choosing a style or theme for house

[Tinkerbelle]

Hi

I don't know if there are threads discussing this. I couldn't find it in the search engine thingabob but then again I'm useless with those and the right search words. If there is, sorry I'm making a new thread.

I'm having problems making decisions in regard to the style of my dh. It's a Georgian dollhouse and I'm keeping the exterior as that but Georgian interiors bore me. As does Victorian.

I thought about doing shabby chic as that is my style preference in real life but I think I'd find it hard to do in an entire house.

Originally I thought I'd do a Cath Kidston house (google her as she's very English) as I am obsessed with her stuff. I'm as obsessed with her as much as American girls are obsessed with Lilly Pulitzer. Only problem I found is finding any floral wallpaper in the UK that is close to it in style. They more Victorian/Edwardian in style.

My mum wants me to do a Modern dollhouse and I think that I want some modern in there but it's never done much for me. Too sterile for me.

And I'm interested in fifties/sixties fashion and furniture. Mum says I should do a 1950s house next.

This is my dream dollhouse, that represents me. I'm modern and vintage.

Is there any way of doing that in a dollhouse? Would it look weird?

How do you decide on the style of your dh? Do you mix eras/ styles as longs as looks good?

Sorry I rambled on a bit. It's decision time now and I'm still confused.

[Caseymini]

Lindsay, have you heard the Greenleaf members talking about the house "speaking to them"? If you sit down with the house, a notebook, a ruler and a pencil, it will help with getting it to talk. The first decision it will make is what each room wants to be... Then it will start discussing colors...

You will be surprised that the house likes some of the same colors that you do. If you like yellow in a kitchen, many times it will tell you that it wants a yellow kitchen.

There is no reason that you can't mix styles in the house. Most real houses aren't all one style.

First think about who is going to live there. Is there more than one generation? Does a crazy grandma live in the attic? Are there kids that need a place to play? Maybe there are servants. Live in or living elsewhere. Does the man of the house need a study? The lady, a sewing room? Just keep filling in the blanks. Soon the house will be chattering so much that you will have trouble writing that fast.

Maybe crazy granny likes the color purple, or cats? Or both? If you decide that granny shouldn't keep 20 cats, you can always go back and erase the cats. Just remember, whatever you decide is the law. And the law can be changed anytime that you think of a better idea.

Just go for it and enjoy!

[Tesla12]

I noticed that on Cath Kidston's website she has digital wallpaper available and a number to call to order. It might be worth a call to see if they could resize it (and reprice it I would assume) to work for you?

[Caseymini]

Lindsay, I just went and looked at Cath Kidston's things. Her stuff reminds me of forties and fifties American style. Looks like that would be a good place to start. Great fabrics. If they are small enough, you could use some of those for wallpaper.

[Selkie]

I see nothing wrong with mixing styles as most of us do that by nature anyway. My house is an old country house but it isn't necessarily filled with country style things. It's a mish-mash of cast offs from all the family and a few things I've gotten at secondhand stores and a few new things. I'm not a matchy-matchy kind of gal so it bores me totally when a house is completely one color scheme or style or era.

That said, there are others who are doing houses in period specific detail and that is what they like. If you were restoring something to it's period then that would be a different decision making process. You would want the matching items and designs. It would then be very important.

Since you are doing this for yourself, I'd vote for doing it the way you'd feel comfortable if you were to live in it in real life. Let that be your guide. Ask yourself - If this was my kitchen, how would I set it up, what color would make me feel good working in it, what flooring would I want to scuff across, what curtains do I want to look out of, what chair and table would I want to sit at to sip my tea, etc., etc.

Hope I'm not steering you down the wrong path and please know I strongly believe it should reflect you and be totally your opinion and choice.

[Windsor]

It's your creation so do it however you want. Most real homes are not one style, they may be colonial, Georgian, or Victorian on the outside but the interiors are very personal. I think its safe to say that most people don't live in time-period museums! Historic homes are a very good example, they usually have the original wood work intact but with an updated appearance.

[jdodyd]

I solved the problem of mixing old and new by deciding that my dollhouse would have pieces that had been "inherited" from previous generations and that some rooms had been "redone" by the current occupants. Ended up with a basically "Arts and Crafts" living room and dining room on the first floor and a fairly modern family room on the 3rd floor. Agree with those above who say you should go with what style and colors that you really like and please yourself.

