Doll house Door Hinges

[tgrobe]

What is the best way to do hinges on the doors of the Garfield, or for that matter, any of ther 1" doll houses. The scale brass hinges just dont seem to be as robust as they should be for a childs doll house.

[amylynn920]

That's a good question and one I was thinking of too. I haven't unboxed my first house yet, so I'm not sure what the hinges are like. I'll be following your thread to see what people have to say.

[Stacey6163]

Check out the topic - Need help with my Orchid door - you'll find a bunch of helpful hinging ideas there. Those hinges are next to impossible to use , I like using pins with my doors but am going to try using the Tyvek strips on Opal .

[Roxxie2]

Where do I find that thread? I am going to need help with hinges as I can't manipulate those darned pins with my hands anyway! I had to make most of my doors permanently shut because I can't do the pins!!!!

[KathieB]

What is the best way to do hinges on the doors of the Garfield, or for that matter, any of ther 1" doll houses. The scale brass hinges just dont seem to be as robust as they should be for a childs doll house.

For a child's doll house, you might consider hinging by sandwiching a 1/2" strip of Tyvek (from one of those indestructible large envelopes) or thin chamois (the car-washing kind) between the wall & the trim around the door and the door itself & its trim. This will allow easy operation of the door and is fairly sturdy.

You can add the little brass hinges for decoration if you like, but they really are not robust enough for use in a house that will be played with, as you've already guessed.

For pin hinging, one drills a hole in the top and bottom of the door and matching holes in the top and bottom of the doorway. Glue bits of stiff wire in the door holes and insert into the frame holes. The door will swivel on the pins. (Premade doors purchased as a packet with door and frame included are usually hinged in this manner.)

Depending on the age of the child, you may wish to leave inside doorways open, as they like to reach their hands through the doorways as they play. This is also a good reason to leave out the windows for toddlers.

[havanaholly]

Check out the topic - Need help with my Orchid door - you'll find a bunch of helpful hinging ideas there. Those hinges are next to impossible to use , I like using pins with my doors but am going to try using the Tyvek strips on Opal .

Where do I find that thread? I am going to need help with hinges as I can't manipulate those darned pins with my hands anyway! I had to make most of my doors permanently shut because I can't do the pins!!!!

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34676&hl=%2Bneed+%2Bhelp+%2Bwith+%2Borchid+%2Bdoor

[~morningstar~]

I purchased hinges from some company (I cannot remember the name) on eBay. The parts are so tiny that I have to use magnifying glass to find the nails to hold the tweezers to put them in the wood. Ok, well, not really but very nearly... Someone suggested using glue in the holes where the nails go, so that the nails will stay in, once the glue dries. I like this idea. Also, it was suggested using a pushpin to make starter holes for the nails. What I did, was use pliers to carefully push the nails into the wood, into place. The closet door on the back of the stairs, is hung in place and it seems straight enough.

~morning

[havanaholly]

The problem I had when using the weensy brass hinges was the binding, even when I countersunk them; the barrel of the hinge still made a separation between the door and the frame.

[Stacey6163]

I had that problem using hinges too , they look nice but are a pain to use.

[rbytsdy]

Something that I have started doing is hinging my door to the interior door frame, then installing that whole subassembly; this works so much better than trying to install the door onto the house (I recall some pretty impressive back contortions trying to finish the Willowcrest doors). I love the little hinges even though I know they're the weakest link in the house , so I do apply glue while I'm putting them in. I used pin hinges for my half-scale Rosedale, pinning them to the upper door frame, and with some dry-fitting it worked pretty well.

[~morningstar~]

I was reading somewhere, it might even have been on here, that it is wise to put the hinges and door/frame assembly together before even putting it on the house? I'm thinking this might be important. I know that once I stain the door frame and the door, I'll want to be certain that the hinges are in place, because I don't want to risk breaking anything. One thing I'm not real certain about with the doors, is the door knobs. Mine are all the same, for every door. :\ I didn't get anything fancy because I didn't think I should. Now I'm thinking maybe the exterior doors should have had fancy door knobs. Oh well.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

~morning

[havanaholly]

Look at 1:1 houses, Google images of interior and exterior doors. Exterior doors have keyed locks and modern ones also have deadbolt locks, so they will have more hardware showing than older doors and certainly more than interior doors. How much realism are you going for? If you're going to stain your doors and door frame, do it BEFORE you start gluing hinges, etc. In one of the other threads asking about hinges I described how I use chamois strips.

[~morningstar~]

That's a good point Holly.. I didn't think about the deadbolts. On the victorian and farm house type houses, I don't think the deadbolts look authentic. just an opinion though...

~morning

[havanaholly]

If you're going for realism, when is the setting for your houses? A Victorian house that has modern people living in it probably has a new front door that may be styled to fit the decor, but will have a deadbolt; a turn-of-the-last-century farmhouse with a late-19th/ early 20th Century family and no electricity or running water wouldn't have a deadbolt, necessarily.

