What better gift for your loved ones, than an introduction to a lifetime hobby. With Dolls House Emporium gift vouchers now available online, we’ve taken all the difficulty out of making your choice. Dolls’ houses bridge the generation gap and bring together friends and family. Who will you treat to a Dolls House Emporium gift voucher this Christmas?

On Sunday December 2nd, come and join us at our shop in High Holborn Road, Ripley, Derbyshire for our second Grand Auction.

We have an amazing collection of vintage and current dolls houses, many complete with furniture and accessories, up for sale to the highest bidder.

For full details, visit our Auction page now!

This year we’ve been spoilt for choice! Your competition entries were so good, we have two runners up. (click on the images to enlarge)

You can also download this article as a PDF document.

First Prize-Winner - The Cuckoo Clock

Jane Lansdowne of Derbyshire was inspired by her purchase of a 1:12th scale cuckoo clock for her dolls’ house, when suddenly she realised how wonderful The Retreat would look as a traditional Swiss cuckoo clock.

Jane spent several days researching her project, before reducing the depth of The Retreat, to make a more attractive wall hanging building. The ground floor is the perfect workshop for the village clock maker, kept busy repairing and restoring the timepieces belonging to the locals.

The workshop and upstairs bedroom have working lights; the clock face is made from turned wood and always keeps perfect time, along with a charming cuckoo that is on permanent watch. Jane’s cuckoo clock is a stunning creation, well deserving of her first prize, and a ‘timely’ inspiration to us all.

First Runner-Up - The Chocolatier - Good enough to eat!

Our first runner up, Ingrid Germonprez of Belgium has created a mouth-watering mini masterpiece. Ingrid always wanted to own her own chocolate shop, so this became the inspiration for her delectable entry in our 2007 Creative Competition.

The ground floor is taken up with the shop area, where an impressive variety of chocolates are displayed.On the display counter there are colourful marzipans and truffles waiting to tempt the customers. The furniture was originally bare wood, painted and decorated by Ingrid; she also added the mirrors and a large illuminated shelf unit. Upstairs the master chocolate-maker is hard at work, surrounded by his creations. Yum!

Second Runner-Up - The Pearly Gates - Divine Inspiration

Stella Graham of Guernsey was encouraged to enter the Creative Competition by her good friend Ruth, but it was her husband Peter who came up with the idea of a house for his saintly namesake. Stella applied pearlised and glitter finished paints to the whole building with details picked out in gold.

The ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was purchased locally and sprayed gold. The unique doorway is decorated with hundreds of tiny seed pearls, each meticulously glued on by hand.

The desks and chairs were all hand made and painted gold. Below in St. Peter’s office, the walls were panelled in cream and gold and the furniture painted to match.

The St. Peter doll was originally a likeness of Stella’s husband, and was adapted to become a convincing St. Peter. We are sure you will agree, this creation is totally unique and very deserving of its prize-winning status.

The Dolls House Emporium are delighted to be working with BBC television’s ‘DIY SOS’ programme, bringing Christmas joy to a Doncaster foster home this Christmas.

Foster mum Doreen has cared for around 50 children over many years, and lost everything in this year’s catastrophic floods. DIY SOS is coming to the rescue and is helping Doreen rebuild her shattered home and in the process will be creating a magical playroom with our fully painted and decorated Orchard House dolls’ house taking pride of place.

Don’t miss this heart-warming episode of the nation’s favourite DIY makeover show, due to be broadcast on December 27th.

Watch this space for exciting news about how you could win up to £1000 in Dolls House Emporium vouchers. Make sure you visit www.dollshouse.com on Saturday 10th for your first clue.