q is for quandie

If you’ve followed me for long, you may know that do-overs seem to be a regular thing for me.

For example, this one was fun …

I had originally painted (and sold) that dresser in black and white.

I then purchased it back via Craigslist Marketplace and painted it in that lovely custom mix of Dixie Belle Silk Paint (check out all of the details here).

I also shared a metal box do-over on Monday.

But I will say that a miniature furniture do-over is so much easier than one on a full sized piece of furniture.

Back in November I painted up this Tate Modern Sideboard from The Modern Dollhouse in Dixie Belle’s Silk Paint in Everglades.

I did like how it turned out, but the color wasn’t really working in my dollhouse, so I decided to give it a different look.

I had a small Union Jack stencil in my stash, it was one of those freebies that you sometimes get when you order something larger online.  In this case it was a stencil from Maison de Stencils (I believe they have since gone out of business).

I’d only used it once, and that was to create a patch for one of the pillows on my patio dining set.

The stencil turned out to be the perfect size for the front of the credenza.

I started with sanding the credenza with one of the Dixie Belle Sanding Sponges.  These sponges are 220 grit and I’m finding that they are perfect for working with miniatures.

After wiping away the dust, I gave the piece a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road on the top, back and sides, and then I painted the door/drawer fronts in their Drop Cloth.

I then applied the full stencil using a custom mix of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.

Once the Dried Sage was dry, I went back over just the triangle sections of the design with Gravel Road.

I then sanded very lightly to distress the edges.  I didn’t want to see any of that Everglades green poking through, so I used a very light hand and that 220 grit sanding sponge.  Next I applied clear wax over everything and then used a small brush to add some of the Dixie Dirt in Earth to add some dimension and age.

Finally, I did go back with the Dixie Belle Gold Gilding Wax to add some ‘feet’.

By the way, while I had that Gold wax out, I also gave a mirror a new look.

That is the mirror that was originally in the 2nd floor hallway of my dollhouse.  I thought I had taken a good ‘before’ photo of it, but this is the only one I could dig up.

It’s rather difficult to see, but it originally had a dark, shiny ‘mahogany’ sort of finish on the frame.

All I did was apply the Gilding Wax right over that finish using a q tip.  I did two coats to get a fairly opaque look.

I let it dry (or harden?) for a day or two, then I gave it a quick buff with an old t-shirt and hung it back on the wall in that same spot.

Although, of course, as I shared back in January, that hallway is now wallpapered in book pages.

As for the union jack credenza, I’ll be putting that in the attic rec room.  Be sure to stay tuned for the full reveal of that space coming soon.

Earlier this week Mr. Q and I drove out to Savage, MN to visit Miniature Crush.

If you’ve been following along on my dollhouse renovation project, you may know that I found them on Etsy.  I initially ordered a couple of things from them through Etsy, but then I searched out their website and started ordering from them directly.

I’ve gotten quite a few things from them since, including this armoire …

and this bench …

and this pair of chairs …

and this hallway table.

I should point out that I painted all of those items myself, they didn’t arrive looking like that.

Anyway, a few weeks back the owners of Miniature Crush reached out to me.  They had seen my blog posts and knew that I was local (well, just across the other side of the Twin Cities from them anyway).  They invited me to come out and tour their facility.

They don’t have a brick and mortar shop that is open to the public, but I thought it would be fun to check out their set up.

They are very much a family run business, and they started out working out of their basement and selling online in 2018.  Over time the miniatures were taking over though, so now they rent space in an office complex to house their inventory of over 5,000 miniature items.

Hey look, here’s that armoire that I purchased …

Please excuse my poor quality photo, I haven’t got skills for taking good pics in fluorescent lighting.

They get their inventory from a wide variety of sources.  They carry quite a few items made by individual artisans like Warren Richardson who creates these spectacular chandeliers using Swarovski crystals.

I think my favorite items were the Sir Thomas Thumb pieces like this scoop.

They are so realistic looking!  Although I didn’t bring any of these home with me, I think I’m going to pop back onto the Miniature Crush website and order some.

They also have all kinds of the building supplies necessary for dollhouse making, such as these trim pieces from their ‘lumber yard’.

And they had quite a few shelves full of wallpaper.

Plus lots of options for flooring.

Of course, I did find a few things that I had to bring home with me.

I’m not even sure where I’m going to put this cupboard, let alone what colors I will use to paint it.

