A New Project - Suggestions Welcome!

[Blue Morning Glory]

I have decided that instead of having a dusty collection of mediocre dollhouses, that I will have one grand and glorious, museum worthy, dollhouse. There will be a few smaller projects, such as room boxes or smaller scale houses sitting around, but, my home will only have one giant, space gobbling full size 1:12 house. It might take a decade to finish, but, is a dollhouse ever really finished?

This is my inspiration! Below is a photograph of an artist's print. The print is hanging on my wall near the proposed location of the finished dollhouse. It is a family home of some small fame, and is replicated in this print. It even had a brief cameo in a movie! The home was occupied and maintained until the 1980s, then it slowly deteriorated, and was eventually was torn down. This is the only picture that I have found. The older family members have not been able to provide more details, and I never visited the house.

My display space for this house is 32 inches wide, 21.5 inches deep, and 36 inches tall. These measurements must include walkways, porch, and shrubbery, etc. I have an Artply kit called "Allison", model no. 77, which was purchased for about $15 at an auction, and a friend found a wiring kit at a yard sale for me. I can bash the kit, or just build the house with new lumber. I am not new to making dollhouses, so kit bashing and making houses from raw lumber does not frighten me. I would like to make this dollhouse as large as possible, within the allotted display space, with many rooms and lots of realism.

So, where to start? Should I use the Allison kit? What is the interior floor plan? How will I access the interior? What decade(s) should the interior represent?

 

[havanaholly]

I wish your photo had showed up.  Isn't the Artply Allison the same general kit as the Greenleaf Pierce?  Before it got destroyed in the move to Alabama I was rehabbing a Pierce to which I was adding a conservatory to the first floor with a roof garden above, and I thought about adding a gazebo to a fourth floor of the larger tower until I got it into dry fit.

[Kells]

That's not a tremendous amount of space but would work if you had a front-opening house. You can alter kit houses to be front-opening. I've done it before, it's not terribly difficult. Turn the house around so the front is the back. Get accurate measurements for what a new front should be. Have Home Depot cut it for you out of 3/8" furniture grade plywood. Then all you have to do is cut out the window and door openings.

You'll have to start with a good, solid kit made from wood strong enough to hold screws if you're going to hinge the front. I suppose you could use a tab-and-slot kit made from rough thin wood if you used magnets to hold on a removable facade. I've never done that but I don't see why it wouldn't work. It also helps if the wood is thick enough to handle standard components. Otherwise you'll be building your own or having to buy a second kit just to get your hands on the the non-standard windows and doors.

For a front yard with a walkway, you'll probably have to raise the house onto a higher foundation. 3" wouldn't look out of place. You can order 3" wide x 1/2" or 3/4" thick wood from Manchester Woodworks. I get all my foundation lumber from them. Unfortunately, you can forget trees, light posts, and anything tall like a fountain. 3" will give you enough height for some pretty flowering bushes at least.

https://www.manchesterwoodworks.com/

I don't see 3/4" x 3" on their site. Just ask, they'll make it for you. I mix houses and additions from various manufacturers and the foundation heights are never the same. I always use 3/4" thick x 1 1/2" wide from Manchester so all the parts align.

Earth and Tree has marvelous kits. Many of them are exactly 32" wide and could be made to be front-opening with very little trouble. I know that for a fact because just this weekend I did it to one of their 2-story high additions. I'm not thrilled with MDF and I'm not sure how that's going to hold up with hinges, but the front piece is so light I think it'll be okay.

https://earthntree.com/miniatures/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3

 

[Kells]

I should have added that if you turn a kit house around, pay special attention to the roof. Don't turn that around too! Your new front side will look super weird if you do. Build the roof facing toward you. You can hinge that to lift up for access to the top floor. Here's a good example, and conveniently it's 32" wide:

https://earthntree.com/miniatures/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_8&products_id=36018

If you built that as it stands and then just turned it around, you'd have a flat 3-story front and a roof that sloped toward the rear, away from you. That would look stupid. Just build the roof like in the picture, facing you, and then put it onto the reversed house.

