Dollhouse Decorating Ideas – Victorian Dollhouse Accessories and Furniture

Susan's Note:
Idy Keeler gives a good basic list of the types of accessories and pieces of furniture to use in a Victorian dollhouse. I especially like the open paragraphs where Idy describes how the Victorians got to be so … should I say eclectic with their decorating, inside their home and out. The picture used is of a dollhouse purchased by Malcolm Forbes in the late 1980's
as a Christmas present for his granddaughters.

Here is Idy's article:


VICTORIAN DOLLHOUSE ACCESSORIES AND FURNITURE
By Idy Keeler

The Victorian Era (1837 to 1901) was known for its flamboyant, romantic, and excessive decorating style.  It represented the wealth and opulence during the reign of Queen Victoria.  A Victorian Home was meant to showcase the social standing of the owner . Ornate and excessive touches on everything from furniture to greeting cards marked this period.

Dollhouse Accessorizing - Halls, Bedrooms, Nurseries and Bathrooms

NOTE
As was true in Part 1 (Kitchen, Lounge & Dining Room), the following article by Julia Morrison is an excellent guide for the basic items you will need to accessories the 4 rooms in the title. Of course, you have decisions to make before buying the items listed. In what era does your project take place? (again, I chose Edwardian images). Aristocracy or We-The-People? Even before that, dollhouse or room box? Are you recreating a memory, copying a the room from a painting or photograph? What's your budget? Here's Julie Morrison's article.

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Dollhouse Accessories - How to Make Your House Look Real - Part 2
By Julia Morrison

In part 2 of 'How should I decorate a Dollhouse' we are looking at which dollhouse accessories to use to decorating your hall, your bedrooms, your nursery and the bathroom.

Just look around in your own house. What can you see in your hall, in your bedrooms and bathroom? Imagine how bare your home would look if there were only furniture. Following are some tips on how and which accessories you can use to make these areas of your house look absolutely real.

Dollhouse Decorating Ideas – Art Deco Project Anyone?

Are you contemplating an art deco project? Here's a great resource for images. The 1stdibs website sells very pricey originals and replicas of designer products. Shop away, if the price tags don't throw you. 

For artisans, it is a treasure trove of clear images of great products from which to pattern pieces in any scale. Most have pictures from multiple angles. The top navigation bar has these tabs: Furniture, Fine Art, Jewelry & Watches, Fashion, Collections, Magazine.

The radio pictured is the Sparton Model 557 "Sled" Radio, designed by Walter Drown Teague. Price: $5,900. Does it work? Not necessarily. The description includes the statement that “this prime example of a highly sought after Art Deco streamline style of radio, with 'speed lines.' is sold as a decorative piece.”

Ah, well. We all have to accessorize. Still, this website is a great resource. 

Susan Downing

Dollhouse Decorating Ideas - Bookcase Perfection

Dollhouse bookcases can be in any room of a dollhouse. To style a bookcase to perfection, resist the urge to pack in accessories on every shelf. Keep a clean look by choosing a one-color or tone-on-tone scheme for vases and figurines, and make sure to mix up shapes. Place items off-center or try larger or smaller ones until you like what you see. 

To add interest to your book collection, alternate stacking books horizontally and vertically. Bold-color picture frames make great bookends and help photographs stand out on shelves.

If your room box is an office, give shelves an organized feel by gathering a wide variety of collectibles. Place them between books, creating loose symmetry. 

If you have a picture frame or square shape in one shelf, mirror it with a collectible of a similar shape and size. In a wall of shelves such as this, it's important to scatter books here and there to punctuate the look. 

Carry the room's color scheme onto your bookshelf to form a sense of unity. Accent accessories on the shelves match the light blue wall color. Storage boxes conceal items such as toys and movies that you may not want out in the open.  

Vary heights and create interest by stacking books horizontally to use as platforms for displaying other objects. Pull together a small bookcase by arranging the top and bottom shelves in opposite ways.  

