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The Orchid Dollhouse Construction Blog

A group blog by The Orchid Building Team in General

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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

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

0

Will I ever see any progress?

I have been progressing slowly. The bay window is now attached and I am painstakingly adding siding on the sides 1 board at a time. It seems I will never finsh, but I know I will. I packed up the dollhouse in the car today and took it to Joann's what a mistake. As I was pushing a basket around the store, I think half of the city I live in had to look at it. There were a lot of women there getting spuulies for a beginning serger class at the community college adult community programs. I finally
darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

1

wallpaper started

I finally felt well enough to work on the wallpaper today. I have been fighting an ear infection for the past few days. ( I HATE earaches), The printer is still having a problem so I took Darrell to the scrapbook store to help me find paper. These are the best we could find and still match the overall purple theme I wish to stay with. I would not have chosen most of them in a house for myslef, but for a house that may possibly belong to a little girl, I think they will be great. Thi
darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

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Uodate on Melissa's house

The walls went together very quickly. The roof has only the front half installed at this time. I finally got the dormers to go together the right way. There was not a problem with the directions, there was a problem with the reader of the directions. For some reason I kept gluing the narrow ends of the dormer roof together and putting that to the top of the dormer. I believe I lost cound how many times I made the same mistake. here are pictures of the shell &#
darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

1

TRIM TRIM TRIM

today I spent about 3 hours punching sanding and painting 2 coats of paint on all the trim Peices...well ok not ALL of them but I made a huge dent in the job. but before I did all that boring work I took the time and did something fun which was to build the porch of course it took a little over an hour to punch sand and paint all the bits which make up the porch the porch floor and step had wonderful grain showing so that had to be stained. I just couldnt make myself pai
nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

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tissue/paint effect

I use this method alot. its quick and gives a very nice plaster/stucco effect and its cheep which always makes me happy. I use 2 ply toliet tissue which I tear into strips I use whatever paint I think I will like because when it is dry I can always paint over. step 1-- paint the surface first step 2 --apply the tissue 1 ply at a time to the wet surface than gently brush on more paint over the top of the tissue
nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

2

The windows

you would probably want to side this house after the outer trim is on the windows here is how the windows go together for that "working"look the frame alone....I had to use the actual window when installing the trim to get the correct amount around each side this is how the inside lower window looks without the trim and this is how it looks on the outside of course I used waxy tac
nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

3

The Fun Begins

I don't know what it is about opening a Brand New Wood Kit from Greenleaf but I ALWAYS feel so excited. I am not sure if it is the first smell of wood fresh of out of the box or the fact that it is a new house waiting to be born or what. I just know I have feel excited about it eveytime. I opened the box and it told me it did not want to be a stone house from medieval times or shortly after. It said it wants to use the same windows from the kit (Which are so cool because they look like they r
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

1

The begining

I started the house this weekend, I painted around the windows in the walls and the window frames. I have not broke out in a rash this time. My hamds did start to itch twice and i stopped and washed them and came back to working on the dollhouse later One everything had a coat of paint on it I stopped itching. Melissa
darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

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Still in the box

I juat love what everyone has done to their houses. I am still in the mental planning stage, as I wish this house to be playable by a child. I have a few ideas bouncing in my head, but need to see the house partially built before I can be sure if I wish to implement them. I hope to start it on Thursday after I go buy some more gloves. I do not want to take the chance on breaking out again. I may seal the pieces while they are still on the sheets. or just use gloves and seal after assembly. Oh an
darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

0

Something New

Well, every blog I try something new. This time I wanted to try something new I had found at Hobby Lobby. It is calledPaper Perfect and I wanted to try it to make the stucco or plaster effect on the inside walls downstairs. I chose Mocha Creme color and it is very easy to use (Takes forever to dry though :lol: about 12 -24 hours ) but I really love the effect that I was able to achieved by using it. I did it last night before I went to bed so that I would not spend 12 - 24 hours touching
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

5

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

4

Roof Finished

Well, I have finally finished paper claying the roof and BOY was it a lot of time and clay!!! Though there is not a fireplace on the insde of this house, I did add a Chimney to the roof just because I think it added extra appeal to the roofline. Hubby told me the roof was too high so I chopped off 1" from the top and then he was satisfied. I sliced my finger while chopping of the roof though :lol: :o Tomorrow it will be dry enough for me to paint and then I will start painting t
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

0

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

2

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

0

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

3

Painting & Trim

Well, I did not get to do anything to my house this weekend because I had a guest since Friday evening. But this is how the house is looking so far: I am very pleased with how this has turned out so far and also with the Chimney. I thought it may not look right but it looks fine to me so far. I edited the trim on the big Dormer because the one that should be there hide the brick detail so I took the top roof edges and cut those to fit there instead. :angry: I only need to Paint the s
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

0

Orchid Completed

This house was a really fun build! My houses never feel completed without a Base with trees & flowers and my customers usually expects them of me now. I Think I love the bases myself with flowers because to me, that is what really make my houses look realistic. When I first started using bases (About 10 years ago) I used cardboard because I personally used to love to change them and it was lightweight enough to pick up and have it glued to the house. I then switched to thin wood but had to h
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

6

More Clay

Well Now I added more clay to the dormers and walls upstairs. I also added clay to the back base of the house. Now all I have to do is add the roof, trim and base. Then I will be ready to paint :lol: . Why did I list the things I still have to do. Do you ever get the feeling you are getting no where very fast? :o I do.
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

2

Melissa's progress

I glued on the roof and built and attached the dormers. They gave me quite a fit, For some reason I kept gluing the roofs on upside down with the narrow end at the top. It looked right to me until I placed them on the house. I then took them apart and glued them back correctly. I will have pictures to post of this in a day or so. My printer is still acting up. I may stop by the scrapbook store on my way home from work today. If I can not get there today, then tomorrow will do. I may end up usin
darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

0

Lights, Clay, Action!

I added the lights to the house today. There is a down light on the front porch a chandelier in the living room and a downlight with a frosted shade in the Kitchen. There is a outlet in the bedroom that has room for three lights to plug in. It is hidden behind the right side of the roof. The bathroom has a ceiling light too. I added stone to the bottom half of the house and stucco with exposed bricks on the top. Now I gotta let it dry then I will touch up the paint on the windows and then
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

3

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

0

IT Begins!

so Im the first. I have my kit...I have my plan....I do not have a clean work area yet. so I will begins asap. Im looking forward to seeing how everyones house turns out! Happy Building :o nutti :lol:
nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

0

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

0

I'm Out Of What?

Yeap, I have been at a stand still since Sunday Night. Her I was claying my roof and then I went to open my next package and discovered I am completely OUT of clay :lol: . When did this happen I said to myself? But because I am out I can't finish the roof till more get here (I order it in bulk). This is my progress so far. I am almost there though! Complements of Minis on the edge
Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

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