The Dolls House Emporium Blog » Dolls’ Houses

The history of dolls’ houses explored on Radio 4

admin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:00:13 +0000

Radio 4 will be taking a peek inside the world of the dolls’ house today at 11.30am.

The presenter, Sarah Taylor, will be speaking to children’s writer and illustrator Lauren Child, who writes the successful Charlie & Lola series, and who took much of her inspiration for her illustrations from her dolls’ house. Sarah will also talk to a number of leading British artisans about their work and passion for all things miniature, as well as speaking to the Museum of Childhood about the history of the dolls’ houses.

To find our more, click here.

You can listen to the programme on Radio 4 at 11.30am, or listen again at a later time by going to the Programmes page on the Radio 4 website, and scrolling down to The Dolls’ House.

The Independent – Mansions in miniature!

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:48:36 +0000

The Independent has visited Annina Günter’s 1960’s-built house in East Sussex. It has beautiful clean, smooth lines, from the black legged Eames dining chairs to the vintage vinyl floor tiles. It also has a trio of stylish nudes above the teal sideboard, where a red plastic ice bucket sits poised for retro cocktails. Overall it’s a mid-century modern paradise being cosy but not too kitsch and stylish but with a lived in feeling – which is ironic, considering you have to be under a foot tall to get through the door!

Find out more about Annina’s amazing creation by reading the entire article in The Independent.

A veritable Victorian feast!

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:00:45 +0000

This beautiful Victorian wedding by Harriet Jones, from Walsall, was definitely one of our favourite designs. We love the idea of an outside reception in the grounds of a stunning Victorian house! We’ll let Harriet explain where she got her inspiration from.

“My miniature wedding project was inspired by my attendance at a friend’s wedding. The photographs at that wedding were taken in the gardens of a beautiful Victorian country house and they looked absolutely stunning. It was this that gave me the idea for my own project.

I set my wedding reception in the garden of my own Victorian dolls’ house, incorporating the conservatory to add a certain ambience – and some where to shelter from the rain if the worst does happen! The furniture includes pieces I acquired whilst decorating my dolls’ house. I laid the table with a red striped table cloth, which I made myself, together with handmade name cards. The chairs have been decorated with a red bow to match the table cloth and the ‘red carpet’, which adds a bit of ‘film star’ glamour! I added a piece of gold cardboard to the back of the conservatory to create a beautiful backdrop for the bride and groom’s first dance.

The wedding guests are all relaxing in the garden, sitting on the pretty patterned cushions which I handmade, whilst they wait for the wedding breakfast to be served. The beautiful wedding cake is already on display – I made this out of sugar paste and I am really pleased with the finished design! The very well behaved children, who are the pageboys and bridesmaids at the ceremony, sit quietly in the garden, while the bride and groom take a much needed rest on the steps to the house!

My aim was to create a happy and relaxed atmosphere for my wedding guests and I think I’ve done that! I am really pleased with my beautiful Victorian wedding in a stunning Victorian house!”

Our “Design a Wedding Venue” winner unveiled!

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:30:10 +0000

Michelle Zarfas’ stunning purple-themed wedding venue in a beautiful walled garden really stood out as a winning design from amongst the entries in last months Design a Wedding Venue competition. We loved her Spring inspired design and were very impressed with the attention to detail – we would have been more than happy to sit down with a glass of bubbly and listen to the speeches!

“As I work for a company that organises a lot of weddings and parties, I thought I would have a go at designing a miniature wedding venue. I did not really know where to start – the first things I needed were tables and chairs but as I didn’t have a lot of money to spend I decided to make them out of cardboard and cover them in a lilac silk, and add a beautiful bow.

I made the garden out of anything I could find! I made the flowers and plants out of wire and coloured paper – it took quite a while! I enjoyed making the gazebo so much that I made it three times! I wasn’t happy with my first creation and every time I made another one it got better – although I decided to stop at three!

I really loved making this wedding venue and can’t wait to get started on another scene. I started the hobby of dolls’ houses and miniatures three years and like so many other people, I am now hooked!”

The benefits of having a hobby – and there are many!

