Ceilings: Just wanted to share some of the techniques I have used on ceilings. This is what I did in my Belmont Southern mansion.

On one ceiling I used a white illustration board (Bristol board) and some white shiny fabric paint. I drew my rather ornate pattern on the Bristol board lightly in pencil and outlined it with the fabric paint. The result was similar to the tin ceilings with designs. This ceiling was for the entryway and was complemented by a green and white marble floor.

For another ceiling, I used stained half-round molding on a white background and made rectangles with the wood. This was a rather formal design and was in the living room.

The sunroom ceiling was done in a canopy style, using fabric gathered at the center and then tacked in each corner of the room. The floor in this room was Moorish and hexagonal and the window screens were also Turkish-ish, so a canopy seemed mandatory.

The gentlemen's room, done in a peachy, salmon color, has a ceiling in the peachy salmony color. Lines (in light pencil) radiate out from the center, and then the fabric paints came out.I used metallics and pearls and each line was a series of dots rather than a line-- like colorpoint. Far more interesting than it sounds here..

And my lady's room, done in romantic blue and white, has a ceiling that I copied from an art book. It is a tromp l'oiel that shows an open ceiling, with the sky and some birds and plants on the edges. I would love to have an open ceiling like that....

The piece de resistance, however, is the dining room. For some unknown reason, I became enamored with Rubens. The walls are covered with arches and in each arch is a Rubens painting. And the ceiling is divided into rectangles with each rectangle having another Rubens painting. The firebox of the fireplace even has its own Rubens.

Phyllis

Color: Our minds can really play tricks on us when it comes to miniatures. In the real world we see a house and unless we are standing on a hill and looking down on it, it will always be taller and bigger than we are.

Conversely unless it is huge a miniature will be smaller and we will be looking down on it just like standing on that hill, soooo! to make things look normal we need to adjust the proportions of things. By making a room higher, say 10 or 11 scale feet high instead of the standard 8 feet high we get the proper mental image of the real room which we comprehend to be taller than it really is. One of the other problems we encounter is that unless we're back on that hill is that we usually don't see the entire house at one time like we do a doll house, so consequently color unity becomes much more important in that a radical change in color is much more noticeable in miniature than in real life because we see it all together instead of in sections.

When we reduce the scale of a house physically we also need to reduce the scale of the color, by lowering the intensity of the color. When we're on that old hill the colors on a real house although probably somewhat imperceptible will be grayed off a bit due to atmospheric interference ( colors appear more gray the farther away they are). Some model railroaders have a trick which is to put a few drops of a neutral gray into each color so that there isn't a pure pigment anywhere. This unifies the whole so that no one color stands out like a sore thumb. I personally never use pure primary pigments in any of the miniatures that I do. As a side note the greens in nature are not as green as we think they are but tend to the olive and brown side of the scale. As an experiment go out side and get a few leaves and bring them inside and compare them to some of the greens on a paint chart and I think you will be surprised at what you find. Most of the commercial landscaping materials tend to the blue side of the green scale.

Rik Pierce

Color/Clutter: Rik Pierce has made several very valid points re colour. We always have to tone down the intensity when doing mini rooms. There were some misunderstandings of my message re clutter. I am not against it as long as it is artfully arranged. The things need to be unified as to colour as well. Things arranged in groups are far better than separate items all over the place. In each group there should be various sizes and textures for interest sake. Placing things in a room so it appears that someone has just stepped out is a good trick. Usually dolls spoil the illusion (I know the doll makers are jumping up and down with that one, but so many of them are too stiff or the clothes are bulky, especially men dolls).

June Simpson

Color: Rik Pierce is certainly right about colors. For example, I NEVER use white in anything.....it's simply too glaring. I use an off-white, cream, ivory or other shades. You'd be surprised how many shades of white there are.

Connie

Depth Perception in Mini: I just found a book at the library called Miniature Vignettes by Susan Rogers Braun. Although she writes mainly about vignettes, she has a lot of good advice for any minis. She wrote that you cannot tell the depth of a shelf or a bookcase when standing across the room from it and looking at it straight -on (I checked it out and she's right - you can't), and the same applies to miniature vignettes. Because you cannot tell how deep the furniture is or the shelves are, you can make them a little narrower than would be called for in true scale.

