Ideas for my dollhouse?

[Synistor 303]

Finally got my Steampunk room almost finished. Waiting for lighting to come from the US, so had to shine a torch while I took a photo, so not great lighting effects.

The room is 30cm long. I made almost everything myself, including the floor which I stained, sanded and polished yesterday. The rug is a piece of cotton stuck on paper and printed in the printer. Most of it is recycled bits and pieces - the bookcases were 10cm square little boxes that had some Christmas thing in them. I added shelves and stained/painted them. I bought the little bottles then made the stuff to go in them and printed tiny labels. Had to buy tweezers to manoeuvre things... The big books actually have individually printed pages in them and gilded edges, why, I don't know. The scroll basket was made using embroidery thread and florist wire. The stove (yet to have the flue attached) is made from 2 brass serviette rings.

[von Corax]

Wow. Just, wow.

[Sorontar]

That is lovely. Imagine what it would be like if you managed to put this in a full-size room of the same design.

[Synistor 303]

Thank you  The most expensive bit is the stone walls... I had to buy a carpet cleaner/washer to get that. It was the recycled cardboard packaging in the box that was just perfect for stone walls.

[SeVeNeVeS]

Not sure if you guys are interested or can find a way to view in your Country, there is a new series on UK channel 4 about dolls houses.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-big-tiny-design-challenge

[mizzarrogh]

Absolutly, and thak You anyway, i will see if i manage to get the wiwer to work on my computer, i realy love classic British dollhouses! 

Thank You everyone for all the inspiration here!!
Unfortunatly i hawe to take care of the farm again now in the spring, but i certanly will take some inspiration from all the tips and pictures here!

[mizzarrogh]

Yes, i found out the hard way about the electrical system... ha ha!

I managed to hit my toe on a brick with that i started out the layout with an old Swedish system made by a company called "Lundby" which i think some of You here are familiar with and those where in a lot of little girls rooms in the 70-80s here so there is a lot of miniature armatures around for that system that still fit the 1:12 scale. Most of the furniture is too small for the 1:12 scale, but some, like the very old wooden parts from the early 60s bathroom assessors (which i found a whole box of on a local auction site) will do crossover pretty well. I got some cheap Chinese porcelain dolls to try it out with, but i will probably mildly modify the dolls in the future and make some of my own.

I borrowed some gauge 1 vintage scale American lamps from the model railroad to the dollhouse, i think the lamps are from the 1930s or so but made in the 1922 style, they did came out awesome for the dollhouse!
I found an old vintage bicycle dynamo on my neighbours scrapyard and he kindly gave it to me, so i will see if i have any steamplant model  which are Strong enough to turn it, that had been awesome!

I also bought some new fixtures from thew US and UK sellers, since i genuinely hate fiddling with batteries (However, the new generation batteries are not at all as the old ones i still have bad memories from...) i ordered the cable versions with traditional lightbulbs  since that's what they where fitted with originally, they are 12V, and since the incandescent bulbs have no problem at all with DC feed i could jut pick an old transformer from my box of parts i had lying around. (if one want to add LED's in the future it's easy to add a rectifyer bridge i think, the voltage drop should not be worse than it would still work i think, otherwise i just need to change the transformer into a more modern PSU).

However, the Lundby original transformer is only 4,8V, which means they can not be fed from the 12V system, so i probably have to make a separate line for them from an original transformer i found on a local charity auction. The connectors are different so there should be less risk of mixing them up i hope..-

Not a big deal, but i guess this is one all the things one may run into if one are mixing old and new parts... ha ha

[Synistor 303]

Yes, i found out the hard way about the electrical system... ha ha!

I managed to hit my toe on a brick with that i started out the layout with an old Swedish system made by a company called "Lundby" which i think some of You here are familiar with and those where in a lot of little girls rooms in the 70-80s here so there is a lot of miniature armatures around for that system that still fit the 1:12 scale. Most of the furniture is too small for the 1:12 scale, but some, like the very old wooden parts from the early 60s bathroom assessors (which i found a whole box of on a local auction site) will do crossover pretty well. I got some cheap Chinese porcelain dolls to try it out with, but i will probably mildly modify the dolls in the future and make some of my own.

