Jenn's Mini Worlds: A Dollhouse Miniaturist's Blog

Upstairs Hall

The challenge of the tall, narrow upstairs hall, with old, wrinkled wallpaper. Before:

Old upstairs hall. Ready for rennovation!

As you can see below, the only thing that remained the same was the flooring and the door on the left (plus stairs coming up into the back). After:

I decided to continue my LED experiments and put in a “stained glass” ceiling. I mirrored the back wall to give the room more depth.

Since I can’t do something that doesn’t turn complicated, I decided to add…an elevator.

It’s always bothered me that the original plans for this house had a staircase between first and second floors, but no opening for stairs to the third or fourth floors. When my dad and I built this long ago, we were new to dollhouses and didn’t want to alter the plans too much (well, I did a little, eliminating one wall and shifting another slightly, but we didn’t cut additional openings in the floors).

Cutting a hole for stairs once the house is put together is a real pain if you don’t have the right tools (as I discovered remodeling the Blue House). My solution–an elevator!

This elevator will take the imaginary inhabitants to the next floor.

The elevator doesn’t work, and who knows if a real house would have one like this. But who cares? It’s my fantasy house, and I can do what I want.

I designed and built this entirely out of my head. I researched pictures of private elevators, Edwardian period elevators, Art Deco elevators, and more, but I couldn’t find a good one that lent itself to modeling or the space I had. So I made it up.

I found a piece of Minigraphics wallpaper in my stash that was faux painted panels. I knew I’d been saving it for something special. Much cutting and decopage later, it’s now decorating my elevator.

I have more to do, but the main architectural components are in place.

A nice little writing nook.

Some added details: Pillow bought from Autumn Leaf Studio; box with dueling pistols bought at miniature show. Lamp a Mini Time Machine museum purchase.