Dollhouses are so small!

[stickyfingers]

Duh, right?

With the current build and future builds, it seems like I have all of these great ideas for furniture and accessories...a reading nook here and a bar there, but there never seems to be enough space! Or I find the "perfect" thing, but it's just a wee bit too big for the space, so something else has to go. I know these are real life struggles as well, but I wonder how you compensate in the mini world?

I'd like to have rooms planned out with some sense of realism. Scaled areas for walking, room to open doors and drawers, fixtures like tubs and toilets placed like they would be in RL, that sort of thing. But it seems like if you plan it that way, smaller rooms can have minimal furniture. Or you can go vertical and everything gets put on shelves and cabinets.

Chrysnbon and HOM make some really nicely scaled kits, but that limits the selection a lot. And some of the pieces don't mix well...try a Chrysnbon tub next to a standard dollhouse toilet and see what I mean.

You could just stuff it all in there, but then it looks too cluttered for my taste.

Do you just leave things out, and let the observer's mind fill in the blanks? Stairs are one of those things, too. If I leave them in, I lose precious floor space, but if I leave them out, will it look odd? I guess at the end of the day, it's all about blurring the lines between fantasy and reality     

[Minis On The Edge]

I personally leave stairs out sometimes on purpose because of lack of space. The dollhouse is open in the back so if someone asks "where are the stairs" I always say "on the backside or other half of the house where the wall should be closing it off". It's all about staging and creating the things you desire to show. So if it's important put those things in otherwise, I say leave some things up to the imagination  

[Deb]

I leave out stairs all the time too.  The Beacon Hill ended up with a HUGE bedroom on the second floor without stairs.  On the other hand, I bought a fabulous spiral staircase kit, built it, and tucked it into a corner of the Willowcrest where it can only be seen if I stick my whole head into the living room. Some of my houses don't have kitchens or bathrooms but they do have walk in closets.   <grinning>  It's all about what you want the house to be.  But the best solution I've found for showcasing more minis is to just keep building more houses.  

[Dalesq]

I agree with what Tracy and Deb said above. I know I had to get past the idea that the house could be everything and have everything. When I started I wanted one house that showed all my ideas, styles, etc. That just didn't work, and once I let go and did what the house dictated I've been much happier. Of course, that means I build a lot of houses, but that's the fun part!

[havanaholly]

Building more than one house is the only practical solution, but I also found that I can get more into those tiny rooms if I make my own furniture, etc.  Surprise, surprise, it's not that difficult, once you start.

[shannonc60]

Go half scale! That's my plan. I can't fit all my ideas into 1:12 houses, I just have too many, so I plan on making them in 1:24. I will never get tham all done, but I can try!

[Gee]

I  added space, I added 6 little rooms at the back of the house; that gives me some extra room to play. The rooms are going to act as extended hall, little rooms (one is a library f.i.)

and others act as an extension of a room at the front. 

[grazhina]

I ran into the problem of not enough space on my first build, so I did what I'd do in RL. I added a wing!

[stickyfingers]

Great ideas!!

I guess I just wish the rooms were a wee bit bigger, at least in the builds I've got planned. I think the DH makers do a great job with the architecture, styling and details of the exteriors, but the interiors end up being tiny little boxes. I actually added a second wall to the upstairs of the Orchid, making all three rooms just microscopic. I know that's weird, but I wanted the bedroom wall to go between the gable and dormer, which meant a micro bathroom and massive bedroom, which looked odd to me, so the third room is a hallway. I left out the stairs, but kept the stair landing, making the room even smaller, still. I know that doesn't really make a lot of sense, but I hope when it's finished and furnished it looks like what I see in my head.

Making your own furniture does sound like a great idea. I know a lot of people add walls and rooms and even whole floors. Bashing kits makes me nervous, though...maybe after a few more houses?

My strategy is to prioritize what *has* to go in the room, and then let the chips fall where they may.  And I do have multiple builds planned, just so I can get all of the ideas out. And I predict a kitchen room box someday...I have this sweet blue and white hutch that I just adore, but it's so long it would take up a whole wall of any other house I have planned, and it deserves to be front and center.    