I borrowed some gauge 1 vintage scale American lamps from the model railroad to the dollhouse, i think the lamps are from the 1930s or so but made in the 1922 style, they did came out awesome for the dollhouse!
I found an old vintage bicycle dynamo on my neighbours scrapyard and he kindly gave it to me, so i will see if i have any steamplant model  which are Strong enough to turn it, that had been awesome!

I also bought some new fixtures from thew US and UK sellers, since i genuinely hate fiddling with batteries (However, the new generation batteries are not at all as the old ones i still have bad memories from...) i ordered the cable versions with traditional lightbulbs  since that's what they where fitted with originally, they are 12V, and since the incandescent bulbs have no problem at all with DC feed i could jut pick an old transformer from my box of parts i had lying around. (if one want to add LED's in the future it's easy to add a rectifyer bridge i think, the voltage drop should not be worse than it would still work i think, otherwise i just need to change the transformer into a more modern PSU).

However, the Lundby original transformer is only 4,8V, which means they can not be fed from the 12V system, so i probably have to make a separate line for them from an original transformer i found on a local charity auction. The connectors are different so there should be less risk of mixing them up i hope..-

Not a big deal, but i guess this is one all the things one may run into if one are mixing old and new parts... ha ha

This was the part that worried me the most - wiring, lighting and electrical stuff. I knew nothing! Did a LOT of research and knew what components I needed then looked on Ebay to see if I could buy it all from China (my local electronics shop was useless - I knew more than the sales-guy and I knew nothing!).

I ended up buying from the US - there is a company there that specialises in electrical stuff for dollhouses, room-boxes, book-nooks and the like. Their stuff looked much better quality and they check each order to ensure that what you are buying will work with all components. Each pack came with instructions on how to wire it together and it was so simple I felt bad for being so worried about wiring things together! (I only needed a 3V system for my Room Box.) I have a soldering iron, but used a shrink-tube (hairdryer-shunk) instead, so it was so easy.

For the next Book-nook I will create more 'moody' lighting... Never realised it would be so much fun.

[Miranda.T]

Finally got my Steampunk room almost finished. Waiting for lighting to come from the US, so had to shine a torch while I took a photo, so not great lighting effects.

The room is 30cm long. I made almost everything myself, including the floor which I stained, sanded and polished yesterday. The rug is a piece of cotton stuck on paper and printed in the printer. Most of it is recycled bits and pieces - the bookcases were 10cm square little boxes that had some Christmas thing in them. I added shelves and stained/painted them. I bought the little bottles then made the stuff to go in them and printed tiny labels. Had to buy tweezers to manoeuvre things... The big books actually have individually printed pages in them and gilded edges, why, I don't know. The scroll basket was made using embroidery thread and florist wire. The stove (yet to have the flue attached) is made from 2 brass serviette rings.

Oh my goodness, that is truly gorgeous  All of its detailing is incredible, but I particularly love the astronomy table. Superb work!

Yours,
Miranda.

[Miranda.T]

Yes, i found out the hard way about the electrical system... ha ha!

I managed to hit my toe on a brick with that i started out the layout with an old Swedish system made by a company called "Lundby" which i think some of You here are familiar with and those where in a lot of little girls rooms in the 70-80s here so there is a lot of miniature armatures around for that system that still fit the 1:12 scale. Most of the furniture is too small for the 1:12 scale, but some, like the very old wooden parts from the early 60s bathroom assessors (which i found a whole box of on a local auction site) will do crossover pretty well. I got some cheap Chinese porcelain dolls to try it out with, but i will probably mildly modify the dolls in the future and make some of my own.

I borrowed some gauge 1 vintage scale American lamps from the model railroad to the dollhouse, i think the lamps are from the 1930s or so but made in the 1922 style, they did came out awesome for the dollhouse!
I found an old vintage bicycle dynamo on my neighbours scrapyard and he kindly gave it to me, so i will see if i have any steamplant model  which are Strong enough to turn it, that had been awesome!

I also bought some new fixtures from thew US and UK sellers, since i genuinely hate fiddling with batteries (However, the new generation batteries are not at all as the old ones i still have bad memories from...) i ordered the cable versions with traditional lightbulbs  since that's what they where fitted with originally, they are 12V, and since the incandescent bulbs have no problem at all with DC feed i could jut pick an old transformer from my box of parts i had lying around. (if one want to add LED's in the future it's easy to add a rectifyer bridge i think, the voltage drop should not be worse than it would still work i think, otherwise i just need to change the transformer into a more modern PSU).