But I thought it was so sweet, I just had to have it.

I also purchased a set of books.

Because, you know, you can never have too many books.

I brought home this ceiling medallion and plan to use it in the dollhouse living room.  I’m not sure yet if I’ll leave it white, or paint it gold.

I’m told that the center of it is the perfect size for holding one of the magnets that many of the battery operated dollhouse lights use.  So I’m going to be on the hunt for the perfect light fixture to affix to it.

I’m looking forward to doing something fun to this door.

I don’t particularly have a spot for it, but Miniature Crush kindly gifted it to me when I mentioned that it would be perfect with some sort of transfer on the ‘glass’ (it’s actually really plexiglass).

They also gifted me with a little gold frame, and I’ve already filled it with a simple botanical image that I also brought home from Miniature Crush.

I just mounted the print on a piece of scrapbook paper that I cut to fit the frame.

The botanical print is from a box called Notes on Nature that contains 100 little cardstock prints.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with the other 99 prints, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

It was very interesting to learn more about Miniature Crush and to see their warehouse.  And I’ve already placed my next order (including that adorable Sir Thomas Thumb scoop) with them online.  I should point out that they make it their mission to ship most orders within 24 hours of receiving them, so I bet my stuff will arrive early next week!

Mother Nature played a cruel joke on me this week.  After spending 9 days in the warm sunshine at my Mom’s house in Las Vegas, I returned home to this …

Very funny Mother Nature. Ha, ha.

Luckily, as you can see, I still have my winter decorations up outside.  To be honest, that’s mainly because they were still frozen in place when I left for my Mom’s.

I’m also very fortunate to have two hard workers to clear the snow away.

That’s Mr. Q and my neighbor/handyman Ken, although you wouldn’t be able to pick them out of a lineup.  And yes, I know it’s crazy, but even at 87 years old, Ken still comes over and snowblows our driveway for us.  We’ve tried to take over, but I think he really likes to feel useful.

But, no worries, it’s supposed to be nearly 60° by next Monday.  So spring really is just around the corner.  In the meantime, this just gives me more time to work on my dollhouse project.

One thing I’ve noticed while surfing Etsy is that the U.K. has some amazing miniatures.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something on Etsy and thought “I must have it!”, only to look at where it ships from and find the United Kingdom listed.

Not that I’m opposed to buying from the U.K., but most of the time the shipping cost exceeds the actual cost of the item.  Plus, it takes quite a long time to receive items from other countries and as we’ve already established I am not a very patient buyer.

So the item has to be one that I really, really want, and can’t find anywhere closer to home.

Such was the case with the miniature ‘oil painting’ (it’s not a real painting) that I purchased from Artistique via Etsy.

That’s a miniature of Constable’s painting called The Wheat Field, and I just fell in love with it.

It was $32.90 with shipping, so a bit on the pricier end, but I absolutely would buy it again, even though it took weeks to arrive.

Once I had it, I decided I needed to add an artist’s studio area to the attic space in my dollhouse.  And that meant I needed a few more things starting with that adorable easel.

I ordered that from Marquis Miniatures (also on Etsy) along with the blank canvases.

Isn’t the detail on those precious?

The little stool is a piece that I found while out shopping at a 2nd hand store near me.

I had been admiring some stools online that were fairly pricey, but I found this for only $5.  A bargain!

I also ordered a few miniature art supplies from Miniature Crush.

The paint box is from them, but I doctored it up a bit.

I painted the outside of the box in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and then I added that round label to the inner lid.  That label is from a slightly ancient set of labels from 7 Gypsies, and they are no longer in business.

I also purchased another art box set from Miniature Crush that came with loose paints and a couple of brushes.  You can see the brushes in that blue ball jar on the easel (the jar was from Woodland Trail Whimsy also on Etsy, you’ve seen more of them in my dollhouse kitchen), and I’ve scattered the loose paint tubes on the floor.

Ultimately I’ll be setting up a little corner of the very large attic space in my dollhouse as the artist’s studio.

But I still have a bit to do in that space, so you’ll have to stay tuned for a final reveal of the attic!

In the meantime, what do you think of the artist’s studio?  Leave a comment and let me know.

I shared my mini Welsh cupboards a couple of weeks ago (there’s only one left, so act quickly if you want it), and today I’ve got the dining room sets that I promised would be forthcoming.

I ordered three of these dining sets from Hobby Lobby.

