This house is a vintage Arrow kit house that I found at the Brass Armadillo, painted golden yellow and hot-glued with Christmas decor. Stripping off the debris required a hot-air hair dryer, copious applications of rubbing alcohol, and dauntless determination. The new walls, floors, and roof are fabric Modge-Podged to posterboard, because I wanted a lithograph-like look.
As is normal with 1970s kit tab-and-slot houses, this one purports to be 1:12, but that would give it only 345 square feet, which is ridiculously small. At 1:18, it's a more generous 612 square feet, and the downstairs ceiling is high enough that I could do beams if I take the laboriously added ceiling molding out and recut it. Damn.
Doing the kitchen with Tomy Smaller Homes was the very first decision made because I knew I wanted it open, with some of the appliances backed up against the chimney. The appliances clearly date to an early 1980s remodeling, but the sleek look ages well, and look at all those drawers and cupboards!
The bathroom was the second decision. I was feeling especially cranky when my mom called to ask how I'd feel about owning a blue wooden bathroom set that they'd found at a thrift store for $1.99. "That's the vintage bathroom that goes for $199 [no decimal point] on eBay!" I said before she'd finished the description. The bath is obviously from a much earlier remodeling, and it is the most wonderful bath, with its copious towel racks and its ability to form its own walls, so that there's now an implied closet behind the bath.
Both bedroom and bath got redone about a week ago in fabrics from Judy Rothermel's Civil War Dressing Gowns line, so it's possible that the bedroom wallpaper dates from a really early remodeling. Back when I'd been frustrating myself with the bedroom, I'd bought some lime Renwal, which now goes with nothing... and then I discovered the Jaydon double bed! Double beds are very hard to find in this scale, as this one wasn't terribly warped by Jaydon standards (which is to say, not tied in a knot).
My (mild) Jaydon passion had been piqued when I found the Queen Anne chairs in the living room at Zola Bell's for a ridiculously low price. (The bookshelf with them is Ardee.) There are valances to go over the windows already painted and waiting on my courage in pleating drapes.
To know more about related issues:
- The actual cottage that loosely inspired the exterior, from The Brownstoner.
- Pinterest collection for this project, showing inspirations, false starts, and the cat posing in the house.
- The complete Smaller Homes dollhouse, where the kitchen can be admired in its native habitat.
- Pinterest collection of vintage Jaydon furniture.
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