[~morningstar~]

it does have electricity.. it's probably going to have mostly early 1900s.. like when electricity first came in... but I don't want deadbolts, really. I want just the doors, with knobs, no locks, really. I know it's not truly authentic. My father asked me if I was going to put running water in the house. Uhhh no?.. LOL

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

~morning

[havanaholly]

It IS your house; you build it and dress it to suit YOU.

[moonberry]

It IS your house; you build it and dress it to suit YOU.

Hehehehehe.... apparently my Arthur thinks it is in charge of me. I had the best of intentions to use the chamois hinges and BAM, before I knew it, the front door had seduced me into gluing the two panels together!

Sigh.

I'm just going to glue the door into the frame and be done with it. If I hinge it, the stairs are in the way of it opening fully anyway.

Good luck with your hinges!

[havanaholly]

That's OK, Lene; when I built the laser cut 1:24 lighthouse it flew together before I thought to drill the holes through the middle of the floors for the spiral stairs, so I have a series of skinny ladders going up the exterior openin walls from floor to floor.

[~morningstar~]

I'm thinking that I will just put the electricity in, and not add all the lil' extras... we'll see. I was thinking about screen doors, but I don't know. I won't know if screen doors will add anything to it until I'm finished with the majority of the construction of this or not. The doors are french on the front and I just can't see it... but there is a side door for entry to the kitchen so maybe one there, but I dunno. I'm still thinking about it. I want to at least get her walls up and the doors and windows on before I take that step.. Daddy thinks running water is a necessity in any home LOL. I don't even have the 'family' that will live there yet. I have the maid on order.. She'll be here some time next year. I haven't been able to find the family I want for this house. Am looking for dolls that are similar in appearance to my Beloved and I... so far I've had NO luck. He's got reddish to light brown hair that is thinning at the crown (typical of Jewish men), and a goatee, and very fair skin with blue eyes. I have long black hair that goes just below my backside, and whiskey brown eyes. My skin is fairer than it used to be. I can't afford to commission someone to make the dolls, so I will keep looking. If I am unable to find them, perhaps I will try to create them myself.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

~morning

[havanaholly]

You might as well give it a try. I got started with a combination of Sue Heaser's and James Carrington's books on doll making. I recommend starting with plasticene to play with making faces, hands and feet, since it's very forgiving and you can use it over and over until your hands got the basic idea and you can move on to polymer clay, and bake it when you like it.

[~morningstar~]

I've never used plasticene before, but I have played with polymer clay quite a bit. Even before I ever started doing miniatures for dollhouses I also have experience with plaster of paris.. I used this years and years ago... when I did miniature masks.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

~morning

Edited to correct a typo

Edited December 28, 2013 by ~morningstar~

[Creamcheese]

If you look at RL doors, both interior and exterior that should help you in your quest for what the appropriate door hardware should be. As others have said, it all depends on how realistic you want your dollhouse to look like AND.....this is your dollhouse so whatever you fancy should be great!

I only tried one door using the tiny door hinges and it was so frustrating for me. Besides that they were not that sturdy so now I'm definitely a big fan of pin hinging doors and even making my own doors and frames to fit. Using softer wood seemed to make it so much easier to insert the pins into the frame and the door and I just used some of my sewing pins that I cut off. The pin hinged doors/frames then just go right into the opening for installation so it's very easy. I stained/painted my doors before installing them. I'm also without any miniature people, only have a few dogs and cats. Maybe someday I will try to make my own people so I appreciate the tidbits and resources that have been suggested. I will definitely research the resources that Holly mentioned.

Good luck with whatever path you take with your dollhouse construction but this community is always so very helpful with building questions!

Susan

[Roxxie2]

The hinges that came with my Farm house were way out of proportion for the scale. They were very large but I still couldn't manage the pins. I think I will stick with Holly's method.

I am sure I have something that will work for the hinges. Kathie mentions tyvek. Is that the stuff the envelop is actually made of or the strip that you seal it with?

[Stacey6163]

It is the stuff the envelope is made of , I got a couple from the PO , enough to make hinges for 100 houses ( hope my stash never gets to be that many ) I'll be lucky to finish what I have tucked away.

[~morningstar~]

It never occurred to me that there is another way to do the hinges.. *shrugs* Mine won't be played with by anyone but me, for now... I expect when I pass on, it will likely get passed on to one of my nieces who will be an adult by then..if it goes to one of my grandchildren, my grand children will be grown so they'll know to be gentle with it.. I may very well write up a will and suggest that it be only given when it's appropriate that whomever receives it knows how to care for it, the furniture is easily breakable, one of the dolls are ceramic, the sculpture of Kyrie, etc.. I hadn't given much thought to who it would go to actually, because I haven't even completed it. The other dollhouse I'm not really so worried about. The Allison would be much sturdier, as it's a lot smaller and easier to construct and lift and carry. The Garfield is very heavy, and would come a part if lifted wrong, or moved wrong, which reminds me, that I need to get that board to support the foundation for moving her.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

~morning