It's A Small World After All

In August of 1989, I went up to Ohio to visit my sister BJ. It was my Birthday and BJ gave me a Miniture Doll House called 'The Arthur'. It's a Gothic design house, and I believe it's designed from an actual Gothic Home.

The Arthur consisted of four rooms and in this picture right in the middle of the house where the porch is, is The Arthur. It has two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs. BJ and I put it together, it's a kit and it consisted of walls, floor, windows, and some extra's that came with the house.

Well....after we got the house constructed, we realized four rooms were not going to be enough. BJ went and bought another small house (called The Sweetheart) that had two rooms, one up and one down, and we attached that to the left of the Arthur.

Then we said, "wait, we still need a master bedroom and a good size livingroom", so BJ constructed (out of extra boards, BJ is so gifted) another set of rooms and we put those up against the right of the house. Now we have eight rooms to work with, a livingroom, diningroom, sewingroom, and a kitchen. Upstairs we have (starting over the living room), master bedroom, nursery (for baby), bathroom, and teenager's bedroom.

Then we put lights in the house..OMG..that was a job in it's self. I won't go into explaining how that was done, there's not enough of room on this Page to write all of that. Lets just say, we bought a lighting kit that works off of a small transformer that you plug in to a 110 receptacle. All of the rooms lights up.

Next came the flooring and walls. BJ had also bought actual reproductions of small designed wallpaper and paper flooring. That was a little eaiser then the lights.

After several weeks, my husband came up to Ohio to pick me up (he came in a pickup), needed room for the dollhouse. When we got back to Louisiana, I decided to build a combo 'office/library', so I put that up against the rightside of the house, I did that room all by myself.

Now, depending on your right and left, and how your viewing the pictures, it's confusing when we say, "rightside or leftside". But...you get the picture. :)

This part of the dollhouse is The Sweetheart. BJ and I made it as the kitchen and the teenager's bedroom. I used a template from The Arthur's stairway for stairs to the bedroom, above the kitchen. This bedroom has a hope chest that I put together using small pieces of wood, I sanded and stained it. I've since worked on the hope chest and put little gold balls on the bottom for legs, and it has latches to open and close the lid, and added some extras to the chest. We bought kits of games that come on paper and you cut them out and glue them together, they are on shelves that I also made and put it up against the window. There are many extra features here, for a teenager to enjoy.

The kitchen has a ole timey frig, and I glued small strips of rubber band to the side of the doors so they will open and close. Then I glued strips to the other side, so the door will latch shut.There's a phone on the wall by the sink, and a bird in a cage hanging from the ceiling. Broom and bucket under the stairs. The kitchen has pots and pans, little measuring cups above the stove, and under the stove, there's a mouse going after a piece of cheese that's on a mouse trap, poor little mouse !! Both rooms have lighting and each room has all the extra's that make a comfortable home.

Now we have the sewing room and the bathroom. This is part of The Arthur. The bathroom set was a Birthday gift from my other sister Donna. The sink, tub and commode are porcelain, the commode lid is wood. I constructed the shower curtain that's around the tub from an old shower curtain that I had, and from a cloths hanger. There's toothbrushes, soap, and a shaving cup on the sink. You can't see it, but there's a itty bitty roll of tissue paper on the side of the commode. Aso Many extra features are in the bathroom.

The sewing machine is made of metal, and I made the cabinet for it, from balsa wood, and I constructed two drawers. There's a yard stick, bolts of material, and a basket of thread. BJ also gave me a kit of furniture for several rooms. The sewing room is also used as a laundry room. A cabinet sits on the left and has towels, washrags, and blankets that I made. Every house should have a sewing room...for sure.

Now we come to the nursery, and diningroom. This is also part of The Arthur. The nursery furniture was a kit that I bought, it consisted of a crib, dresser and a toy box. I glued, buffed, and painted the furniture. The dresser has five drawers and they come out of the dresser. I actually put a itty bitty box of pampers, in one of the drawers. I also bought the rocking chair as a kit and glued and painted it. There are many toys for baby to play with.

The diningroom has many features, procelain dinnerware with glass goblets and silverware. I made the place mats and napkins, and in the center of the table is a real candle...no I don't light it :) The french doors were made by BJ. She cut a rounded area out from the side and used that for the doors. There's real glass in each panel, and I glued lacey material to the doors, and we put little hinges on the side, so they open and close. The diningroom has many, other little features.

The livingroom and master bedroom were constructed with extra sheets of wood, that BJ and I designed. The bedroom has a canapy bed that I bought as a kit and I put it together, and stained it a cherry color. I have since made a topping to match the skirt, that's around the bed. I also made a hope chest for this room, a bible is resting on it. The master of the house also plays golf, and leaves them leaning up against the bed. Now, isn't that just like a man !!

The living room steps off of the dining room, and has a fire place that I made from a picture of one, and there's a flickering candle for a fire effect in the fireplace. There's a basket of dried flowers seting on the coffee table. A writing desk sits in the corner, and has writing tablet that I cut from paper, and very carefully glued the edges together. I wasn't happy with the front window, so I designed a bay window, by looking at several pictures of one. I measured and measured until I came up with the one I liked, then glued felt to the seat, and made two, itty bitty pillows for the seat. When working with any type of miniture, the very first thing you need, is "PATIENCE"...just ask BJ !!

I hope ya'll are enjoying my Hobby. Be sure to go to my next Page for more pictures of my Miniture Dollhouse. My collectables coming soon.

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