[rackey]

This dollhouse should reflect you, and you are not restricted to the limitations of a specific time period. However, what Casey said about dollhouses speaking to their owners is true. Fortunately, dollhouses have a tendency to be very well in tune to their owners, so don't be afraid to listen to it. When it came to having my dollhouse bashed, I knew what I wanted, but the house took my ideas and showed me how to make them better.

When I got my Garfield house I thought I would keep my original house country and let the Garfield be Victorian. But the Garfield house told me it wanted to be a shore house, so that is what I am going with. However, if I ever get this one remodeled, the kitchen will definitely be country.

I also like things from the fifties and sixties. I have several miniature Mickey Mouse stuffed animals and Beatles albums in my country house, so there is always room for self-expression regardless of the style of your house or furniture. Somehow it all blends in, and when you have the perfect combination, only you will know.

Before I wrap up, I will leave you with a link to a site that might help you decide on floral and dated wallpaper. You can print these patterns out on cardstock that will serve as wallpaper. I used a Raggedy Ann print and a blue and white checked pattern for one of the attic bedrooms in my dollhouse, and it worked out fine.

Good luck, and please keep us posted on what you decided on and how your project is going.

http://www.jennifersprintables.com/printables1.html

[GirlPiper]

You may start in one direction and find "the perfect" item and change the whole room. Just be flexible with your thoughts and materials--if something doesn't work out, it isn't fatal. You can repaint, repaper, rearrange to your heart's desire.

[L Swearengin]

I do the inside with what I find. I have never really followed a theme. Usually since I live in a run down rent house I LIVE in my dollhouses. I am not spending my money on this place, I spend it on the dollhouses HAHA. I still look for inexpensive things to decorate with. My sister in law gave me some plastic dollhouse furniture. One piece was a really PINK sofa. I just added padding and material and its a new sofa. The bath room items got a facelift with craft paint and now instead of being white and blue, they look like real bath items. Inside is from your heart.

[welcomehomeminis]

With our houses, my teenager and I treat them as if someone today-ish had purchased the old house of whatever style the exterior is. So the outside can say Georgian, and maybe the interior woodwork, some bathroom or kitchen fixtures, and some of the floors might reflect that, but then we "walk" through the rooms, mentally, just as a buyer would— Oh, my gran's rug would look great there! That old fireplace could use a little dressing up! We have to put in a newer tub! How should we do the baby's room?—All of those things bring a house alive. And *then* we decorate.

We even write down the feel of each room on its own sheet of paper, cut out pictures that might inspire us (a rug, a piece of furniture...), go to the home improvement store and get paint swatches of color we like and put those on the room's page—just the way people often do with a real room. After all, dolls' houses take a lot of time (and if we're not careful, money, yikes!) and by a year from now we might forget that lime-green stripes was what we had in mind for the bath walls!

Lots of people do prefer to set a date in the past, and dress the house sort of like a period movie set, and that's a wonderful way to go... but my daughter told me when she was 8 or so and we were starting on the first house we did, that she wanted it to be "now" and "like buying a real house," and those are the watchwords we've stuck with ever since. I'm quite happy with it.

What's cool about this approach is that you can bring in things you like from any period, a little at a time, just as we all do in real life. You don't get stuck into anything at all except "what works." If I'm at an antique store in real life, and I see a 200-year-old German storage box I think would be great in my living room, I buy it, even though the rest of the room's decor is less than 15 years old. Mix-and-match.

Take a look at furniture stores' websites, even interior designers' websites, and at the interior design magazines at your local bookshop, to see if this "now with echoes of the past" might seem more natural to you than trying to set a date in the past like it's a research project. In real life it's how most people live—we each have styles we like, whatever those may be (American West, Victorian or Edwardian, Moroccan-style, Modernism, Cath Kidston or even Lilly Pulitzer!), but we're living now, and mixing those style influences into our homes rather than living by a rigid set of design rules.

(To be quite honest, it's how people generally lived in the past, too. Rarely did people buy the very latest house and then chuck out everything they'd owned before to buy new stuff to go with it. So "with echoes of the past" works in other time periods, too, but then you have to make sure you stay in XYZ time and earlier. "Now" and earlier gives you a lot of freedom. )

That's how we go about it. Hopefully it'll give you a little something to think about!

[welcomehomeminis]

Oh! Wallpaper! I forgot to mention that things like Cath's style are probably, definitely, available in scrapbooking papers. I know I've seen things like her colors and patterns at the craft stores, and scrapbooking papers can make great wallpaper. Fairly inexpensive, too. Find a craft store with a good scrapbooking-paper section and you'll be inspired x10.