They are unfinished, and they come with cushioned chair seats that can be glued in place once you’ve added a finish to the chair.

This is the same dining set that I have in my dollhouse, and I decided to paint this first set in a similar fashion to my own.

The chairs and table base are painted in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, the table top and chair cushions have a wash of Drop Cloth ( approx. 2 parts water to 1 part paint), with grain sack stripes in Dried Sage and a re.design with prima knob transfer over that on the cushions (for more detail on how I did those chair stripes, check out my original post here).

I still love this look.

But I have to admit the next set has surpassed it as my favorite.

For this set I gave the chairs, seat cushions and table base a wash using Dixie Belle’s Burlap mixed with equal parts water and paint.

I gave the table top a slightly more transparent wash using about 3 parts water to 1 part paint so that the wood grain would show through a bit.

Then I used just a small section from the bottom of one of the I.O.D. Ephemeral Type stamps and very gently stamped it onto the chair seats using VersaFine Clair ink in a color called Pinecone (I found my ink at Hobby Lobby).

I had to practice that a couple of times on a spare cushion first.  If I pressed too hard the image would smudge.  But once I had my technique down, it was fairly easy to stamp the chair seats.  Also, keep in mind I am stamping these before gluing the seat cushions onto the chair.  So they were laying flat on the workbench.

Speaking of which, here is your q tip for today, clothes pins make awesome ‘clamps’ for gluing miniature items.

In this case I placed a piece of cardstock between the cushion and the clothes pins to keep the cushions from denting.

I did seriously consider swapping out the dining set in my own dollhouse for this one, but ultimately decided that the one I have works better with my Gravel Road sideboard.

That being said, I had to have one of these chairs for myself so after perfecting my stamping technique (which involved painting over the seat with solid paint rather than a wash a couple of times and re-stamping it), I’m keeping that spare chair.

I went a bit shabby chic with the third dining set.

For this one I started with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean so that I’d have something to distress back to.  Then I added two coats of Drop Cloth to the table base and chairs, and a Drop Cloth wash to the table top and seat cushions.  Then I used 220 grit sandpaper to lightly sand the edges to bring out that dark underlayer.

Next I applied some more re.design with prima knob transfers to the seats.

I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over everything including the chair cushions to add a little protection.

Much like with the Welsh cupboards, I will be listing these dining sets on my ‘available for local sale‘ page (but they can be shipped to non-local buyers in the lower 48 states!).

So we have Dining Set no. 1 (Dried Sage with grain sack striped seats):

Dining Set no. 2 (Burlap with stamped seats):

and Dining set no. 3 (Drop Cloth with floral seats):

They are $60 each, including shipping to the lower 48 states (or $50 without shipping).  For now I can only accept Venmo or PayPal as a form of payment for shipped items.  Each dining set comes with the table and four chairs.

I’ll mark them sold on my ‘available for local sale‘ page once they are spoken for (first come, first served).  If interested in purchasing one, please email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com to make further arrangements.

In the meantime, which dining set is your favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know.

The 3rd floor of my dollhouse has three rooms if you count the hallway as a room.  In addition to that U.K. hallway that I shared with you last week, there is a very large rec room on one side and a small-ish attic space on the other, because everybody needs a little storage space, right?

I remember my dad being particularly pleased with how the little attic room turned out.  He loved the newspaper on the walls and the exposed studs.

He also added exposed electrical conduit pipes and boxes leading to the bare bulb that hangs from the ceiling.

Now, you might be wondering, what is that elephant in the room?  That chunk of mechanical looking stuff that is bolted to the floor?

Well, that is the mechanism that makes the ceiling fan in the room below actually work.  Well, it did work anyway.  Now that I have some sort of short in the wiring, it no longer works.  But it did work in the beginning.

My dad was pretty tickled about that ceiling fan too.

But of course we didn’t want to look at those fan workings, so he made a little box to go over them.

I doctored up the box a bit recently using more of those Tim Holtz Curator Snippets that I used on my suitcases.

I thought this attic space would be a good place to stash some of the left over bits and pieces that I have accumulated throughout this project … well, and from farther back in time as well.

For example, I originally purchased a pair of shutters from Hobby Lobby to see if I wanted to use them to replace the missing shutter on the dollhouse I painted back in 2023.  In the end it was easier to have Ken make me a matching shutter rather than replacing all of the shutters with the Hobby Lobby version, so I’ve had a spare pair of shutters lying around since then.

