the house i'm building

I've always loved dollhouses, ever since I saw Faith Bradford's tiny world as a girl at the Smithsonian. I even admired the kits when I went to the toy store. Nothing quite like a Huguette Clark obsession, but still. Now, truth be told, my parents were far more practical than me, so we never built a house. But now that I have an excuse (my own child), I've decided to indulge myself with a project that will probably overwhelm our tiny Japanese apartment. Hey, it will make for one beautiful heirloom - here's hoping. When I asked my husband if this was a good idea he said, "well, you've never been a practical person, so why start now?"

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So first, let's talk inspiration. There seems to be two schools of thought in dollhouses - pure miniatures for admiring and then there's those for playing. I'm trying to integrate a little bit of both. Meaning, I'm going to try for some authentic period details, moldings, floorings, wall coverings and trims. But at the same time I want to keep things kid-friendly. The most clear ideas I'm excited about are chinoiserie papers, inspired by this classic bedroom of Lucy -Rhian Pauline de Rothschild and the fresh colors in the bedroom by Jayne Design Studio.

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And of course by Chinoiserie Chic's Dollhouse

This is the paper that I've picked. At first I was thinking of breaking it up into panels that would be surrounded by trim... but then I decided to go all in and just envelope the room.

The other detail I've fallen for is Jim Coates' miniatures, especially his fireplaces. I want to put one in the sitting room. Look at these lovelies which can be found here. I still haven't decided which one I'm going to go with - I love them all!

The house will probably have skirt molding for the baseboards and casing. Wish me luck, I'm no expert in molding and trim so we'll see how this all turns out. I also decided to do tile in the bathroom. Maybe marble? This man has some amazing miniature floors from scratch, even if you're not into dollhouses. As far as more details, I even found some old wrapping papers, like the one on the far left from Martha Stewart. It is a pale green that I think would work nicely for wallpaper. I ordered a few fun ones from Rifle Paper, just for kicks, we'll see how the scale looks.

As for the dollhouse itself, I've hemmed and hawed on this. Do I go smaller and more manageable? Or go big since I don't plan on ever doing this again and hope it can be passed down? Victorian? Georgian? Colonial? Italianate? I came close to buying a Georgian townhouse kit, however it turned out to be too big to ship here. Now I'm torn between this smaller one.

Or this giant, which has more (and larger) rooms. I think I would change the trim a bit to be more child-friendly. They're both by Real Good Toys.

I love the color scheme of the Owens Dollhouse by Heather Aspinall. Amazing! I'm inspired to stick with a white washed house, perhaps with a slightly darker roof.

Something like this

And believe me, I've even thought about crazy things like a wood paneling, inspired by this miniature. I just don't think I have the skills.

But you say, "isn't this for you or your daughter?" Well, before you think I've forgotten all about her in my mini madness - this is the furniture. We will start with wooden sets by Plan Toys, Hape and Ryan's Room intended for the preschool set. I plan to use plain craft paint to add some more decorative finishes, but still very play-friendly. As she grows, and if she's interested, we plan to allow her to pick out nicer, more collectible furniture allowing her to personalize it a bit more.

And who will live here? Why Calico Critters, of course. They're very popular here in Japan, but I think kids back home love them too! I've seen lots of Pinterest dollhouses for these little guys, so I think they'll be perfect while she's little since she can play with them when she turns three. Let's face it, this thing will probably take until then to finish!

As an aside, our daughter became very sick over a week ago; she's doing much better but we're still shaken. Life is so precious. I don't share much on the blog but I'm sharing this to ask that you please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, thank you.

hand-blocked diy

I'm loving this DIY by Classic Casual Home where blogger Mary Ann hand-stenciled a wall inspired by for under forty dollars!

And here's how it turned out.

Amazing! This was her inspiration.

Read more here.

meandering mirror

On the topic of mirrors, a recent post on Chinese Meander on Road to Parnassus has me seeing it everywhere. And not Greek key per se, we are in the Orient after all. It doesn't help that every time I'm at a furniture shop locally I see tables patterned with it. Recently I pinned this from Traditional Home. I think someone really crafty could DIY an antiqued mirror like this. Not me, I'm not so handy, but I do love it.