However, the Lundby original transformer is only 4,8V, which means they can not be fed from the 12V system, so i probably have to make a separate line for them from an original transformer i found on a local charity auction. The connectors are different so there should be less risk of mixing them up i hope..-

Not a big deal, but i guess this is one all the things one may run into if one are mixing old and new parts... ha ha

That sounds lovely; I hope you can post up piccys at some point. With the LEDs, you shouldn't need a rectifier to run with a dc supply but you might need to take care with the voltage to them as typically they will be 3 V than rather than 12 V and you'll probably need a resistor to limit the current. For the 4.8 V supply you could run it from the 12 V psu by using a voltage convertor e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Synchronous-Rectifier-Converter-step-down-regulator/dp/B09X58ZYC6/ref=sr_1_103?crid=300VZWDMR0NB5&keywords=12v+to+5v+power+regulator&qid=1649854970&s=industrial&sprefix=12v+to+5v+power+regulat%2Cindustrial%2C1115&sr=1-103

Yours,
Miranda.

[mizzarrogh]

I will send pictures as soon as i got time to order paint and doing a proper final assembly of it.

Thank You guys for all the pictures and other inspiration!!  

At the moment i have loads of cardboard boxes i need to get rid of so i will certainly keep some of them for future projects!


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Electricity in a dollhouse is actually extremely easy, i would rate it grade one, it's just straight forward, and with AC it's even easier since it has no defined polarity, but i will keep the lines separated.
(With DC, the only difference of importance here is obviously to keep track of the polarity of the connection lines, but one can messure that with a simple dry cell battery and a bicycle lamp if one does not have an electric meter for that, it will be more than enough for this purpose)

It's about one minute job to re solder the lightbulb to another value, if one want to switch to LED one also need a barlast resistor for each one of the LED's if they are supplied from a PSU (a battery will in it self act as a barlast), however, that barlast can be placed basically anywhere as long as it is in series with the particular LED.

It's just that i managed to get a batch of those 80s round ceiling mounted connectors for thew old Lunby system since i taught they would look really nice in the dollhouse and i already had the lamps for and i was too lazy to change the bulbs.

I am using 0,8 mm automotive wires for the mains which i will mount on the backside so it hopefully will be hidden bu the lids when it's closed and not being seen from the front, for the branches i will go for 0,5 mm since i already had that automotive wire at home, for the visible parts 0,25 and copper tape, i think there are special coppertape with double lines and non solder joints, but i don't know where to find those where i live so i will go for standard tape of that kind which are used for electric alarms and RF shielding, etc one can find in the regular electric store, that type need to be soldered i think an has an open topside it is slightly thicker but rated to 2 A so it shall be fine i think, it's not meant to be seen anyway since i will mount in under the floorboards on the upperstage and drill a hole for the connector in the floor so one have a connection point on the roof right under it.

To be very honest i like to play with my dollhouses and change things over time, that's why i will go for those ugly connectors, but they are not necessary if one not plan to change parts often.


(Sorry for my bad English, i am using the autocorrect, but i don't know how much it helps...)

[mizzarrogh]

Just a picture so You guys can see what actualy goes on here... ha ha!



My little victims... Soon to be under the knife... Mua ha ha ha haaaaaaa!

[Gregor]

Is that your dollhouse on a table in a room in YOUR house that you are living in?,
                                            or
Is that your dollhouse on a table in the dollhouse you are working on that is on a table in a room in YOUR house that you are living in?

Your work is so fine and beautiful I don't know what is real anymore. . . . . LOL


Don't think of them as your victims, Like my boss always says to me, You've been voluntold ( a word he made up of volunteered and told) .

Thank you for sharing - g

[mizzarrogh]

It's just a kit i came ower am working on, not my own design yet on this one.

The ones i made are not realy on that level... ha ha (I will take some pictures when i come by where they are but nothing fancy, jjust carboardhouses i built with my little brother long time ago)

I use to pick up those porslin dolls when i find them when they fit the 1:12 or 1:10 system reasonably.