Category: mini’s

the kitchen.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

  Today I’m sharing the first room I’ve completed in the free dollhouse, but before we get to that let’s take a quick look a the ‘before’ of the interior.

Conveniently, the interior walls and floor pull out as one piece.  That makes it super easy to work on them.

There was just one room in the house that had any pre-existing “decor”, and that was the kitchen.

I think maybe that was contact paper rather than wallpaper, but either way it was pretty easy to pull off.

After giving the interior a good cleaning, I painted over everything with Dixie Belle’s Ecru to create a blank canvas.

Next up, I applied some self-stick subway tile wallpaper to the walls.

I purchased this last year from Itsy Bitsy Mini Store on Etsy.  I was planning to use it in the bathroom of my dollhouse, but ended up not liking the scale of it for that room.  But it was perfect here.

The flooring came from Miniature Crush.

I felt like the white was a bit too bright for me straight out of the package, so I experimented with some options for toning it down a bit.

I tried all three of these products on some scrap pieces.

The DIY Dark & Decrepit Liquid Patina was way too dark  The Sweet Pickins Dark Oil Wax was too oily, it moved around too much on the flooring giving an uneven look.

The Dixie Belle Brown Wax was workable enough without being too slippery, and I was able to apply just enough to tone down the white without it just looking dirty, so that’s what I went with.  I realize that it’s a bit hard to see in photos, so you’ll just have to take my word that it toned that white down just a bit.

My initial plan for the free dollhouse was to simply add wallpaper and flooring to each room, and call it done.  I spent just under $100 for some flooring, wallpaper, supplies to create a ship lap wall in one of the rooms and some wainscoting for one of the rooms.  It added up fast.

 I hope to sell the finished dollhouse in the end, so I didn’t want to sink too much more money into it.  I don’t think I could sell it for enough to recover any additional expenses.

But then I thought about some of the items that I already had on hand, but was unable to find spots for in my own dollhouse, like the patisserie cupboard.

I also have a set of furniture that my friend Amy gave me for Christmas.

So I decided it couldn’t hurt to ‘lightly’ furnish the house with stuff I already had on hand.

I ended up using the sink and stove from the set from Amy.

I gave them both a whole new look by painting them in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

As for that sweet little shelf that you see above the sink …

That was sent to me by one of my readers, Wendy.  She actually sent me several really nice wood pieces that I hope to use more of in future projects.

But for now, that shelf was perfect for this kitchen after I painted it, also in the Midnight Sky.

I think the blue & white china (also a gift from Amy!) was a good addition to this otherwise all black and white kitchen too.

After putting some of the china on the shelf above the sink, and then also filling the cupboard …

I still have a bunch left to use in my own dollhouse (or potentially another future dollhouse project).

One thing I’m still not that good at is getting photos of completed miniature rooms.

I’ll have to keep working on that skill.

But in the meantime, what do you think of the kitchen?  Leave a comment and let me know.

no. 42

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

As you know, last winter I refurbished the dollhouse that my dad made for me over 30 years ago.

After re-painting the exterior, I redecorated the interior, one room at a time.

The project kept me busy for pretty much the entire winter and into spring.

If you’re interested in seeing all of the details, go to my “mini’s” category to see those posts.

That project is nearly completed though, so I was feeling rather sad that I wouldn’t have another miniature project to keep me occupied during the long Minnesota winter this year.

Then one day last summer my friend opK texted me to say that there was a dollhouse free at the curb just around the corner from my house.  So I hopped in the car to go check it out.

And here it is.

Whoa, huh?!  It is definitely mustard yellow!

And definitely filthy dirty.

It’s not nearly as detailed (or as large) as my own dollhouse.  However, I’m envisioning something a bit more rustic looking in the end and I’m getting inspiration for that from this fabulous piece that I saw on Instagram from Black Barn Vintage.

Initially I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to get that aged look while still completely covering that mustard color, but I thought I’d see what I could do.

My first step was to thoroughly clean the dollhouse inside and out with hot soapy water.

You’ll probably have noticed that this dollhouse is made out of a weird cheap plywood …

Is this stuff even called plywood?  Or does it have another name?  Either way it has a lot of unappealing texture to it, so I added some of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray to their Coffee Bean paint and gave the entire exterior a coat of that.  The Sea Spray will add some texture to the paint, which will help tone down the plywood texture.