The shutters came unfinished, so I gave them a paint job.

After a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean, I then used my foolproof technique for getting a perfect chippy finish with milk paint … just in miniature.

Basically that just involves applying a little wax in strategic locations, like along the edges, before brushing on your milk paint.  You can do this over a base coat of chalk paint, or over a previously stained finish.  Then apply your milk paint.  In this case, I used the same mix of Sweet Pickins milk paint that I used on my hallway table (approx. 25% Birdie/75% Sweetwater).  I applied two coats of the paint and once dry I sanded the shutters with 220 grit sandpaper.

A pair of chippy painted shutters is just the sort of thing you’d find lying around in an attic.

I also painted up a couple of crates for the attic.  I purchased them unfinished from Miniature Crush.

The crates also received a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  This time I followed that up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  After sanding to distress them, I added a couple of re.design with prima knob transfers to the ends.

Then I rolled up a couple of strips of leftover dollhouse wallpaper to tuck into the crates.

From there it was quite easy to fill up the attic.  I added my fiddly suitcases, and put my painting supplies in one of them.

My ladder is tucked away back behind my dress form.

I’ve also stashed my Shiny Brite boxes in the attic for now.

I’m leaving some space in the back for a cast off piece of furniture, and possibly a Christmas tree down the road.

But for now I’m calling the attic ‘done’.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Well, as it turns out, I may not be all that good at working with fiddly things after all.

I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to make my own stack of luggage to use as a bedside table in the main bedroom of my dollhouse.  I found an excellent tutorial video by Julie Warren on YouTube, and she makes it look so easy!

Her bases and lids ‘fit perfectly together’ (her words) … LOL.  Mine?  Not so much.

Wow!  Those are even a bit more embarrassing in a close up photo than I thought they were in real life.

I’m not going to try and recreate a miniature suitcase tutorial for you here since Julie has done such a great job in her video (and mine look kinda terrible so far).  If you want to try and make your own suitcases, please go check that out.

I gathered up my supplies and started cutting my pieces of Basswood based on the measurements in Julie’s video.  That’s when I ran into my first problem.  Measuring precisely to 14.5 mm is pretty tricky when you have the eyesight of a 61 year old.

So my cut pieces were a bit wonky, which means my bases and lids did not ‘fit perfectly together’.  But I used a little bit of Dixie Belle Mud in white to smooth out those flaws a bit.

And I kept going.  I next gave my pieces a coat of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy, then I measured a wide stripe down the middle and painted that in Dried Sage.

Once dry I sanded them lightly and then glued the leather strapping in place on either side of the Dried Sage and along the edges.  I think the leather strapping that I used was too thick.  I ordered it from Amazon and you just never know how something you order online is going to look in real life.

As it turned out, the strapping did hide a lot of the imperfections in my boxes though.  Especially where the sides met up with the top and bottom (or in my case, didn’t quite always meet up).

Next I pulled out the Tim Holtz pack of Curator Snippets.

These little bits and pieces are perfect for working with miniatures!  I picked out a few that I thought would look good on my suitcases, but before gluing them in place I ‘stained’ the edges of the paper with some of the Tim Holtz Distress ink in a color called Old Paper.

That just helped give them a bit more age.

Once they were in place, I simply used my finger to apply some clear wax to the painted areas of the suitcases followed by using a small brush to add some of the Dixie Belle Earth pigment along the leather strapping for even more dimension.

In her video, Julie makes handles for her suitcases using the leather strapping.  I tried that on the larger case, but didn’t really love the results.  Then I remembered that my dad had left a bunch of extra window handles in his toolkit.  So I pulled one of those out to see if it would work as a suitcase handle.

I like that a bit better so I think I’ll pull the leather handle off the first one and replace it as well.

Lastly, I lined the larger suitcase with some of the Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper Scraps.

I’ll be honest, I found that process a little bit putzy so I only did the larger of the two suitcases.  Since I was planning to use these as bedside ‘tables’ it didn’t seem worth the effort to also do the smaller one since they would remain closed.

However, once I put the suitcases in place beside the bed I realized that they were just a bit on the small side for my purpose.  So I’m now thinking they are simply going to end up in the attic.

That’s a sneak peek at that space.  I’ll be sharing it soon, so stay tuned for that.

Even though my suitcases didn’t turn out perfectly, it was fun to try a new skill.  Perhaps I’ll give it another go to see if I can perfect my technique a bit more.

