There is a particular home everyone dreams about with a perfect porch, and a perfect deck; maybe a 2-car garage and a lovely in ground pool.
My dream house was the Queen Anne. However even for a dollhouse kit she would of cost me as much as a side of the road used car costs.
So I settled for something less extravagant but just as equally charming, the Bellingham Farmhouse kit by Dura-Craft.
I have spent 3 long years perfecting this home, and probably a miniature fortune has gone into decorating her interior. (No pun.)
The Bellingham is a dollhouse kit in a 1” scale. It is 34”H x 34”W x 20”D. It is a 3-story dream home with one staircase. It has a large front porch and a small porch on the second floor.
I ordered my kit off of www.ebay.com 3 years ago for $250.
When my huge box came in the mail I was excited to get started. Everything came in either thick pieces of wood, or extremely thin pieces with cutouts. There was a bag of red powder and white powder to make the brick work around the base of the home. This was supposed to be done after the base dried or later on, really it’s up to you. However doing it after the base is dried would make things easier.
THE BASE:
The instructions in the manual called for me to make the base first, which was very tricky and I needed to use quite a lot of duct tape to make sure everything held in place while the wood glue dried.
After putting the base together I painted it white and then I mixed the brick powder up with some warm water and applied the bricking stencil that came with the kit.
I then spread the red gritty type material all over the stencil. I allowed it to dry for 24 hours and then easily peeled of the stencil leaving a glorious miniature reproduction of brickwork behind. Ohhwiieee! I was impressed; I really didn’t think that was going to work as well as it did.
THE SHELL:
Next the instructions called for putting the shell of the home together.
Things got tricky here, but everything had a grove making it easy for me to figure out what went where. The exterior slid together easily, however putting in the interior walls was where things got difficult. I added in the flooring first, and then the walls, even though the directions called for opposite. Doing it this way seemed to work out easier for me. Trying to add the walls first just didn’t work out.
There was no actual instruction in the manual on where to place the walls or how far apart, so really it was up to me to decide how large or how small I wanted my rooms. I had fun with that and was glad I didn’t have to make my rooms the way the kits box picture had.
So I had made 3 rooms downstairs. It was roomy enough to make my kitchen, a small dining room with the staircase to the side, that I still had not built, and a larger living room.
The second story also consisted of 3 rooms; I made them all equal in size. Here I was going to add a bathroom, a bedroom, and a game room.
Upstairs is then split in half and consists of 2 rooms and a very small corner room for the attic. I turned it into a nursery and another bedroom, and of course the small room was turned into an eerie attic with a sewing machine and some miniature boxes.
After struggling to fit these walls in and having difficulty in gluing them down, I had to make sure everything was tight and even while it dried. I would recommend sing duct tape during the entire gluing process just to make sure nothing moves or slides while you are not around.
Now I had sitting in front of me a dollhouse that looked done, yet screamed for details! However as I looked at my work of art, I thought I was half done. Boy was I wrong.
There was a lot more that needed to be done that I wasn’t expecting. I figured once the shell was done I was only another day or two away from picking a color and painting it, then filling it with furniture.
ROOF:
Next I added the roof. This was the easiest step to put together on the shell. You simply find the appropriate wood piece, match them up with the grooves pre-cut into them and slide into place and glue. It really couldn’t have been easier. I don’t even think I needed to look at the instructions to figure the roof out.
SIDING:
Next called for the siding, which actually was pretty easy to add on. Everything was already cut out to the appropriate shape except for one piece that I had to cut by hand. However the cut was not even visible, and you could not even notice it, it blended so well. I waited for the siding to dry which took another 24 hours before I could begin sanding.
While I waited for this to dry, I began to assemble THE CHIMMNEY!!!! Oh man, the chimney was the worst part of the whole assembly of the Bellingham dollhouse kit.
The pieces of wood I needed were already precut for me, so all I had to do was punch them out and piece them together. This is where things got messy and frustrating.
The wood is so thin, so I had to tape them together first before trying to glue them. This is where my troubles began; everything was a breeze till now.
The glue would just run down the side so I had to keep wiping up the mess. Not only that the glue was slipping through the tiny cracks and it was not even touching the other side, no matter how much pressure I used. After a big gluey mess, I had some hold when it dried but the hold was not sturdy enough. I added more glue, and eventually ended up with a weak un-sturdy thin chimney. I had no choice, this was as good as it was going to get.
After it was completely dry I then began to sand it making sure the glue spills were smooth before I painted it.
I then panted the base of the chimney white, and began mixing the white powder, which turned gray when water hit it. So my chimneys result was a nice base of white with smoky gray brickwork. It looked fantastic, but the brickwork was a little difficult because the chimney itself was so thin. After drying though I had a nice solid thick and heavy chimney. I set it aside to move onto putting together the doors and windows.
You have to be careful when making the doors and windows. First everything comes in thing cut outs on a sheet of wood. You have to carefully punch them out trying not to damage them.
Then you have to cut pieces of trim and molding 100% accurately otherwise you are going to end up wasting the wood which you will later on need.
Cutting the pieces were easy enough and does not require extensive arm power after you have your pieces cut out and sanded put them to the side.
Now you’re going to want to put together the door and windows. They are easy enough. They consist of two pieces of wood, and a thin piece of plastic with decoration.
You pluck the windows and door windows out of the piece of plastic that comes with the kit, and you then place them in between the two pieces of wood and glue them down. You have to make sure you don’t get any glue on the plastic windows otherwise it could get messy and difficult to clean.
(If you want)
You can buy nicer pieces of windows in actual glass or thicker plastic. The ones that come with the kit are cheap looking and flimsy.