Once the Coffee Bean was dry, I brought out Dixie Belle’s Crackle.  I thought it might work well to further disguise some of that original texture.

I’ve actually had this product in my supply cupboard for … dare I say … probably 4 years or more, and I’ve never used it.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe because the faux crackle look kind of gives me flashbacks to the “country” decor craze from the 80’s.  Actually, I hear that’s making a comeback, so if you’re into it, Crackle might be the perfect product for you.

Today’s q tip:  you will see the color that is underneath the crackle medium through your final paint color.  I definitely didn’t want to see that original yellow, so that’s why I started with a base coat of Coffee Bean.

OK, so once my Coffee Bean color was fully dry, I applied the crackle medium using an inexpensive brush.  I like the Synthetic Chip Brush from Dixie Belle that costs a mere $1.50 for tasks like this.  I randomly applied the Crackle to the corners, under the eaves and around some of the windows.  I didn’t want the entire thing to crackle, just some crackles here and there, so I didn’t fully coat the entire dollhouse.  I then allowed the crackle medium to dry for 24 hours.

Next up I pulled out my Dixie Belle Ecru paint and brushed it on all three sides of the dollhouse (I left the roof in Coffee Bean) and waited for the magic to happen.

Ta da!

I love those results.  It definitely helps the weird plywood texture look more intentional, sort of like stucco.  I think it gives off a European vibe.  So I decided to lean into that a bit by adding a German stencil to either side of the house.

They actually do have buildings with writing on them in Germany, sort of like this …

I kept mine a little more simple.

I used a stencil that was given to me by Lynne from Ellen J Goods.  It’s from her set of four 8″ German Grain Sack Stencils.  I chose Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage for the stenciling rather than a black or the Coffee Bean (which is a dark brown/black) because I wanted it to look as though it has faded with time.

Next up I used the Ancient Findings mold from re.design with prima and some I.O.D. Air Dry Clay to create a pair of ‘plaster’ medallions for under the peak of the roof on either side.

I painted the medallion in Coffee Bean, followed by Ecru as well.  I didn’t want it to jump out at you, but rather to be a more subtle detail.

I think the Crackle, stencil and medallion all give your eye something else to focus on rather than that plywood texture.

The front door and the window sills are also painted in Coffee Bean.

I considered replacing the door with something with a little more detail, or adding window panes somehow, but all of the openings on this dollhouse are a bit over-sized.  So, I decided to keep it simple and just paint them.

The little brass “42” came from my scrapbook supply stash.  I mail ordered the lights from Hobby Lobby for my dollhouse last year, but they ended up being too large.  I think they work well here though.  They do actually light up if you put a battery in them, but I haven’t quite gotten around to that just yet.

I did doctor them up a bit.  They originally had a shiny black plastic finish that looked pretty cheap.

I painted the black plastic with more of the Coffee Bean, and once dry I added some of the Bronze Age metallique wax from re.design with prima.

So far I am loving how this project is turning out.

I’ve already begun work on the interior, and my plan to not spend more than $100 has completely flown out the window.  But I’m having so much fun!

I hope you’ll stay tuned as I continue to work on this free-at-the-curb dollhouse!

merry mini christmas!

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

For my final Christmas project of the year, I thought it would be fun to create a mini Christmas vignette.

And I thought of the perfect spot for it, inside my clock cloche!

I started by ordering a few items from Miniature Crush.  They are a miniatures mail order company located here in the Twin Cities.  They don’t have a brick and mortar, but they do ship super quickly which I always appreciate.

I ordered a wing back chair, a fireplace and some wallpaper (the star lights are from a local gift shop).

Next I got out my Dixie Belle paints and got to work.  I started with the chair.

I gave the chair a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean, which is a dark brown/black color.  I wanted to cover up the original red completely and have a dark color to distress back to.

Then I added two coats of Dixie Belle’s Putty.  Once dry, I added a small transfer from the I.O.D. Santa’s Hollow set to the seat back.  I modified that transfer a bit to make it work for the chair by painting over some portions with more of the Putty.

Once the transfer was in place, I gave the chair a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.  Then rather than distressing back to the Coffee Bean underlayer, I used some of DB’s Dixie Dirt in the Earth color to add some age.

I used a small brush to apply it to some of the corners and creases.

