Tea Shop Furniture: I made my tea shop tables from rounds of Styrofoam. Buy one of those long cylinders and use about an inch and a half for each table. When you put a round piece of cardstock on the top, cover it with a circle of fabric made by measuring the diameter and twice the height of the cylinder, then use pins to hold it in place until it dries. I also covered the bottom of the cylinder before putting the cloth on it. You can then trim it with lace or bunka. Put a fringed square on top, too, and then you really have a classy table for your shop. And don't have to spend all the grocery money, either.

Dottie in Tucson

Bodo Hennig baths; [Also, they don't only come with that pink rose pattern on them. I have seen them plain white] The bathroom set also comes is two different blues. One is a blue 'onion' maybe pattern, the other is Royale - cobalt blue background ,with gold outline and pink rose in the middle. The are all on my web site http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.comunder Rooms - Bathrooms - Bath Suites shows blue and pink ones, Bath 2 is white, Bath 3 is pink, bath 11 is blue, German bath is Royale.

Tom Berkner

Bed sizes: Article in yesterday's paper gave the measurements for all real life mattress sizes so thought I would pass them along:
Crib 27" x 52" (2 1/4" x 4 11/32")
Twin 39" x 75" (3 1/4" x 6 1/4")
Double 54" x 75" (4 1/2" x 6 1/4")
Queen 60" x 80" (5" x 6 22/32")
King 76" x 80" (6 11/32" x 6 22/32")
There is also a mattress called the California king which measures 74" x 84"

Maureen in St. Albert AB Cda

RealLife vs HOM kits: More experience from the past. Worked up lots of Realife and HOM kits. Realife wood not near as high quality - therefore takes more time to get good end results. Also - never, never use the water-based stains and anything else that came with the kits. Use good oil-based products - HOM finishing kits work well on any wood. Sand and stain before assembly. Always. With every kit. Wood with Realife subject to warpage due to less than ideal quality.

These kits were wonderful for Victorian houses - quite good designs, realistic marble tops and great hardware - These are worth acquiring - good luck!

Phyl in Kentucky

Victorian kitchen counters: Late Victorian kitchens did not have counters. Free standing tables served as work surfaces. In fairly grand houses there were counters of a sort in the butler's pantry, usually wood, but these were not for food preparation. Instead, they were used as staging areas for food to be served in the dining room, dishes and serving pieces to be put away, or for silver polishing, etc. Shelving in kitchens was open, often just nailed up on the wall, sometimes free standing shelves resembling bookcases. Kitchen cabinets and counters as we know them today did not come into use until the first quarter of the 20th century. Hope this helps.

Margaret in Texas

Victorian Kitchens: I hate to disagree with anyone (no, really!) but fitted kitchens did exist in Victorian times - well towards the end anyway.

I have a National Trust book showing many, many kitchen interiors and they were definitely fitted in the big houses although I guess a country cottage would not have one so grand.

Wall cupboards with glass fronted doors and floor standing cupboards with top drawers tend to be fitted together to become dressers (china hutches). Other wall cupboards have marble tops for cold foods such as fish, dairy produce and pastry making and there are shelves above for preserves, pots and pans etc. The style is very much like shaker.

The main difference is the use of the central positioned kitchen table. This was used as a work top for most food preparation and usually had a rack beneath for storage and drawers for cutlery and utensils.

Karon

Victorian Kitchens: Looking back through antique and reproduction books of architects' designs. Bicknell (1873) as a fairly typical example frequently includes a sink and a bit of work area beyond in his floor plans but hardly enough space for micro wave, cuisenart, and a portable television, not to mention the toaster, juicer, and bread box.

Woodward's National Architect of 1869 (reprinted by Dover Press 1988) offers some very good insight. While these drawings consistently indicate shelves in closets, pantries, and privy, there is seldom more illustrated for the kitchens than (always) the range and (usually) a sink with some small work area beyond the actual sink itself and a boiler. In one case, the sink isn't even in the kitchen but, rather, in the adjacent pump room.

Woodward's "carpenter's specifications" tell as much by what they omit as by what they say. In the category "inside finish" subsection "shelves, hooks, ETC." :

"Shelf the closets and pantries as indicated on the plans and otherwise required. Fit up each end of the waiters' pantry, with counter shelf, and two dovetailed drawers, as indicated on the drawing. Also provide kitchen pantry with two dovetailed drawers"

In another set of carpenter specs, he expands to say "shelves in waiters' pantry to be enclosed with panel doors fastened with cupboard locks, and all drawers to have drawer locks." Woodward's specification for the plumber is to "furnish and put up a 36x20x6 inch cast iron sink with iron legs. . ."In the drawings for his design #15 on plate #63, a 14 X 16' kitchen is shown with a large range in the middle of the back wall. to the right is a space little more than 5 foot wide for sink (with small counter) and boiler. On the left is the door to an isolated kitchen pantry (with shelves and bins) Also shown are wash trays and dotted lines to indicate where a table would fit into the architect's scheme. There is also a built-in "dresser"(enclosed shelves - no counter) on a kitchen wall adjacent to the door to a well equipped waiter's pantry complete with counter space, sink (smallish), cabinets, and cupboard.