You could probably hinge the whole front piece of the roof but personally I'd just cut it 3/4" to 1" in from the top corners of the roof top. Leave enough on either side of the dormers for support! That would leave a rectangular section that lifted upward with no weird sloping sides. Leave the angled portions of the roof affixed. This also has the added bonus of less weight on your hinges.

[Blue Morning Glory]

Photos of the Artply Allison can be seen on ebay. It is not similar to the Greenleaf Pierce. The painting and the Allison are both "L" shaped, two story farm houses with big front porches. I could ditch the Allison, and just build the house from raw lumber. The Allison is quite small, only 22 inches wide and 13 inches deep, with four fairly large rooms. I would need to add a 7 inch deep room to the front, and a 9 inch room to the largest "L" branch which travels along the width. That would give me 8 rooms, four on each floor: an 11x13 inch room, a 7x11 inch room, a 11x10 inch room, and a 9x10 inch room. From those rooms, I would need to steal space for a staircase, hallway, and bathrooms. Would the rooms be big enough for furniture? Maybe, I need to draw this out on paper, and try putting some furniture on it.

While I like the idea of a front opening house, there might not be room to open the doors. This house would be sitting on a short bookcase sandwiched between two tall bookcases.There are walls on either side of the 32 inch width. The porches would make front doors difficult, too. Perhaps, I could just let it live in that space with an open back, and bring it out onto a table occasionally to be admired. I am also intrigued by the idea of having a multi-layer dollhouse with the first, second, and attic levels being removable.

I could downsize to 1:24 scale and make the whole dollhouse larger with front or back access and plenty of landscaping, but I would have to start over collecting furniture in a different scale. Perhaps, since I really am guessing about the inside of the original house, I should make it in 1:48 scale (exterior only) for sentimentality, and assemble the Allison (as intended), another prefab kit, or room boxes for my homeless 1:12 furniture collection.

I am trying to post the farmhouse photo again.

[havanaholly]

33 minutes ago, Blue Morning Glory said:

...the Artply Allison ...is not similar to the Greenleaf Pierce...

I wasn't sure, I thought it was Artply who had a kit that resembled the Pierce, but with a different foundation, and I wasn't sure of the name.  If you're using a tab & slot die cut kit with 1/8" or 3/16" wood you can easily make doors and windows from basswood to fit.

[Kells]

What a pretty house! I don't know what Artply house I was thinking of but it wasn't the Allison.

I don't know you so I don't know how much of a stickler you are for accuracy, but I know that I wouldn't be happy with an "It kinda looks like it" house. Especially not when there's a painting of the actual house right next to it for comparison. Forget front-opening though, not with that wrap-around porch. That would be a chore, if even possible.

That's a simple L-shape, I bet you could build it. I doubt you're going to find a kit that fits the bill. I've seen plenty of dollhouses with front porches but not like that one. Also, most kit houses have 45-degree pitch gables. I think that one is 30-degree pitch. That makes a big difference in the appearance of a house. Fudging it is obvious.

Those tall windows are great. Just had a look at mine. Search for Houseworks #5031. They're 7" tall instead of the usual 5". Using 1/32" stripwood, you could divide the upper and lower sashes into four panes easily enough and they'd look pretty darn close to the original! Close approximations of the porch posts and trims are available.

I feel your pain about going to 1/24th scale. I wish I'd started out with that from the beginning. I'm not switching now! Could you alternate how you displayed it? For a while have it facing forward, then turn it around to enjoy the interior? At only 32" wide, I don't think it would be too unwieldy or heavy to take out when you wanted to show guests whichever side wasn't facing forward. Of course, you'd have to museum wax everything down or it would all go toppling. Me and museum wax be besties. I have to use that stuff on everything!

