Boston and my visit to Flip This Dollhouse store

I recently went on a trip to Boston, MA to catch a Red Sox game and spend time with my daughter. I had some time on my hands while she was in meetings, so I checked out the architecture in the Boston Back Bay neighborhood that, earlier, our Uber driver described as "old money, you won't find any AirBNB's here".  Being a dollhouse builder, and living my entire life in flat-house-Florida, I was on sensory overload looking at the homes, businesses, churches and monuments. We don't have Brownstones where I come from, or historic Victorian craftsmanship close to 400 years old. A lot of our homes are suburban homes with grass or sand to walk on. We have plenty of condominiums, but most Floridians live on land not up in the air. I've built dollhouses and purchased dollhouse accessories that are so much like some of the homes I saw in Boston.

I must confess, it was somewhat surreal to see them in "real scale". Something so commonplace to one person, can be fascinating and beautiful to another. I live in Florida and I can appreciate the beauty of a palm tree, but I've seen one just about every day of my life. So I don't appreciate them as much as someone who has only been to Florida a handful of times. I have a particular interest in architecture anyway, so every corner I turned I was taking photos. Luckily Boston is a tourist destination, so I wasn't as out of place taking street photos as it would sound.

When I was invited to Boston I realized I couldn't be that close to Flip This Dollhouse and not plan a visit. Quite possibly the largest dollhouse store in America, maybe the world, Flip This Dollhouse is located in New Bedford, MA, USA and offers resale and new dollhouses and accessories. It's a unique business, location and experience. 

The shop is located on the second floor of the Kilburn Mill, which is right on the water. It's in a small historic picturesque town which we didn't get to spend any time in, except for our rather amazing breakfast we had at the Diner across the street from the Mill.  When you walk through the door of the shop you are instantly overwhelmed with the amount of space, and the sight of dollhouses and furniture display cases. The houses are lined up on long tables, similar to streets, and each house is fully furnished and decorated. Everything you see in each house is available for sale. The houses are accessible from the front and the back, so you can see every angle and they're donned with linear spotlights for detailed viewing. A section of the store is a dedicated museum, with majestic homes on loan from a Collector. Browsing through the entire shop however makes you feel like the whole place is a museum, with the best gift shop ever.

There are over a hundred dollhouses, with just about all sizes, ages and styles. There are kits available as well, and accessories and building supplies that are new in the package. But in my opinion, the best part about the store is the vintage furniture and accessories. Vintage, by definition, means of age and in the dollhouse world of age can mean a gold mine. The miniature dollhouse industry doesn't produce a lot of new good quality furniture, but they sure did back in the old days. This is one big giant location for unique, interesting and sometimes rare vintage pieces. There are not a lot of, if any, stores like this and I believe there needs to be more. As time goes on, many of the vintage pieces are getting older and older and will be even harder to find. When a builder or collector passes away, their valued treasures need a place to go where they will be appreciated, fixed up, and given a new life and a chance to make someone else happy.

The owner of the store, Nathaniel Ellis, was available when I visited and it was a joy to meet him and talk about miniatures. He was generous with his time and shares the passion, and appreciation, for all things miniature. His houses have been featured in ABC's "The Fatal Flaw" and HBO's "The Gilded Age". I have a feeling it's just the beginning of his on-screen presence, there's lots of potential with Nathaniel and his business. One of the icons of the store is the "Elephant Mansion". I couldn't wait to finally see it in person, and yes it is huge. It has 21 rooms, 4 stories plus a tower and it's 8 foot by 6.5 foot wide. It's accessible from all sides and truly quite impressive. Not just in size, but in the details and the quality. The story and history of the house can found on their Facebook page, and it's worth a read.

I highly recommend making a trip to this magical place if you can. I will go back again someday, hopefully soon. I could have spent all day there, and I'm not exaggerating. I bought a few tiny things while I was there, but because I was flying home I didn't want anything too large. I took over 200 photos, so when I returned home I sent a message to the owner Nathaniel with photos of what I wanted to purchase and he mailed them to me. They don't actually have an online store, but the owner does a lot of live video walk's and a lot of photos so if you see something he will mail it to you. If you follow them on Facebook you will see a lot of photos of past and current houses.

