Modern, Victorian, Classical - The Standards of Design
At that moment that you sat back and decided to create your first or next dollhouse you should have had an idea of what it would look like. When you are contemplating your dollhouse design, remember that you are not just picking a room at a time, but the time frame or era in which they were created. This will be your style choice or theme for your house. Victorian, Modern, and Traditional, though they are not the only choices, are the major players with dollhouse manufacturers - let’s look at each one. The first is Victorian, a design established in the mid 1800’s that will give you old home design from cooking stoves to classic armoires. If you want to stand out or go with a more up to date style, Modern design will give you simplicity, technology, and some great straight lined pieces. The last is Traditional furniture - it is more about functionality than design, giving you the pieces of furniture that you might find in a local store which is great to make a replica, or to just make your dolls feel at home.
Planning and Preparation with your Miniatures
Plan your dollhouse design, and expect to follow that plan. A plan will help you avoid pitfalls like spending too much or buying the wrong items. The essentials that you will want to have to start are a floor plan and a budget. A floor plan can be as simple as a sketch that was drawn by hand or a print of a room that you would like to copy. There are many room designs both online and off. Make sure that you are taking notes of great rooms that you see. Compare your notes to your current plan and change it if necessary. Once you have a good idea of what you would like you will need to budget accordingly. It does not matter how great a miniature is, if it makes you overspend you probably will regret it when you need that money for other items. In my opinion it is better to save up for a nice piece of furniture rather than going ahead with a cheap copy.
Making your Miniature House Better: Floor Trim
Everyone likes to tweak there dollhouses from time to time. There are some great things that you can add to your house, and I just simply came across one that helped out a lot. This big discovery was floor trim. Floor Trim is not a new creation, but what I found is instead of buying it, to use a very thin balsa wood found in most craft stores. Simply paint it the color of your dollhouse and attach it to the foot of your walls. My biggest discovery is when the trim hid most of the fine mistakes between the floor and the wall. Another great thing about the trim is that it covers the edges of the wallpaper and prevents fraying. I realize that this little invention, though not my own, really made my flooring look flush and neat against the wall.
Miniatures and Contrast: Beauty with an Edge
Contrast is the idea of putting to opposing colors or ideas next to each other. Contrast in interior design makes the eye roll over certain areas of the room and focus on a couple of segments or patterns. For the best color contrast look at a color wheel and choose colors that are opposite one another. Using contrast in a room, is like using salt with food, you use to much and you get overwhelmed quickly. A good rule of thumb is if you are going to be using contrast to have one major contrasting item per room.
