Porch colors: let me share with you a problem I had with a life-size house. I wanted to redo our porch. So I started out by going out and on purpose paying attention to every porch I saw. I even looked around in the capitol city where I worked and thought I would come up with fertile ideas to copy. NOT! I discovered here in the heart of NH that either people are afraid to try something different or they are very conservative. The porches were either white or the same color as the house.

So I read a book on porches and found an idea I liked. All the trim and wood on a vertical plane, make a color close to the house--either lighter or darker and all the horizontal planes make another color contrasting color and make the door a punch-out color. Here is what I did. I make three quick sketches of the porch lightly in pencil and then tried three color schemes using colored pencils. I found this way a little time consuming, but the one to go with was very obvious. I asked each family member and there was consensus. IN the end I did the vertical pieces a deep yellow gold and the horizontal was a deep teal and the door was a deep red (not bright). That means that I did the floor the same deep teal. I liked the natural look of the ceiling ship lathing and stained it a golden oak. Now when we need to direct someone to our house, we tell them about the porch. And who said you could not make mutton taste like lamb or make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!!!!

Gary in NH

Book box: A question was asked about my book box construction. Something's are just a matter of over 25 years of experience, others are not easily explained in this type of venue, but I'll be glad to give you a brief overview. First the books are cut (I use a full sized bandsaw). Then I glue the cut edges with bookbinder glue. Then I stack up the books and carefully measure for an interior WOODEN box. Before I construct that box, I decide where I'm going to place the doors and windows and incorporate that into the construction of the box. Next I wire the box, so everything is hidden. Then I glue the books onto that box. No box-no smooth walls, no structural integrity! I match in around the doors and windows, hinge, paper, make doors and windows and install them.

I know that's a quick view and not to the degree that you wanted, but I will tell you this. I gave just an overview of the process as a theme luncheon in Charlotte, NC last year at the NAME National and talked about just the BASIC process for well over an hour. I've also taught a class at IGMA's Guild School in Castine twice. Those were 24 hour classes AFTER I had cut and glued the books. When I taught the class at Castine, the first year every one made just a window. The next year I decided I'd add a simple door as an option. Two elected to do that, but only 1 person finished the door. The remainder of the class finished but they cut it down to the wire.

One IMPORTANT note about the interior box. Please don't use foam core. I know it is easy to use, but in the long run it won't hold up for this construction. Remember the old carpenter trick to separate pieces of wood that you want to glue temporarily together is to glue a piece of paper between them. That's how foam core acts as it's outer covering is paper. If the piece is jarred, things will tear and there goes all that work. NOT WORTH the chance in my opinion.

Shannon Moore

British Doll Houses: I just bought a British Honeychurch Doll House kit for about $300. The British pound and the dollar are almost equal so this is a very good time to buy. Honeychurch has one of the finest reputations for miniature houses. There is no MDF in any of their products, or even allowed in their workshop.http://www.honeytoys.co.uk/

The kit is 100% wood, the case being fine grained 3/8 inch birch plywood. All the pieces are pre-sanded. The case is grooved for accurate placement of the interior walls and middle floor. Everything came with it including all hardware for the front door, windows, hinges for the front wall opening, nails, glue, sandpaper for when you've sunk the nail heads and used wood filler before painting, and full illustrated instructions.

The staircase is easy to construct and is movable for painting or wallpapering. All of the pieces were marked for placement and there were full illustrated and printed instructions. A video is also available. It arrived last week and I've got most of it completed already. I am thrilled with this experience because it is my first miniature house. If you're looking for an elegant house kit and have little experience (like me) I cannot recommend Honeychurch highly enough.

Eileen

For anyone interested in combining dollhouse stuff with dolls, Seeley is also issuing a body where the skirt opens to reveal a couple of shelves- I immediately saw miniatures where they had a child's toy kitchenware. The doll would be about 17" (the body is 13"). Seeley has a web page - have them send you the flyer - it would make a really different
"roombox"! http://www.seeleys.com

Ana

Beanie box -- I used one to make a little dust-free vignette memory case for my dd when she played Mary in the h.s. play of "It's a Wonderful Life." I stuck photos of her and "George" on the "back" inside, dried and separated the petals of some of the roses she got to put in the bottom, dried and placed some of the roses that dried nicely in a small vase and put that next to the silver angel bell her dad and I got her. It's one of her most favorite things and everyone who sees it goes, "Oh, what a good idea!" Gee, I can think of lots of memories I could use those boxes for ... maybe I better go bid on them!

Chrissy the Hyphenated

Tall acrylic boxes: I think those tall acrylic boxes could hold trees; say one tree in each with different scenes beneath the tree, or someone on a swing: a sandbox with children playing; a couple having a picnic; youngsters at a lemonade stand; maybe a headstone and a mourner; or do a palm tree and sun worshipers, with sand, towels and lotions.