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:21:05 +0000

As hobbies go building, decorating and furnishing dolls’ houses may initially seem one of the rarer ones, but the bustling market of dolls’ house magazines, and shops in every corner of the world selling a range of miniatures, would seem to suggest the exact opposite. In talking to our customers we have found that one of the most important considerations when choosing a hobby is ensuring there is the opportunity to engage with others who have the same interest – which is why many people choose dolls’ houses as their hobby!Here on the Internet there is more than just a sense of community and a quick glance at our Forum will tell anyone that our Forum members are more than just acquaintances. They use the Forum to vent their frustrations, share helpful hints and tips, ask questions if they are having a particular miniature problem, and even chat about things that are totally unrelated to dolls’ houses and miniatures! It’s a fantastic way to meet new friends and to hone your miniature skills, and as we all know there is nothing better than “miniature-ing” for relaxing, encouraging creativity and getting that imagination flowing.

Why not take a look at our Forum for yourself? You never know what you may find!

The house of your dreams for a fraction of the price!

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:51 +0000

Have you had your eye on that dolls’ house for a while, but have been daunted by the time and money you need to spend to get it perfect? Well, fear no more – The Dolls House Emporium has the answer.

Our shop on High Holborn Road in Ripley, Derbyshire, has a number of beautiful built houses still available. The various houses and basements include ones that are already built, decorated and lit and can be taken away by you on the same day – allowing you to get on with the fun bit of furnishing the house to your own individual style!

The houses are sold on a first come first served basis, so get yourself down to our shop now, enjoy a complimentary cup of tea or coffee, browse our extensive range of accessories and furniture – and maybe even get some inspiration for your 2010 Creative Competition entry!

Can you guess what it is yet?

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:00:58 +0000

As we’ve whetted your appetite for our brand new catalogue with sneak peek at our beautiful miniature gardens, we thought we would try and tempt you further by giving you a taste of what you will find on the inside!

But can you guess what this room scene will be transformed in to? From a café or a corner shop to a bedroom or a boutique, the possibilities are endless. Maybe a few more tantalising photographs may help!

You never know, we may reveal some more over the next few weeks, you’ll just have to keep an eye on our blog! We really do spoil you!

Planning and Building the Gazebo, by Sherpa

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:00:43 +0000

Sometime in early July 2007, I received a request from my friend Little Sun, asking if it would be possible for me to make her a Gazebo. My reply was: “That should be possible, but what is a Gazebo?” She replied, “A garden house or a teahouse, but in an English way.” I thought, that should be possible and as I had a month off work, the project came at just the right time. So I decided to create an outline and get started!

I first planned to give the Gazebo six corners, but then thought an octagonal shape would be more beautiful. Getting the supplies to build the Gazebo was no problem as a shop selling miniature aircrafts had just opened in our hometown and it sells all kinds of wooden strips. So, on to the store to get some wood.

I first started on the floor and thought it might be nice to make it in the shape of an octagon, rather than having all the boards lined up next to each other. I got the green light from Sun and started creating a mould so that the eight segments would be the same.

The Gazebo Floor

This was our first time building to scale and we didn’t have all the proportions in our head. The segments had a length of 9.5 cm, which would have given the final gazebo a diameter of 19 cm. The more we worked on it, the more we found that it would be a very small gazebo. In 1:1 scale, it would be 228 cm diameter, which isn’t a lot! Just enough for a chair and a table, and that’s it. At this stage we thought maybe we should change the plan a bit!

We also have our Camel walking about the house, who likes to be involved in our fun. He always has a lot to say about our projects, but on this occasion he also gave us a brilliant idea, if we doubled the length of the segments, the diameter would become 465 cm in 1:1 scale, and that would be reasonable. Unfortunately, we do not have a garden with room for a gazebo like that ourselves, but that doesn’t stop us dreaming! So, we went back to the store to get more wood.

The Extended Gazebo Floor

Camel, 'helping'

It was then time for our holiday and my plane was waiting. Had the time gone quicker than we expected, or had it been a lot more work than we’d envisioned? On itself, the floor consisted of 224 pieces of wood, and getting it all right simply took a lot of time.

Well, we went on holiday and hoped that it would be easier to finish the Gazebo when we got home! At Schiphol Airport they served coffee with beautiful wooden stirrers and I wondered if we could use them in our Gazebo project. I then had a fantastic idea! I could use them for the trellis on the roof. I just needed to get some more. I had one and with the next cup of coffee, I got another! But I would have to drink a lot of coffee to get the number of stirrers we needed.

I went to the USA for my holiday, where I did volunteer work at a festival in the desert. The festival lasted for 14 days, and yes, they had the same coffee stirrers. On my last day, I went to ask if I could have some and it wasn’t a problem. Hurray – I go home with my bags full of coffee stirrers and many new ideas for the Gazebo.

