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Fundraiser Project


PNSFan

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My name is Diane. I live in New Jersey and have been serving on the board of a preschool and childcare facility for low income families for nearly a decade. We are holding a fundraiser this summer and my husband and I felt that donating a dollhouse to the silent auction tied nicely with the cause. New to dollhouses, we are building a Tennyson--the one manufactured by Artply. Although we built a 1/12" model of our home when we designed and constructed it in 2001, the detail in a dollhouse goes far beyond that of our little model!

I have roamed around and found a lot of great information online--including More Minis blog describing her building of the Artply Tennyson dollhouse. That was a great find!

The great build begins! I look forward to your advice going forward.

Diane

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:welcome: to the forum!

One decision you need to make early on is whether this is going to be a house for a collector (adult) or one designed to be played with by children. How you approach the build -- electrify or not; reinforce joints; put plastic in windows or leave them open for small hands to reach inside; paint (semi-gloss washable) or wallpaper; etc. -- will be guided by this decision.

We have folks here who have built the whole gamut. Feel free to ask questions!

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Thanks, Kathie. Many of those decisions have been made already. It is definitely geared toward adult collectors--not children. That's based on a personal desire on my part. I have had great fun selecting wallpaper and trim items. We are not going to electrify--maybe next time. I'll have to learn more about the reinforcing of joints.

The other challenge, since this is an item for an auction, is how much to spend on the interior decor. I want to furnish it in period Victorian decor and have already selected wallpaper and flooring. The range in furniture prices is staggering! I'm still trying to figure out how to get the most bang for the buck. Bidders are unlikely to be dollhouse enthusiasts--rather this will likely be an impulse purchase. Our plan is to underwrite the cost of the dollhouse, but have local merchants sponsor rooms in the dollhouse.

Hopefully this forum will help to steer me in the right direction, so I make the best choices out there.

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...I'll have to learn more about the reinforcing of joints.
for 1/8" plywood kits there are two ways I use. For myself or other "old" children like me, I use heavy duty steel staples along the edges. For a child's use I cut lengths of 1/4" square dowel stock the height of each floor and glue them into the interior corners and also reinforce them with the aforementioned heavy duty staples.

The other challenge, since this is an item for an auction, is how much to spend on the interior decor. I want to furnish it in period Victorian decor and have already selected wallpaper and flooring. The range in furniture prices is staggering! I'm still trying to figure out how to get the most bang for the buck. Bidders are unlikely to be dollhouse enthusiasts--rather this will likely be an impulse purchase. Our plan is to underwrite the cost of the dollhouse, but have local merchants sponsor rooms in the dollhouse.

Hopefully this forum will help to steer me in the right direction, so I make the best choices out there.

See if your library has any of Patricia King's books, or can get them for you on inter-library loan, especially Making Victorian Dolls' House Furniture and Making Dolls' House Furniture; everything is made from bits & bobs of "found" items and looks fabulous. You can amaze yourself with what you can create from broken jewelry, table trash, old greeting cards, etc, with just a few drops of white glue or super glue. And do check out the scrapbook stores for papers with suitable prints.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Diane and welcome to Greenleaf.Sounds like a grand project you have lined up. I did a puzzle/house for a tag sale for our local animal shelter and used a bought furniture kit that I painted myself.It was geared for children over 7ish..and it went over way better than I had imagined.Take a gander and look around ..lots to see and many new friends to meet! :wave:

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