After I returned home from Boston, my home and my town took a direct hit from category 4 Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. I haven't written a blog since the hurricane, but I do have some exciting projects coming up. My home flooded in the storm surge, but only one of my dollhouses took on water and had damage. The others were all elevated high enough and wrapped in cellophane for protection. My home was emptied out, repaired, and I moved back in to an empty house with the belongings I saved from the flooding. This gave me the opportunity to completely reorganize my dollhouses. I now have one room dedicated to just my built houses on display, and a separate room to work in and store all my supplies. It's a much better flow, and I am really enjoying my new "dollhouse room". It's like my own private Mini-Shack Museum.

More posts to come with updated projects. Thank you for visiting!

~ Mini Shack

My Skilcraft Cape Cod Dollhouse Video and Interior Photos

Please enjoy this video of my Cape Cod dollhouse by Skilcraft. It shows the interior rooms with detailed photos, plus the building process at the end of the video.

My YouTube Channel also has videos of some of my other miniature projects.

 

A few of the interior room photos. More detailed photos are in the video:

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments. 

Thank you for visiting!

 

~ Mini Shack

Happy Independence Day from my Cape Cod Summer House

What a fun little house to build! This is a Skilcraft Cape Cod dollhouse that I hunted for several years for. I finally found one in an unopened box and pretty much shuffled all my other projects aside and started building. I love doing nautical style homes and minis, and with this architectural style of home it was an easy decision how to decorate. I tried to stay away from the traditional nautical colors of red and navy blue by using shades of mint, teal and various light and dark blues. For the first time ever, I also included a laundry room. Initially that room was going to be a smaller bedroom, but the space was too challenging. In all honesty, I have 3-4 sets of washers & dryers and several ironing boards in my stash that I haven't used yet. So I figured I'd go ahead and take the opportunity to do one in this extra space. 

The original kit has two large rooms on the first floor with a carport. Although I was excited initially to make a carport/garage, I quickly realized there was not enough space downstairs. I love conservatory's, and I only needed two new walls, so I made one myself. I cut an opening in the original wall so you could walk into the conservatory from the kitchen. I also liked the way the house looked from the front with the conservatory added. I did quite a bit of visual research on Cape Cod homes and saw many built like this. The worn shake siding mixed with white panel siding on the conservatory looks very appealing and realistic, with white window frames accenting the shake siding. I intentionally did not add shutters either, as most of the traditional Cape Cod homes I saw did not have them. I kept the landscaping light, as this also seemed a trait of Cape Cod homes, and I pictured this house in the summer time, not the winter, because the grass is green and the flowers are in bloom. Inside the house the owners have returned from a day at the beach and are having wine, cheese and dessert in the conservatory. The American flag is hanging out front, and as the photos were being taken, it was flying in the wind.

 

Here's a few photos of the interior of the Cape Cod. I will make another post with detailed interior photos, and a link to the video on my YouTube Channel once it's completed.

Happy Independence Day and I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! Thank you for visiting.

 

~ Mini Shack

Dollhouse Miniature Room Boxes-Wall Boxes

I love to go thrift shopping, because you never know what you're going to find. For a miniaturist, it's more like a treasure hunt. After all, it's true that "one mans junk is another mans treasure". My goal for every trip is to find a dollhouse, furniture or a dollhouse kit. But finding random accessories is always fun too.

I came across this set of five square boxes, that the previous owner had spray painted gold. There are three sizes: two large, two medium and one small. I painted each of them solid white so they would blend on the wall - but the rest of the decorating is individual to each box. The boxes gave me an opportunity to display some of my favorite fun pieces, and to also use a lot of leftover trim, etc. in smaller spaces. I made the back walls with foam board and most of the wallpaper is scrapbook paper.

As an afterthought, I remembered I had a set of 5 disc lights that work on a remote control and offer multi colors and dim levels. I attached those after the boxes were already hung on the wall, and they look great at night!