In the meantime, what do you think?  Have you created any miniatures from scratch?  If you have any tips be sure to share them in the comments.

So you love miniatures, but you don’t actually have a dollhouse.  No problem.  There are lots of options for displaying miniature items that don’t involve having an elaborate dollhouse.

Of course, the simplest option is to just display your mini’s on a shelf.

I have several pieces of miniature furniture on the bookshelves in our living room.  Granted these aren’t 1:12 scale, but it’s the same general idea.

Another super simple option would be to create a mini vignette under a cloche.

You’ll possibly remember my clock cloche.  I usually switch up the contents for the season or current holiday.  But it’s also perfect for displaying a miniature scene.

Can I mention that sweet little bench for a moment?  I purchased it unfinished from Miniature Crush.

I chose it specifically because the back was the perfect size for that image from the Roycycled Label Masterboard decoupage paper.  I just loved the look of that blue and white label.  So, I painted the bench with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean, then went over that with a couple of coats of Drop Cloth.  Then I used Mod Podge to decoupage that label onto the back of the bench.

Once that was dry, I sanded the edges to distress the piece and then gave everything a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.  I followed that up by adding a little bit of their Dixie Belle Dirt in Ash to the corners here and there to add a bit of dimension and age.  You can see that rather well in that close up photo, but in real life it’s a little more subtle.  After all, this bench is only just over 4″ wide.

I had initially planned to put this bench in the 2nd floor hallway of my dollhouse, but in the end it didn’t work out for that spot.  After testing it out in a bunch of other rooms as well, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have a good spot for it.  So I’ve listed it on my ‘available for local sale‘ page (although shipping to the lower 48 is also an option for this one).  So if any of you are interested, be sure to check that out.

OK, back to ideas for displaying miniatures without a dollhouse.

Another option is to create a unique shadowbox like my clock case.

Once I gutted the clock parts out of that case and had my handman/neighbor Ken add a little shelf, it was perfect for a couple of mini room vignettes.

I just added some dollhouse wallpaper to the back and then furnished both spaces.

My friend Meggan recently shared a miniature scene inside a lantern with me on Instagram, and if you search online there are lots of examples of lanterns with mini vignettes inside.

But you don’t have to have a cool old vintage clock case or a suitable lantern, you can also create shadow box style rooms in any sort of small cupboard.  I could see doing that with this little cupboard for example.

It has just enough space for a couple of miniature room vignettes.

Or you could devote a shelf or two in your hutch to becoming miniature rooms.

Simple shadow box rooms are all the rage right now too.  You can use just a basic shadow box kit from your local hobby store.  Or you could create something like the primitive dollhouse that I picked up at a garage sale.

You know, back in the 17th century miniaturists were housing their miniatures in cabinets, like that amazing apothecary cabinet I saw at the Rijksmuseum.

And then there is the famous ‘cabinet house’ of Petronella Oortman (also at the Rijksmuseum).

We don’t have to get quite that extravagant, but if you break it down, that’s just a bookcase with glass doors on the front.  Add a couple of vertical dividers here and there and voilà, you’d have a cabinet house.

Head out to Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and just look for a cast off bookcase of some kind.  This one would have made a fabulous cabinet house after removing that fretwork from the doors …

Another clever idea that I’ve seen online is to create a little scene in a small case.  So the other day when I was out thrifting with opK, I picked up this little set of 3 nesting ‘suitcases’.

I decided to see what I could do to create a quick miniature scene inside one of them.

I added some bookpaper to the back to serve as wallpaper, and then glued a barn style sliding door in place.  It doesn’t really open, but that’s OK.

I added another printed rug and then ‘furnished’ the room with a roll top desk that I just picked up at a 2nd hand shop.

That’s just a very basic example, most of these sorts of things that I see online are much more detailed than mine.  So the sky’s the limit if you want to keep adding more and more to your scene.

If you have any fun ideas for creating a miniature vignette, leave a comment and let us know.

In the meantime, as I mentioned on Friday, I’m off visiting with my mom this week so I may not respond to comments right away.  But hang tight, I’ll be sharing some more miniatures for sale when I get back as well as the miniature artist’s studio that I’m adding to the attic space of my dollhouse.  I’ve also been invited to tour Miniature Crush’s facility in Savage, MN in a couple of weeks so I plan to share that soon as well.

So be sure to stay tuned!