Blog post 6 – The Pierce part 1

I decided to take a look back to where it all started – no, not that far back…..back to where I started miniatures as an adult.  

2014, My daughter Caitlin and I made a couple of miniature rooms each and while she was ‘meh’ I was ‘yeah’! 

I then decided I needed to try my hand at a proper 1:12 scale dollhouse.  I ummed and ahhed over the Pierce or the Beacon Hill kits – apart from the Garfield these were the two biggest houses available by Greenleaf.  I don’t know why I thought bigger was better….if only I’d started with something simple.  I spent time perusing Ebay – fortunately this was back when postage costs were so much more reasonable.  I found a new Greenleaf Pierce kit that would ship for a relatively cheap price (especially compared to today’s standard pricing) to New Zealand and that was my Christmas present!

After the hustle and bustle of Christmas was over, I set myself up on the dining table and started work.  Here in the Southern hemisphere we have a summer Christmas and this period of time is also the major summer school holidays.  So we had a month or more of relaxing time and I made serious headway on the kit.

I tried to follow instructions however I’m much more a pictures type gal and written instructions really confuse me.  I signed up to the Greenleaf community as soon as I’d ordered the kit and joined the ranks of innocuous newbies asking the same rudimentary questions of the exceedingly patient and supportive members.

I purchased 2 doll kits from minidollkits.com.  I painted, assembled, wigged and attempted to dress Norm and Val and they became the owners of the Pierce.  Both retired – Norm a retired historian (from St Mary’s if you’ve ever read Jodi Taylor’s books) and Val an artist.  Norm was attracted to Val way back in their college days as she was so colourful and outgoing – his opposite!  They ended up with their grandchildren living with them, Eliza and Paul.  To this day I’m still not quite sure why – it’s something they just don’t talk about.  While building their house my daughter and I loved to see the family shenanigans they all got up to.  Especially when garden gnomes joined the household.  Historians are not quite as stuffy as you would think!

It was after this that we decided the gnomes had to go…..

In those first few months of dollhouse building bliss, I tried many new (to me) techniques.  I used strips cut from leftover slices of veneer that I had purchased from a local auction site, stuck onto card and varnished as the flooring.  They came up beautifully.  For the entryway, I created tiles from polymer clay on which I transferred patterns.  I was really pleased with how they turned out.

I had decided that working lights were a must so I watched tutorials and asked questions of those exceptionally tolerant and good-natured GL forum members.  I cut channels in floors, mounted ‘power points’ and made my own lighting. 

I used old wallpaper sample books to decorate walls – all the time remembering whose house it is and trying to consider their taste.  Regretfully I used balsa to make wall panelling, I know now that its just too soft a wood to use for most dollhouse requirements.

I decorated the fireplace that came with the kit for the master bedroom and made a whole new fireplace for the downstairs lounge out of an old picture frame.  I painted the faux marble mantel.

I also made my own kitchen and generally speaking I’m still quite happy with that!  The flooring was a vinyl tile I cut and grouted to look like slate.  All the drawers and cupboards open and I made backsplash tiles out of polymer clay.  It was a lot of fun trying different patterns and colours.  I also set it out quite differently, building the bench top into the bay window to make the most of the space.  My aim was to build a period property that had been renovated and updated sympathetically. 

Enjoy looking through these pics of my first every 1:12 dollhouse!!  I’ll talk about making Norm’s study, the bathroom and bedroom in my next post.  Thanks for reading!!