Here's is the video that shows the details a little closer, and the boxes with the lights on. Enjoy!

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the pieces or techniques. Happy weekend and thanks for visiting!

 

~ Mini-Shack

Spring Cleaning

So it's time to take inventory, because I've acquired enough dollhouse kits to last me the rest of my life. The way I see it though, I'm setting myself up for retirement. Not financially, I mean something to keep me busy, HA! Here is my current situation:

Dollhouse Kits in boxes:

Walmer Mint Julep with Left and Right Wing Addition

Greenleaf Emerson Row

Greenleaf Rosedale

Greenleaf Buttercup

Greenleaf Orchid

Greenleaf Travel Trailer

Real Good Toys Princess Anne

Real Good Toys Beachside Bungalow

Real Good Toys Victorian Cottage Jr.

Dura Craft Pioneer Log Cabin

Dura Craft Newberg

Artply Highland

Artply-Whitney Tennyson

1/4 Scale Town Kit

1/4 Scale Village Kit 

 

I couldn't get them all in one photo, because they're scattered all over the house now, but here's a few:

 

 

Here's how some are stored temporarily (pardon the mess! Construction zone):

 

 This is the Travel Trailer and Quarter Scale 1/4 Building Kits

 

 

 

Houses in progress:

Greenleaf Harrison Partial Build

Greenleaf Harrison Rehab

Petite Dreams Victorian

The base of the Artply Highland

These are just the dollhouses. I have 9 room boxes and 3 lanterns that could be done at any time too. It seems I have managed to also acquire quite a bit of furniture, fixtures and construction parts. It was time to reorganize my stash and thin out the parts/pieces I didn't need to keep. By the time I was done, there wasn't much in the "get rid of" pile but I did manage to rearrange all my stuff in appropriate bins. It also gave me a chance to take a look at everything again, which was a pleasant experience because I forgot about a lot of really cool pieces I have! 

I also spent time repairing pieces that were set aside because they needed work. While I was repairing a side table I noticed how beautifully detailed the carvings on the wood were. Once I found my reading glasses and tipped it over I saw that it was a Bespaq™ table. Nice little surprise. 

So for now I'm getting ready to build the Tennyson that will be given to a family friend, a 9 year old girl. She request turquoise and yellow as her colors, so this will be a fun and bright colored house. This will be only the second time I've built a house for a little girl to actually play with, so I won't be furnishing it, just giving her the house. More photos and details to come!

Thanks for visiting!

~ Mini Shack

Key West Inspired Renovation

I've had this dollhouse for a while now, it was rescued from a thrift shop and in pretty good shape. Originally I thought it was an Alison Jr. by Real Good Toys, but then realized the floor plan is reversed. After some research I found the original kit, and now I know it's a "Petite Dreams Victorian". It's practically identical to the Alison Jr, but built with hinges instead, and the trim on the outside is a little different. I've also noticed the doorways are more narrow than a standard RGT house.

After staring at it for several months, I decided it's better suited as a Key West - New Orleans - Charleston style house. I wanted it to be colorful, but didn't want the colors to get too overwhelming so I made the base house color white. That way the soft pastels and the green landscaping would "pop" a little more. I live in South Florida, so I've seen many houses as inspiration for both the exterior colors and the landscaping. I don't usually landscape my houses, but this definitely needed it. I bought a 2ft x 2ft plywood board at Lowes and sealed the house to the board before I began. It's a permanent part of the house now.

I haven't started the inside yet, but my intentions are to make every room white, and use my collection of white wire metal ornate furniture throughout the entire house. As you can see from the photos below, I've included some pieces outside already. Each room will have a very faint pop of a pastel color. I've been collecting white wire pieces for almost 10 years now. Some are Alice Lacy brand and some are Windsor Collection brand, and some are just beautiful unbranded pieces with intricate ornate designs. I've been buying them based on my taste, not so much brand name, but I have a feeling my collection is worth a pretty penny by now!

Once the inside is complete I'll do another video for my YouTube channel and post pictures here. For now though, please enjoy the exterior photos:

Thank you for visiting!

~ Mini-Shack