Oh, and FYI, I dry brushed some of the Putty paint over the Coffee Bean on the legs of the chair to bring out the detail.

Those adorable packages on the chair were a gift from my friend and fellow Reclaiming Beautiful vendor, Amy (they were the perfect addition to my Christmas scene Amy!).

Next up, the fireplace.

Unfortunately, it seems that I may have ordered one of the last of this style available from Miniature Crush because it’s now sold out.

I like purchasing these unfinished pieces and then putting my own stamp on them.  Once again, I gave this piece a base coat of the Coffee Bean, then I added a couple of coats of DB’s Ecru over it.

In this case, I did distress the paint back to the dark undercoat.

I lined the back of the fireplace in some brown brick textured paper from Miniature Crush.  Then I used some of re.design with prima’s Bronze Age metallique wax on the surround.  I applied a little Mod Podge over the brick and then sprinkled on some more of the Dixie Dirt to make the brick look sooty.

I gathered some twigs from the garden to cut into logs for the fireplace.

I realize now that it would have worked better to get some photos of these details before hot-gluing the Christmas stockings into place, but … well … I didn’t do that.

Speaking of the stockings, I made those myself.

I layered ticking stripe fabric on either side of some thin batting, gluing all three layers together.  Then I cut out the stocking shapes.  Once I had them cut out, I had to add a little more glue to the ‘seams’ using a toothpick.  Finally I added the trim from an old hanky to the top of each stocking with some more glue.  Easy peasy.

One of my favorite pieces in the vignette is the ‘painting’ of Santa that hangs over the fireplace.

That came together so perfectly!  I used I.O.D.’s Air Dry Clay and their Frames mold to create the frame.  Once the clay was dry, I once again began with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  Then I applied their Antique Gold gilding wax over it.  The dark background really makes those frame details pop.

I then painted the center oval with DB’s Ecru.  Then, as though it was meant to be, that Santa transfer, also from the Santa’s Hollow set, was the perfect fit for the oval.  Did they plan that?  I don’t know, but I love it.

There are two more similar Santa transfers in that set and now I’m thinking I might frame those up and add them to the wall as well.

By the way, the wallpaper is also from Miniature Crush.  It’s the Berkshire Damask Clay on Cream Bradbury & Bradbury paper.

The ‘wall’ is just a piece of foam core board that I cut to size.  I used spray adhesive to apply the wallpaper, then I used double sided tape to stick the ‘wall’ to the back of the fireplace so it would stand upright.  I also used double sided tape to ‘hang’ the painting on the wall.  We’ll have to see how well that holds up over time.  I may have to use something stronger down the road.

Before I move on to my final favorite detail, let’s address the elephant in the room … the Christmas tree.

You know how it is when you go to the tree farm and you pick out what you think will be the perfect tree, then you get it home and it seems to have grown 2 sizes on the drive home?

Something similar happened here.  I ordered this tree from KADkrafts on Etsy.  It’s available in two sizes; 7″ and 9″.  Naturally I ordered the larger size, somehow thinking that the 7″ would be too small.  Of course, when it arrived I realized that the 9″ tree was going to be a bit overpowering in my vignette.

However, aside from the size, this tree is perfect.  I think it really looks like a real tree.  So I decided to go ahead and order the 7″ one too (I can use the 9″ tree in the dollhouse garden, when I get to that).  Unfortunately, even though I paid extra for priority shipping, and it was supposed to arrive on Monday, it’s not here yet.  Lucky it wasn’t meant to be a Christmas present, right? So for now I’m just using the larger tree, but not decorating it with anything more than the lights.

That brings me to my final bit of miniature Christmas fun!

The tree is just waiting to be decorated with a non-collection of Shiny Brite ornaments.  These were a digital download from Etsy.  In other words, you download a digital file, print it out, then cut out the paper and glue it into box shapes.  It’s a little bit putzy, but I love the results.

So there aren’t any presents under the tree yet, Santa will bring them tonight.  But, who needs presents when you have all of these Shiny Brite ornaments?

I struggled to get a good photo with the glass cloche in place.

But there was a little too much light bouncing off the glass. However, I have to say that this little scene looks best at night when it just lit by the glow from those little star lights on the tree.