Source: athoughtfulplaceblog.com via Ann on Pinterest

kitchen windows

I really need to cover my hideous institutional kitchen windows. I've been admiring DIY'ers and their faux shade tutorials in an attempt to cover them up.

Source: marthastewart.com via Ann on Pinterest

Source: redbarncandlecompany.com via Ann on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Ann on Pinterest

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Ann on Pinterest

Source: michellelunt.blogspot.com via Ann on Pinterest

Source: inmyownstyle.com via Ann on Pinterest

You can click to go to my pinterest and then the original tutorials.

I think nesting has kicked in as I've been furiously working on the nursery. I've got a wonderful woman working on my bedding (who puts up with all my slightest requests) and I'm feverishly ordering things left and right. I've been a bit all over the place as it is finally cooling and with it a second wind of productivity has hit me. For a long while I was not unpacked and I was not interested in unpacking. It was too darn hot, as Cole Porter would say. Now that fall has finally visited Japan I'm finishing the odds and ends, adding a few touches and tackling a few projects. I'll have to share some more in the upcoming weeks. At the moment I'm distracted by my horrible kitchen windows. In the house tour I showed you these windows, yikes.

 

Beautiful big windows with lots of natural light but also big ugly problems. These windows are a. huge non-standard sizes and b. have outside-mounted metal blinds. From what I've seen that's pretty standard around here but it makes it much more challenging to cover from a hardware perspective without removing the blinds. Also the windows sit nearly flush against the perpendicular wall leaving little room for wall-mounted window hardware as well. I've been scouring our local Homac (Japanese Home Depot type store) to find hardware that may work. The closest I've come is the hardware used for hanging door coverings or "noren" which uses very lightweight, thin curtain rods. I'm going to try ceiling mounting the hardware - we're getting creative here.

image from here

So in the meantime I'm leaning towards a tie up shade inspired by this room. If only it were so easy.

Source: bhg.com via Ann on Pinterest

And the best tutorial I've found thus far has been from Cozy Cottage Cute. We'll see how far I get.

Source: cozycottagecute.com via Ann on Pinterest

sea glass, two of two

I have been thinking a lot of what to do with sea glass. I wish I had a photo to share of my interior designer friend's custom made work. It is stunning! But in the very least, I found some beautiful works from around the web. I am so liking these available on Etsy by Rubbish Revival.

 

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Also love this classic from Martha Stewart

Or textile designer Jonathan Fuller's sea glass sculptures

I may try and recreate blogger Creative in Chicago's masterpiece

Even loving this ideas from Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Carla on Pinterest

sea glass, one of two

Firstly, I have to apologize for the infrequency of posts. When you are living in a blank apartment without any things, it is kind of hard to think about decorating it - as least beyond daydreaming of having furniture. At any rate, today I went to a beach near Mutsu (in Aomori, here in Japan) called Shipwreck Beach. A friend who has been living here for a few years brought me. Amazing. We walked across the dunes to get to the beach where there were all kinds of birds and flowers.

 

We were hunting for sea glass down on the beach like many of the locals. Why you ask? A very clever interior designer friend is a collector. The Japanese use beautiful glass floats for fishing nets. While it is extremely rare to find an entire float (apparently it does happen!) you can usually find a lot of broken pieces from these and bottles too. This beach is known as where to find them, and of course litter lands here too. However, it is the mother lode for sea glass!

It was grey with a breeze (we also had to be there at four am for the low tide, hence it isn't fully bright) but look at the treasures we found! I am sending the big ones (and a few of the babies) to my friend that collects while the friend that brought me claimed the greens and cobalt glass. They are all so beautiful! I included a 100 yen piece, about the size of an American quarter, so you can see just how sizable some of the pieces can be.

As for my share, I haven't decided what to do with them... more ideas soon!  In the mean time, look at this gorgeous piece of driftwood. Wouldn't it make a fantastic piece of furniture? Too heavy to even move but just stunning!

images by me, please credit, thanks!