Page 64 - 2010 - AOUT
P. 64
RY OF AN
EDWARDIAN
DOLLS HOUSE
By AIM Member, Julie Campbell
PART Belles Toy Emporium is expanding!
I know I was planning to begin work inside but I couldn’t re‐
6 sist first buying something to add to the outside. That’s the thing with dolls house projects…
They tend to keep growing!
I had really wanted to purchase Sid Cookes Orangery kit but my measurements just didn’t add up and the
whole thing wouldn’t have fitted where I wanted it to go.
Now that the house is built and on its turn table on the old chest of drawers in my sitting room I have
measured up again and realised with delight that there is a place for the Orangery.
It is to become Uncle Mortimer’s workshop and the place where the toys are made.
This also solves the problem of the side door, the tradesman’s entrance that leads nowhere.
I decided to add a fake doorway in the back wall of the shop that "leads" to the workshop. The tradesman’s
entrance door will be rehinged on the opposite side and when opened lead into a little corridor with the
fake doorway leading to the workshop for deliveries!
The workshop will also conceal the wiring that will come through the back of the house and be a lovely
"surprise" when the Emporium is turned around on the turn table.
It feels like a great plan!
Now for the inside...!
First of all I had to decide once and for all the layout of the shop floor. Knowing I had the Orangery ordered I
could go ahead with the layout I liked best.
Firstly, to tackle the removable back wall which must be
decorated before anything else can be done.
I cut off the thin piece that went over the right hand top
edge of the wall and then using the wall as a template cut a
piece from MDF to glue into the stairwell cut out on the
back wall.
While this dried I searched my bits and bobs box for spare
doors and found two identical ones which was lucky!
Artisans In Miniature 64
EDWARDIAN
DOLLS HOUSE
By AIM Member, Julie Campbell
PART Belles Toy Emporium is expanding!
I know I was planning to begin work inside but I couldn’t re‐
6 sist first buying something to add to the outside. That’s the thing with dolls house projects…
They tend to keep growing!
I had really wanted to purchase Sid Cookes Orangery kit but my measurements just didn’t add up and the
whole thing wouldn’t have fitted where I wanted it to go.
Now that the house is built and on its turn table on the old chest of drawers in my sitting room I have
measured up again and realised with delight that there is a place for the Orangery.
It is to become Uncle Mortimer’s workshop and the place where the toys are made.
This also solves the problem of the side door, the tradesman’s entrance that leads nowhere.
I decided to add a fake doorway in the back wall of the shop that "leads" to the workshop. The tradesman’s
entrance door will be rehinged on the opposite side and when opened lead into a little corridor with the
fake doorway leading to the workshop for deliveries!
The workshop will also conceal the wiring that will come through the back of the house and be a lovely
"surprise" when the Emporium is turned around on the turn table.
It feels like a great plan!
Now for the inside...!
First of all I had to decide once and for all the layout of the shop floor. Knowing I had the Orangery ordered I
could go ahead with the layout I liked best.
Firstly, to tackle the removable back wall which must be
decorated before anything else can be done.
I cut off the thin piece that went over the right hand top
edge of the wall and then using the wall as a template cut a
piece from MDF to glue into the stairwell cut out on the
back wall.
While this dried I searched my bits and bobs box for spare
doors and found two identical ones which was lucky!
Artisans In Miniature 64