Susan Downing

Dollhouse Decorating – Aqua Accessory Ensemble

These are photos from my 1:12 Scale COMPLETE YOUR ROOM series, which is an economical way to coordinate and accessorize a room, saving money for the big-ticket items. Other Rooms in the series are the Baby Nursery and Peach Accessory Ensembles. Items can be purchased individually. Click on the picture and follow link for details. 

Dollhouse Decorating - Elegant Home Office

In real life, a home office does not have to hidden behind louvered doors in an extra closet, The same is true in contemporary room boxes or dollhouses. Here is one example of how to do it in a tiny space, and still have this work area fit in with elegant surroundings.

In the picture with the butterfly print on the wall, the sofa was moved to the center of the living room, using the space behind as a home office. A glass-top desk and narrow credenza have just enough room behind the sofa. With this arrangement, if the TV is centered in front of the sofa, and the desk is too, you can have entertainment while you work.

For me, there's a big negative with this plan. I dislike seeing a big, flat-screen TV on a living room wall. The pictures with the rust-colored walls show how I handled this for a client.









I bought a stretcher at Michaels, boxed in the telly with 1X4s and stapled a piece of Marimekko fabric art to it. The stylized poppy picture is easily removed when it's time to zone-out with the tube. Why not do the same in a miniature?

Dollhouse Decorating - Accessorizing Shelves

Make a shelf display feel like an art object, rather than storage space, by staggering heights and shapes and putting a little breathing room between individual items. Alternating horizontal and vertical stacks of books add interest to this mantel.  

Group favorite objects in odd numbers and styles. This setup is naturally more appealing to the eye than even-number groupings. Books can be a colorful pedestal to give framed photos and other treasured objects a lift, as in the Astolat Castle's grand library. Click on picture for a cool video.

Use a ledge in a breakfast room to display plates, or in a child’s 
room to keep porcelain figurines or stuffed animals out in the open, yet out of the way. Or in a kitchen around the refrigerator. Utilitarian items can show a sense of style.

Make an impact with multiples of a single item; the collection of sand pails, for instance. Sprinkle in a handful of smaller objects for added interest without

overpowering the primary display.

In cabinets, display collections against a contrasting background to make them really stand out. The cream ware and statuary look radiant against a black armoire. Small touches of green -- a fern in a lattice-weave planter and pears in a footed compote -- warm the grouping with color and life.

Dollhouse Decorating – Accessorizing With A Theme

A theme can be anything you want it to be: a collection of beer mugs, shades of the same color, a hobby or sport.

Do your dollhouse dwellers live on a lake, like water sports? Hang a handmade canoe paddle on the wall. Start with a 1” x 3/8” piece of balsa wood and carve the paddle. Or is sailing their thing? Group gorgeous model boats on the mantel. Maybe the teenage son is a beach bum? He'd need a surfboard as wall art. Recreational gear will take you to your happy place -- fast.

Is your mini home dweller a backpacker? Do they daydream of the slopes? Mini skis and snowshoes are all over the miniature shops on the Internet. Or learn to make the items yourself. There are how-to videos on the net as well. Think of what makes you or your mini home dweller happy -- and gravitate there with a room design.

If you have a collection of old band instruments and sheet music, they can make an instant accessory theme for the music lover in your mini home. Frame the sheet music or place the instruments on mounted shelving.

Look to the game closet for some accessory inspiration. Wall-size Scrabble tiles can customize a word-crazy kid’s room. Add a spot of fun in the family room by mounting vintage game boards on the wall. Classic British pub dartboards look great and a mini chalk board is a good-looking and functional way to tally the scores.


If you have a collection that’s striking by itself, use that for accessorizing. You don’t have to get fancy with groupings or displays. Simply line a wall-length shelf to border the room with your pieces. This works great with collections of globes, pitchers plates, apothecary jars, and pottery. If you’re a plant lover, track down some old botany books and frame your favorite pages.

