My Dollshouse Journey - How it all began
As a teenager I remember a hobby shop that we'd passed on our way to the dentist. My Dad would always stop to look in the window and I was fascinated to see that you could buy 'real' working lights for dollshouses. I never dreamt that as an adult I would once again be fascinated by miniature lights and a lot more besides.
My Dad was a fitter at the local Colliery and it was no secret that he could fix anything mechanical. However he was also a great joiner and built toys for my sister and I when we were young, he even turned his had to brick laying and built an extension on our home. My all time favorite toy that he built was our Playmobil Hospital. It was in the days before Playmobil made buildings and it was the best thing ever. It was a one storey building with a lift off roof. It had two long wards separated by a corridor, with a kitchen, and operating theatre at one end and a car park with an ambulance bay at the other. We would play with it for hours. When my youngest daughter Sophie started to like Playmobil I wanted a wooden hospital for her too. My Dad had sadly passed away in the December of 2000, I just know if he'd been alive he would have loved to have made one for her. I bought a ready built dollshouse from a shop in our town and used brick and tile paper to decorate the outside, it didn't cross my mind at that time to decorate the inside. To be honest the scale of the dollshouse was all wrong for the size of the Playmobil figures but she loved it. I thought that once she got a bit older she could decorate it herself (as she was always obsessed with the TV programme Changing Rooms) and we could buy the proper dollshouse furniture and carpets for it then.
My First Adult Dollshouse.
In 2005 at the age of 38 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Having worked for most of my adult life, I found it hard being at home on my own for long periods of time. Despite being unwell I was bored and depression had started to creep in. I tried my hand at painting, scrapbooking and card making to keep myself busy, then found myself drawn into the dollshouse scene. I could have just revamped Sophie's dollshouse but I wanted something that was just for me and so it all began. There were so many different styles to choose from, I researched different houses online, bought catalogues and magazines and visited a few different shops. Eventually I settled on Dollshouse Emporium's Springwood Cottage with the additional garage wing and it was to be my Christmas present that year.
Dollshouse Emporium's Springwood Cottage
I had been buying the furniture for months and my Mam had also bought me some for Christmas. I couldn’t wait any longer to get started on my house and on Boxing Day my husband reluctantly helped me to build it.
I set about decorating the 7 rooms and converted the garage into an 8th room by replacing the garage door with french windows. I was contantly wanting to improve, and tweek my house and had changed the outside of the house a few times just in the first month.
In March 2006 I got Springwoods basement for my 40th birthday but we had to make a box to stand the wing on and keep the levels right. The basement was a studio flat with en-suite and kitchen.
Freebies and second hand finds.
Early in 2006 I was gifted a Sid Cook corner shop. It was already decorated but I made some changes to the interior decor.
I used to work as a barmaid, another job I loved, so I made the shop into a pub and called it The Red Lion (not very original I know).
Our cat Charlie loved The Red Lion
After only a few months I'd decided it wasn't big enough for a pub (or the cat) and I changed it into a bakery. The kitchen was upstairs and the bakery shop was downstairs. I'd also built a yard with an outside coal house and ‘netty’.
I found a second hand basement in a miniatures shop to make my new pub. I think I only paid about £20 for it. After adding a second floor and a sloping roof this became The Miners Arms, the name being a link to my Dad (he was however teetotal apart from the odd shandy at Christmas). It had a snooker hall, a bar and an upstairs function room with a glitter ball dance floor.
Make way for the big one.
Dollshouse Emporium's Fairbanks
I painted the kitchen units blue and white kitchen and the bathroom suite green to replicate our avacodo suit. The toys in the bedroom were like the ones I remember having, Donny Osmond records, a toy sweet shop, silver cross pram, dolls, ballet bags, etc.
Meanwhile back at Springwood.
