Your first stop on the magical mystery tour of Dee-Daw land! This page is for news, inspiration and loads of other random stuff!
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3D printing plays a big part in my miniatures and this section shows my triumphs and disasters!
Articles on things things to do with, or that inspire me in my miniature work – anything really!
A fun section of chatty bits that aren’t Q&A’s but are informative – just as if you overheard it on a bus!
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SNIPPETS
This is all bits and pieces I say to people or they say to me (I will add them as I come across them) – so imagine you are sitting on a bus and a conversation is going on nearby – your are not eavesdropping – you just can’t not hear….
But to start – After just having come back from a show I realised that I really should get down on the website the things I say time and again when asked for advice…You may have heard this at a show already – but here they are:
1: Only buy what you really love – don’t buy if it is just to fit with what you have – eventually it will niggle away at you until you ditch what ‘fits’ and start again with what you love. Buy what you love first and save money!
2: Buy your furniture first then decorate – its easier to match wallpaper to furniture than furniture to wallpaper. If I had a penny for every time someone has decorated, then seen a room suite they love and had to redecorate!
2a: Speaking of wallpaper – you don’t always have to use it – In Featherstone hall I used silk, cotton and gift wrap amongst other things – it doesn’t have to be wallpaper!
3: Buy it when you see it. Once again, if I had a penny every time someone came back to the stand to buy something and it was gone!
4: Don’t think because you have a – for example Georgian house that you have to decorate it in Georgian style. My Featherstone hall is a Georgian House but I have dressed it in the Edwardian period because I prefer that style. Always go with what you like not what is strictly correct – if you like it that is all the justification you need – don’t get too bogged down in detail (unless you want to!)
Have we discussed a fireplace for this room yet? I was wondering if a Harewood fireplace with a separate over mantle might work with your wallpaper panels? I have attached a picture of my stock one, but a custom
version of this perhaps without lights, and picking up on the sage green and raspberry accents in the paper – I have just been 3D printing some new
ornaments and clocks which I think may look ideal. Then the overmantle could have a big oil painting or perhaps mirror – because when the chandelier is
switched on the mirror will double the light in the room.
…it’s so helpful to hear other people’s experiences and short cuts to avoid extra work. When I built my first house I read just in time to decorate staircases before fixing stairs in if at all possible and boy does that safe a lot of work and time. Also I wish someone had suggested the idea of false doors on landings and corridors to give the impression of rooms beyond as I so wish I had done that on the half landings and impossible to do afterwards. I love the idea of having the house open with perspex too brilliant!and everyone can see in and no dust -always a winner!
I was having a little daydream (as you do!) about your room scenario – you know how I like to invent scenes to help me work out what to do – I kept thinking about the breakfast table being set with two chairs and breakfast stuff (boiled eggs toast post/letters teapots etc) then across the room was the sofa with a small table with a pot of black coffee and a newspaper on – I imagine that the husband has not long crawled in from a
night on the town, (perhaps top hat cane and white silk scarf thrown on the sofa) and the black coffee and newspapers are for him (he can’t face anything else yet!), while his wife and mother sit at the breakfast table – LOL – I do get carried away sometimes!
…when buying make sure to buy what you love NOT what you think is right for the room. If you don’t love it, you will get fed up with it and end up buying something you do love (and redecorating in the process).
…Forgot to tell you – another thing that came up at the Kensington show was that an exhibitor I know bought a load of my stuff at the show as she works part time in the Basle Dolls House Museum shop and the manager had asked her to look for stuff at the show to sell in the museum shop. The thing is all the best miniaturists want to get something on display in the museum – so I’ve sort of managed to get Dee-Daw Designs in via the back door – LOL (According to wiki: The Dollhouse Museum in Basel is the largest museum of its kind in Europe. Now known as the Spielzeug Welten Museum Basel With over 6000 teddy bears, dolls, toy grocers’ shops, doll houses and carousels, the Toy Worlds Museum Basel is unparalleled in Europe. The museum shop is also well worth a second look, offering a wide range of gifts and mementos)- I can now vouch for the shop LOL
…My best advice in the first place is get the house built then do one room at a time. If you try and do several you can end up with a lot of half done stuff and get demoralised by the whole thing. Doing one room at a time and finishing it gives you the motivation to do the next room,
and any mistakes you make on one room won’t happen in the next one!
…buy your furniture BEFORE decorating. If I had a penny for every time someone has bought from my stand then said they will have to redecorate their room to match the furniture!