... ...

Aaaand, if you ever want lots of roses and blues and pinks but a punkier feeling, check out Betsey Johnson.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBTz2Iv1NTjnwA4rdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0MDVwajlxBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDA0OV8x?_adv_prop=image&fr=aaplw&va=betsey+johnson+home

This image search doesn't quite capture it, but she's definitely the bad twin of Cath Kidston. Loves roses, and leopard prints. Which is kinda good.

[More Minis Dollhouses]

My dollhouses make those decisions for me. I can not even tell you how many times I have had ideas of what I wanted to do to a dollhouse and have been so excited about it. I would spend time making all of these plans only to have them turned upside down by a non cooperating dollhouse. The dollhouse decides. Don't even try to intervene. I have tried countless times to and I assembled so many dollhouses that you would think I would have satisfied my wants of different styles but it never turned out that way. There are many styles that I want to do which none of my dollhouses wanted and so they have been left unfulfilled.

[elfprincess]

You could make your house a student let. I come from Glasgow originally and there are lots of Georgian and Victorian houses - very grand in their day- now let to students.

You can go mad with your decor. Anything you like! '60s Retro for one room, '80s clutter free, '90s Rave culture, etc. Teenaged student; mature student; political activist; country-girl-in-the-big-city, arty eccentric... You can 'set' the period to the 1950s if you want. Or the '60s,or whenever.

You remind me of myself in your lack of enthusiasm for strictly Georgian/Victorian. I have two Georgian houses awaiting transformation. I am thinking of making one a hotel (with differently-themed rooms). I have several Victorian/Edwardian houses also awaiting my 'spark'. At least two of those will be Art Nouveau/Bohemian. Every 'period' comprises different lifestyles, all interwoven. I am working right now on the first of two Art Deco houses. Even more fun because I will be making most of the furnishings and fittings, as well as sewing period clothes for my 'residents' LOL.

I am a newbie and am, at present, brim-full of ideas but short on practical experience and now in debt due to over-enthusiastic eBay usage. There are lots of totally free doll's house printable sites online. Google and enjoy! Let us know how you progress.

[elfprincess]

PS I agree to a point that doll's houses 'speak' to us but we are not slavishly bound to obey any 'order' or request a house may seem to transmit to us! Someone at a writing class once told the teacher that she found it hard to limit dialogue because her characters always wanted to continue conversations. 'Well, dear', the teacher said, 'tell them to shut up!'.

Ha Ha.

We own the houses, we make the choices. I am a non-conformist in countless ways - by no means the only such person here! - and this is reflected in the type of houses I hope to lovingly create.

[Tinkerbelle]

Thanks everyone this really helps. I'm am so bad at making decisions. lol

At the moment I am working on my basement but the exterior as I know what I want there. The basement will actually show the mixed ages as the windows of the basement are going to be bay windows and bay windows were a Victorian invention but I like bay windows.

I think as many of you say you have an idea and that changes. I like my Cath kidston and saw the dh with floral and polka walls but I've realised that the way I'm leaning right now is plain walls in soft neutral shades and floral furnishings. Still Cath Kidston but more me since my room is like that.

I just need to make some decisions and go for it.

[chesterfieldzoo]

I have a book of ideas listing all kinds of stuff I want in any one house. Then there is another book listing houses. I am always hopeful of a match.

Recently, I wanted a quick fix since I haven't built any houses lately - I pulled out a simple, small house and got it all sanded and sorted and it just didn't say anything to me, so I packed it back up and put it away.

Meanwhile other houses are just screaming in my head to get them done as everything has been chosen right down to trim, decor and the flowers in the yard.

I mix decor just like in real life - I live in a 70's colonial, but it is full of victorian woodwork and mission style furniture.

[Tinkerbelle]

chesterfieldzoo that sounds like such a good idea. I've written some things like that but it's mostly like the book titles I want to have in the bookcase and stuff I want like Dorothy's red shoes. I'm still trying to work out how to get a small Tinkerbell in there but that can wait.

It was funny tonight as my mum was asking me about the bricking compound I'm thinking of using and said 'are you doing the whole house in brick?' Without even thinking about it I said 'No. Only the basement is going to be brick. I like how my dollhouse is painted so I'll just repaint it." Up until that moment I hadn't made a decision.