With that I’d like to wish a mini Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it!  And to those who don’t, not to worry, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programing after the New Year.

mini garden furniture.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

Aside from the fairy garden, I haven’t spent any time working on miniatures this summer.

The plan was to work on the porches and the garden of my dollhouse, but I think I’ve realized that mini’s are going to be more of a winter thing for me.

That being said, I have been accumulating stuff for the dollhouse porches.

I purchased this unfinished patio set at Hobby Lobby sometime last year.

When I had my milk paint out for another project recently, I decided to go ahead and paint these up at the same time.

I began by giving all four pieces a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean so that I would have something to distress my final coat of milk paint back to other than raw wood.

Next I mixed up some Sweet Pickens Milk Paint in a color called Pantry Door.  I had a sample packet that I purchased from The Painted Heirloom for $7.  The little sample packets work great for painting miniatures, and it’s a fun way to try out new colors.

After applying two coats of the milk paint, I sanded the pieces with 220 grit sandpaper to distress them.  I tried to only sand back to that darker Coffee Bean layer, and I mostly succeeded.

Of course, there are also some spots where I went too far.

But that’s OK, I still love how they turned out.

I staged them out in the fairy garden.

But I didn’t put any sort of top coat over the milk paint, so they definitely wouldn’t really hold up outside.  They’ll be fine on the porch of the dollhouse though, when I get to it.

Speaking of the fairy garden, I was out there doing a little pruning the other day and was amazed at how much some of the plants have taken off.

Remember the miniature hostas that I purchased at a garage sale back in June?

Here’s the Pandora’s Box in June when I planted it …

And here is it now.

And, in fact, I even divided this one initially breaking up the one plant I purchased into two plants.  Here’s the 2nd one …

This is one of the things I love about planting divisions from someone v. a new plant from a nursery.  They usually have a very established root system and the plant will fill out much more quickly.

Sadly, now that I have jumping worms in my garden, I can no longer easily share my own plants in this way.  Granted, I could share them if I carefully washed off all of the dirt that could contain jumping worm cocoons.  But personally, I’d rather not take the chance of giving others jumping worms.

That being said, I already have jumping worms so I’m not so concerned about bringing them in on garage sale plants.  Maybe that’s a mistake, I don’t know.  Bottom line; don’t risk it in your garden.  Do as I say, not as I do.

But I digress, this post was supposed to be about miniature patio furniture.

Coming soon I’ll share the bistro set that I painted up for the porch, I can’t share it quite yet because I used a new color from the Dixie Belle Silk paint line.  I have to wait for the official reveal before I can share that with you.  But stay tuned, because this color is quickly becoming my new favorite!

gardening in miniature.

Published on by Quandie7 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Although I just started my dollhouse reno last winter, I’ve been working in miniature in the garden for years now.

My fairy garden started out in a cracked birdbath.

That worked beautifully since the crack allowed for drainage.  We would take the bowl section of the birdbath off its pedestal and bury it in a big pile of leaves up against the house for the winter which worked well to protect the plants.

But then one spring we pulled it out to find it had fully cracked in two.  In addition, my sister had given me a cute little fairy house for Christmas, so my miniature garden really needed to expand.

So I moved it into an old rickety wheelbarrow a few years back.  There were some spots where it was rusted through, also providing good drainage for a fairy garden.

Although I piled about 12″ of leaves over it, and then covered it with burlap this past winter, I still lost the bulk of the plants.  Apparently last winter was hard on miniature gardens as well as the full sized ones.

Only three things survived, the tall Alberta Spruce ‘tree’, a Primo Arborvitae and a creeping sedum.  Everything else bit the dust, including the mini Japanese maple (I knew that one would be risky), a 2 year old creeping thyme, and all of my miniature hostas.

Oh well, that gives me the opportunity to try new plants.

That being said, I have found that ever since Covid it has been more difficult to find miniature plants.  I asked about it at one of the nurseries that used to carry lots of mini’s and they said their miniatures grower had decided to close up shop permanently during Covid.  I do wonder if most of the local nurseries all got their mini’s from the same grower.

So I feel like it was my lucky day a couple of weeks ago when I happened to come across a yard sale just a few blocks away from me where the proprietor was selling miniature hostas.

Hostas are classified as miniature if they stay less than 8″ tall when full size.  Of course, that would translate to 8′ tall in 1:12 scale, which would be rather large for a garden.  But you can keep them smaller by regularly dividing them.