[rodentraiser]

I just got a huge dollhouse and added on 4 rooms, extended 3 others, put a room under the staircase, and divided up the attic so I'd have 3 more rooms after that. And added a tower on so I'd get one more room in the tower roof. But then, I tend to do weird things like that.

One thing I have noticed is that dollhouses can take a lot of clutter. You can put chairs too close to one another and just add things until in a real house, you'd be tripping over all the stuff on the floor and on tables and counters. But it doesn't necessarily look really crowded to the eye in a dollhouse. That's why so many people can have small houses and get away with putting so much in them. Small kitchens with lots of stuff seem cosy, not crowded. And once in a while with the Greenleaf houses, I can sneak a piece in that isn't a full 1/12 scale, like a Lundby piece or something from Petite Princess. I have an old Strombecker desk that I think is only 3/4" to 1' and I plan on setting that inside the Arthur. It will go right in front of the stairs and since the stairs are from the Willowcrest, it won't seem out of scale. I may also use a slightly smaller scale Renwal bathroom set for the Arthur, too. I think it'll come out fine.

 

[mininecessities]

Its funny how you think you have a large dollhouse but then you start putting furniture in and you realize its smaller than you thought. The Garfield dining room is tiny, the kitchen could be a tad wider.....one of my big pet peeves is the wrap around porch. It is not wide enough to put a chair or table or anything. it must be for walking around it only. I would love to go to a smaller scale but I love the detail that shows in 1:12 scale. I love my Garfield but I hope to someday make a house with just square or rectangle rooms......I have gotten quite a bit done this last week.......if I can just keep it up. I am so anxious to furnish this!

[BriJohn]

I know what you mean. I am new to this, but I want realistic room placement too. I've noticed dollhouses usually have three "rooms" on the bottom: an entry, and then two rooms. Well, I want 4 on the bottom because I want the dining separate from the the kitchen so I want entry, living, dining, and kitchen on the bottom. My first dollhouse I got and am kind of bashing is a Newport by Real Good Toys. Now that is a huge dollhouse but I'm still adding on to it. With the additional two rooms, it will do well for what I want. I also added a wrap around porch because the porch was too tiny for stuff.  

The second house I'm working on at the same time is the Painted Lady by Real Good Toys. I'm probably adding on to that one too. ON the second floor of that one, the stairs come up into the room, making a nice sized room, kind of loft like with the stairs coming up into it. I kept feeling like that wasn't realistic because then that master bedroom would need privacy and then I had to laugh out loud at myself because that house is for my daughter and she doesn't know that master bedrooms need privacy and she'll have much for fun playing and arranging furniture in the open space (without having a created hallway on the second floor). Now the stairs, I could not do without the stairs unless I had a pull down staircase so that they could be used when needed but would still be out of the way. That;s just me though. As I write this though, I am thinking never say never! 

I haven't actually finished a house yet, but online all the pictures I see, the houses that look most realistic are of course the ones that look lived in and at my house anyway, that means quite a bit of clutter! I feel like if it's proportioned well, it can handle more clutter, and I like the clutter and accessories. 

One thing I considered for the Painted Lady, other than a full addition, was bumping the skinny rooms would with a two story bay. The bay on my Newport is huge - that size would add a great deal to a dollhouse. Just an idea to get more space in a room. 

[mininecessities]

I am like you Briana, my houses have to have stairs! How would the little people get up there? I actually kit bashed a house once to make the top of the stairs better so the residence wouldnt hit their head on the way up.........lol I also worry that most bathrooms are on the 2nd or 3rd floor..omg I would never make it up there in time........

Edited August 27, 2015 by mininecessities
wrong spelling

[BriJohn]

Yes, yes, Cheryl! The bathroom on my Newport is going to be on the top floor! Either that or I could make it where you have to walk through the master to get to the bath. Not crazy about either option but thinking I'll go with top floor. Or.....I could put it in the addition over the kitchen but then I'd lose the super cute attic/pantry I have planned over kitchen. Choices, choices!

[shannonc60]

Lots of great points Mike. If you look at real life furniture, some pieces are large and others are small, some fine and some chunky, just like miniatures. Also, I have made the Canterbury 3/4" instead of 1" scale, and will do the same with the Aster. Things will just fit better with the smaller size of these houses.

