Custom Dollhouse by Lawbre

The start of a lifetime project!

This house was designed by me using Lawbre's French Country House as a basis. I had discussed having a custom dollhouse built with several miniature shop owners, who wrongly advised me that Lawbre doesn't do custom work. When I called Lawbre directly, however, they said that custom houses were their specialty! The moral being, don't always believe what you are told! I even managed to order the house during Lawbre's annual February sale, so I got 15% off the quote. I had the exterior finished and the house wired, leaving the interior to finish myself.

The house arrived in August 2000. Because I only had a very odd-shaped space to put a house, I had to design a long, linear layout. The house is 76" long, 21" deep and 37.5" tall. I chose to recreate an authentic 16th Century French floorplan as well as possible.

I'm a rider, interested in a type of training called "dressage" which has its roots in 16th and 17th century equitation. Inspired by some equestrian paintings from the period, I decided to build the house around a 17th century French aristocrat and his family. I plan to have tack and a gentleman doll true to the period mounted on the larger horse (a beautiful 1-inch scale resin model of an Andalusian stallion titled "Asombroso," sculpted by Linda York and painted by Marion Keefe. He is posed in a traditional movement called the "piaffe," or trotting in place.) The daughters of the house will be mounted on the two ponies.

Because the house is approached first from the side, I designed the exterior carvings to give interest to the wings by using Lawbre's architectural accents. Lawbre finished the house in cream stucco and a gray paint on the "stone" quoins. I plan to weather and lightly distress the exterior, to make it look more stonelike, and create a small formal garden in the space in front of the house.

I designed the floorplan using a simple home architectural design program on the computer. The plan is symmetrical around the central entry hall, or Salon. This is how 16th Century large houses were arranged, along a linear axis extending both directions from the center. Each room off the public Salon was increasingly private, from the Ante-Chambre, where most visitors were entertained, to the Bedchambre, where of course the bed was placed, and where more favored guests were received, to the small "Cabinet" or "Closet" where the lord or lady entertained their most intimate friends. Large formal dinners were often given in the central Salon. Aristocratic or royal houseguests were lodged in the formal suite, so these were the most extravagently decorated rooms of the entire house. (I will probably take a lifetime to finish them in miniature!)

I had hoped to have a double staircase in the Salon, but there wasn't room. This would have been the most public room in the house, where balls and large parties took place. Obviously I have a long way to go, but just for fun I put up a couple of ancestral portraits to oversee the work. These are originals by me under my "Folie" guise.