Susan in Cool Green Asheville

Mini Domes: Thank you to everyone who responded to my mini glass domes query. I was asked to post the private responses. Here is what people suggested privately: JAF, Michaels, http://www.hometown.aol.com/GLASSMURPH/sitemap.html and http://www.minikitz.com. I need to replace one that broke.

Linda Master

Out-of-scale die-cut houses: Concerning the discussion of die-cut houses being out of scale... Well, having a background in architecture and design, I can testify that they are. Sure he houses look in scale from the outside, and inside, the rooms have appropriately scaled dimensions and ceiling heights. However, those 1/8" floors/ceilings and walls are totally out of scale. A full-size house has floors/ceilings that are about one foot. Usually, they are made of 10" joists with at least one sub-floor on top of them and a finish floor on top of the sub-floor(s). Below them are lath and plaster or sheet rock. Interior walls are about 5" thick, and exterior walls are about 6" thick. I say about, because different methods and materials are used in different parts of the country, or world. I studied in the US, so my dimensions are based on North American standards.

Most higher-quality miniature houses are made of 3/8" plywood or MDF. These look much more convincing than the houses made of 1/8" plywood. However, they still aren't to scale. Floors/ceilings would have to be made of 1" thick plywood (virtually impossible to find), exterior walls from ½" plywood, and interior walls from 3/8" plywood. Realistically, though, this would make for an exceptionally heavy miniature house!

I am currently designing my own mini home, in an American 1920s style. Since I am a stickler for realism and scale, I plan to make it in separate floors (stories) from 1/2" plywood. Therefore, when you place the second floor on top of the first floor, the two pieces of 1/2" plywood will be 1" together. Interior walls will be 3/8". This house is still several months off in the future. Before I even start it, I want to have the kitchen cabinets and appliances ready to install. Also, I want to make most of the interior doors myself. However, if anyone knows where one can by two-panel interior doors, you can save me a lot of work if you tell me where.

Jonathan in Israel

TV scene: This is in regards to an old posting about gutting out an old TV and putting a scene in it. I was looking through some old mini mags and came across some room
boxes of I Love Lucy, All in the Family (by our own Pearl, I believe), Gilligan's Island, The Waltons and MASH. They were featured in Dollhouse Miniatures Oct 98, pg. 46-54. You might get some ideas from them. I thought it would be great to have a four sided roombox that spins (this idea may have been posted) and a different TV show is in each. Maybe a popular show from four different decades, or else four shows from the era of the TV shell itself. A little slit could be made under the glass opening, and the base of the round display could stick out a bit (like those table top displays that you can manually spin) so the scene could be turned to view each room like "changing the channel".
As I was looking at the I Love Lucy roombox, the actual show wasn't in color,
but all the recreations are. I got to thinking, would it be possible to recreate a B/W TV show, complete with figures, all in black, white and greys? Just as it's seen on TV. The figures might look a little ghoulish with grey skin, but it would be interesting to see the results. Has anyone tried something like this?

Connie Sauve

Roomboxes: There are several different size wooden roomboxes, but if you are going to make them yourself, I wouldn't be held to a standard size. I would make them the size that I needed for the project. The rooms in your house are not all the same size, so roomboxes shouldn't be either. If you make a project that requires little space, it would look out of place in a standard sized roombox. On the other hand, if you have a large, or very busy project, I have found that a little larger space so it is not quite as crowded looks nicer. I think that it is strictly up to the individual.

Rusty

Foamcore Roomboxes: The May 2000 issue of DM has an excellent how-to by Frank Lerner. He makes it very easy. Or you could do like I do & just wing it. Make it any size you want it to be. How big is the largest item going in, going to be? Go on from there. Whatever looks right is what I use. Also check out Joann Swanson's Wizard room in the October 2000 issue of DM. She uses foamcore for the walls, floors-everything.

Pam in St. Louie

my first kit is a country store. I know nothing except I was trying to save money for stuff for my store so I scribed the floor to make it look like a real wood floor. Then I stained it and varnished it. It came out great. Then I scribed the ceiling to look like tong and grove with ceiling beams. The bottom floor looks like 2X6 wood decked plank floor. I put tiny hole for nails. Wish I would have used some of your ideas and made it look like real nails but I just put tiny hole where the nails went and stained it. It has thousands of holes so the "real nails" would have taken me forever. l really love the way it says " this kit takes 3 to 4 hours to put together" My next step is wiring. I am so afraid to start that project.