Pat Molyneux

'Brooke Look: Last year in her class at my store, one of her students decorated and furnished the Hidden Room box for Merlin the magician. It has heavy castle furniture, gargoyles, black cats, swords and crossbows, spider webs. Even a crystal ball that lights. And its enchanting. She managed to find a Merlin doll that matches the color scheme--purple. Brooke loved it.

Brooke and people who do what she does are only giving you a concept and where you run with that concept is only limited by your imagination. Don't feel bad that you prefer lived in. Been in a lot of elegant homes that are "lived in". I've often wanted to take Brooke's elegant Christmas room and decorate it as it would look after Santa came. I feel you can have both. I often tell customers to look around there own house and see all of the "stuff" they live with every day. The more stuff in mini rooms the longer you linger and marvel at what you didn't notice before.

Brooke calls it the "Brooke Look" but she's just as pleased when you take her look and make it your own. In fact, that is her intent. Next time, look at one of her rooms the way you would finish it. You'll find yourself becoming a fan. I didn't used to be a great fan either until I got it. Her concept--your imagination. She's always amazed and proud of what students do to her work.

Mary Kay Gentile

Non-Brooke Style: I too make miniature rooms that are more like the rooms we all live in everyday. I use the dust from the vacuum cleaner bag, I collect real cobwebs - and depending on how much 'realism' I need I can pipe cat poo in the corner behind the sofa, chop up a cork with bits of fimo carrot to make vomit, and have even been known to set fire to a room to get the right blackening on the wall outside the windows and doors like you get on a real burnt out building (I don't recommend you do this though - you can end up with very little room left if you're not quick enough). I do admire Brooke Tucker's rooms because of the high quality of everything she does and all the pieces that she uses, the layouts etc. But I prefer to show the grunge of real life - ashtrays full of cigarette butts, underpants and socks hanging out the drawers, cat up on the bench licking the butter, overflowing sinks and rubbish bins, hair in the shower plughole, birds nest in the rafters, dead possum under the front verandah - dead body under the bed....................

After all we ALL live like this - don't we???? Errr - we don't? You sure??????

Trace

"Brooke Look" vs. "Lived-in Look" I've been reading with interest the discussion about whether to furnish a "perfect" room or one that looks "lived in." It made me think what a cute project it would be to do a roombox scene on a revolving turntable. A piece of foam core wall divider between two rooms -- one side showing an elegant Christmas room just after Santa paid his visit, and the other side showing opened presents, paper everywhere, half-eaten cookies, danishes & coffee, and happy kiddies. What fun!!

Anita Myers

Soda Shop Ideas: I see a marble tile floor, a long counter, a soda fountain. Behind the soda fountain counter is a slatted "something" on the floor. (to keep it from being slippery?? A mirror on the wall behind with glass shelves with sundae glasses and ice cream soda glasses. The fizzy water machines, snow cone machine, A penny candy counter. When I was a young girl, (many many moons ago) we called it the Goody Shoppe, we all hung out there. I used to go steady with the Fonz. Yea right! A couple of booths, It is all in there in my crystal ball. You are so young you wouldn't remember, the Poodle skirts. I didn't have one. We were too poor. Can you imagine being sixteen and not having a Poodle skirt. I was deprived. Lots of challenges in this one. Ice cream cones, soda glasses, penny candy, a pink fluffy sweater draped over a booth back. Posters of the one and only James Dean. WHO, she says....... Well, if you need help, the ones of us who remember JD are here, right people. Whatever happened to soda fountains and ice cream cones????

Barbara D

Check out Decorating with Color: Color Wheel Lessons. A big part of the fun of miniatures is decorating. Here is a site with some lessons in the use of color. If you follow these instructions you will be able to get to the color lessons.