And actually, it’s lucky that I have regularly divided my Feather Boa hosta, planting the extra chunks in the ground.  The ones in the fairy garden have died off the past two winters, but I’ve been able to replace them with divisions from the ones that are doing really well in the ground.

One mini hosta wasn’t enough for me though, so I purchased three new mini hostas for my fairy garden at the yard sale.

No. 1 is a Tears of Joy.

This one is only supposed to grow to 4″ tall, so it should be perfect for the fairy garden.  I have to admit that it’s a bit odd looking.  Well … let’s call it unique looking instead, OK?  I think it will look better once it fills in a bit.

Next up, a Pandora’s Box.

This one gets 4″ – 6″ tall and I’ve planted it just in front of a Golden Lemon Thyme.  Isn’t that variegation lovely?

And finally, I also grabbed a Frosted Mouse Ears.

This one can get up to 7″ tall, so we’ll have to see whether or not it looks believable in the fairy garden going forward.

It’s planted right in front of the Primo Arborvitae that survived from last year.  I moved it from next to the arbor to beside the fairy house this spring though.  I love how easy it is to transplant a tree in miniature, lol.  No heavy lifting required.

Although this variety, Thuja occidentalis Primo, can get up to 4′ tall, it grows slowly and should work well in the fairy garden for quite a few years. It’s also cold hardy down to -30°, which explains why it survived the winter in a wheelbarrow.

I added a Myrtle topiary to the fairy garden this year as well.

It’s only hardy down to 32° though, so I will have to pot it up and bring it in the house for the winter.  I just hope I remember to do that before our first frost.

Ultimately I also found an online source for fairy garden plants called Two Green Thumbs.  I ordered two plants and a few other miniatures.

The plants are a Dusseldorf Seathrift (Armeria maritime ‘Dusseldorf’) …

and a variegated English boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Variegata’).

I’ll be giving him a bit of a prune to shape him up, but I thought it would be wise to let him settle in a bit first and get over the shock of transplanting.  Plus, we are under a heat advisory with temps in the upper 90’s, so not weather for pruning.  Seems somewhat ironic seeing as I had to turn the heat on last week when we didn’t even make it out of the 50’s one day.  Welcome to Minnesota.

I also purchased those three little faux ‘rocks’ that you see in the photo above just below the boxwood, a small birdbath statue …

and a sweet little bistro set.

This set is actually intended for the dollhouse porch rather than the fairy garden though, and it will be getting some sort of makeover.  I’m not sure what yet, but plain white feel a bit boring for me doesn’t it?

Back to that yard sale with the miniature hostas, I also purchased a pair of little watering cans there.

But of course I couldn’t leave them simply plain like that, I had to ‘quandie-fy’ them.

I painted one of the watering cans in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and the other in their Holy Guacamole.  Then I added some knob transfers from re.design with prima.  If you aren’t familiar, the knob transfers are meant to fit on those round wooden knobs that would go on a dresser or a cupboard door.

But I have found that they work beautifully for miniatures.  For example, I used them on my dollhouse dining chairs.

A couple of them worked perfectly for these watering cans too.

I can’t really pick a favorite.  I like the Drop Cloth version (above), but I really like the Holy Guacamole version as well.

But that’s OK, I have a home for both.  The green one will go in my fairy garden, and the white one will go on the porch of my dollhouse.  More on that in a future post.

I’m curious, do you have any favorite plants that work well as a miniature?  And which watering can is your favorite, green or white?  Leave a comment and let me know.

setting the table.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

For the most part I’ve put my miniature projects on hold for the summer.

I’ve got so many other things to occupy my time when it’s nice out, like gardening, garage saling, floating in my friend’s pools, drinking cocktails on the deck, and so on.

Working on miniatures makes a great winter hobby here in Minnesota.  Perfect for those sub-zero days when you don’t want to leave the house.  But our summers are pretty short, so it’s best to enjoy outdoor activities while we can!

But I did have one last thing I wanted to finish up before taking a little hiatus from the dollhouse reno and that’s setting the table.

I started out with a set of plates and silverware from Hobby Lobby.

That shiny silver finish wasn’t really for me, so I gave them all a coat of gold.

Then I set the table.