Diana

Kitchen in a kettle: Helen from San Diego asked how to close the kettle she is going to make a kitchen in.
Well, I've never done something like that before, but I would make a door and add a kind of trellis to the outside. You can have a plant climbing in this trellis and even make some landscape around the kettle. But then you have the trouble of dusting your landscape :o)

Marjon de Haas (The Netherlands)

Kitchen in a kettle: Two ideas come to mind....you could get the clear heat shrink wrap from Michaels, cut a piece moderately larger than the opening, glue generously to the inside of the kettle (so the edges don't show) and then use a hair dryer to lightly shrink the wrap so it is taunt...it is nice and clear when shrunk, just make sure not to overshrink...or, get a very, very thin piece of acrylic and blast it with a heat gun so it is a little pliable and work it inside your opening and then glue....I missed your original post on how you plan to open up your tea kettle, so these ideas may not work...but it's a guess..

WhuiChang

Fruit & Vegetable Room: Why not use a dried gourd as a room for your fruits & veggies? Or a paper mache pumpkin or tea pot? Or you could make a watermelon shaped room out of paper mache over a balloon to get the shape. Or just go with a plain old foam core room box covered with fabric in a fruit or veggie print. I have 3 gourds I'm going to use my "virgin" Dremel on! I received lots of encouragement from everyone. So Thank You Very Much! I figure if I mess up too bad I can always make birdhouses out of them!

Pam in St. Louis

Mini Domes: Thank you to everyone who responded to my mini glass domes query. I was asked to post the private responses. Here is what people suggested privately: JAF, Michaels, http://www.hometown.aol.com/GLASSMURPH/sitemap.html and http://www.minikitz.com. I need to replace one that broke.

Linda Master

Pepperwood Farm: I thought I had the book for the dollhouse plans that you are requesting. Went through my books and do not have that one but I do have the Windflower Manor - 1976 & the Concord - 1976. The plans that you are looking for are probably written by the same person. Her name is Jacqueline Kerr Deiber. She is a very popular lady in the Chicagoland area because she use to put on the "Fling" shows. You might be able to contact her or Craft Publications,Inc. 1450 Kelton Drive, Stone Mountain, Atlanta, Georgia 30083.

Joni

Laser Cut: There are dollhouse and mini-furniture kits that are laser cut. That means, the individual pieces are cut out by a focused laser beam that cuts by burning through the wood. Because the laser beam can be focused into a beam that is finer than a saw blade, the precision of laser cut parts is amazing. The cut edges have a shiny, burned appearance. The thicker the wood, the longer it takes the laser to burn through it; the more charred the edges.

When you first open a laser cut kit, the smell of burned wood can be overpowering and some people have allergic reactions to it. If you let the pieces air out for a couple of days, the noxious smell goes away. The charred edges can be eliminated by lightly sanding. This is necessary if you are going to stain a furniture kit. With dollhouse kits, you can simply use a primer like Kilz and paint over the charred edges.

I have been fortunate in working with a local company, LaserTech, designing and building some of their prototype mini kits. The laser cutting machine is a marvel of space age invention. It can slice through wood, plastic and metal like they were foam board. It is huge and expensive and a little frightening to watch it in action. The operator must wear thick, tinted goggles because staring at the laser beam can cause permanent eye damage. The beam is directed by a computer using a program similar to AutoCad.

In my dreams, I imagine there some day being a smaller, home crafter version of a laser cutter available but the safety issues would probably keep it out of the marketplace.

Sally Cook-Thomas

Laser Cut: A laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that creates a very narrow, beam of coherent (one wavelength or color) light. This give the beam a very high energy. Kind of like the sun and a magnifying glass, only much stronger. When this beam hits a non-reflective surface, it basically vaporizes anything it hits. If you place a piece of paper or wood into the beam, it will burn a hole though it, turning the wood to smoke. The edges of laser cut pieces are typically charred for this reason. Most laser cutters have an x-y table which is computer controlled. This allows your piece of wood to be moved in two directions so you can create any 2 dimensional pattern you chose.

Since the light exerts a miniscule force on the wood, it can cut very fragile or delicate things without destroying them. The major limitation is that it works in 2 dimensions, so you can't, in a practical manner, make a 3 dimensional object.

Tom & Kari

Gluing paper models: I'm been involved in paper models for years, and here is my tip for gluing one piece to another. Use tacky glue spread on each tab that you want to join together, let dry a little, and then reglue one tab and stick together. This minimizes the slick paper and should work for you.

The Anne of Green Gables press out house is a great model, by the way. I have put one together, and have another one that I might do again. Anne, of course, is a fictional character, but the author used a real farm house that she knew of in her stories, and the model makers used this same house. What was so intriguing to me were all of the doors! If I remember correctly, there were 10 or 11 doors in one small area of the house. And, also the sizes of the rooms. A different room for everything, but very small. (And, each with their own door, of course.)

It would be very fun to 'grow' this up to a 1" model, but I think if I ever did that, I would have to change the floor plan and eliminate the need for so many darned doors.

Kaye in L.A.