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
