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About this blog

The Ginkgo House is my first official dollhouse. My background includes building architectural models for designers and architects, but I have never furnished or 'peopled' one.  The Ginkgo House project started out as an architectural model for my own some-day home, and was supposed to be 'Tiny Home'. Somehow it just does not want to be tiny. Small, yes. But not tiny.

The first mock-up was done in free cardbard and wood crates found behind the supermarkets. Masking tape and pins were the onlu out-of-pocket. 

Entries in this blog

Demolition Third Times a Charm

Moving doors AND windows

Starting to think all of my blogs are about fixing things and changing my mind.  My original floorplan had the main door enter into the kitchen. I - and by default my eventual dolls - like to have a place to drop my grocery bags as soon as I walk in the door, and too many open floorplans and apartment plans these days do not include back doors, like in the good 'ol suburban neighbourhood days. Having spent some years as an interior designer, I had a number of clients interested in Feng Shui
Demolition Reloaded

Pocket Doors

Jimminy Cricket, if only I knew what I was getting myself into ... I'd have done it anyways. Tutorials were so-so in helpfulness. First a little history. My house is made with triple-layer foam core. To make a pocket for my door, I left out the middle layer. Well, foam core paper-and-glue-wrapped on one side will warp as the glue dries. I put up the original walls, left a gap for the door, then paper and glued the walls. Both sides warped, making it impossible to slide a door in and out. So
Demolitions

Moving doors

So, I saw a bench I just had to make a 1:12 copy of, but it would be too long for the place I wanted to put it, and would overlap existing door frames on either side. I could either remake the bench a little smaller - or - move one of the doors. That would be the easier route. I broke out the mini sledge hammer and took down about an inch of wall and the (bath) door with it. I then moved the inch of wall to the opposite side of the door frame, spackled it all back together, and it all fit nicely
Kami

Kami in Demolitions

1
General

Total Tile Fail

I found some 10X10 self adhesive tiles I liked, then cut a few up into 2X2 inch squares to repressent 2ftX2ft tiles. Cutting them was enough work, but trying to install them was aggravating at best. The tiles would pop up or drift, so I was constantly re-setting them, and had a pin a few down. In the end it just didn't look nice. So, in the morning I'll rip out half a days work.  But, I have a new plan. As these are parquet tiles, I will cut them into 5X5 squares and then align the wood grain to
Kami

Kami in General

4
Room boxes

Vincent van Gogh has a Dollhouse

Or is it a room box? Really, I was just curios, but sure enough ... I suppose if I really dug deeper, I'd find many famous, or infamous, folks with a 'dollhouse' snapshop of their lives. Why do we make dollhouses?     
Kami

Kami in Room boxes

4
From concept to finish

The concept

My biggest issue was settling on the right number of architectural elements out of the so, so many I really like, and finding a way to combine them. The ever-battle of 'will this go with that', and so on. I settled on Mid-Century Modern as an overall base, with some inluence from the great mid-century architect Joseph Eichler: Open floorplans with lots of light, and courtyard areas to drink in nature.  My times in Japan have also left an indelible mark on me, and I want to include some bits
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