[rbytsdy]

Looking forward to seeing your creation, Jackie. I am doing my own bash of the Artply Allison; it lends itself very easily to bashing.

[havanaholly]

There's also the turntables you could mount the house on.  I like the poster putty you knead to soften  and just a tiny bit will stick little things down without leaving any residue.

[Blue Morning Glory]

I am working on drawings of the interior floor plans. The dollhouse might have as many as thirteen rooms with approximately five bedrooms and two baths. As in a actual house of that era, some of the rooms will be quite small. The staircases are causing many problems.

I am exploring the idea of using the display space simply as a storage space. Close the dollhouse, and display it as a lighted exterior house on that spot. It will not open, but you can peek inside the lighted windows. Whenever I want to "play" with the house, take it down, put it on a big table, and open it up. Thank you for the museum wax suggestion. I may make extra sheets of grass covered base pieces (stored underneath the dollhouse while on the shelf, or behind my full sized bookcase) to cover the entire table. My smaller 1:12 planned projects include sheds and a small, one room artist studio that would go well beside the house when displayed on the table, but could be stored in various other locations.

As for opening the dollhouse, someone suggested magnets. I am considering four magnetic removable panels (or perhaps hinges) on the front "A", the back "A", the back flat, and the right side "A". The dollhouse will fit too tightly in the space to use a turn table.

First, I need to get the interior drawings done. The Artply kit will be discarded or just used as scrap lumber. I intend to use up my favorite 1:12 pieces, then return to 1:48 scale houses. This is a massive project. I will gradually post updates and photos, but be patient. This is a multi-year project!

[grazhina]

Jackie, That's a appealing house. I recall seeing an old unpainted weathered version of it in western Pennsylvania. I loved it.

From looking at old house plans for over 40 years because I like old houses, I can tell you that house is probably @ 36 or so feet wide, so if you want it to be a fairly accurate representation of the house, with landscaping, you'd really need it to be half inch scale. Some may think this a crazy thought, but what if you made the house itself in a small scale and 1:12 scale roomboxes for the room displays?

My one room colonial house is 20" wide for just the house, with no landscaping. I wanted to make a small house, but it still takes up a lot of space. The Greenleaf Buttercup is 15" wide without landscaping and it's also just one room

 I've decided that when I think of a house I really want to build because it appeals to me so much, I'll do it from now in 1:24 scale, and when I really want to make a room, I'll stick to roomboxes. 

If you want to stick to the convention of furnishing the rooms of the house, you could make the house open on 2 sides. I did that with Tall Chimneys. BTW, the house is 29" long not counting the landscaping and 21" deep.

[Kells]

Grazhina is right, that house is at least 36 feet wide IRL and possibly more. And without making it two rooms deep, which adds a whole new layer of problems in a dollhouse, you can't get 13 rooms with 5 bedrooms out of a 32" wide dollhouse. One of mine is like that with an accurate floor plan but it is 55" X 58". Even at that size the rooms aren't palatial.

It's such a pretty house and worth recreating. Have you thought of doing just the facade in 1/24th scale? In half-scale, it would only be 18" wide. I think it might be pretty neat and certainly unique to have the front of the house with landscaping sitting on a shelf right below (or next to) your picture.

Built with a shallow box behind it, you could even light it. Personally I wouldn't bother. Recreating the facade is the important thing. As for having a full dollhouse, it sounds like you might be just guessing what the interiors looked like anyway?

[grazhina]

I had to go out to the farm store, their corn is finally available.

I took another look at your house, Jackie. It has 2 front doors off the porch, so historically, the one to the side, mostly hidden by the bush, could very likely have been used as an office. the other door led to the front hallway and staircase. On the left hand side, behind the front room would have been another room, and another room would have occupied the right hand wing, both wings being one room deep. I can see a one story extension behind the house, so the kitchen is likely there. There were oriiginally probably 4 or 5 bedrooms upstairs, one of which was later most likely turned into a bathroom.