I wanted a change again and made the basement of Springwood into a newsagents, sweet shop and toy shop (ran by Mr. Wilson and his wife. I had worked in a newsagents with a sweet shop when I was 16. I loved the job but can't say the same about my boss. Mr Wilson was another nod to my Dad, Wilson was his middle name.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Towards the end of 2006 we sold our own house. I had to part with the Bakery and the Miners Arms. I kept most of the furniture and miniatures, but I was still sad to let them go. I advertised them online and a lovely lady from Yorkshire bought them both.
On the hunt for a new project.
I had to have further surgery at the start of 2007 and found myself at a low again. I needed something to lift my mood and of course it could only be a new dollshouse project.
My cousin had bought me a dollshouse from a promotion in the Daily Mail. It was a very thoughtful gift but to me it was more suited to a child than a collector. It was very pink with plastic windows and super girly. I was about to be a bridesmaid for my sister so I decided to make it into a Bridal Shop.
I decorated the inside with various wallpapers and flooring but I still wasn't happy with the exterior. So I replaced the door and windows, two windows were bays to display the wedding dresses, and I added some brick paper.
Mr Wilson leaves Springwood.
The shop in Springwood’s basement was often overlooked and did not get enough attention where it was, so I dismantled the set-up to leave Springwood on it’s own and made a stand alone shop for Mr Wilson with a roof terrace market place.
In 2008 Mr Wilson moved again. I'd bought a second hand shop which fit on top of the basement and Mr Wilson soon moved in. I had previously worked in a relatives cafe when I first moved to Chester-le-street so I turned the basement into Beachside Cafe ran by Stephanie and her Grandad Ernie (named after our relatives).
Stephanie's Cafe
My Triang House.
When I was about 3 our 4 years old I had a Triang dolls house. My Mum had brought it all the way back from Hamleys in London while on a girls trip, only to find the exact one in a local shop. My Triang had long since gone but I wanted to see if I could buy another one just like it. We had some old ‘cine’ film of me playing my house so it made my search easier. I began buying 1/16th furniture and eventually found the exact model Triang on ebay, it had a few rust spots, the door was broken and the transfers were very worn.
Within a few days of receiving it I had spray painted the front, replaced the door, decorated inside and furnished it.
In March 2008 I got a shop for my birthday and I made this into the new The Miners Arms.
It had everything you'd expect from a pub, including scampi fries, a working juke box, and the occasional drunk.
The Bar
Little House on the Prairie.
Also in 2008 I'd bought a small one room house second hand and turned it into a log cabin inspired by Little House on the Prairie.
It stated as a plain single room house, with a lift off roof. I used sheets of wood strip flooring to cover the exterior walls and built a raised platform to put the girls beds on.
The power of persuasion.
Since I started my obsession in 2005 I have managed to persuade a few people to join me. My closest friend Alison has bought a 13 room mansion and she has commissioned an extension with a bar and swimming pool. She has not had time to decorate it yet, but she has loads of ideas.
Alison’s Mansion
My Mum has completed a 1/24th scale house and is onto her first 1/12th, and Alison’s Mum has just bought a large mansion.
My Mam's 1/24th Willow Cottage
Alison and I along with our Mam’s visit the Leeds and York Dolls House Fairs twice year, we look forward to them for months. We always arrive with a very large shopping list, and leave with a very empty purse. Actually I don’t think the Bank Manager would approve of us going to the fairs at York Racecourse as the venue has its own cash machine, which has been visited several times, in fact I think my Mum emptied it. We are always the last ones to leave.
My hobby has however become a bit of a nightmare for my Husband. He thinks I am totally crazy, as do some of my friends but in truth it's the complete opposite. I would have really gone to pieces if I had not had them to take my mind off things. They have been tremendous therapy for me. My 2 daughters (19 and 14) both fight over the houses, as neither of them wants them after I've gone, though my youngest does quite like the shop. My goddaughters however, love them, and like to rearrange the furniture each time they visit. As my health is improving I can now spend more time on my houses, I see more of my houses than I do people. I think I am becoming a bit of a recluse. Maybe I do have a problem after all.
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