Hobbies 237 special - tudor style dollshouse

This one was in a sorry old state when we got it. The lady who sold it was reluctant to let it go as it had been her mother's but she knew she would never find the time to restore it. Hobbies houses were sold in kit form - a bit of research and I found the image below.

Inside wasn't pretty but miraculously we found all the missing windows stored in the vintage 1980s tin.

The previous owners had stipped most of the paper, presumably with a chisel for the walls were gouged in places. The stairs were missing. The hallway of these houses is very narrow, so narrow I couldn't get my hand in and make a fist, so the only way we could work in the two left hand rooms was to remove the walls. Not so difficult with a small hammer.

It took ages and a great deal of wetting and scraping and weeping to get all the paper off. The house seems to have been made from a packing crate, the big black letters visible once the paper was removed. Since it had so few original features left, I had a free hand to do what I liked with it but as usual I wanted to maintain the exterior. I bought the same brick paper and roofing paper but the black Tudor beams were horribly damaged. Luckily, I have a clever husband who enjoys these projects as much as I do, although he'd never admit it. He spent a long time making new ones, not from cardboard - oh no, that would have been too easy! But from lolly sticks and I have to say, they look much better than cardboard.

I repapered the exterior first and left him to get on with the beams while I tackled the interior decorating. The house was originally a mock Tudor building modelled on houses popular in the 1930/40s. It put me in mind of my grandmother's house so I tried to get that period with a hint of deco.

When I replaced the lower wall, I made the hall a little wider. Replaced the stairs and made bannisters. This house had no opening doorways or a hole to access the upper floor and I didn't want to start carving the place up so I made fake doors.

Some of the wood work was so badly scarred that I papered them with regular wall paper, pasting the patterned side so it was just plain and could be painted. Instead of replacing the whole upper wall that I removed, I put in a short wall so I could install a bathroom. I lost a bedroom but I didn't mind that. The landing can be utilised in interesting ways. It is set up as a study/studio at the moment. I think the man who lives here is single, likes to keep his own company and indulge in abstract art and reading.

I built fireplaces in the two larger rooms, mostly to disguise a join in the wall timber. I was very happy with how they turned out. I haven't been doing this for long but I think they look quite 1930s with triang replica papers. The right hand opening door has a nice window alcove and I lost a lot of brain cells trying to figure out how hide the terrible state of the wood, and to make it tie in with the other rooms. I ran out of paper and had to order more - it still isn't here and the wait has been long and painful!