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Newbie questions about my front opening DH


Gabblar

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Hello! I'm fairly new here and am working on my first dollhouse for me (I renovated one for my littles)
I have this beautiful front openening dollhouse I go for a steal on Craigslist and have a bunch of ideas for it and have done tons of research. But here are my questions:

1) The sides of the dh have structural beams which I want to do cladding over, rather than in vetween. My plan was to put a thin piece of wood to cover it all and do my siding on that... however, I am wanting to cut out windows on the sides and back. How would I go about adding windows if there's a gap between the external siding and the covered up original wall/structure?

2) I would like to add a porch light, since it is front opening how would I wire this? I plan to have electrics on the back of the house. I've seen one method by using the hinges as a bridge. Is there an alternative solution?

3) I'm going be making some of my own furniture...etc, but when I convert them into 1/12 scale, it still feels rather large in the house and floor space becomes scarce. |The ones in the picture are bought items. Any tips/advice?

4) I have the same beams problem with internal walls too, how would you go about covering those up so I can add baseboards and make it look realistic?

I am struggling to find information on front-opening dollhouses and inspiration- I am going for a fairly modern theme with mine.

 

Thank you again for your time!

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Nice house!  I can't help much on 1 or 4, but for item 2, you could consider a battery-operated coach light, like this:  https://www.miniatures.com/Hamilton-Black-Coach-Sconce-by-Houseworks-P23108.aspx  No wiring needed; nor problem.  :)

On item 3, I make a lot of my own furniture in half scale.  I have found that a strict conversion doesn't always work.  I've also found that, in half scale at least, there can be significant differences in size from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Sometimes I print out my patterns and hold the pieces up to each other, my walls, or my other furnishings, or lay them out on the floor, then adjust accordingly, based on what looks good to my eye.  And, yes, I often find that I can't fit quite as much furniture as I'd like to in a room.

Good luck, and we look forward to watching your progress!

 

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What's the ceiling height, and the height of the front door opening? That might not be a 1:12 house. It looks like the Houseworks front-opening Victorian, but a British company makes a similar house in I think 1:16 scale, which would be slightly smaller (2/3" = 1' instead of 1" = 1'). If the house is smaller than 1:12, that could explain why the furniture looks too big. (Although, if anything I think the few pieces you have in there look kind of small, but maybe that's just because of the angle of the photo.) A 1:12 house will have 8-10 inch ceilings and ~7.5 inch doors.

Dollhouse rooms often have a smaller footprint than real life rooms, and it can be challenging to arrange furniture because of the open wall.

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As far as the beams go, I had a similar problem with my Walmer. I filled the interior floors and walls and the exterior walls with plywood to make those pesky beams disappear. Unfortunately, this makes the house even smaller and heavier.  Once all the plywood was added I cut out new window and door openings and added stripwood (I used balsa since it was easy to cut and was not supporting anything) to the window frames to make them deeper. You a going to need a good Oscillating tool to cut the openings through all that plywood. I recommend this one, corded not battery powered:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-4-Amp-Corded-JobMax-Multi-Tool-with-Tool-Free-Head-R28602/206824272?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CG%7CBase%7CD25T%7C25-9_PORTABLE+POWER%7CNA%7CLIA%7C71700000044155732%7C58700004615424082%7C92700038837660438&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwLqutYn74AIVhrfACh2WMwLNEAQYByABEgIXj_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

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Thanks Sable, that might be the house I was thinking of.

I forgot to answer your questions about the structural beams. On the outside, if you want to put your siding over the "beams" you can add a piece of material that's the same thickness to the inside area, so that material and the beams form one uniform surface. It doesn't have to be wood, you could use foam core or cardboard (depends on what that thickness is). Once that's glued on, cut your window holes, then add siding.

On the inside you could do the same thing -- add a piece of wood or foam core to create a false wall the same depth as the existing beam, then wallpaper over it. If you do electrical first then you can hide your wires behind the false wall.

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2 hours ago, fov said:

What's the ceiling height, and the height of the front door opening? That might not be a 1:12 house. It looks like the Houseworks front-opening Victorian, but a British company makes a similar house in I think 1:16 scale, which would be slightly smaller (2/3" = 1' instead of 1" = 1'). If the house is smaller than 1:12, that could explain why the furniture looks too big. (Although, if anything I think the few pieces you have in there look kind of small, but maybe that's just because of the angle of the photo.) A 1:12 house will have 8-10 inch ceilings and ~7.5 inch doors.

Dollhouse rooms often have a smaller footprint than real life rooms, and it can be challenging to arrange furniture because of the open wall.

I also like your idea of using foam core as well. Thank you!

Hi Fov, it's  1:12 house, the ceiling height is 9 inched tall and the door way is 7" tall. I got the piecesof furniture pieces because they were listed as 1:12, but I agree they do look much smaller in the house.

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2 hours ago, Debsrand56 said:

Nice house!  I can't help much on 1 or 4, but for item 2, you could consider a battery-operated coach light, like this:  https://www.miniatures.com/Hamilton-Black-Coach-Sconce-by-Houseworks-P23108.aspx  No wiring needed; nor problem.  :)

On item 3, I make a lot of my own furniture in half scale.  I have found that a strict conversion doesn't always work.  I've also found that, in half scale at least, there can be significant differences in size from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Sometimes I print out my patterns and hold the pieces up to each other, my walls, or my other furnishings, or lay them out on the floor, then adjust accordingly, based on what looks good to my eye.  And, yes, I often find that I can't fit quite as much furniture as I'd like to in a room.

Good luck, and we look forward to watching your progress!

 

Thank you! that's a great idea, I'll look into baterry operated lights.

Makes sense about the furniture too, I think I am just going to have to eyeball it . Looking forward to getting started on it :)

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2 hours ago, Sable said:

Since Room size is an issue, I’d knock out a few of the interior walls and make a more open concept affect.

Thanks for your responses. I did try and find which house it was and came across the Ashburton, but it's a different house.

I found that it is from this store (pic attached)

I did also knock out a wall already, will see if I decide to put it back in or not. 

Ross's Miniatures.png

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That looks a lot like the Houseworks front-opening Victorian. Since those houses were also done as plans in the 3-in-1 book, it's not out of the realm to imagine the builder may have decided to alter the plans a little.

Those beams - are you sure they're supportive? Have you tried taking a chisel or screwdriver to just see if they come off the walls?

The other thing you might want to do is check the size of the fireplace in that room. Miniature fireplaces have various sizes. Some fireplaces are 6" across and some are only 4" across with height accordingly. I just saw a lovely little fireplace that's higher than it's wide and looks like the perfect fireplace for a  French bedroom. I think it's only 3" wide.

Anyway, one good thing about having high ceilings is you can put chandeliers in and they won't block the views of the room. Nine inches is a good height to dollhouse rooms. Most of the smaller children's houses like some former Walmer (now RGT houses) only have 8" ceilings. I think the standard is 10" or at least 9 5/8".

What wall did you knock out? I do notice that the upper hall isn't as wide as it would normally be, but the bedroom to the left (facing the house), is larger than normal.

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