Toning Down Shingle Color: Try an opposite color to tone a color. So green, thinned way down (wash) would be the one to dull your 'red' shingles. It works well. Try it on a couple first to see how you like them.

Mary Lou in Middleburg Hts., OH

Shingles: I wanted to thank all of you who sent the suggestion for me to use sandpaper as inexpensive shingles for my beach house. I used very coarse and thick sandpaper and painted it slate grey. I then "fringed" it to the size of shingles and glued it to the roof with grip. I folded a long thin piece for the peck of the roof and I was done! It looks terrific.

Parisa Javidi

French house: I've been visiting southern France quite a few times in the past few years since I've been "adopted" by a French family from a small village near Bordeaux. In the village I stay in a 300 year old house with amazingly thick walls which are, yes, stone covered with stucco, which has broken away in spots to show the stone, which is made up of all different sizes. The roofs for the most part there are red tile, and there are tons of wrought iron - on the doors, windows, the hardware, the little hand door knocker, etc. And flowers everywhere. In the wine country roses are rampant. Don't know about northern France, but I've just decided I really must make a mini of this house! Maybe two, one as "was" and one as "is." Wow.

Patricia LeBeau

French Houses: I've found some really great books at Borders Books in the art section. Here are some sample titles; In the heart of France, Three rivers of France, The most beautiful Villages in France, Old English farmhouses and the Most beautiful Villages in England. These have a myriad of photos of the older style cottages and in answer to your question, yes it was common to plaster over brick and plaster and yes due to the nature of the plaster used it did crack and spall off so your idea is perfectly fine and should look great.

Rik Pierce

Buttercup: I find that it is one of the most versatile kits to bash that I've found. The one thing that I do to it is sheet the outside of it with 1/2" foam core to give the walls some extra body and heft, I feel it gives the house a sense of reality and structural correctness. I also sheet the floors with 1/8" thick planks for the same reason.

Rik Pierce

A source that I would like to offer is The Elements of Style. It is a very large, comprehensive coverage of different architectural features through the years, broken into different decorative periods. I think it also shows the same feature in the same period as it was executed in England and as it was in America. It is not inexpensive, being about $60, so one might check the library and if they do not have it, ask them to arrange an inter-library loan. Barnes & Noble usually have it on the shelf in the Architectural section. It does not cover the furnishing, just the architectural details of the house.

Mel in Ma

Making Square Shingles Round: This may be an obvious question, but I have to ask, "Why not just buy fishscale (round) shingles?" Trying to cut square ones seems like a near impossible job. You could take a power grinder, reshape the grinding where to be concave, and then grind the shingles to shape. You would also need to make a support for the shingles that is the same convex shape.

Tom Berkner

Stone Finish: The best I've ever used to make stone is spackle compound from the hardware or Wal Mart stores. First paint the dollhouse the color you want your grout. With a putty knife, smear on a section of spackle. Then with any type of rounded end object, you will simply draw out your lines which will show the grout. Then you can sponge paint as many colors as you would like to achieve the color of stone. This is good because it is very light weight as opposed to real stone. Also, it has good depth and can be any color you like.

Jinger

Stone Finish: Depending on your outside soil, we have a lot of shale (flat rocks, that will split in layers) and I applied them with latex caulking, large tube used with a caulking gun, it comes in several colors to give you the mortar. Also could use crushed stone, sold for driveways.

Alice Prsoky

Try gluing upholstery cording to your arches, applying a few coats of gesso, and then faux painting it all stone color. Cording comes in braids like tiny ropes and also "rat-tail" which is smooth and satiny. Using both types would create interesting textures.

Loretta Sniarowski

Hanging Pictures: I use good quality double sided carpet tape to attach mini photos, wreaths to the walls in my dollhouse. So far so good. Don't know how easily it would come off of old wallpaper as my Oakmont is still only a few year new/old.

Wilma Kinder

Beacon Hill: The house is actually still the original 3 story Beacon Hill, but is also a "basement" so to speak or a separate roombox section built into the base of the table on which it sits. I did this after realizing I wasn't going to have enough room to do all of the things I wanted to with the house, which included a larger kitchen and dining room. I had my dad build the roomboxes into the base of the table, and the electricity is actually run off of a bridge connection between the main house and the basement.

While researching this addition, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that basement kitchens were very common in Victorian times because cooking in a basement kept the smells and odors from wafting onto and attaching to the heavy draperies and wall fabrics of the time. It seemed an easy bridge to place a larger dining room right next to the kitchen.

The table on which the main house sits is landscaped for each season. I have a collection of fall, winter, and spring/summer trees and plants to complete the landscape. The house resides in Colorado in my mind (loosely based on the Maxwell House in Georgetown, CO), hence the changing of the aspens with the seasons and lots of snow in the winter. It's a lot of work to change with the seasons, but the visual eye candy when done is well worth the time and effort each season!

Kathy in TX

Spiral Staircase: Mini Mundus makes a beautiful spiral staircase kit. I got mine from my mini store. It is so well made!

Carole Pierce

Spiral staircase: Hobby Builder's Supply now carries a kit. It's item #70110, and the cost is 47.49 in the Spring 2000 catalog. It's not listed yet on their website, but here's the address: http://www.miniatures.com

Jenny

Spiral staircase: AMSI makes two different models of spiral staircases. Anyone who has a Dee's Delights account can get one for you. Good luck!

Marlene

Scale: I have this wonderful height Chart that I found in an OLD magazine. It tells you in a scale type of format how high things are in your mini house = 1 inch scale.

7 ft = ceiling
6'8" = Standard Door Height
6 ft = Highest Shelf
5 ft = Mirror
4 ft = Wall Switch
45" = Push Bars
40 - 43 " = Counter for standing man
38 " = Door Knobs
3 ft = Work bench, sink rim, counter
34" Hand rail - stairs
27-29" = Table Height, Stool Height
26" = Minimum knee clearance, man
2 ft. = Min knee clearance, woman
16-18" = seat height
1 ft = foot stool
7" = stair riser
4" = toe space beneath counters.

I'm sure you can add to this. I find this little chart very helpful. ½ inchers, can just halve those and be secure.

Judie - Daytona Beach, FL

Wainscoting: Need 36 inches of wainscoting, the kind that has the raised rectangular pieces every little bit. Go to your local picture framing shop and ask for some matteboard scraps. They are thick enough, and can even be cut on a bevel for your raised panels.

Tom Berkner

Wainscoting: Try balsa wood. It is quite cheap and easy to work with. Use as you would the mount board but bevel the edges using sandpaper. I have used this method because I don't have special tools and I find balsa really easy to use and you can stain or paint. Just make sure you have sanded it smooth.

Melinda from Down Under

Paneled Doors: I have made doors with panels on them using thin cardboard, the plain gray kind, (you can even cut up the really cheap Christmas boxes). If you cut the cardboard with a very sharp single edge razor blade, you will get a nice clean cut. Your poster board idea would work the same way! Make your panels, glue them on, use a sealer on the whole thing, and paint! Should look great!

Alice Zinn

Rooftop garden: How about supporting your roof with beams on the ceiling underneath, in the Snow White room? Or if the dollhouse is finished, put beams on the roof of the dollhouse, stretching from one outer wall to the other, then lay a new floor on the roof or conceal the beams with ground cover. Another idea is to construct your "brick wall" with Styrofoam to cut down on the weight. Good luck on whatever you do.

Joan Linville