I used the gold plates as chargers and I topped them with some lovely floral china that I ordered from Twelve Times More Teeny on Etsy.

Then I added some pink tumblers that I ordered from Whimzzy Co, also on Etsy.

I used a simple white pitcher filled with flowers as a centerpiece.

And FYI, those are real flowers.  The blue ones are Forget-Me-Not’s and the white, of course, are Lily of the Valley.  Both are currently blooming in my garden.

In fact, the Forget-Me-Not’s are having one of their best years ever.  I think it might be because some of the other ground covers around it died back over the winter giving them more space.

So … a silver lining, right?

Whatever the reason, I’m really enjoying how pretty they are right now.  In fact, this might be my favorite spot in the garden at the moment.

Those are Curly Fries hostas just behind the Forget-Me-Nots.  They make an awesome combo.

But I digress, back to the table setting.  I’m also quite happy with how it turned out as well.

I’d love to be invited to this little dinner party, how about you?

how to create a miniature rug.

Published on by Quandie3 Comments

Today I’m sharing a ‘how-to’ post on creating your own rugs for a dollhouse or other miniature display.

I’ve already shared my mini rugs eureka moment, when I figured out that you can purchase printable canvas and create your own rugs using downloaded .pdf files.

I found my canvas sheets on Amazon, but I’m sure you can find them in other places as well.

I’ve purchased several different downloadable .pdf files for printing rugs via Etsy.

So far this one in shades of lavender remains my favorite.

I purchased that from MinatureMoo.  The rug in shades of blue in this next photo is also a .pdf purchase from Miniature Moo.  Unfortunately, apparently this shop is no longer selling on Etsy.  I guess I’m glad I got these .pdf’s when I did.

I think downloading printable rugs is the easiest option, and purchasing the file is generally fairly cheap.  I paid $5.37 for each of those files.

Another option would be to find a good quality image of a rug online, re-size the image to suit your needs, and then print it out.  I haven’t actually tried this approach, so I can’t really give you any advice on how to go about it.

Once I realized that these canvas sheets worked really well for printing rugs, I thought that perhaps I could also use some stamps to create a unique rug as well.  You saw my version of that in the dollhouse kitchen reveal.

To create that rug I used an I.O.D. Ephemeral Type stamp with some VersaFine Clair ink in a color called Morning Mist to stamp the canvas.  Then I glued some cotton twine around the edge to finish it off.

I had created another rug using that same stamp set for my U.K. hallway.

You can’t see it terribly well in that photo, but in case you didn’t notice, the writing is in French.  And somehow, it just seemed wrong for my U.K. hallway to have a French rug.  Right?

Then at about 3 a.m. one night, a light bulb went off in my head.  I have a small Union Jack stencil that I got ages ago from Maison de Stencils (no longer in business as far as I know).  Perhaps I could stencil my own Union Jack rug!

I started by cutting a piece of that printable canvas to the size I wanted.  Then I taped off a narrow border around the edges and gave it a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry I centered my stencil and painted it in a mix of Drop Cloth and Dried Sage.

Once that dried, I went back over just the triangles with straight up Dried Sage.

Although I liked the way the stencil worked on the rug, I felt like the Union Jack needed to be bigger for this size of rug … and this is the size of rug that I needed in the U.K. hallway.

So it was back to the drawing board.

For my 2nd attempt, I decided to just draw the design on the rug using a ruler, lots of measuring and a pencil and then paint it in free-hand.

This time I went with an even more subtle selection of colors using just Drop Cloth, and that custom mix of Drop Cloth and Dried Sage.  Rather than painting the full background, I just painted the stripes.  So those triangles are unpainted.

One important note if you are going to paint on the printable canvas, the paint will cause the canvas to curl up a bit.  I solved that problem by ironing the ‘rug’ flat again once the paint had dried.  I also anchor the four corners of the rug to the floor using some double sided tape.

I hope this post has given some of you some ideas for creating your own miniature rugs.  Be sure to leave a comment if you have any other methods that you like to use.

worth the wait.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

Sometimes things are absolutely worth the wait.

And in this case it felt like a rather long wait.  I placed my order for the items that you’ll see in a minute on February 17 through Etsy, and they arrived on March 27.  So yeah, a bit of a wait.  But well worth it.