So maybe I do know what I want subconsciously.

[Tinkerbelle]

I keep thinking that I want to do one room as a cinema. But I have no idea how I would do that and it means I can't have a nursery and I quite like nurseries.

But the cinema idea keeps niggling at me. Maybe that will a decision for much later on when I've done more of the house and made some decisions.

Has anyone ever done a miniature cinema?

[Deb]

I've discovered that if I can't fit all my ideas in one house, it's time to build another house! Working with that theory has led to um, somewhere over 40 houses and still going so plan on setting aside a little time.

[welcomehomeminis]

I keep thinking that I want to do one room as a cinema. But I have no idea how I would do that and it means I can't have a nursery and I quite like nurseries.

But the cinema idea keeps niggling at me. Maybe that will a decision for much later on when I've done more of the house and made some decisions.

Has anyone ever done a miniature cinema?

I haven't done a full "home theatre," just made a few rooms awesome for watching the small screen in... in the latest, I used an old car-GPS-navigation screen that no longer works for a widescreen t.v., because the ones available commercially were way too small for the room I wanted to outfit. Cheap if you find someone with a discarded screen and looks perfect!

But for going all-out, no one beats Whitledge-Burgess:

I've seen this second one in person. Incredible attention to detail. So it can be done, just find an inspiration picture or six and make it up as you go along.

P.S. http://whitledgeburgess.com/studio/ is their website. Very inspirational. Luxe, luxe, luxe.

[Tinkerbelle]

thanks so much welcome home minis - those room boxes are incredible.

hopefully I can find a screen like that. But it will be one of the last rooms to do so I've plenty of time.

[moonberry]

(To be quite honest, it's how people generally lived in the past, too. Rarely did people buy the very latest house and then chuck out everything they'd owned before to buy new stuff to go with it. So "with echoes of the past" works in other time periods, too, but then you have to make sure you stay in XYZ time and earlier. "Now" and earlier gives you a lot of freedom. )

Just as an interesting side-note.....

In Kimberley, South Africa, during the diamond rush years - this is EXACTLY what the miners did when they found a big diamond! They literally emptied their little tin house of its contents and the wife splashed on everything brand new. The old stuff was then dumped in the ash dumps.

My grandparents lived in Kimberley in the 1980s and we would spend weekends digging through the old mine ash dumps. We found many antiques perfectly intact. I still have a very tiny little dollhouse wash basin and jug that belonged to some little girl's dollhouse in the late 1800s. It is in South Africa at the moment, I hope to get it out of storage when we visit there later this year.

Even in the 1990s when South Africa introduced the Lottery, a mining couple in a small mining town, won the local equivalent of over $1 million. The wife literally emptied her house and bought everything brand new. I guess some folks' attitudes will never change. Oh, and rather predictably, they ran out of money less than two years later

Long live the hoarders, collectors and appreciators of everything old and unique!

As for the house styles - I'm doing all my houses with modern/antique mixes - exactly as if I were to move in there myself. I've even purchased small collections of mini items from eBay so that my dollhouse people can have weird collections too!

I have oodles of strange and freaky things in my house and I love the fact that you cannot reproduce my "look" from any catalog or store, so it is totally unique. Another friend of mine loves hotel interiors and is constantly redoing her decor. To each their own, but if you love the look of something, then go for it - it is YOUR house, after all.

[welcomehomeminis]

Lene, I agree, there have definitely been times when people have done that... the exceptions that prove the rule, I guess. In the U.S. in the early 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright was famous for insisting that nothing but pieces he'd made were in homes he was commissioned to design. Pretty restrictive! And of course when Modernism was the rage in the late 1940s and 1950s, well, nothing old goes with Modernism, so my understanding is that a lot of people did chuck everything.

(And circumstances can have quite an impact—make me newly rich with diamonds or lottery and you can watch a sofa go through my apartment window, ha ha!)

[chesterfieldzoo]

While I have a LOT of kits, I only have so much room. No two of my houses are done the same. There are too many ways to do them up to have 2 victorians or 2 current day houses. The exception being the xmas compound - the stable, the master house, the wrapping house....A few will be dual purpose - hansel and gretal will be going to the xmas gingerbread house that is also the witch's house. So during the year, the back of the house will be the view and for the holidays, I will spin it around to the candy side.

Making lists also keeps me from purchasing duplicate items. I list what I want in the house and check it off when I buy it.