Authors have a saying, “Write what you know.” It's the same with Theme Accessorizing. What do you enjoy doing? What symbolizes that? Make a list and put those items in your miniature room.

These pictures are of real rooms; I hope they spark some ideas for a miniature project.

Dollhouse Decorating – A Guide To Accessorizing

Accessories for doll houses can be made from so many items. Wall art can be a piece of jewelry like a brooch. Or Mod Podge magazine pictures or posters onto foam core and frame them. Twist Fimo into a piece of sculpture, worthy of standing on a plinth in a MacMansion vestibule. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Coffee tables offer lots of space for books, flowers and decorative pieces. To keep objects orderly and pleasing to the eye, use trays to group similar items, such as ceramics and pillar candles. Try clustering candles of different sizes and colors in one tray and bowls or vases in another. Jazz up a stack of books by topping it with a vessel filled with found objects.

Personalize a space on the mantle by using items that symbolize you and your interests. You’ll want one piece or element to dominate the grouping, with smaller items supporting it. The subject can be anything that describes you. Just be sure to keep the items in the same theme.

Adding flowers can provide a beautiful and colorful focal point to the space.  Choose one large arrangement or multiple, smaller potted arrangements to showcase organic elements.

Complement a credenza with a striking piece of wall art. In reality, it should hang from 8 to 12 inches above the credenza to form an eye-pleasing connection between the items. So adjust for your project's scale. To complete the effect, make sure that some of the accessories are tall enough to overlap the artwork, helping the art and accessories appear as a single unit.

Using elements that are different will give your space interest and flow. But be careful not to create a hodgepodge of collectibles scattered around a room. The eye will not be able to focus -- and enjoy -- any one item. Simplify what you collect. Stick with items that are a similar size or hue. Then gather your favorites in one spot for major impact, sans the clutter.

Harmonize objects of different shapes and sizes with an asymmetrical arrangement. You’ll want to avoid items that have all the same height or all the same size and scale. Balance a tall, large object with several smaller ones. Nestle the items together to increase the arrangement's visual weight and overlap shapes to create layers. Choose items from the same color palette to unify unrelated objects.

Keep your miniature fresh looking by rotating accessories, Change the flowers on the coffee table often. If you have more than one interest that you can symbolize in a grouping, rotate that display on the mantle.

Make sure you have the “right” coffee table. This is mainly an issue in contemporary miniatures, where the idea is to depict life as we know it today -- or a recent “yesterday.” Is the coffee table in a formal living room, or in a space where the kids will be hanging out doing homework, while your husband watches a football game? The old maxim “function before form” will point you in the right direction on what kind of table to select, and how to accessorize it.

Dollhouse Decorating – Baby Nursery Accessory Ensemble

The Baby Nursery Accessory Ensemble is part of my COMPLETE YOUR ROOM series. Thus is an economical way to accessorize a room, saving money for the big-ticket items. Items can be purchased individually.

Other rooms in the series are the Aqua and Peach Accessory Ensembles. Click on the image for details.

Dollhouse Decorating – Peach Accessory Ensemble

This is part of my COMPLETE YOUR ROOM series in 1:12 scale. It is an economical way to coordinate and accessorize a room, saving money for the big-ticket items. Other Rooms in the series are the Baby Nursery and Aqua Accessory Ensembles. Items can be purchased individually.

Click on images and follow the link for product details.

Dollhouse Decorating – The Aqua Accessory Ensemble

This is part of my COMPLETE YOUR ROOM series, which is an economical way to coordinate and accessorize a room, saving money for the big-ticket items. Other Rooms in the series are the Baby Nursery and Peach Accessory Ensembles. Items can be purchased individually.

Click on the image for details.

Susan Downing

Dollhouse Decorating – Curtains: Pleats or Soft Folds

I offer curtains in both soft folds and pleats, in fabrics suitable for dollhouse miniatures.

Click on the images for details.

Susan Downing