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Making the outside of my dollhouse look good


Livinginthepast

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My 'little' dollhouse is supposed to be set in England. However I won the dollhouse rather than chose it, and they made it as an Australian Victorian style rather than English Victorian. It has a verandah for example.

It is also painted salmon pink and there is no texture on the walls or roof.

I really want to know what I could do with this. Is there a way to saw the verandah off, and is would that just look weird? I don't mind the idea of a porch however. Could this verandah be kept and somehow 'explained' as being a porch of some sort? Or is that all together too unEnglish. What colour or style should I paint it? Would this house (without a verandah, and made with different 'stones' and roof) 'fit in' in a cotswolds town at all? Where in England should it be?

How could I make it look 'unique' and 'weathered' a bit?

I'm REALLY not good at any woodwork. I have some tile things already, they're those ones that come in big sheets and you cut them to size, but I was struggling with drawing the paper templates that would fit around the dormer windows. I'd still like to use them though, would they still be appropriate? I was going to chip them a bit and paint them to look like slate probably, and put moss in the cracks.

Photos are in my gallery. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/uploads/1254682945/gallery_3384_3508_1632053.jpg Direct link to the photo of the outside.

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I truly like the house the way it is. It's a little beauty. We have members from the U.K here, "Muriel" comes to mind immediately, amongst others, so I'm sure someone can answer your questions. As for stonework with paper clay, Tracy have a blog I beleive "MinisOnthe Edge". She does fabulous work. Best of luck.

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First thing I see when I look at that hose is the porch, It needs to be beefed up, maybe some spindles and the post could be replaced, or you could go off the wall take it off, and make a side walk. I don't think city victorian houses had porches, stoops yes but porches. . . . I would also Change the roof either paint birch shingles to look like slate or paper clay. Next brick or stone on the outside. Maybe some flower boxes on the windows. Also if your going to add a wing why not add it to the Left, you can then make that small room the dinning room, the one on the other side the parlor and your addition could include a kitchen scullery. If you were to make that addition two story's that would give you an extra bed room. Now taking that tour It seemed a different layout all together, I like it so far and I apologize for being so opinionated. :)

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It's for in a village, rather than a city. I'm envisaging a little row of four or five houses in a very small town, and the houses don't even match each other. I don't think English victorian houses had verandahs (or big porches) at all, so that's why I'm confused about what to do.

What sort of brick or stone would look good? I really do like setting things in particular parts of a country too.

hehe, corwin, your 'idea' for the extension is pretty much what I wanted to do! Kitchen downstairs, and then bedroom upstairs. I don't know if I could have a scullery as well.

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It was your idea but I think it would look better at the right rather than the left (from where I am sitting) So its adjacent to the smaller room. That could be your dining room, and your now kitchen can be a parlor big enough for the whole family. Also How about a small say. . .3-4 inch wide conservatory, built like a lean to, sorta.

For your scullery you can halve 'half' a room showing with a trace of the scullery showing. . .

Also if you mke that big room your faimly room, its big enough that you can set a false wall two inches out add your flooring, dark wall, and a hint of what ever room your trying to create.

But yeah I have never heard of a English town house with veranda. It looks like it might pry off. . .

Check this out.

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I like your thinking, and I just went and put the kitchen table into the parlour. It certainly *could* be a dining room, and I'm considering it! I don't want it to end up looking too 'rich' though- a dining room could just pass as not too well to do. So it's a possibility for sure.

I did like the idea of having a parlour that is 'for best' even though they don't have a huge house. The above idea would mean I'd have to accept the family using it all the time as the front door opens into it. I could make a hallway there, but then they'd have nowhere to sit for casual times, as the room that might be a dining room is too small to act as both!

I think a conservatory would be far too fancy for them. I looove the idea of having the house being 'different' to others- people very rarely do people who are not well off.

I don't understand what you're saying about a false wall in the big room if it's a parlour. If you're saying I could suggest that there is a room beyond... well, I really want the house to be as 'complete' as possible rather than hints. I could hint at a hallway and staircase beyond though!

