Hello from Washington State!

[Amber Celeste]

I'm just getting started on my first dollhouse.  It's a half scale Greenleaf Jefferson kit.  I had a rough start, the first one was warped.  Greenleaf has excellent customer service and sent me out another on right away though.  So far it's coming together really well.

I'm looking forward to participating on the forums -I really needed a hobby and I am so excited about it!

Any tips on DIY furnishing/decor projects in this scale?  I'd also like to find a source for nice half scale dolls or figures.

[havanaholly]

Welcome to the little family, Amber.  When I built my first 1:24 scale house, the hacienda, I had found a few furniture kit at Ron's Miniatures in Orlando, FL.  I made several items (the stove & the kitchen table & chairs & stair railings) from scratch, as well as Jose & Lupita Poquito.  I lucked out and found several 1:24 bathroom set boxes in the bottom of a pile along the clearance wall at Hobby Lobby, and after a while I finally got around to building the 1:24 Bar Harbor summer "cottage" (two Fairfield kits, one of them built inside out and both bashed to kingdom come & back).  The ready made furniture sets I had gotten from Hobby Builders Supply were MUCH smaller that the 1:24 furniture kits I had gotten at Ron's, so after many *magic* words I wound up making almost everything in both houses (I kept the little brass beds).  Big box craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michaels sometimes have beads & charms that will work in this scale.  Except for the kitchen range which was a 1:24 DIY article in Dollhouse Miniatures, all the rest of the furniture I built myself from scratch was scaled down from plans & diagrams for 1:12 stuff.

[mesp2k]

Hey Amber, you're off to great start!  Welcome to the forum!

[Amber Celeste]

havanaholly -Wow!  Making all of that from scratch is amazing.  1:24 is so small, I'm finding it tricky to make things that look to scale.  I'll keep practicing!!  Also, the residents of your house are charming!  I need to find some folks to live in mine!

mesp2k -Thank you!! :)

[Guest]

Hi Amber, 

Wormwoodz is building an awesome Fairfield which is in half scale and has some beautiful furnishings. Check out their gallery here. They might be able to help you with suppliers. But I also think there is some scratch building going on over there as well.. 

[Amber Celeste]

Thanks for the link Samantha! :)

That Fairfield is amazing!  I will definitely  be spending some time perusing those photos for inspiration!  

[havanaholly]

Making your own isn't all that hard.  I made the kitchen sink out of a single-serving jelly packet, some white polymer clay and four of the turned toothpicks (I got mine at a liquor store, but I think Cracker Barrel still sells them):

The coffee mill was on a card of charms from either Hobby Lobby or one of the other big box craft stores.  The stove was the aforementioned DIY article, and everything else was scaled down from a book o 1:12 Colonial dollhouse furniture.

[Amber Celeste]

You are so creative!  I am definitely getting a lot of great ideas.  Now I just need to start gathering some supplies!  Thanks for sharing!

 

[havanaholly]

11 minutes ago, Amber Celeste said:

...Thanks for sharing!

 

That's why we're here.

[Debsrand56]

I've found that a lot of times, I can work with tutorials for full-scale miniatures, and just cut the dimensions in half.  OneInch Minis (http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/) has some wonderful tutorials.  If you're not quite ready to go full DIY, there are also some really nice suppliers of half-scale furniture kits out there.  SDK Miniatures (http://sdk.miniature.net/), Mini-Etchers (http://www.minietchers.com/), and Karen Benson (http://karenbensonminiatures.com/shop/) all make great, affordable kits.  And for upholstery, men's ties from Goodwill (or other second-hand store) are a gold mine, particularly the old, wide ones with tiny patterns.

[havanaholly]

8 hours ago, Debsrand56 said:

...for upholstery, men's ties from Goodwill (or other second-hand store) are a gold mine, particularly the old, wide ones with tiny patterns.

Yea, verily!!!

[Amber Celeste]

Thanks for the links Deborah!!  

Also, I never would have thought of ties!!  I was just looking through my fabrics and the prints are all too large.  I clearly need to start thinking out of the box more when it comes to miniatures!

[havanaholly]

57 minutes ago, Amber Celeste said:

...I clearly need to start thinking out of the box more when it comes to miniatures!

See if your local library has or can get you copies of Patricia King's books (it would kill Bing just to show what I type for parameters?  sorry for the extraneous stuff in the images).

[Debsrand56]

 

1 hour ago, Amber Celeste said:

 I clearly need to start thinking out of the box more when it comes to miniatures!

Yep.  In half scale, re-purposing helps.  I used a cast metal pencil sharpener and bendy straw for the old-fashioned stove in my Fairfield.  The meat grinder and coffee pot were charms I found on eBay.  In the bedroom, a tie gave its life for the silk bedspread, and the boots were charms I painted, then added micro-bead "buttons."  You'll soon find you see potential miniature items everywhere. :-)

.

 

[havanaholly]

OMG, Deborah!  I LOVE your floors, and that chiffarobe is gorgeous!

[Debsrand56]

Thank you!  The chiffarobe is from a kit, as most of my furniture is.  I love it because the doors open, and it has an actual shelf and clothes rod inside.  However, I keep having an urge to decoupage a picture of Narnia on its inside back wall. . . .  ;-)

[havanaholly]

28 minutes ago, Debsrand56 said:

Thank you!  The chiffarobe is from a kit, as most of my furniture is.  I love it because the doors open, and it has an actual shelf and clothes rod inside.  However, I keep having an urge to decoupage a picture of Narnia on its inside back wall. . . .  ;-)

With Mr Tumnus & his umbrella, waiting for Lucy.

[Amber Celeste]

So beautiful, Deborah!  I love all the little details! 

[DaisyV]

That's so clever, Deborah!  Thanks for sharing the pics.