Little Red Cottage

I started a little cottage about a year before I started Annika's house. Let's say sometime in 2004, I opened the box and started assembly. No, I didn't take pictures because this happened back in my personal Digital Photo Dark Ages. We had a crummy digital camera and rarely used it.

I was just going through an old notebook of presentations I co-wrote for one of my old jobs and found a to-do list for this house, with notes for Annika's House and the log cabin (which is now Eric's fort) that I still have not finished. The list dates to 2005.

I started with the Lafayette dollhouse by Dura-Craft. At first, I was not positive what I wanted it to look like, but I knew I wanted to go with a patriotic theme of red, white, and blue. My inspiration came from a few pieces of furniture I bought. They were from Robin Betterley's Liberty Bay living room furniture line.

At this point, I don't remember the exact details of assembly. I glued individual square shingles over the entire exterior walls. I added cedar shingles to the roof. I didn't add apex gingerbread trim. It needed to be more simple, more rustic. I went through a number of paint samples until I found the right combination of dusty blue, barn red, and cream.

I custom mixed the gray paint on the base and glued on tiny aquarium rocks.

I wanted to stay consistent with the interior color scheme. I picked up scrapbook papers with muted stripes, stars, and things that would flow together.

I had some thin brown faux-suede fabric leftover from an American Girl doll outfit that became the bedroom carpet.

Now, this little house is still unfinished. I have to complete the tile flooring upstairs, wood flooring downstairs, the baseboard trim, the 1st floor chair-rail trim, the windows, and the door. It has been sitting around in more or less the same state for 2 or 3 years. I have a sheet of pine random plank flooring waiting for me to place downstairs.

Once I get some free time (warm weather = garden time) and other dollhouses finished, I will resume work on this one.

Artist's Studio

Back a long time ago, about 1997, I built a tiny one-room house for my sister. It was a bit quirky because my sister is a bit quirky.  She is the "artsy-fartsy" one, so I made her little house to fit her personality.

This house was created way back when I never took photos of anything I made.  I recently asked Sis if she still had it. Yes! She did! It shows some wear and tear, but that's because it has gotten a lot of love (play time) with her kids.

Inside, I used a preformed tile sheet in black and white check.  The walls were painted bright white and I hand-painted the decorative border near the ceiling.

Outside, the walls were painted yellow with texturizing powder added to the paint to simulate stucco.  I added Tudor-style beams painted purple to add accent and interest.  The window and door (now missing) were painted peacock blue.

The roof  is stained fish scale cedar shingles with purple peak trim.

The door has gone missing. The yard baseboard with the green "grass" (model scenic powder) and brown "planter beds" (tea leaves from opened tea bags) has vanished too. Still, I thought it would be good to feature it here. It was a fun little project and I'm happy that it has been loved.