The SugarPlum Cottage as a one room schoolhouse

[gngrrng]

I spent entirely too much time daydreaming today about my future dollhouse village I want to build. There are a ton of dolls (children) that I want to include in my village, and I was thinking if I am going to have that many kids running around, I will need to build a school for them. So that started me looking for the perfect house to turn into a one room schoolhouse. I think the Sugar Plum Cottage by Greenleaf will work with it's open first floor and attic space that I could turn into living quarters for the teacher. The only thing I'm thinking about that might not work is that it has a large picture window in the front, right about where I'd like to put the chalkboard. What do you think? Would it be feasible to not punch out the window, put trim on the outside where the cut lines would show, and use that space to put the name of the school--kind of like frame it in? Or is there another small house that you think would be better suited to being a schoolhouse?

I did toss around the idea of building a church and using it for both school and church, but I really think I'd like to keep the church for church. That is someday when I have time to build that too!

[GirlPiper]

Just don't cut out the window, and side over it on the exterior. If the opening is already there, make a patch from some waste wood, then side/paper as usual.

[sunshinefl95]

You have me totally picturing your vision. I love the idea of not cutting out the window & using it as the sign for the schools name. Great idea! Can't wait to see your vision come to life:)

[Dalesq]

I think it will make a great schoolhouse!

[WyckedWood]

I cant think of a better Greenleaf house for that project. Sounds like fun

[morgansmith]

I have to throw in my two (five?) cents worth

First, I too saw your vision and started predicting what you'd say next. So OBVIOUSLY based on how many of us are seeing that, you have a fantastic vision and there is no reason not to run with it. Okay, and now for the other three cents

I disagree with your last statement but it brought to mind a good reason to consider this idea. Think 'Little House On The Prairie'. What is authentic is not to build the school first, but the church. It might add an element of reality to your town if you built a classic old white church, to be a church. And you build your schoolhouse inside, furnishings-wise. Then, when later you build the schoolhouse, you move all the school stuff there. Now, of course, you can take out the windows you only waxed into place and add stained glass. You can take the lightly stained and unsealed floor (looking more aged) darken it and put on a shine sealer and then start adding your great church items.

Okay, maybe ten cents. But, I was just thinkin'..........

[havanaholly]

As for not punching out the window;lest it fall out on its own, whilst it's still in it's plywood shhet, you might want to run a wee bead of glue around the die stamp line, wipe off the excess and let it dry. When you're ready to assemble, go over the primed interior with a thin layer of spackle spread smooth and sanded when dry to remove the window's impression on the inside and go for it. Or, if you have lots of siding strips, apply them vertically to the inside walls for an authentic beadboard finish. I remember my elementary school, built sometime in the late 19-teens or early 20s had plaster walls above wood wainscots, with radiators for heat in winter and NO a/c; huge, tall windows that opened at both bottom and top. The plastered walls were painted the sickliest shade of green imaginable.

[gngrrng]

I have to throw in my two (five?) cents worth

First, I too saw your vision and started predicting what you'd say next. So OBVIOUSLY based on how many of us are seeing that, you have a fantastic vision and there is no reason not to run with it. Okay, and now for the other three cents

I disagree with your last statement but it brought to mind a good reason to consider this idea. Think 'Little House On The Prairie'. What is authentic is not to build the school first, but the church. It might add an element of reality to your town if you built a classic old white church, to be a church. And you build your schoolhouse inside, furnishings-wise. Then, when later you build the schoolhouse, you move all the school stuff there. Now, of course, you can take out the windows you only waxed into place and add stained glass. You can take the lightly stained and unsealed floor (looking more aged) darken it and put on a shine sealer and then start adding your great church items.

Okay, maybe ten cents. But, I was just thinkin'..........

I enjoyed your Little House vision--you think like me--imagining the background history of the town and then "acting it out" in dollhouse life. I tell my kids all the time the background story to my dollhouse people and their homes, and the future plans I have for them, then as I get the stuff, I have to set up the dolls to act out whatever scene has been playing in my mind. My teenager thinks I have weird things going on in my head--but I have fun, and that is all that matters!!

[gngrrng]

The plastered walls were painted the sickliest shade of green imaginable.

I'm wondering if that is all the school had available to paint the walls with? I remember our cafeteria being a gross green color in elementary school too!

[havanaholly]

I think it might have been leftover barracks paint; I started school just after WWII.

[Contrary Housewife]

"Institutional green" was not just really trendy in those years, it was thought to be easier to look at and more soothing than plain white walls. It was everywhere, hospitals, schools, factories, offices. I think if you went to school between 1950 and 1980 you were subjected to it.

[havanaholly]

It was around in the 1940s, too, along with the really icky beige it replaced.

[GirlPiper]

As for not punching out the window;lest it fall out on its own, whilst it's still in it's plywood shhet, you might want to run a wee bead of glue around the die stamp line, wipe off the excess and let it dry. When you're ready to assemble, go over the primed interior with a thin layer of spackle spread smooth and sanded when dry to remove the window's impression on the inside and go for it. Or, if you have lots of siding strips, apply them vertically to the inside walls for an authentic beadboard finish. I remember my elementary school, built sometime in the late 19-teens or early 20s had plaster walls above wood wainscots, with radiators for heat in winter and NO a/c; huge, tall windows that opened at both bottom and top. The plastered walls were painted the sickliest shade of green imaginable.

WE must have gone to schools designed by the same person. Where DID they find that green paint?!

[KathieB]

This is how the ubiquitous institutional green paint came to be. Found at whereapy.com

Colors for Every Mood, by Leatrice Eiseman

In 1914, a surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco was disturbed by the glare of white walls, drapes, towels, sheets, and so forth. He chose to have his operating room painted a lettuce-leaf green because it is the complementary color (or opposite color) to red and pink: the colors of blood and tissue.

The color rapidly gained popularity. Thousands of surgical suites, uniforms and drapes eventually became green, with the hue anywhere from lettuce to spinach, depending on the location. This ‘eye-ease’ green has been scientifically proven to keep the surgeon’s eves acute to red and pink, to relieve glare, and to be psychologically ‘cooling’. Green is also the color of the after-image that persists in the mind’s eye after red is viewed.

In many hospitals green has given way to blue, but green is still often considered preferable for the operating room. The use of ‘institutional green’ spread to many other kinds of facilities, including educational and industrial.

Mint green paint is not such a big trend anymore, but you do see versions of it cropping up in alternative therapy spaces as the muddier shade of ‘sage’ or perhaps the fresher ‘celadon’.

[GirlPiper]

That is interesting! I always thought it was WWII surplus along with the battleship grey that seemed to be everywhere else.

[Selkie]

Thinking of the exterior colors - in the 1900 on up through the 1950's there was an icky shade of mustard with brown trim on a lot of the exteriors of the churches and schools where I was. White churches were not popular at all for the common folks. It was considered the rich peoples color.