I’m talking about some miniatures that I ordered from Twelve Times More Teeny.  She is located in Oviedo, Spain, and her items are made to order.  Hence the wait.

This wasn’t like the time I ordered a paint can and roller from Sweden without realizing it.  I’ve learned my lesson since then and I always check to see where items are coming from now.

So even though I realized that this shop was in Spain, I just had to give it a go.

But I bet you want to see what I’m talking about.

Well, I ordered some miniature china.

First up, a set of cannisters.

Aren’t they awesome?  I have found that they don’t quite fit where I wanted to put them though, which is on the shelves of the hutch in the kitchen.  The shelves on that piece are so narrow!

So I’ll have to put them on the work surface instead.

For now I’ve added some inexpensive white plates that I purchased at Hobby Lobby to the shelves.

Next up, I ordered a set of cheese plates …

I’ve hung them on the wall in the dining room.

I may move those to hang over that kitchen door though instead of beside it, we’ll see.

Finally, I just had to have these Union Jack plates for my U.K. hallway.

Again, these are also going on the wall.

By the way, in case you are wondering, none of the plates I got from Twelve Times More Teeny will fit on the kitchen hutch shelves.  But hmmm, I may just have to order some smaller ones!

Also in case you are wondering, I use tacky wax to stick things in place in my dollhouse.

I unexpectedly came across this Department 56 version at the Bachman’s After-Christmas sale last year.  It was considered Christmas merch, don’t know why, and thus was 75% off.  Miniature Crush carries a couple of versions of tacky wax as well.

In the end I was so pleased with my china from Spain that I ordered some more.  This time I ordered a set of floral dishes for the dining room table.  You’ll have to stay tuned to see those, since it will probably be another month before they arrive!

the miniature crush blanket chest.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

After meeting the owners of Miniature Crush and taking a tour of their facility, I approached them with an offer to become a content creator for them.

We’re still not precisely sure how that is going to work, but for now they have sent me an unfinished piece of furniture to see what I can do with it as a sort of trial run.  This blog post is written with Miniature Crush customers in mind.  They may not be familiar with the products and techniques I use, so it may seem a bit overly detailed for some of my long-time readers who are already familiar with things like chalk style paint and transfers.

This is the 1:12 scale Blanket Cabinet and it sells for $20.99.

The top doors open to reveal some shelving inside.

As you can see above, this piece comes with the drawer pulls and knobs already in place.  But I wanted to paint it, without painting the hardware.  So I used a razor blade to gently get behind those pulls and pop them off, taking care not to bend them.

Then after giving the cabinet a light sanding with a 220 grit sanding sponge, I gave it a base coat of Dixie Belle Paint Co’s Coffee Bean.

The purpose of this base coat of paint is to provide a color to add some dimension when I later sand my final color to distress it.  I didn’t need to get perfect coverage with that first coat.

I followed that up with a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Cottage Door, a beautiful coral/pink.

If you aren’t familiar with Dixie Belle paint, it is a chalk mineral paint which is why it looks quite flat at this point.  Although it doesn’t technically require a top coat for durability, a top coat will add some sheen to the paint and also protect it from dirt and moisture.  Personally I prefer working with a chalk style paint because it distresses really nicely in miniature.  I do water my chalk paint down just a bit to reduce brush strokes which also helps a miniature piece look more realistic.

Once the Cottage Door paint was dry, I sanded it lightly with the 220 grit sponge again to distress those edges.

You can just see a hint of that dark brown Coffee Bean color.

Next up I pulled out the Iron Orchid Designs gilded transfer set called Etiquettes.  I cut out various bits and pieces from that to fill in the recessed sections of those upper doors.

Now you can see why I wanted to keep that hardware in its original gold color.  I knew it would play well with the gilded transfer.

If you aren’t familiar with transfers, they are also called rub-on’s or rub-on transfers.  Wikipedia does a good job of describing them:  “Dry transfers (also called rub-ons or rubdowns) are decals that can be applied without the use of water or other solvent. The decal itself is on a backing material such as paper or plastic sheeting much like a transparency. The dry transfer is placed in the desired location with the backing side up. The decal is then applied by burnishing the backing with a stylus or similar object such as a ballpoint pen. The contact side of the decal includes a pressure-sensitive adhesive; the combination of heat and pressure causes the decal to stick more strongly to the new surface than to the backing. When the backing is removed, the decal remains. This allows for ink only where needed even if the pattern is delicate, because the backing supports the decal while it is being applied.”