 

[Blue Morning Glory]

On 7/30/2019, 2:01:42, Kells said:

Grazhina is right, that house is at least 36 feet wide IRL and possibly more. And without making it two rooms deep, which adds a whole new layer of problems in a dollhouse, you can't get 13 rooms with 5 bedrooms out of a 32" wide dollhouse. One of mine is like that with an accurate floor plan but it is 55" X 58". Even at that size the rooms aren't palatial.

It's such a pretty house and worth recreating. Have you thought of doing just the facade in 1/24th scale? In half-scale, it would only be 18" wide. I think it might be pretty neat and certainly unique to have the front of the house with landscaping sitting on a shelf right below (or next to) your picture.

Built with a shallow box behind it, you could even light it. Personally I wouldn't bother. Recreating the facade is the important thing. As for having a full dollhouse, it sounds like you might be just guessing what the interiors looked like anyway?

I have been staring at the picture, and making some careful guesses about dimensions. I started by looking up dimensions for anything in the picture that had a relatively standard size, such as doors. After guessing a door width, I would then use the door as a ruler to measure the wall next to it. Many tedious days later, I decided that the house was 36 feet wide. I should have just listened to Kells! The obvious choice is that I will make the dollhouse 1:24 scale to be displayed near the framed print. Nearly everything, including the house, furniture, and accessories will all be custom made by me, since it is difficult to buy quality items, instead of plastic toys, in this scale. I own a few small items that used to live in the full sized house. Those items will be recreated for the dollhouse.

The footprint of the 1:24 dollhouse will be about 18 x 18 inches. See drawing below. Displayed on a 30 inch wide, 20 inch deep display area, there is plenty of room left to add landscaping and a shed that was near the house in the print (not shown in photo). The dollhouse will have thirteen rooms. The first floor will have a kitchen (added out back), dining, main living room, bath, office on the front left (or a bedroom for granny who can no longer climb the stairs), and a tiny, somewhat public parlor just big enough for a love seat and the staircase entry. The second floor will have a master with a big full/queen bed, two tiny kids rooms or nurseries for the youngest family members, a bath, and a multi-purpose living/playroom. I will add dormers to the back of the roof, giving me two large attic rooms, plus attic storage filled with fun steamer trunks. One of the big rooms will be a boy's room with two bookcase bunks partially tucked into the low front eaves, and the other will be a sewing room (after some of the kids have moved out). My staircase issues have been resolved, and yes, it is up to building codes. The dollhouse might be lighted. I am still troubled by how to have access to the interior. I am considering having the attic level, and the second floor, removable, so that you can see the interior rooms, and not disturb the landscaping or have to move the entire house off the shelf to see into the back. As you can see, this is a massive project that will take a very, very long time to finish!

As a later project, I intend to make large apartment sized room boxes, uniformly about eleven inches deep, for my collection of 1:12 items. It is just too much fun to trade, buy, and collect those common scale items! They could be displayed on any standard depth bookcase shelf, and eventually, with the addition of hallway room boxes, might become an entire apartment building. I still get a 1:12 dollhouse, but each room box would be its own efficiency apartment, or the front rooms of a larger, deeper, implied apartment. The best part of this is that I could have residents move in and out of the apartments, as my skills increased or my interests changed. Each apartment would have its own personality. I could have one very modern apartment occupied by a messy young man next to a elderly cat lady living in an apartment full of antiques. I could have a young couple living an apartment full of hand-me-down furniture (poor quality, sentimental stuff that I just can't bring myself to donate). If I downsize, I would be selling/donating one big room box that can fit on anyone's unused bookcase shelf, instead of a huge stand alone mansion. If I tire of this hobby before filling up and entire apartment high rise, I have one nice finished room box, instead of one giant partially finished house. This future project could be be completed in bite sized pieces.

 

[Kells]

Jackie, I think your plan sounds marvelous! I think it will turn out beautifully. I'm with you on roomboxes. I only have a couple and wish I had more of those and fewer houses.