It's a pretty solid verandah. But on the back of the dollhouse door there are some screws- it might be able to screw off. It seems to be glued down *and* screwed on.

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I just measured. Since I have to leave a walkway from the front door to the door leading through to the 'stairs', the remaining space for a parlour would only be 10 inches- the parlour as it is now is only 9 inches. So it's not that much difference. (Though I am not opposed to the idea of a dining room.) It doesn't really solve the 'there's 8 of them and it's not a very big room' problem, though I'm still considering it.

I was also considering putting a hallway there, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps a little entrance wall, like in the cottage in sense and sensibility. (the movie).

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I do 'have' to have 8 people- I thought it would be interesting. I like doing different things. If the widow lived in a huge house like that with servants she'd have no hardship, no bed sharing, etc etc. I really do want to do something different. Though I'm aware it is a small house, it did happen in real life.

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For an English look, brick or stone. If stone, it would depend on where it was supposed to be whether they used a grey color or honey color. It could also be whitewashed stone. I've been watching DVD s of Doc Martin, set in a Cornwall seaside village, and most of the houses seemed to be whitewashed, although I can't be sure when they started whitewashing cottages and houses. I've seen examples of Victorian dollhouses with whitewash exteriors, though.

Actually, your house looks an awful lot like a house that stood across the street from me in Philadelphia, but without the trim, and it was painted butter yellow.

If you remove the porch and the trim, stone it up, leave it simple, but picturesque, it'll fit right in with the English look. What Americans think of as a Victorian house wasn't built in England.

BTW, brick and stone combination is something I've seen in English Victorian period houses, like a stone house with brick trim around doors and windows. Brick houses with white tim around doors and windows, and maybe a tiny porch, just for the front door, painted white is another look that comes to mind.

It's too early in the day for me to think of anything else.

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I do 'have' to have 8 people- I thought it would be interesting. I like doing different things. If the widow lived in a huge house like that with servants she'd have no hardship, no bed sharing, etc etc. I really do want to do something different. Though I'm aware it is a small house, it did happen in real life.

yep it did :) i like grazina's ideas too of getting rid of the veranda and putting in a small porch :lol:

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I agree about removing the verandah, and the trim strip under the roof eaves. If you check out Maple Street Minis (particularly their PDF catalogue on their website), you'll find a variety of 3D pattern sheets and paper sheets of various English brick and stone, including Cotswold stone and roof tiles. Good luck with it, but I am sure you will do a fantastic job!

Oh, as for removing the verandah, I'd try heating it with your hair dryer and then either prying it off or giving it a whack with something. If you are going to brick/stone over the top, it shouldn't matter too much if the wood surface gets a little roughed up.

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Well I really am having difficulties replying to this thread! :)

I think the house would look great in Cotswold Stone! Don't know that it is victorian, but wouldn't be too far off I'd say. Anyway, did a search for some british victorian buildings and on a site with many international pictures I found this one:

gallery_2387_24_109104.jpg

It is in the quite small town of Stroud where I lived for two years, and the building in which my mummy did 5 years of art therapy training! I worked in a pharmacy about 4 buildings down the hill on the right :lol:

It has some lovely details including reliefs of various famous scientists around the outside of the building.

gallery_2387_24_25266.jpg

Anyway, here's a cotswold stone building for inspiration!

riverside_house_bourton_on_the_water_cotswolds1.jpg

I would definitely get rid of the veranda. Leave the floor, but think it'd be better without the roof if you want it to be cotswold anyway! The victorian buildings here really don't have as much - if any - gingerbread. It is all more made out of stone with some ironwork, but not wood really.

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I love those example houses! And Muriel: I actually have saved the second one you gave already, in my inspiration folder! It is lovely.

hmn. So that cottage there DOES have a verandah... however, when was it put on. Is it contemporary to the house? I guess we can't find out!

I think the verandah is quite a lot more sturdy than some of the kits' verandahs- this thing was hand made from pdf, and the verandah is one huge solid triangle of wood. I'll try first unscrewing it.

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