The Classic Bungalow Dollhouse

I needed to order more lights to continue to work on the New Orleans Dollhouse, so it's on hold for now. While I wait on my lights, I began work on my Classic Bungalow Dollhouse. I decided to share some photos of my progress so far. I took my color inspiration from this photo in one of those free color pamphlets by Behr I picked up in Home Depot. I did not expect it to be so huge! It makes my Mountfield Dollhouse look like the servant quarters. But I do like that it gives the effect of a large house but without a lot of rooms to decorate. But it would be so awesome if it had more rooms and not open back with removable walls and had more authentic craftsman details:) 

It's dark under the porch and the extra light effected the colors

The design concept for this house is for an older retired couple, so I decided to go with one bedroom, bathroom and large hall upstairs. I am going for the craftsman style but it has been difficult to find things in this style. The exterior colors are sage green, elephant skin, artisan and vintage linen. I just bought the colors in sample and quart sizes. I am going to use dolomite texture sheet from HBS to simulate the stone on the pillars. I test fit the furniture for the living room, dinning area and kitchen and tested lights.

I discovered that the kit is very versatile. I adjusted the room size, and flipped the second floor so the stair hole is in the living room instead of the kitchen and made a staircase from leftover parts from other kits.

I redesigned the front door to look more like a craftsman style door. It was very easy to cut the oval panel out of the door and the acrylic insert was long enough to cover the door, but I decided to make a small window at the top and use some wood strips to cover most of the opening.

I like the paving of this one so, I added it to the porch

On another note, I ran across a great blog through Pinterest today called "Architecture of Tiny Distinction", which I apparently had joined already but didn't know it, building the same kit with most of the same ideas I had in mind for the interior. I don't know if it was ever finished but it was a beautiful start.

Rear View of the New Orleans Creole Townhouse

Just finished the rear of the house, I accidentally broke my railing I need to fix it, the roof is unfinished and not attached. I'm undecided what to do about it. I 'm trying to stay authentic but I would like to use the same treatment I did on the hat shop roof, but really aged with layers of color. I have seen slate used and barrel tiles on the edges but nothing like what I want to do, Ugh! I added the faux doors and windows to add interest to the back of the house. I originally planned to add brick to the lower gray unpainted section but I like the contrast and it leads the eye to the gray in the courtyard???? Except for hardware on the doors this is it for the outside, I think:) I have all the furniture for the inside but I am missing some lights for a couple of rooms, so time permitting the house should be completed by June. I have chosen the official name of the Dollhouse, which is "The Marshall House" after my maternal great, great grandparents who were from Louisiana.

view on the side of the house with the unfinished outbuilding roof

kitchen door and the dark circles are the DHE logo another one on the upper balcony

view from the courtyard into the passageway (I need to sand my arch some more)

Passageway to the Courtyard

Behind the double doors on the ground level is the passageway that leads to the entrance of the house, the courtyard and to the out building. I started with plastic brick sheets and cut them to fit the walls and floor. I spray painted them with a base coat of Colonial Red for the walls and followed that up with light coverage of stone effect spray paint. Then I applied premixed mortar mix sold by miniatures.com to the grout lines, wiped lightly so not to clean off the bricks completely to simulate peeling stucco walls. On the floor I used a gray base coat on the floor's bricks and granite stone effect over the top. The floor is not attached yet because I want to "age" it with paint and pastels. The ceiling is painted wood flooring sold at Hobby Lobby and square wood dowels for beams. The lighted pictures were before the ceiling was installed.

This is the door to the house

The door with the coach light held in place temporarily with tape

This is the inspiration picture. I left the ceiling light out because it made the space too bright

These are the doors to the passageway

View of the courtyard, outbuilding and door to the house