Month: January 2017

1/12 Scale Dollhouse Wood Plank Flooring

I’ve been installing wood flooring in my Bellingham farmhouse kitchen. I’ve been using 3/8 ” wide craft sticks, a.k.a. popsicle sticks, which are equivalent to 4.5″ wide planks in real life. That seems about right, although I really don’t know. Our own house, which was built around 1930 has wood flooring with 2.25″ wide planks, but that seems more modern to me than this dollhouse, which is an architectural style that is at least 40 years prior to that.

I started by sawing the ends of all the craft sticks off with a small Exacto miter box saw. This takes longer than you’d think. Then I made a paper template of the kitchen floor. Some of the sticks I kept at whole length and some I sawed in half. This caused the planks to be staggered. Then I laid them on the paper with double-sided tape. At the end of each row, I cut the last stick to the proper length. After I got a bunch of the pattern laid out, I stained the whole thing with Minwax stain and polyeurethane in oak color. It’s what I had, but if I did it again, I’d go darker. Maybe I will in the living room later.

When it was dry, I removed each stick from the paper, and glued it to the floor in the same layout. I used wood glue, but I think maybe rubber cement or hobetac would have been better, because then there would have been some flexibility as everything dried completely. You can see in the picture that a few boards warped a little when they dried. I guess it gives it a very rustic, realistic look.

Here is part of the finished floor:

Mini wood flooring Wood Plank Flooring

I think it’s turning out pretty well. Can’t wait to get it finished, so I can move all my kitchen cupboards back in. I spent way too much on this set, but I just had to have it. It is very realistic with doors that open. I just love that. I spray painted the fridge to look like stainless steel. It was wood when it came, and I thought: “Who has a wooden refrigerator?” That had to be fixed. I don’t really like the stovetop either, so I’ll probably change that up to make it look like a gas stovetop. My mini people have to cook with gas!

Dollhouse oak kitchen set

Before I can move everything back in, I have to finish the tin tile ceiling (post to come on that later), and get all the trim up.

Miniature BBQ grill in 1/12 scale

Hello fellow miniature enthusiasts:

This is my first official blog post.

*Disclaimer: If you happen to comment, please know that I am notoriously bad at checking email or voicemail, so don’t take it personally if I take many weeks to respond. Know that I do appreciate your participation though.

For several years now I’ve been planning in my mind to make a realistic Weber-style charcoal grill for my dollhouse. I can just see it sitting on the front porch with a tiny bag of charcoal briquettes next to it. It started when I got a 2″ plastic toy capsule from a vending machine. In my mind’s eye, I saw a mini BBQ grill right away. When I measured it, and then our own human-sized grill in the backyard, I was delighted to find that the scale was nearly perfect. Then the capsules sat in my closet for about 14 years. Fast forward to the summer of 2016.

The first challenge was removing the ridge from the bottom of the toy capsule. Otherwise the top and bottom of the grill would be snapped together, which I didn’t want. I wanted the top to be easily removed from the base. Since the capsule is rigid plastic, most attempts to cut it would result in cracking it. I ended up having a friend use a hot wire to cut through it. Possibly a very fine saw may work, but I didn’t try it. I may have to if I want to make another one, as I don’t want to invest in a hot wire. I also wonder if there aren’t other types of plastic capsules that would be a bit more flexible, and thereby easier to cut. This is another thing I want to research.

I know that you would like to see pictures of all the steps of my process, but unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures until the end. This is the best I can do with pictures, so I apologize, because am not great at taking pictures, although I am getting better.

Mini BBQ Grill Mini BBQ GrillGrill Grates

As you can see from the picture of the grates, my soldering skills could use some improvement. Hey, did you know that not all metals can be soldered together? I do now. Bending the wire into the correct shape also proved tricky. I spray painted the toy capsule black, which took a few coats, but looked great when done. The top had some embossed letters in the plastic, which I removed with an emory board prior to painting.  I couldn’t find a suitable wooden disk for the wheels, so I made them out of polymer clay. I also made the charcoal out of clay. Then I glued the teeney briquettes together into a pile and used an artists brush to paint the edges white, and red in the center, to make them appear to be hot and glowing.

If I make another mini grill in the future, I will remember to take pictures of the process – promise!