Go to: http://www.bhg.com

On the blue navigation bar on top click on: HOUSE & HOME

Then click on: ARTICLES

Then click on: DECORATING

When the list of articles appear, click on: DECORATING WITH COLOR

Nertha

DESIGN TIPS & PRINCIPLES #4: Line

Line is another of the great illusion-creators. The use of line is well-known in clothes; fat people in horizontal lines look much worse.

So, in a room, you decide what final look you want. If you want a room to look grand, use lots of parallel lines that are vertical. We have always equated grandness with a sort of soaring, lifting feeling, which strong vertical lines produces. That was the purpose of the tremendous ceiling heights and all the verticals of the columns leading your eye upwards in the ancient European churches. Again, the Thorne Rooms come to mind as a great teaching example for this principle; look how often those copies of European aristocracy rooms had verticals; the plaster work on the walls, making frames with very long vertical sides; the drapery lines from floor to ceiling. An example I learned from my genius mother; she always hung draperies from floor to ceiling whether the windows were that high or not. She was right; the effect was of higher more grand ceilings.

In mini-rooms, anything you can do to make the room seem larger is a good thing to know. I agree with the guy who was describing how kits are cut; that the rooms are often not to scale so that the manufacturer can get more out of their boards. So, then we need to have every secret trick at our disposal, to get more visual space from our efforts, cuz even the rooms themselves might be too cramped due to this money-saving on the part of the manufacturers. Since you are trying to create not just a museum room, but a room with life in it, you need to use every illusion of space you can, so that you can display all the artifacts of that life to their best advantage. Vertical lines is one great way to do that. The strong verticals are usually created by doors, long windows and curtains or draperies. You can add to that emphasis with wallpapers that feature strong verticals (even many of the patterned papers are based on a vertical thrust).

Don't interrupt those verticals with horizontals, unless you don't care about creating the illusion of space and higher ceilings. Chair rails are usually the primary way that people interrupt the eye going up and up. Café curtains are another interrupter. If you want to create the impression of movement around the room, rather than upwards, use horizontals, like chair rails, café curtains, a grouping of pictures all the same size and framing, marching in a horizontal row.

If you already have very strong lines, like a fireplace or a door, that sets the tone for what you can do. If the fireplace has strong horizontals to your eye (prominent mantel, for instance) then you can repeat those horizontals, and your room will appear to be larger. It is always smartest to go with the strongest lines already in the room. (The architectural features principle) Otherwise, you can end up with a jumbled look, as the various elements are competing with each other for dominance.

You can see the same influence of horizontals and verticals in furniture. Think of what your eye sees when you think of an armoire. It takes your eye mostly upwards, with its strong verticals in the sides of it. Or in reverse, a couch. That takes your eye horizontally from end to end. So these stronger shapes can be the place you start building from; basing much of what you select upon those first, strongest shapes.

Elizabeth Baxter, Ann Arbor

Curtains and Draperies: To increase the sense of space in a room...... Hang your curtains and draperies to the sides of windows, not over the panes themselves. You will almost double the window spaciousness by not covering the actual windows. (Oh, for all you who love words and definitions, the word 'curtains' refers to anything that is a not a full, to the floor window dressing; cafe curtains, the typical window dressing for bathrooms and kitchens. 'Draperies' refers to the fuller window dressings that go to the floor.)

Elizabeth Baxter, Ann Arbor

Fabric Wallpaper: You take the fabric of your choice, buy liquid starch or mix up the powdered kind and then soak the fabric in the starch. Wring out the fabric and apply it while damp to the wall. Smooth it and wait for it to dry. Once dry it's permanent until you pull it down. I thought it was nifty. I've not tried it, but have long remembered it.

