This Old House - Vintage Dolls House Rescue

  This is the latest house we've saved from the tip and this one was in poor shape so I didn't expect it to turn out very well. Picked up for around £15, it was very dirty and dilapidated, but as you know by now, there's nothing I like more than a challenge. It was stuffed full of plastic furniture with a few bits of Lundby and some rather grubby dolls from the 1960-70s. The first task was to clean it and I was able to remove a layer of wallpaper in the top left bedroom to reveal original Triang wallpaper. Unfortunately, at some point in the house's history,  a child    daubed blue paint all over the downstairs which I was unable to remove. I repapered these rooms but left the old paper underneath. I painted the kitchen a nice near contemporary green and repapered the damage floor with Triang blue tiled paper. The stairs opened directly onto the landing with nowhere to put a bathroom and I had this lovely old wooden bathroom I was dying to use. I really didnt want the b

  This is a house that I yearn for but it is massively out of the reach of my tiny budget. I am not sure of the maker but it is an early one and absolutely gorgeous. So, knowing I can never own one, when I saw a little white house of a similar shape come up for sale on Ebay I had the idea of making a near replica or at least something resembling it. The house I bought was made sometime in the 80s or 90s, I'd guess. It is simple, box-backed house with four small rooms and immense charm but you can see the obvious similarities. The first job was to paint it. The camera has made the colours a bit garish but in reality they are quite muted. I used chalk paint and with some careful mixing I came close as possible to the hue on the original. Then I aged it a black wax and instructed my husband to make some window surrounds similar to the old house. I was really pleased with the result. The interior was easy. I copied a technique of wall papering with napkins and  modge podge from Dolls h

  I didn't have to do much to the exterior of this lovely Hobbies Special 186 as I love it just the way it is. It was a  bit a grubby and has obviously been played with  but it was unspoiled. All I had to do was clean it up a bit and disguise some discolouration on the roof and brick work. Inside was another matter but still didn't require a great deal of refurbishment. The paper in the upper rooms was fine but downstairs seemed to be papered with wrapping paper from the 1990s. The floor is also quite stained but the paper intact so I decided to keep that and hide the worst of it with strategically placed rugs. I didnt like the open plan so decided to divide it into two rooms and add stairs. I played around for  quite a while and eventually opted to created stairs in a cupboard like my nan had in her house and not bother with an opening in the upstairs floor, the inhabitants will have to imagine that. The house came with all the lovely 1940s furniture so I thought I'd make