My Dollhouse Collection and Studio

 

One of the constant questions dollhouse collectors ask each other is "How do you display your dollhouses?"  I'm lucky to have a large, open, and airy loft upstairs that makes the perfect dollhouse room.  Right now, I have 14 dollhouses in here with lots of space to add more.  I've arranged the houses on tables to create small streets and groupings of houses that just seem to naturally go together.   To make landscaping easier, I've covered the tables with noch grass so I can move houses around and change the landscaping on a whim.  I'm way behind on getting the landscaping done, but there's always another day and the minis will wait for me.  They're patient that way.

The thing I love most about this arrangement is that I can use a rolling desk chair to scoot around the room with ease while I play with my houses.  Frankie and Deano like being around the houses too so they have big sleeping pillows on the floor where they can nap.  The room is sunny but I use a UV blocking sheer curtain on the window to protect the houses without losing the beautiful, natural light.

 

From this angle you can see the two main streets.  On the front table, from left to right, are the Willowfaire Social Salon (Willowcrest), the French Cafe (Storybook Cottage), and the Librarian's Cottage, aka: the crazy cat lady (Haunted House kit).  Under the table is the museum (RGT conservatory).  I keep that one on the floor because Frankie insists on using the top for the occasional cat nap.  He and I have reached a compromise....if I let him sleep on the museum, he stays off the other houses. 

Behind the Victorian Street is Magick Street where my witch lives in the Pierce, the wizard lives in the Glencroft, and on the end is my great-grandmother Sarah Ann's Wise Ways Emporium. 

 

On this side of the room there's the Samurai's Summer House (Coventry Cottage), the Emerald Fairy House (Aster), the Ghost Town Stage Stop (Adams), the Grim Reaper's Party Boat (Houseboat kit), and Dr. Robertson's Steampunk Observatory (Loganberry Mill).  The white house under the table in the corner is my White Orchid still wrapped in plastic.  It'll stay that way until I can have a lucite case built for it.  The desert dust wouldn't be kind to all the white textures and the dozens of clear crystals that make up the yard.  Oh, and the big stuffed kitty is Malcom. 

 

In the corner between Victorian Street and Magick Street is where the Love Shack lives.  I exercise my sense of whimsy in this room so there's an LED willow tree beside it filled with jewel-bright hummingbirds, dragonflies, and little birds. 

 

 

Tucked into the back corner behind Magick Street is the half scale Lighthouse which gleams it's little light to help my magic folk find their way home.  As a side note, the art quilts on the walls are also my work.

 

When we moved from Denver, I took the Samurai's Summer House off it's landscaped base to pack it and intended on putting it back, but then I found this treasure of a bamboo table at a yard sale and it just looks so stunning like this that I've decided to leave it as it is. 

 

 

 

My studio and sewing room

The second most common question dollhouse builders ask one another is "What is your workspace like?"   So here's my picture answer.  I have two rooms that are directly across the hall from one another.  The room on the left is my building studio and the one on the right is my textile studio/sewing room.  They're just around the corner from the dollhouse loft so I can roll my desk chair around from room to room and either work or play at ease! 

This is my main work space with a long table and work bench.  We live on the very outer edge of town so I have a gorgeous view of the desert and the mountains from here. 

 

Stash storage is of utmost importance and I love having space for open shelves so I can see what I need without having to shuffle or dig

 

I love my workbench!  It has a built in light and power strip so I can keep all my construction tools and power tools in one place.  Everything I need for the heavy work is right here at my fingertips.


 

There's space for some storage cabinets beside the table.  The house in dry fit is the Tennyson....and it's been fully furnished before I even started on the house.  As of this writing, the house is on my worktable and about half done.  Oh, and the picture is of my race car.  Racing is another of my passions, although it's been a long time since I was able to go to the track.  I keep the picture and my jacket on the wall as a reminder of very fond memories.

 

And then there's the big closet where I can store all my kits that are waiting to be built.  The target on the wall reflects yet another hobby.  I like guns and brought home one of my targets just for fun. 

 

If you have cats, you understand this picture.  The boys like to sit in the window watching the lizards and birds outside when I'm working but sometimes I'll look up and find one of them (usually Frankie) demanding that I stop petting the wood and pay some attention to the cats.

 

 

Across the hall is my sewing room.  I use lots of shelves and drawers for my stashes of fabric, beads, embellishments, ribbons, dyes, and trims. 

 

This room also faces the mountains and is flooded with beautiful sunlight in the morning.  I love spending time in here!

 

The table over here holds my baby Janome sewing machine which is perfect for sewing miniature things. 

 

On this wall I have a small work table for dressing beds and furniture.

 

There's a nice, big closet in this room too.  I put up trompe l'oeil curtains of french doors leading into a pretty garden that give the room a very open and airy look. 

So that's where my dollhouses are displayed and where I spend my creative time, either sewing or building.  It's a happy place!

 

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