Monday, April 17, 2017

A Little Boy's Fantasy

Progress on the Bellingham farmhouse continues slowly. Sometimes I get overwhelmed at the amount of work that I have to do, but I keep telling myself to take my time and be patient. I also had another project that I had been working on. I finished Nathan's birthday gift that I shared with you last time. Would you like to see the finished room?  I thought you would.



I began with wallpapering the walls, installing the floor and the baseboards. I used flooring purchased from Hobby Lobby. It comes in a sheet; all it needs is staining. Using a light that I had ruined--shorted it out--, I rebuilt it by adding a  battery operated LED chip light that casts a very yellow, shadowy type light. 

I wanted art work, so I found posters on the web, printed them out 1:12 on photographic paper for a nice glossy look. Nathan loves Star Wars, so I chose a poster of the original cast, one that his mother could relate to. The other poster has the character from How to Train A Dragon since the main character in the room would be the dragon who comes to visit  from the little boy's fantasies. 


I purchased the StarWars space ship and dug through my stash for the other pieces. The glove came from the jewelry making aisle at Hobby Lobby. The TV is handmade by some one that I purchased on one of my thrifting excursions. I never really knew what I would do with it, but I think I found a good home for it.


I wanted the room to reflect Nathan's young life as a seven year old by trying to include things that he likes. 


He always has his iPad. I found an image online that I sized and printed on glossy photograph paper. I had wanted to find an image of his favorite game, but couldn't. His mother bought the doll. Little boy dolls are so hard to find. This is a Mattel doll in the Barbie collection. He was perfect. Sitting next to him is his teddy bear, armed with his base ball bat. You can see that the little boy has been reading King Arthur. 

The Wizard came from a castle that I have for the kids to play with here; he was a duplicate. Batman came from a thrift store; he is wielding a sword that I found in Hobby Lobby in the jewelry department. The detail in this photo is hard to see because I took it with the ceiling light turned on.

He loved it, but I think his mother liked it more.


Like many miniaturists and dollhouse builders, when I hear that there is a dollhouse for sale in some store, I have to go check it out, so when someone told me about this house in a consignment store, I drug my husband to go see it. I promised him that I would not buy it. Sight unseen.


It is a nineteenth century dollhouse, priced at $10, 114.97, according to an appraisal.  It was, of course, out of my budget. Even the store clerk was doubtful that it would sell and that it would probably be donated to the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls, and Bears.





The house comes fully furnished. Indeed this is an unusual piece, museum quality and out of my reach.

I have more to share with you, so give me some time and I'll be back.  Thanks for visiting. 



1 comment:

  1. Nathan's birthday gift looks wonderful, perfect with details like posters and maps!
    I had to read the price of the nineteenth century dollhouse for several times. Hmm, it is valuable. :) I hope it will find a place, perhaps in a museum. A Museum of Miniatures, Dolls, and Bears must be a wonderful place. <3

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