Ty Bach Twt - Tidy Little House (in which, I cheat horribly)

 

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 house Dilemmas you tube channel. This method gives a nice aged appearance to the decor especially once you top coat it with antique finish modge podge which tones down the colours and blends everything together. Napkins are far cheaper than replica wallpaper and more forgiving if you make any mistakes. They do tend to wrinkle a bit but I think this adds to the charm - I didn't want perfect decor for this project.








Although iit is nowhere near as lovely as the real one, Ty Bach Twt soothes me for now - until I am rich enough to buy a real antique house and furnish it with antique things. This was a fun project which resulted in a really lovely little house which I think will remain in my collection. I learned some skills during this experiment which will help me maintain an aged appearance when restoring older houses.

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