This book offers many fascinating insights into Victorian architecture, construction, and the accouterments of the then contemporary lifestyle. The reprint is retitled "A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide" For $10.00 at Barnes and Noble (sp?), its much more fun than a movie pass.

Sorry about being so long: Note the reprint is unabridged except for elimination of original "back of book" advertisements (Darn) I see no copyright claim within the modern frontpiece. (Dover Publications - Mineola, NY)

Mel Koplin

Victorian Kitchens: I beg to differ with those who said Victorians didn't have built-in cabinetry. When I attended the University of Cincinnati, several friends rented rooms or apartments in old houses in Clifton, the university suburb. One professor was rehabbing one which had never been modernized. Houses there mostly date from 1860-1910. All I visited had kitchens where the only upgrades were electricity, stoves, and refrigerators. Two had marble-topped lower cabinets, one had metal (probably zinc) topped lower cabinets. One had matching upper cabinets; the other had a Hoosier cabinet on one wall. The prof's (the fanciest house) had only lower cabinets, but also had an adjoining butler's pantry completely lined in matching upper and lower cabinetry. The marble tops were practical for keeping food cooler longer and for baking as they make pastry easier to work. Since Cincinnati's population at the time was primarily of German descent, marble tops were probably a necessity for making the best breads, stollens, and kuchens. I lived in an apartment building so old that the walls still had visible connections for gas lighting. The kitchen was hardly bigger than a closet, but had a built-in Hoosier-style cabinet next to the refrigerator and over-the-sink cabinets above a replacement sink and stove. These were all painted wood, with glassed-in upper cabinets. Hardware on the cabinets matched the gas fittings, so they were definitely original.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Victorian Kitchens: One of the problems I have with dollhouse kitchens, esp. period ones is that everyone groups all the "appliances" and such in one room in an arrangement much like the modern kitchens we have today. The kitchens of today developed after WW1, through the 30's and 40's and were pretty well established by the 1950's (layout I mean).

We should remember that Victorian kitchens of this period were directly influenced by personal wealth and geographic location. The kitchens of the very wealthy in the cities, who had large numbers of staff, were far different then those of say a New England farm house. AND kitchens were not just one room, again in wealthy homes there could many different rooms for specific work, something that's hard to achieve in a dollhouse.

Even New England homes in rural areas had at least the sink in a wash room, a pantry, and a storage closet for pots and pans. General, The "Kitchen" consisted of a room with the cook stove, a table, small movable tables for work space and a cabinet. Canned foods were kept in the cellar, root cellars were used, and large bulk items would be kept in a pantry.

The working class homes of the late 19th century did not have formal dining rooms BUT would have 2 Parlors, 1 formal, 1 for every day use. Basically try to think logically when doing a period kitchen: Ice Boxes, I've seen them placed in dollhouses next to the cook stove and that would never happen. Think about; ice cost money, placed next to the cook stove the ice would melt faster -- you'd have to buy ice faster, and you'd also pay a lot of money. Not to mention, would you want the Ice man to trudge across your clean floors in his muddy boots? Ice melts and ice boxes had to be drained so you'd want to be able to empty the drip quickly and without a mess! That's why Ice boxes were placed as near the back door as possible, even if it meant it was in another room.

If Victorian kitchens had counter tops they were usually marble and were used only in wet areas, like around sinks. Think about making dinner in a Victorian kitchen and all the walking you would from various pantries, storage closets, the stove etc. AND remember people bought perishable foods daily, which meant shopping once a day, usually after the morning chores were done, and before noon dinner!!!!!!

StevenB

Detached Kitchens: Question: "I was told that during the Federal period, kitchens were separate from the house because they were a fire hazard. Didn't know if it was true, and my house wasn't even federal style, but it became a great excuse to do a small house that became the servant's quarters with a kitchen."

Answer: Kitchens in the SOUTH or in warmer climates (USA), basically Virginia south, to keep the main house cool were placed in separate buildings because the hot weather and the fact that kitchen fires were burning all day and created a lot of heat indoors. Also in Southern homes a lot of household work was done outside in the door yard of the kitchen like making candles, doing laundry, etc. This couldn't be done in the North which had separate rooms inside for those jobs in bad weather.

Up North, houses in urbane areas had kitchens in the basement to deal with the heat and rural area homes often had summer kitchens located in back sheds connected to the main house beyond the everyday kitchen. Each summer the cook stove was moved to these kitchens to keep the main house cool. Still, the majority of homeowners had to endure the heat because they had no place for a summer kitchen, this would often be the lower income families......Again as I said, kitchen design and use was largely determined by location, income, and social standing for instance. Rural Vs. Urbane for instance.

