I made a parlor stove for heating & cooking out of a plastic egg, a film canister cap, a medication bottle "child-proof" cap, four oval wooden beads, a jeselry finding and a Sonic drinking straw. The sub-assembly is visible in the left side of the previous post's picture of the c

havanaholly

havanaholly

10th session, 9-20 November

I made storeroom shelving using tongueblade-size craft sticks for the verticals and popsicle-size craft sticks for the shelves: I painted them with a wash of yellow ochre & burnt umber: and installed them: I made a rolling set of storage bins from the October '06 issue of American Miniaturist, #42, page 25. DH was delighted to see me actually use some of the table trash I've collected... From Making Miniatures: Projects for

havanaholly

havanaholly

9th Session, 3-6 November

I unpacked the Orchid and the lower porch fell off :whistle: . I measured and cut the upstairs baseboards and painted the ones for the bathroom red and for the other room blue and when they were dry I installed them. It was then I noticed I had installed the guardrail backwards... So I removed it and reassembled & reinstalled it. Since I was on a roll with gluing things I re-glued the bottom of the porch and then I installed the stairs, the handrail and the downstairs divider w

havanaholly

havanaholly

8th Session, 24-26 September

I sanded smooth the spackled side of the stairs and painted them white and dry fit them facing the back. I cut a length of 1/8" diameter dowel while the stairs were in place, to make a handrail, and I painted that red. I was stymied for the downstairs interior wall treatments because I had left all my siding strips you-know-where, and by this time we were camped at Natural Chimneys. On our way in to Harrisonburg the first time I spotted The Miniature Cottage (it was closed) and whe

havanaholly

havanaholly

All done and ready for delivery

I have finished and decorated the Orchid. I will be taking it down to the TV station Friday morning. Here are a few pictures of the outside. I put a small wreath for the holiday season on the door, since it will be offered at the holiday auction. The plant on the trellis is from a swap here. I thought it looked perfect and it kept telling me it wanted to live there. Here is a full pic of the inside 

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

Jimmy's Turn! Putting on the Face!

Today Jimmy got to play with the Orchid for a change. He put the one roof section on the front, and then put the two small windows in. Then he wrestled with the big front section of the house, and taped it ALL up, LOL! Then he turned the house around so that he could work on something, and I realized that he had not put the bottom support in at the back of the house. Oops. That's something that will need to be bricked, so guess what! We're not done with bricks after a

LPCullen

LPCullen

Finishing the Bricks

Been working on bricks, painting, etc. We left off with painting using dark burnt umber. I finished one side, and this is where I ran out of paint on the front. Gotta mix some more paint, still using the two drops and mixing water into it. Once I've finished with the front and get ready to move to the final side using the dark burnt umber, I want to again look at my corners and see what bricks I've painted on the corners with dark burnt umber so that I ca

LPCullen

LPCullen

7th session, 19-22 September

In our travels to the campground at Natural Chimneys I spotted a house with a turret (brick) with the roof entirely shingled in a diamond pattern. While processing the prior roll of film at Wal-Mart I found wonderful 4-packs of 9" X 11" 60-grit sandpaper that appeared to be in scale to do the job :angry: The thickness looked mighty close to scale and I figured 1" squares would give the roofing effect I wanted for the Orchid. The first step was to mark the back of ea

havanaholly

havanaholly

Playing With Bricks

Let's see, where were we? Ah yes, painting bricks. I remember now. The color that I use for the base color of the bricks is Brown Iron Oxide. Looks like this: I now have all the bricks painted brown, see? Whaddya mean all bricks are not brown? You mean I'm not finished yet? Nope, I'm not. Gotta add some more colors in. I'm going to use three different colors, Dark Burnt Umber, Hippo Gray, and Red Iron Oxide. I'll start first with

LPCullen

LPCullen

6th session, 6-8 September

Really rotten weather for paint to dry has delayed things, we got in a lengthy hike of the Iron Ore Trail... In Clifton Forge we found a True Value Hardware store that carries its own brand of sample decorator paints for about 75% the cost of the Benjamin Moore version and I found a shade of blue that matches the shade in the wallpaper border. By now many of you may have noticed I am VERY partial to blue front doors! :angry: :lol: I used it to paint the exterior door and trims.

havanaholly

havanaholly

5th session, 28-30 August

I primed the porch, railing, all the trims and the stairs. I painted the interior door and downstairs window trims white and interior upstairs window trims red. I used two of the porch railing punchouts to trim the lower panel of the exterior front door instead of the rectangular pieces so provided, and painted them red for contrast. I installed the acetate window inserts to the interior window trims and installed them.

havanaholly

havanaholly

4th session, 21-23 August

I noticed a BIG "oopsie", white primer from the exterior "stones" had run in at the bottom of the left dormer & all acros my lovey striped wallpaper & dried :angry: ! I stripped off the old paperand primed over the green. Judith Abraham's suggestion of warm water & vinegar worked a charm! I spackled the seams & gaps generously. I found Linda Cullen's method of ceiling painting to be most effective. SERENDIPITY NOTE: W

havanaholly

havanaholly

Slight progress

Here is the little amount of progress I have managed to do while ill. The bedroom dormer area is finished. I put a tulle net curtain suspended from the ceiling, made some pillows, and used an old earing for a beaded curtain over the window. This is the curtain for the larger room with the dormer. The small room upstairs has a curtain now. I am starting to put on the shingles. I still have 2 more

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

3 day weekend progress

This is not all my progress, I decided to save some pictures for the next post. I got both sides of the house sided and the bay window attached. I made a curatin for the bay window. the flash sort of washed it out, but it is a purple tulle net material with sparkles in it. There will be a nice pediment shelf across the top. To make siding the dormer peek easier after gluing on the window frames I founf the peice the frame punched out from and

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

3rd session, 16-18 August

Now I'm setting up outside our camper in a campground 9 miles from Abingdon, VA. I've had marvelous luck finding store fixtures & merchandise. So far I have 4 Country Crock serving packets (empty & clean) for galvanized tubs ceiling covering found at AC Moore beads for a bead curtain divider signs buckets flower pots in two sizes 4 barrels 6 finial dowel caps for planters 10 round mini mirrors I primed the house exterior (it decided it wants to be "stone")I masked off the area

havanaholly

havanaholly

2nd session, 5-8 August

I'm set up in DS' basement next to the stairs, lots of horizontal surfaces to spread out on when no one else is home. First I dry-fit the shell and it was sweet! No "surgery needed to fine-tune the fit! Assembled & glued the shell & reinforced the edges with heavy-duty staples. The downstairs shop & storage room have informed me they want to be finished with vertical boards (like the second floor of the Coventry Cottage).

havanaholly

havanaholly

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