Dollhouse architecture: Dutch Colonial Revival

I have been thinking about writing short blog entries about styles of home architecture I find inspiring. While there are many, including Tudor, Carpenter Gothic, and Spanish Revival, I would like to start with Dutch Colonial Revival, a style common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I finally got around to looking up the style of my childhood home (where my parents still live) about two days ago. I knew when it was built and that there are quite a few styles of this house in PA (and here in NY), so I googled “house plans 1929” which eventually (after a lot of clicking) led me to Dutch Colonial homes. According to antiquehome.org, these houses are characterized by “[a] gambrel roof, with or without flared eaves, and the frequent use of dormers.” Interestingly, since I was little, I always thought my house could be considered a "farm" house because of the gambrel roof (even though we lived in the suburbs and I had no idea what a gambrel roof was at the time).  Below is not a picture of my parents' house, but a sample I found on the web that looks somewhat similar, in order to illustrate this style.

Photo credit: Antique Home Style

Sears and Roebuck, as well as other companies, offered Dutch Colonial plans in catalogs (see links at end of entry) that future homeowners could purchase and have built.

Having reviewed the floor plans for these homes, it seems to be common that these homes have a living room that extends the full length of the house (which results in a very narrow room) with a fireplace at one end or in the center of the room (as is the case in my parents’ home), a dining room and kitchen taking up the rest of the first floor, and 3 bedrooms and bath on the second floor.

Working with dollhouses has introduced me to many new kinds of architecture and has increased my interest in architecture in general. Likewise, I often try to find dollhouses that model a particular style that I like.

Here is what Google has yielded when I searched for “Dutch Colonial Dollhouse”:

http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/14906938

http://www.blujay.com/item/Doll-House-Plans-No-783-Dutch-Colonial-six-rooms-Toadstool-Studios-10110500-3558050

http://earthntree.com/miniatures/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_5&products_id=21

I would love to build a scale version of my childhood home and I love how the first dollhouse link shows someone starting such a project in 1/2” scale. It certainly would not be difficult to build (at least a prototype) in foamboard once I get all of the needed measurements. Add that one to the list of things to do!

If anyone has any more information on Dutch Colonial Dollhouses, please feel free to comment!

More Links on Dutch Colonial (Revival) homes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daily-bungalow/4170559204/

http://www.antiquehome.org/House-Plans/1925-Gordon-VanTine/Fillmore.htm

http://www.antiquehome.org/Architectural-Style/dutch-colonial.htm

http://www.antiquehome.org/House-Plans/1924-Bilt-Well/24bw-4208.htm

Mini books and a sidewalk

I am starting small (no pun intended!) in getting back to crafting minis, so I made up two books I got in a kit I bought from minikitz.com that I had in my stash for a few years. They are a medieval manuscript and an herbal. Both would fit in my herbal shop, so that's where they shall go.

Speaking of the herb shop, it needed a sidewalk leading up the door. In the picture below, you can see that the line where the two sheets of grass meet and, well, that won't do.

So, I took a thin piece of basswood, cut it to size, glued on some Paperclay and carved in lines between the flagstones. Once that dried, I painted the walkway and added a coat of varnish. Here's the finished product.

The paint and the cracks in the paperclay give it a nice weathered look. I need to go to a craft store and pick up more landscaping materials, so I can fill in the space along the sidewalk. Maybe I'll do that this weekend; we'll see. I really want to do some work on the Glencroft.

Lots of inspiration this evening though, much of which will result in a few blog posts in the very near future: an entry on Dutch Colonial houses (for inspiration) and some book reviews (as inspired by this entry in the Greenleaf forums).

Here's most of the dollhouse/miniature books on my shelf, which I will start with, if I do some reviews...(this will make me sit down and carefully read these instead of just looking at the eyecandy inside. ;) ).

I have a few others (The Big Book of the Dolls' House by Jean Nisbett, to name one) that don't fit on this shelf.