Also the Southern states had slaves up to the Civil War and they did the house work and cooking so kitchen design and even safety was not a concern to the slave owner. Up North people paid for hired up, which until about 1900, was cheap and plentiful if you could afford it. Since the wife of the house didn't need to be concerned with the affairs of the kitchen, change was slow in coming. Only when it became impossible to find good help did kitchens change as housewives took over the duties once performed by hired help.

Although fires were a constant danger, pre Civil War, they did not happen as frequently as its made out to appear! These people lived with these conditions on a daily basis and knew what they were doing. Fires happened because of accidents just like they do today.

So to sum up, Kitchens in separate buildings in the Southern US pre Civil War, Kitchens in the main house up North.

Another architectural element determined by Geographic location were chimneys. In the south, chimneys were located on the outside of the home to keep the heat out of the main living areas and in the North chimneys were located inside to conserve the heat and keep the home warm. Today homes are pretty standard, but older homes can be read like a book if you know what you're looking at!! Remember, everything on an older home was put there or designed for a specific reason.

StevenB

Detached Kitchens: [ instance. Rural Vs. Urbane for instance. Also the Southern states had slaves up to the Civil War and they did the house work and cooking so kitchen design and even safety was not a concern to the slave owner. Up North people paid for hired up, which until about 1900, was cheap and ]

I would take some exception to this. First, only the richest of Southerners had slaves. Average folk did their own housework and cooking. And, safety was a concern to slave owners-their homes were at risk, and slaves were expensive. If a slave were killed and had to be replaced, it was costly , as was a slave being unable to work, short term or with a permanent handicap. History. So, cooking for the average Southerner was done outside over an open fire in the summer to avoid heating up the house, which didn't have a kitchen in many instances: just a fireplace that provided warmth, light and a cooking means.

Martha Simpson

Michaels had their wooden hutches on sale for $1.00 each. I was so happy with the results of my first go round with the hutches that I picked up another three! My first hutch was finished in a yellowy-maple tone and then antiqued and distressed. Just the perfect piece to send to a fishing cabin don't you think? I painted some wooden plates with silver paint so they look like tin plates and they are stacked neatly in the hutch. I am going to make some fimo fish to put on a platter and make lots and lots of canned goods to finish filling the hutch.

Reva Losiewicz

Weight: Another thought - I was thinking that one could glue metal washers inside wooden furniture pieces, etc. Perhaps not as heavy initially but they are flat and could be stacked. This would eliminate the need to melt the weights. Just a thought.

Caliandra & The Tattered Box

Arts & Crafts: Art Nouveau actually started just a few years earlier, in the 1890s, Art Deco you're dead on--for reference, have fun watching all those great movies from the 30s--but Arts & Crafts is actually from about the 1880s-1910s (it's closely related to Mission style).

Molly/StormBorn

heating devices:
> Now, does anyone know when fireplaces began to be used? I always thought it was sometime in the 15th or early 16th century--any medievalists out there who can correct me? <
- In England, it was the 12th and 13th century, when the climate turned colder, and the English vineyards died.

> Also, the ceramic stoves that were used in the Low Countries and Scandinavia--is there a stovepipe attached? < - They were usually attached to a chimney. They were also used in the high countries like Bavaria and Austria.

Tom & Kari

Paper lace. I assume she means paper doilies. I think if you decoupaged or glued some to bedroom furniture (head and foot boards and drawer fronts) it could then be painted and would look like carved wood decoration. You could actually glue it around curved surfaces since it's thin. I used gold paper foil to make a Roman soldier's breastplate and armor and it looks pretty good.

Paulette in IN

Paper lace: Actually, she was talking about the lace paper sold through artists' suppliers (the reference she gave us was: http://www.dickblick.com). It's a very fine, delicate paper that resembles lace. All I could think of as far as mini uses were: 1) pull-down window shades, 2) those type of oriental fans that are hoop-shaped, or 3) panels for a screen.

Molly/StormBorn

Lace paper: I have a little shelf that I received as a swap with lace paper trimming the edges, it's adorable. Perhaps it could be used as shelf edging in those $1. Michael's hutches as well.

Marilyn, MI

Broken glass chunks: I collected some broken glass chunks too and thought that the shapes and designs were really interesting. I like the way they reflect the light. I used individual pieces as miniature glass sculptures. They also make an interesting base to display a tiny porcelain or fimo sculpture. They reminded me of chunks of ice. They would work very nicely in a winter scene as ice flows with snow around with penguins playing on them.

I saw an idea for a full sized table on a decorating show that could work in miniature. The designer had made a large glass box for a coffee table with glass on all sides about four inches deep. He put a few inches of the glass chunks inside the box. It made a very interesting coffee table and the light could shine through all the sides and it could be lit from underneath. Other glass sculptures could be displayed inside with the chunks.

Jean Day

AUTHENTIC STUFFED MATTRESSES: Instead of using real straw, I would opt for shredded paper twist or something similar. I think that the straw may disintegrate and perhaps draw bugs too. For the mini friend that asked about the old crepe paper, could the paper twist that you can get at craft stores work for your needs also?

Fran