Claudia, over at Mockingbird Hill Cottage http://mockingbirdhillcottage.blogspot.com/ made me do it....I went to read her entry this morning and she was talking about having a Fairfield, Mint in Box, that she found somewhere for $30. She has been working on a RGT house that is similar to Tessie's Townhouse. This is Claudia's first real adventure in miniatures. She writes about all kinds of things, but lately she has been working on minis quite a bit. I do believe that we have another one hooked!
I did comment and try to warn her that she was officially addicted if she started the Fairfield before she finishes the other one, but at the same time, I egged her on by telling her that it would not take up a lot of space.
After the words of encouragement for her, I went and fished my Fairfield from the top shelf. It is looking pretty sad. The poor thing hasn't even been finished and it already needs a rehab. I think that part of the problem is, it's almost 20 years old...It had a thick coat of dust all over. Inside and out.
I went and grabbed a container of Clorox wipes and went to work. While I worked on the outside, Tessie inspected the inside. she chided me and told me that I should be ashamed...
After I got it cleaned up, I decided that the early 90s/maybe late 80s wallpaper was not going to cut it. It was life sized wallpaper from sample books and it was coming up all over the place.
One nice thing. I won't have to make new patterns for the floors and walls. The paper lifts off in one piece. Needless to say, I won't be replacing it with the same paper. Back to dollhouse paper.
I did replace the old icky green floor in the kitchen and I painted the walls a Ceramcoat color called chamomileIt took a while to find the box that had all of my half scale furniture in it, but now I have some idea of how much I have and how much will have to be built.
I am still trying to figure out why I quit working on this one. It has always been one of my favorites. So many interesting nooks and crannies.
Tessie is standing over me with a whip and a chair as I write this. She insists that I get back to work....I wonder what's in it for her? There's no way that she can claim this one. She can just barely get her head through the door....Something doesn't smell right.....
See you tomorrow.
9 comments:
Hi Casey. I'm happy to see you work on your 1/2 scale house.Your ideas will be greatly appreciated. As I've mentioned here before, I just started redoing my three Fisher-Price houses which have my 1/2 scale mouse families in.I already
have several challenges: what paint will stick to plastic (front walls and roof)? It will have to be brush-on.
And where do I find wallpaper with tiny patterns?
Thanks for your input. I LOVE your blog and faithfully read it every day. I use some of your ideas too.I plan to do the egg-
carton stones around the base of these little houses.
Phyllisa
Happy to see this little gem of yours, glad Claudia inspired you to get it out and dust if off. Hope we'll get to see it again really soon!
Hi Casey. If you are interested in seeing a photo of my Fisher-Price houses, here's a link.
http://www.thisoldtoy.com/L_FP_Set/toy-pages/900-999/952-playfamilyhouse.html
I have one of the yellow houses with blue trim dated 1969 and two of the brown houses with blue trim dated 1969-1980.Note the lithographs for the siding, walls and floors.
Phyllisa
Phyllisa, the Fairfield is all wood. Right now I am stripping wallpaper. The Fisher-price houses are bigger than half scale. Almost 3/4 scale. I am not sure why they did those that way. I have some of the Furniture, but it is too big for this house. I just put in some furniture to see how it would look. The table and chairs in the kitchen are just some that I used in another scene. Same with the other furniture.
I would use sandpaper to rough up the plastic and then use a primer of gesso. After that I would use either Ceramcoat or Folkart for the paint. A couple of coats with a day of drying between each should work.
How exciting! I have one of these houses - still in the box! I have been wanting to try this scale.
I agree. If Claudia has two houses, she's hooked! I'm going over to see what she's doing...
Hope you have a good night! :D
Phyllisa might want to try Krylon paint. I works on plastic. Wood too.
Hi again Casey. Thank you for your input on how to paint plastic.
I know most children's toys were made 3/4 scale and I have seen these.My sister has a metal house and it is 3/4 scale. But these FP houses are small.They were made of plastic and fiberboard with lithographs for siding, flooring,
furniture and accessories. As for size,for instance,the front door is 2 7/8" high and 1 3/4" wide.The 4 rooms are 8 3/8" long
by 4" wide each. The downstairs rooms are 3 5/8" high. The 2 upstairs rooms are 3 5/8" high at the outer edge, 1 3/8" high at the sloped wall inside edge. The lithos on the bedroom walls are:
wardrobe 2" high, the highboy dresser 2 1/4" high and the living room fireplace is 2" high.The outside measurements of the house closed, without the garage, are 8" high x 9 3/4"long x 8 3/4 wide.Small.My 3" mouse people can only stand at the outer edge of the house upstairs.
I'm using 1/2 inch scale furniture I made along with other furniture pieces I purchased, which I just measured and they are 1/2" scale.I don't recall measuring them before. I just went by eye. Anyway,it's a mouse house and I don't think they would be too particular about scale! Perhaps I will just call it "small" scale.
By the way, someday I think it would be fun to do a house like the "Borrowers",which would be multiple scales, with dollhouse furniture and full-size things.
That's what makes miniatures such fun...........anything goes!
I went online and found some 1/2" scale wallpaper and flooring for sale, although I may just make my own or use fabric like I did for wallpaper in my daughter's Barbie house from the '70s.It still looks good!This time I think I'll paste it with starch instead of glue so it doesn't shrink. And it can be easily removed! I heard double-stick carpet tape works well for mini carpet.It might work for fabric as wallpaper. I must experiment.
Phyllisa
Hi, just came across your blog and I love it! I also love the fairfield! The first dollhouse I made was fairfield! Good luck with the project!
I love this house Casey - looking forward to seeing how this one develops. Judith x
I'm so glad to see your Fairfield, Casey! You're inspiring me to start in on mine. And you know what? I do believe I'll start on it soon. We'll see. It really is a charming design - it reminds me of the kind of house I'd like to live in!
xo
Claudia
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