17 Apr 2013

Drawings and Floor Layout

I'm pretty sure I've been making plans for this house for 2 years now.  I have sketch books filled with floor-plans and exterior renderings with ever changing layouts and rooms.  I have to say designing a plan from scratch has been very difficult, I'm no architect.  With every plan I came up with I had a problem.  Two floors didn't offer enough room, a 360 house only offered views into the interior walls (no looking out the windows from the inside unless the house was a huge "L" shape) and the bigger I went the heavier it would be.

Finally this past December I visited one of my favourite shops, The Little Dollhouse Company in Toronto and figured out a plan.  I had seen their large Italianate house but never knew it split down the middle! Problem solved!

However, my next obstacle of building a dollhouse from scratch was that I could customize it, and customize it, and customize it, until I never actual got to building because I was always changing things around. Suddenly I needed another cabinet in the kitchen? Well lets move out the wall another inch...

I think I've finally made some concrete plans. I did decide to make the kitchen bigger to accommodate the change in the second floor layout :)  You can see the faint line in the kitchen.  This means that of the foamboard mock up house I've presented here in my last post I will need to extend the back right side out.

The only thing left to plan is the exterior. I know I want a modern dollhouse, but I'm not too sure how contemporary I'd like to go. For example, the Modern Classic;



Or the Contemporary; which features lots of added lines and components.



Both images are essentially the same with three stories of windows for the stairway and the door to the left. It's just the composition of windows and architectural elements.  Which way to go?


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15 Apr 2013

House vs Studio

Well the house has finally graduated from sketchbook and cardboard to foam board. Sitting at 30in x 40in and a height of 27in it has caused me a great deal of thoughtful planning and re-organizing of my studio. I had to stop working on minis and get my real-life space organized in order to fit everything in.


The house has three floors right now, and is split into two parts into front and the back, with the dining room being at the front (the centre divider wall is not shown inserted, so you can see right through into all the rooms for now).  The large space at the front middle will be the staircase which will go up three floors, and the entrance to the house will be on the bottom floor far left.



The house splits down the middle so that I am able to photograph from both sides, and making it easier to move around. You can kind of see it in the below photograph. I still need to make two bases on wheels to move around the halves.  This is where the divider wall will go.




I shopped on Ebay for the first time, I have no idea why it has taken me so long!  Regardless I bought some minis over the Easter weekend and some arrived today. I was most excited about these pillows by Gloiberry. I love the variety.



Don't you just want to jump around in them or take a nap in the pile?

I got to thinking how global my minis have become, this is going to be one well traveled house! Below is an image from the kitchen with only the Elf oven and the lines describing where cabinets will go. I'm really liking the modern industrial feel.

Have you been following the houses for the Kaleidoscope Ball, to benefit the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA? From the amazing landscape to the custom furniture I can't wait to see the final works all set up and displayed! Check out a great article in the LA times here.

Thanks for stopping by!
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