Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Log Cabin: Braided Rugs

Those hardwood floors in my miniature dollhouse cabin seemed rather cold and stark.  I decided that I needed some braided rugs.  I had the perfect solution to procuring them too!

I gathered my supplies:

Scissors
Wax paper
Glue
Yarn (I used the cotton candy yarn that many crafters use for making wash clothes and dishrags....it's less fuzzy and thus would be perfect for a dollhouse)

I laid wax paper out on my work area and then spread my craft glue in a circle.   Starting at roughly the center, I curled up the yarn and started to wind it around in a circle on the glue. I simply made sure that each round of yarn was pressed tightly to the proceeding round.  I went around until I reached the desired size.
I allowed my rugs to dry overnight and then I cut the excess wax paper off and voila.....instant braided rugs.


And the finished project!!!!

And pardon the dollhouse...the remodel is not quite complete.  (the fireplace needs finished and some painting touched up!)



Log cabin: Remodel

My grandfather made a dollhouse years before I was born. (My father said it was made in the 50's or 60's).  At some time in the 70's my grandfather (Pappy Clingan) gave the house to me.  There was no furniture, so my brother and I created furniture for it and my parents gifted me some items.  I played with the house.

In my adulthood, I noticed the house in storage and my dreaming began.  I dreamed of changes and plans.  The dollhouse was not at all scale and would pose challenges but it was always a dream of mine to 'do it up right'.   I worked on the Harry Hockenberry House and said that I would do Pappy Clingans house next....but years went by and no work was done.

It wasn't until I visited an art museum and went on the docent guided tour of the dollhouses that I got the urge and the motivation at the same time.  I came home from that vacation and started immediately!

I was/am a total novice at this process and very quickly learned that some of my steps were not exactly in the right order.  Oh well.....learning.

First up was flooring.  (Would have been much easier to paint first!)




The flooring went well and I rolled right into creating a fireplace.   What log cabin can exist without a fireplace??????
Or two fireplaces...they needed a fireplace upstairs too right????



Everything received a nice fresh coat of paint.  And I was ready to start working on the furnishings!  It was time to make this dollhouse a home!



Harry Hockenberry House

My ex was in possession of a house that had been built for a large Christmas Display that was at one time owned and maintained by family members.  I had long been interested in dollhouses, so decided to tackle this house as my first restoration and dollhouse.
As you can see the house was in some rough shape.  I stripped off the old stucco and we fixed the rotted wood.
 We re-stuccoed the walls.


 And it got a new roof.
Some of the windows received replacement trim.
We added a chimney!

We had some help.


It was then time to paint!




 The porch was fun to paint!



 Then it was time to add the fun things!