Wednesday, February 9, 2011

First Dollshouse - Bedroom

The final room in my little tour of my first dollshouse is the bedroom on the top floor. I must say that I definitely learnt my lesson by building this particular room. It is such a crazy shaped room that it is difficult to furnish and very difficult to photograph!

It is built in the triangle roof and even though I made it a couple of centimetres taller than the plan said, it is still very annoying having the two sloping roofs on each side - there is no room for the furniture (let alone a door - so there is no way into this room!) and there are not enough walls on which to put pictures. Oh well, we live and learn!

I really like the bed I have in this room. It is a Phoenix white metal kit - quite soft metal, but really finely detailed....I've seen the same bed painted really nicely in gold and white (that's probably what I would do now, and then add rust!!), but I like this old-fashioned look. Since I can't really sew, making the bedding was a huge challenge for me! I was really proud of my pillow case, which is made from an old linen handkerchief.....I love the cut work edge. The pillow was embroidered by a lady called Judy and it goes really nicely with the old broach that I found to use as a picture on the wall.

I like the dressing table, and had great fun making pefume bottles out of old beads. The dressing table set is a Chrysnbon set, which my friend Trish has beautifully handpainted. I made the hydrangea that you can't quite see behind the chair.

This beautiful doll was my "special" purchase at our national Convention about two years ago. I think she is gorgeous!Another favourite thing in this room is this sweet Alice in Wonderland doll. She was knitted by Helen Palenski, who is a New Zealand IGMA artisan.

She sits on the chest at the end of the bed. This was already a very nice plain wooden chest, but I have messed around with decals again here to make it resemble the Norwegian Rosemaling folk art painting. The pretty green shoes on the floor are by Sylvia Rowntree, the Dolls Cobbler.

Actually, silly as it might sound, I am really proud of the floors in this house. I found some pieces of paper that looked like wood, and before putting the house together I painted the floors black, then cut strips of the wood paper and glued them to the floor, leaving tiny gaps between so that the black showing through looked like the "gaps" between the floorboards. Then I painted the floor randomly with watercolours so that it wouldn't look so uniform, and finally it got two coats of varnish. I like this floor that I made so much better than any of the readymade floor papers I have seen.

This is the window in the bedroom. Yes, blinds again....you know I can't make curtains. This blind is also made from an old handkerchief. The cranberry glass vase is so pretty and here is one of my absolute favourite miniatures....the little "Butterfly Girl" bronze by Neil Carter. It is just so beautiful!

So that is the tour of my first dollshouse...I hope you enjoyed it.

The cider turned out very very nice! I'm making my second batch now.

21 comments:

Heleni said...

Hello Carolinethe, wow I love your first home very much. So many of details. The bed are amazing and the box, the doll...everything...

gr.Heleni

Lotte said...

The bedroom is beautiful! Lovely details.

M.Narbon said...

Te ha quedado precioso!!!
No le falta detalle!!

May said...

muy romántico, muy bien coordinado

Christine said...

This bedroom is so beautiful. I love the bed and pillows and chest (it looks handpainted!)and the wallpaper and the dolls and especially the floorboards and the shoes and... and... and... everything! It may have been hard to decorate but you would never be able to tell. I could just stare at it for ages.

Linda said...

oooooooo myyyyy i love this room :D Linda x

JS Grame-Smith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Minimami said...

Wow, I really like it here! The bedroom is amazing!

Flora said...

This first house retains an ancient charm and because you are lucky enough to have created more, you can enjoy the choices made, as the bed black, really a symbol of an era.
Also I do not like the curtains too, I prefer blinds, so I love the little window in the bedroom :-)
The floors are exceptional :-)
One thing for another: in these days I'm proceeding with the construction of my shabby cottage, also inspired by you: when I receive your treasures, can truly be called "shabby"!!!

Lena said...

You have meda a beutiful bedroom! I love it all! The wallpaper, the fabrics, the quilt, the cushions,the flowers,the metal bed...So much to see! I know what you mean about small spaces, I´ve got a similar bedroom that is hard to decorate...But i thnk you make it very well!

TreeFeathers said...

Oh Carolyn, it's beautiful! You really dealt with the oddly-shaped space well, it looks very cozy (a perfect room for the copy of "A Little Princess," lol!) I love the little doll at the dressing table, and especially the pillows, quilt, and window shade. Great job! :)

- Grace

Ana said...

es una habitacion adorable y muy acogedora¡¡¡Me encantan todos sus detalles, la cama es preciosa y la cortina...una autentica maravilla¡¡¡¡Felicidades

Patty said...

Carolyn, What an incredible house for your first!! Every room has a coziness to it and wonderful details. I really love how your bed came out! The floors are brilliant! I really love that shade on the window too and curtains would have overwhelmed that little window! You made the perfect dressing for it!!

Lataina said...

What a charming room. It's very pretty. =)

My Wee Life said...

This room is so pretty - you could quite happily live in that!

suzeeez said...

What a beautiful little room. I love every tiny little detail ! :o) Sue

17-17 said...

Beautiful room! I love it!!
Hugs,
Magda

Sharon said...

Beautiful room. Thanks for sharing! I love the bed.

Alba said...

Lovely bedroom!

Heather said...

your bedroom is beautiful! I love everything about the bathroom window picture!

Margaret said...

Hi Carolyn, Glad to see you are settled in your new home and back to blogging. I just found this post, it is from a time when I was madly packing to move too, love your bedroom and the floor you made, it looks great.
Cheers from NSW.