Doll House Furnishings – Final Phase

Continued from:  Doll House Furnishings – Phase 18

In my last update on furnishings, I was in need of a desk chair and was contemplating what picture I should frame to hang on the wall above my desk.  You may recall my sister wanted to try to make the chair pictured with the Mid-Century Modern desk on the website.  This would require us to figure out how to apply curvature to the wood in making the chair back, something we had not done in all of our furniture making.

In the interim, I went online to a new doll house store I only recently discovered and there I found what I thought would work at least in the interim.

But when I went to order it, I found it was on backorder.  Whether or not I am able to eventually order this chair or my sister and I figure out how to make our own, adding a desk chair in this office will be the last piece of furniture with which I will furnish my doll house.  Now was the time to focus on something other than furniture.

I thought the next step should be adding photos to hang on the walls and some of you may recall I did some of that already in the main room downstairs and in the second-floor bedroom.

Since I covered previously how I made those miniature framed photos, I will not repeat myself other than to say it was my sister who again helped with the miniaturized printing and the selection of frame colors.

Starting in the office, besides adding a desk chair, I thought creating a miniature picture to go over my desk should be first.

Inspired by the personal touch I had added in the bedroom with a photo of my wife and I shortly before we were married, I decided to replicate what was hanging over my desk where I had my computer.

This is the print that my sister digitally painted from an original photograph of mine I had taken at our favorite place on Earth—Montreat, NC.

And this is the miniature version…

… now hanging over my 1/12th scale desk.

When I was originally adding furnishings to the kitchen and bathroom, I never thought about hanging any pictures on the wall.  Because just like in real life moving into a new home, no one ever hangs pictures on the walls before moving all of the furniture into the house.  Thus, my main focus was filling each room in my doll house with the necessary furniture.

Returning to the bathroom, I tried to think of something personal that would be appropriate hanging on the wall of a bathroom.

In our master bathroom, we have a night shot of a canal that I photographed a number of years ago on one of my many trips to Amsterdam.  But it is rather dark and not very colorful.  I tried to think of a similar photo featuring water given that in Europe, bathrooms or toilets are referred to as a “WC”—Water Closet.  I then got another inspiration.

I have always loved Frank Lloyd Wright homes and although I have not seen Fallingwater in person (although I plan to), it seemed a great water-themed photo for my miniature WC.

Sticking with items of a personal nature, …

… the above is a miniature reproduction of one of those WPA park posters just like the full-size one we have hanging in our kitchen, this one featuring one of my favorite roads.

And although I don’t own the WPA poster above, San Francisco and the Golden Gate is another of my favorites especially since my oldest son lives south of San Francisco.

Finally, returning to the main first floor room, I thought I would add some personal touches there as well.

Seattle is a city my wife and I frequently visit since our daughter and her family live there and when I think of Seattle, I always think of that iconic image, the Space Needle.

And ever since the first time I saw any of it, …

… I have always loved Dale Chihuly’s glass so framing a photo that I took at his museum garden in Seattle that captured both seemed appropriate.

Finally, Keukenhof gardens west of Amsterdam is another of my favorite places on Earth and this is one of my best photos ever taken there, framed and hanging.

If you ever see a photo online of a doll house or a miniature room, it is always the little things that increase, by an order of magnitude, the realism of the small-scale display.

And just like in real life in your own home, these types of items—books, clocks, planters, vases, knick-knacks and whatnot—are often added over many years of living there.  I suspect that will be the case in my miniature house as well as it will take me some time to find items to add.  But with my sister’s two 3-D printers, I may be able to make some additions without searching online stores for miniatures.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts about furnishing my doll house.  When I started writing and publishing these over a year ago, I never imagined it would turn into nineteen separate posts.  For some of you who are not fans of miniatures, it might have seemed like that song that never ends.  But for my fellow miniature enthusiasts, during that time you have witnessed the transformation of my complete but empty doll house…

… into a miniature furnished home suitable for a 1/12th scale retired couple to move in.