[havanaholly]

I find that a utility knife with  new blade cuts basswood (obeche) up to 1/4" thick with hardly any effort (I have osteoarthritis in my hands & wrists; 'nuff said).  Between Jane Harrop and Patricia King you can furnish anything!

[stickyfingers]

Fabulous ideas!!!

Glad to know I'm not the only one that struggles with this. I do think I'd like to make a kitchen, and thank you Mike for saying that! it's kind of neat that furniture and things have working parts, and I suppose kids appreciate that kind of thing, but really... once I get it all in there just so, am I really going to fiddle with it?

 

[Sable]

I like the 'open plan' concept on my first floor. Kitchen, dining and family room are all one large space.  Where a support wall is generally needed, I just install a support beam to minimize sagging of the second floor.

[denkyem]

I know what you mean. I am new to this, but I want realistic room placement too. I've noticed dollhouses usually have three "rooms" on the bottom: an entry, and then two rooms. Well, I want 4 on the bottom because I want the dining separate from the the kitchen so I want entry, living, dining, and kitchen on the bottom. My first dollhouse I got and am kind of bashing is a Newport by Real Good Toys. Now that is a huge dollhouse but I'm still adding on to it. With the additional two rooms, it will do well for what I want. I also added a wrap around porch because the porch was too tiny for stuff.  

 

I'm with you on wanting realistic room placement on that bottom floor! That's why I also went with a mammoth RGT house -- North Park.  It gives me a separate kitchen, hallway, living room and dining room (and a semi-separated music room off the living room).  The only thing bugging me now is that the kitchen and dining room have ended up at opposite ends of the house.  That's a long way to hike with a dish of hot food! I'm all hung up now on placing my living room furniture so that my tiny people wouldn't have to squeeze around the sofa to get food to the table.  It's funny which details we get obsessive about and which ones we don't really care about.  Seems to vary so much from one mini-er to the next. 

[Debra from Olde Cape Cod]

Realistic in the Canterbury has been a challenge!  The bathroom is upstairs but I realized there was no way to get to it!  So there's going to have to be a ship's ladder on the outside of the house!  Very impractical, but makes me giggle.....

[havanaholly]

I have been in real life houses where the bathrooms were upstairs...  The house we had in OH originally had a butler's pantry where the original owners converted to a half bath.

[Selkie]

In my really old Real Life house one has to walk through other rooms and bedrooms to get to the bathrooms. It's not just dollshouses that are laid out wierd.

I lay it to the fact that old houses weren't built with indoor plumbing so some other room or area was converted to a bathroom when plumbing became available. It was so wonderful of an invention that folks didn't care if they had to walk through some else's bedroom to get there or thru the bathroom to get to their bedroom.

Way different from today's expectations of privacy.  Tee hee hee

[denkyem]

When we rented our current apartment (which is the ground floor and basement of a smallish house) we loved the huge kitchen and the garden and the layout in general, except for one weird thing: the bedroom and the office and the living room and the kitchen are all on the ground floor, and then the basement has a rec room and the only bathroom in the house!  It's been six years now though, and it seems completely normal at this point.  I can wake up in the middle of the night and get out of bed, down the hall, down the stairs, across the basement and in to the bathroom without even really waking up.  So I'm sure the mini folk and their micro-bladders could adapt to some quirks too! 

[mininecessities]

Emily I would never make it! We could put bedside commodes in.......yeah! I think chamber pots would be too uncomfortable. lol

[More Minis Dollhouses]

Greenleaf Dollhouses are so true to scale that they do tend to have smaller areas of useable space inside. 

I always leave the architectural features of the dollhouse intact. I never remove staircases, etc just to create more space because I find these features to be part of the unique realism of the dollhouse. For me, the dollhouse itself is just as much of a show piece as the miniatures inside. 

I gave up a long time ago on creating walking space or space for a door opening, etc. I use to go through so much OCD with that but found that everything looks nice without creating those "realistic spaces". Trying to create them would also cause more stress than fun time. Now I just enjoy that it is a dollhouse and there are no real miniature folks walking around. Even if there were, let them move stuff around to get by...lol 

My solution to still having a set up I want, like a bar or a reading nook, that doesn't fit in my current dollhouse is: get a second or third dollhouse....lol