Once I had the gilded transfers in place, I re-attached the knobs and drawer pulls using some super glue.  Then I added a top coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over the entire exterior of the blanket cabinet.

You have a number of different top coat options available when using a chalk style paint.  I personally like a buffed wax finish for it’s subtle sheen and because it deepens the color ever so slightly.  But you could also choose to use a water based top coat meant for use over chalk paint.  Dixie Belle, for example, has a flat, a satin and a gloss water based clear coat.

One important note, be sure to apply your transfers and/or glue on any hardware before applying wax.  Those items won’t stick very well to a waxed surface.

Now for the inside of the cupboard.  I started by painting it in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, which is a very warm white.  Then I pulled out the Worn Wallpaper Scraps by Tim Holtz.  This is a little packet of 5″ x 8″ sheets of faded, worn floral wallpaper designs.  They are perfect for lining miniature cupboards.  Of course, you could also use any of the dollhouse wallpapers from Miniature Crush for this as well.

One 5″ x 8″ sheet was just enough paper to line the back and the shelves of this blanket cabinet.  I cut pieces of the paper to size, and then used some Mod Podge to adhere them to the cabinet.

I also had enough left over to line the drawers too.

It’s so much fun to see what you can do with these unfinished pieces.  Be sure to check out the complete inventory of them at Miniature Crush.

I’m adding this piece to my ‘miniatures for sale‘ page because I don’t have a spot for it in my own dollhouse.  I am willing to ship my miniatures and can accept Venmo or PayPal payment for them, so be sure to check that out if you’re interested!

it has to go.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

As you know, I spent most of the winter working on my dollhouse reno.

And frankly, I’m getting rather tired of having it sitting on my baby grand piano right smack in the middle of the house.  It takes up the entire surface of the piano, leaving not much room for anything else.  If you’ve followed me for long, you’ll know that this is usually where I fold laundry, wrap presents, and paint smalls throughout the winter when I can’t use my carriage house workshop.

So it has to go!

OK, that sounds drastic.  It didn’t have to go far, just out to the three season porch.  The weather is warming up, and I think I can finish up any future work on it out there.

This will be where it stays going forward.  At least for the foreseeable future anyway.  Our house is rather small and I don’t really have any other spot where it would work.

I have to give myself credit for finishing almost all of the rooms over the winter.

I started with the dining room.

Then I worked on the main bedroom.

That was followed by the 2nd floor hallway …

and then the bathroom.

I’ve also completed the 2nd bedroom …

the 3rd floor U.K. hallway …

and the kitchen.

I filled up the attic space.

And I outfitted the attic rec room.

As I’m reviewing the photos for this post, I’m realizing that I’ve already added some new details to some of these rooms since I last shared them.

For example, I added some framed botanicals to the bathroom.

I added a hand-painted Union Jack rug to the upper hallway (more on how I did that in a future post).

I added the sconces and a painted chair to the master bedroom.

And I added a mirror to the 2nd floor hallway.

After all of that, I still haven’t quite finished the interior reno completely.  I have reached a bit of a standstill on the living room because I can’t quite decided what I want to do in that room.  So rather than rush it, I’ve decided to just wait for inspiration to strike.

I also need to do something with the tower room.

Although that may be nothing more than filling up the bookshelves.  I couldn’t actually reach that room while the house was up on the piano, so now that it’s a bit lower out on the porch I can get to it, but I’m not sure I want to tackle trying to paint that space.

Finally, I still have the exterior gardens and porches to work on.  Those may wait until next winter at this point though.  We’ll have to see how busy I get this summer.

But for now, I’m happy to have the surface of my baby grand piano back as a work space for other things.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the dollhouse project over the winter, I know I was quite focused on it at the expense of working on other vintage item makeovers.  Now that spring is here, I’ll be back out in the garden and am hoping to resume my ‘Sunday mornings in the garden’ posts soon.  I also plan to work on some more significant makeover projects, maybe even some furniture!  I’ll definitely sprinkle in a few more miniature projects here and there though.  Spoiler alert, I have a fun one coming up on Wednesday.

So be sure to stay tuned.

In the meantime, leave a comment and let me know which room in the dollhouse was your favorite!