Ami

Mixing Styles: I bet all but the most Type A perfectionists do at least a little mixing of style and period as well as artist and DIY. My townhouse is furnished late 20th century traditional, which means it has a Shaker bedroom, contemporary country kitchen -- and tv, stereo, computer, microwave, washer and dryer. Music room has the Petite Princess piano and fireplace, yet doesn't really look out of scale. The Deco house is more consistently in scale, but displays a slightly larger than 1:12 rose plastic cup and saucer left over from my childhood set (kid sister "vanished" the rest leaving them out as Borrowers bait). With the cup handle turned to the back, they resemble an in-scale depression glass bowl and platter, and they're there for sentimental reasons. If it's not taken to extremes, the mix seems more charming than anything else, and it's certainly in the tradition of historic houses, as thumbing through any of the history of the hobby books (Greene, Eaton, etc.) will prove. If mixing scales was good enough for the aristocracy, it's good enough for me!

Loretta Sniarowski

Plaster Ceilings: Go to Home Depot and look through the wallpaper. They seem to have a better supply of this type of thing than my wallpaper store. There are some that are white, very bumpy, all looking like plaster. It comes in a vinyl finish or a plain paper finish in about 6 different textures. The plain paper one must be painted or sealed with a clear finish if you wish to antique it or it will soak up too much color.

I use it for all my ceilings and just finished the outside upper half of a 17 room house (brick on the bottom), antiqued it before adding the batten boards and everyone thinks it's a "perfect plaster job".

Ruth

Looking for Southwestern room motifs? Visit museums in the South west that have web sites. Write to them and to Chambers of commerce and tell them your quest. Go to the library and visit the children's section and look for books (you guessed it) about the Southwest. Children's books have more pictures then big people books. The hunt is half the fun.

Dr Bob

Southwestern: I made a SW room and patio out of one inch styrofoam and it came out great. My only mistake was I didn't leave the front wall out for easy viewing. The floor was done in real tiny saltillo tile with small black tile dividing the larger ones. Across the top you need round dowels that you "distress" for the ceiling. I cut the windows out before I painted the box in a deep sand color and put turned banister type bars in each window. The door to the patio was made from flat stirring sticks with black hinges. The patio extension had curved walls. The fire place is round with a raised hearth. Hope this helps -- it was fun to make.

Ruth Morey

Carpeting: For an unusual carpet, keep a lookout for fabric placemats which you can cut to size, especially the woven ones. A few pieces of two-sided carpet tape in strategic places will hold it in place. Even a plastic placemat would look good on the kitchen floor if the colour was right. I have even used heavy-weight wallpaper, especially the ones with a "fabric" finish -- check your local decorating store for out dated pattern books. Also some upholstery shops have throw-away bins which you can dig through and find treasures if you just ask nicely.

Ann Kozlik

One of a Kind Wallpaper: I made my own wallpaper. I took a digital photograph so I could get it into my computer. I used a photograph of a plate from a magazine. You could use a pattern from fabric and scan it...the idea is to get it into a graphics program on your computer so that you can change the colors or take out the round, plate shape, take out a shadow whatever has to be done to it. Then you copy, paste the best part into a program where you can save it. duplicate the pattern onto the page as many times as you need then print. You aren't done yet. As soon as it gets wet, your ink will run, so you need to spray it lightly with an artist fixative for use with ink. DO THIS OUTSIDE. Most of these things are not compatible with life.  Spray both sides and let it stay outside to air. THEN, you are ready to use it as wallpaper and its exactly what you wanted!

Laurie Sisson

Decorating a room: I am taking an interior design class in highschool and have picked up quite a few tips regarding decorating a room. Of course I took this class with my dollhouse in mind.

First of all, when choosing colors there are many things to consider. Monochromatic is when you use lots of different blends in one room (i.e. light blue, dark blue, navy). Looking at the color wheel, two colors across from each other are complementary, which works very well. And looking at the color wheel again, three or four colors next to each other are very pleasing. Keep in mind that decorating a room in blue or green will make it appear cold, especially if that is your carpet color. Yellow, red, and orange are warm colors.

Furniture placement: You never want to place all furniture against the walls. Instead make groupings. Maybe two chairs and a couch in a little circle. Long couches on long walls only make the room look longer.

To make a room look taller use vertical stripes or re-arrange the pictures in a vertical line. To make it look longer, use horizontal wallpaper. Mirrors will help make a room look bigger.

Holly in Minnesota