You place the trim and mold inside of the windows, glue them down, and then place in the windows. It’s a tight fit, but everything comes together fine so long as you made the proper cut on the trimming.
Once your windows are in place they will now slide open and closed. Pretty neat!
The door works in almost the same manner, but for me it was a little easier. You fill the holes with trim, allow to it to dry, add in your cut pieces of molding, and then place in the door. The door will swing open and closed easily if you have done it right.
Next I began to construct my ventilation window, or attic window. It was the easiest to do because it did not require very much rocket science, and piecing it together was easier than it looked. Most of the pieces were neatly pre-cut and fit into place without much needed extra work.
THE PORCH:
Ahhh… although this was not difficult to cut out it was difficult to assemble.
First you cut out your railing you will need 2 separate shaped rails, one for the bottom, and one rail for the top. Next are the actual rails. You have to cut out about 30 or 40 small rails to place in between the railings and glue them down. You can decide how far or close you want each rail next to each other. You don’t necessarily have to go by what the manual says.
However when you place them down into the grooves of the railing you will notice that it is loose, making it hard to keep the rails from slipping and falling.
This was a time consuming project, and will have you cussing a few times while constructing them. However when all is said and done, it really puts the dollhouse together and gives it that special added touch it really needed to look complete.
THE STAIRS:
This was the easiest out of the smaller pieces of wood that comes with the kit to work with. Each step is already precut, and really all you have to do is place one on top of the other gluing them as you work your way up. You can then paint them or set them aside for carpeting later on.
THE FIREPLACE:
Boy was I mad. All of the pieces of the fireplace come precut on a sheet of wood. I knew immediately it was cheap and tacky looking and didn’t really go with my dollhouse. It barely had any depth, so I knew from the get go that I would be buying a pre-made fireplace to place in front of the hole that was pre-cut into the right side of my downstairs room. You may want to do the same; once you assemble this fireplace I expect that you’re not going to like it either.
THE ROOF:
The Bellingham kit will come with a whole bunch pretty wood chip pieces of wood for you to construct the dollhouse. You have a choice of making the roof light or dark, or both. There will be plenty of pieces to decide which way you want to go. You work your way from the bottom to the top. You can easily cut off anything that overhangs that you do not like. There will also be some necessary cutting of the wood pieces to have them fit into tight triangular corners.
And now… you are done.
NO… NO YOUR NOT. HEHE!
Next you paint. I always paint my houses after they are put together. Some may find it easier to do this before it is built, to splat some paint on the wood before you even construct it.
But me… I am a perfectionist. I cannot figure out what colors will look best with what until I see the final product in front of me.
If you purchase this kit, feel free to paint however and whenever you want.
I knew I didn’t want to paint mine yellow like the box cover had done. I figured a nice pink house with white molding and white porch would look nice.
So I painted my house white, pained the porch, and painted the railing white.
You may want to buy an assortment of different sized paintbrushes before you being painting, from very fine to thick brushes. You will need a very thin brush for small nooks and cranny’s and a larger one for painting the side of the house, but not too large.
I then waited for the paint to dry, and bought miniature wood flooring to cover my porch with to give it that real looking wood finish. I found mine at Michaels craft store.
NEXT:
So what do you do with this left over scrap wood?
Even if this is your very first dollhouse, you will find some neat uses for this left over wood. You can use left over trim to make a cute wall shelf or picture frame, and then add in your own personal photos.
You can then either paint your walls, or wallpaper them. The choice is yours. I added electricity before wallpapering, and the result is breathtaking. You don’t have to add electricity if you don’t want to, but really I feel it completes the dollhouse.
You can then buy different types of flooring or you can paint them. I recommend buying miniature carpeting or tiles for a really nice finish.
Here is a tip for carpeting. Instead of spending $20 on a miniature carpet roll you can buy a nice table placemat and cut it to size for an almost exact look of real carpeting. Not only that, it saves you money.
Now that your house is finished, you can then add furniture and place them where you want.
If you’re really creative you can begin making a landscape for your dollhouse and give it a lawn, driveway, pool… the sky is the limit really.
It’s up to you on how creative it gets. You can stop with just the dollhouse, or branch out and make scenery. Really the extra effort will be worth it in the end.
Remember a dollhouse may seem like a fun idea, but if you’re going to build I you may as well go all out. It includes a lot of time, money and effort. If you are committed you end up with an heirloom.
TOOLS YOU WILL NEED:
-A razor
-Ruler
-Sander and/or sandpaper
-Paint and paintbrushes in assorted sized
-A small saw
-Wood glue. (At least 3 bottles.) This kit does not need any nails for assembly.
-Tape
-Scissors
-Pencil for measurements
-Band-Aids! (Hehe) No I’m serious
-Tweezers- for splinters, and placement of miniature furniture or decorations.
OVERALL:
I’m in love with my Bellingham farmhouse. Every time I flick on the lights I wish I could shrink myself down and just get away from it all. While chaos goes on in my home, my dollhouse always offers a peaceful couch to rest on. Now if only I could fit my butt on that couch. Sigh.
Everyone who sees the home becomes enthralled with it, and cannot stop reaching in and peeking inside the fridge at the foods, and the cabinets and miniature dressers filled with miniature clothing.
I recommend gluing down everything. I glue down all of my furniture. Having someone steal a $50 tea set, or a $30 miniature candy dish because they thought it was cute is enough to break your heart.
RECOMMENDATION:
Any miniaturists, any age. Once it’s built you can decide whether or not to make it an expensive heirloom, or a cheaper little girls dollhouse.
There is honestly nothing bad I could say about Dura-Craft’s Bellingham. It’s a beautiful treasure for all who lay eyes on it.
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