The Toy House

How it started is a long story:

Once upon a time, I drew an idea for a small dollhouse. It was two story, with a toy shop on the ground floor. That was as far as I got. 

Wind forward 20+ year... I re-discovered the few minis I had collected in a box (Pandora's perhaps?) in the shed during a clean-up.

I just had to make that shop. I looked for kits. I only found a few that could be bashed to suit what I wanted, but it would cost me a small fortune to have them posted to Australia.. besides how hard could it be to just build a little house?

I wanted a little old house, like those you find in every older Danish town (one thing I really enjoy when I am back visiting is wandering the old narrow streets) and rummaged around online (as you do) for ideas and how-to's and found two things that really got it started. 

First, there used to be a large Toy shop in Copenhagen called Legetøjs Huset (The Toy House). I love the name - How appropiate is a name like The Toy House for a doll house toy shop?  

Secondly, the idea for the shop itself.

I looked at endless pictures of new and old shops (oh Pinterest, you are a wonderful rabbit hole) - it was almost confusing, there were so many wonderful things to look at. When I finally came accross this wonderful antique German play shop, I knew exactly how my shop should be. 

I love the colour-scheme, the curved decorative tops of the shelving, the mirrors on the ends, the cheerful blue/white wall paper.. This is not for a toyshop, too many drawers, but the concept is perfect. 

This is my version:

I build a foam-core room box to the right measurements so that I could start making the shelving. The counter, shelves and cupboards are all made from card stock. I have added some scale wooden moldings and turnings for the trims, but for the most part it is just card. The tall sections at the centre of the shelving units have mirrors at the back - I hope it will show off the pieces that will go on display on those shelves.

I am building the house itself as three separate room boxes, stacked on top of one another. The shop floor is finished. The back lit door at the back of the shop is almost my favorite part. 

I made the door from card as well - It is hard to see in the picture but I smeared glue all over a piece of acetate to simulate cathedral glass. 

The wall paper is a free download 'Twenties011' from Jennifers Printables - resized a bit to be more like the one in my inspiration picture. 

The floor is just wide pop-sticks, painted, sanded, painted, sanded, stained, sanded ... and more sanded. I wanted the floor to look well worn and think I got there in the end. 

So far, so good.. I think.

You have to start somewhere...

... so why not start with an epic fail and a not completely gracious but functional save?

This is my first house, and most of it I work out as go. The one thing that makes me nervous is lighting. Those wee lights seem to fragile and, although I get the basics about running and joining wires, + and -, planning what goes where, the thought of actually doing it was something I kept putting off.

I finally took the plunge. I started by painted my light fitting to be more like cast bronze-like. I cut the groove in the floor above, like I had read to do and installed my first light. It worked - oh, joy. So, with that done, I covered the groove with masking tape and happily glued the floor boards in the room above. Fail no. 1: This is where it began to go wrong - I will never ever, ever direct glue a floor again!!

The light wasn't as bright as I would have liked. I had bought some LED replacement bulbs and was toying with the idea of replacing the bulbs in the light fitting, so the shop shelves would be better lit. Partway through pulling the existing bulbs out, I realized that I didn't know how the wires inside the light were configured and since the LEDs must be wired correctly to + and -, I could not be sure they would work. So, I gently screwed the regular bulbs back in....

... the light didn't work!!! I tried everything to get the darn thing going, but no - I had somehow killed it.
I know I had channeled and covered the wire before sticking the floor down, so did not completely despair - I was just annoyed. I managed to pry the light fitting off the ceiling and yep, the wire slid out nicely - and yes, I had remembered to tie an extra length of string to the other end, so that I could later pull the wire for the new fitting back through. Despite it being irritating, I was pretty happy that at least it seamed like I would be able to re-run the wire. Still, it sat like this, with a match in the ceiling for weeks, waiting for the new light fitting to arrive and for me to feel inspired to try and fix it.

... I don't know about 'with ease'. Getting the new wire through was near impossible. The channel was perhaps too shallow and narrow, the surface too rough, the edges it passed over too sharp... Whatever the reason, my clever string snapped. Noooo!!!!

I had planned to gather and run the wires from all floors down the back corner of the building but I have helped my husband enough times, running wires down walls in our real house to know going around corners is simply impossible - the only way now was to drill a hole in the back wall of the house.
I was giving up - perhaps the old house, had had electricity put in and the wiring just run across the ceiling in conduit???

 No, that wouldn't do. So option 2 - drill a hole in the back wall and run the wire on the back instead of inside as planned... of, course the first hole I drilled was on the wrong side of the floor/ceiling. Sigh, the way I was going the back would end up looking like an old cheese - full of holes

Trying to get my 'feeding' wire up through the ceiling and into the groove proved more than tricky and I ended up (of course) with holes poking through to my otherwise finished floor above.. 

Hours and hours later.. the wire... the stupid, stupid wire, finally fed through. I don't know how many times I was about to give up, but I am so glad I didn't... it was working!!

... and it is still working......