Back home we pick up the project where we left it. Camel has his own ideas and doesn’t always keep his mouth shut, so every now and then we have to shut him up with a cloth pin!

Camel - silenced!

The Floor of the Gazebo complete

The next job was the roof, which I was really excited about. I did not have any drawings or descriptions and had to do everything by looking and experimenting. I left school before they could teach me mathematics, so I wasn’t able to calculate everything very well!

We worked with separate parts that would later be connected and we made the frames and beams out of balsa wood. We soon found that the floor was a lot easier to make – that was flat. The roof was not only a triangle, but also stood upwards a bit. We made a mould of cardboard and hoped for the best! Camel provided the necessary help, holding the glue, or testing the roof by using it as a lazy lounge chair.

Camel lounging on the roof

Whilst waiting for the glue to dry I worked with the coffee stirs. With some glue, headpins and soft board, the trellises start to grow. 420 coffee stirs were needed, so we were busy for quite a while. We glued them on, 8 pieces at a time on the soft board covered in baking paper, to avoid the glue sticking to anything else.

Trellis for the sides of the Gazebo

While the glue on the trellises was drying, we returned to the roof. That was if we could keep it out of Camel’s paws. We tried to imagine the height between the roof levels and wondered what to make between the medium and smallest roof – we thought slats would be nice. The trellises were planned between the biggest and medium level of the roof.

It started to get more difficult than we expected because the whole thing was getting pretty big and was not that easy to handle. Fortunately, the Tacky Glue dries rapidly. It was a lot of work, but the roof was just as we imaged it and finally it was ready for the roof shingles. We’ve talked a lot about these tiles and Sun finally decides she wants the shingles, as seen in a kindergarten in Leiden, and they could be made in scale out of wooden tongue depressors.

We had no idea how many we would need, but we started by ordering 5 boxes as we needed to make a 1,000 shingles.

Well, it turned out that we needed 995 shingles for the roof. We had to sand every single one to make sure that they lay flat over each other. It took a lot more work, but it shows. The more we looked at it, the more we thought the roof started looking like a pineapple.

Tiling the Roof - Camel 'helps' again

A real accomplishment!

The trellises were finally finished and ready for the roof. Camel and his fiancée MissMouse, (who normally lives in Groningen but her home, Villa Kattenhart, had been sold, so she was staying at our place) loved to test every part of the new Gazebo and kept a close eye on everything that was happening. They also provided us with necessary and (especially) unnecessary comments!

Time flew by and the Dolls’ House Fair in Arnhem was coming up, which suited me very well as we did not have all the necessary materials at home to complete the Gazebo – it was also a good opportunity to search for new ideas. We planned a little fence around 7 of the 8 sides but we had no wood for it. The shop, Houthoekje, provided us with railings and the large poles we needed to keep the roof up. At the fair in Bocholt we also found the little posts for the fence.

We also wanted to get some lacy consoles in the upper corners and ordered some which were made by Veronica, of the shop De Maneschijn. The consoles were the only parts of the whole project that were glued when we bought them, but we still had to alter them a lot to make them the way we wanted.

Tassels - the wooden equivilent of stone corbels

Later on we made a plastic cube to cover the entire project and keep the dust out. And then it was time for Christmas! According to my counting, there was 1983 pieces of wood in the project at this point.

The Complete Gazebo, Prior to Decoration

Looking back on the construction, I think we did very well. It was our first project and though we still had a lot to learn, we gave it our best and it sure has become a beautiful Gazebo.

Next time: Decorating our Gazebo!

Brightest blessings, Little Sun and Sherpa.

Shop Spring Sale!

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:00:48 +0000

Visit The Dolls House Emporium in Ripley, Derbyshire and Houghton Hall, Carlisle this month to take advantage of the Shop Spring Sale!

View hundreds more treasures including limited availability stocks at both our shops only during May.

Make the trip to Ripley, to snap up a great addition to your collection with a selection of built, decorated and lit dolls’ houses to be carried away with you! You can also view the Creative Competition Village Hall on display and maybe gather some inspiration for your entry.

All that and a free breakfast?! What are you waiting for!

May Special Offers!

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:00:40 +0000

May is the month of blossom and sunshine, order today and you could add more sunshine to your miniature world!

FREE Basements on selected Collectors’ Dolls’ Houses

SAVE up to 74% on Dolls

Save up to 29% on Small Properties

Save up to 28% on Furniture and Accessories

FREE Delivery on all orders over £30

Remember to enter the Design the Wedding Venue Competition and spend over £45 to get the next part of your Patisserie Collection.