justmesue Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 My DH bought me a finished 1/2 inch lighthouse and lighthouse keepers house, it came yesterday. It's really cute, and the beacon on top does blink. My dilemna is, I've never even seen the inside of a lighthouse, and don't have a clue how it's supposed to be decorated or furnished. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I'd like it to look like the real thing. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minime Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 If your interested I have an article from dolls house world about one done as a working lighthouse. It's a very nice article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 lighthouse and lighthouse keepers houseThere might have been a chair & a small table in the top room with the lamp, or the one just below it, for the keeper to sit & read & smoke his pipe whilst he tended the lamp at night; perhaps a small oil stove to keep him warm in wintery weather and a board nailed up with some hooks on it for his foul-weather gear, also the buckets & brushes for cleaning the lenses during the daytime. On the ground floor might be extra ropes, nets & oars. The lighthouse keeper's house, where he lived, would be furnished just like any other workman's cottage, but obviously with nautical things, perhaps items salvaged from ships that wrecked in spite of the lighthouse beacon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jokelly Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 I have the 1:12 scale lighthouse and I'm doing the bottom floor is a kitchen and, the second is a bedroom and little sitting area, and the top level will be the office. All done in a rustic/spartan manner. I have the lighthouse keeper doll that HBS sells and it's so adorable. That's my plans if I ever stop using it as a media cabinet. I built it about 8 years ago but never decorated. A local dollhouse store has the 1:12 lighthouse and keeper's house attached like the instructions recommend and it's big. If I ever get the room I may add the keepers house at some point, but right now it's not likely. The RGT lighthouse was the second house I built and it's still my only "I don't care how much it is, I have to have it" dollhouse. It was love at first sight. Sometimes I think I should have gone with the half-scale lighthouse, but I still love mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justmesue Posted August 25, 2007 Author Share Posted August 25, 2007 I'm very interested in reading the dollhouse world article, can you scan and email it to me, perhaps? PM me, and I'll give you my E- address, or if you'd be willing to put it in snail mail, and can give you that as well. I would send it back to you, of course. I have ordered the lighthouse keeper figuring from HBS, and he's on his way. I also ordered some 1/2 inch pictures of ships, that's a start. I have some mini furniture for his little house. I really like my lighthouse. It's just so different. I like the suggestions made so far, please keep them coming. Thank You. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justmesue Posted August 26, 2007 Author Share Posted August 26, 2007 Thank You for the article Pam. That was my very first glimpse of the interior of a lighthouse. I appreciate it. Now, I have a better idea, of what direction, I'm going in, with this little house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minime Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 You're welcome Suzanne. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pygmy_mouse Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 I haven't been a member here long enough to attach links, but if you Google Image lighthouses, you'll turn up some wonderful photos of both exteriors and interiors of all sorts of lighthouses. I'm starting the 1/12 RGT lighthouse any day now and have been researching lighthouses for awhile. You can also order plenty of nice lighthouse books on Amazon. I got all of mine secondhand. Don't forget that the lighthouse keeper may have a wife! She's so bored (in my own back-story for my lighthouse) that she hooks a lot of rugs in the winter months. This will give me the chance to do some nice weathered punchneedle embroidery. I think that weathering and aging everything inside and outside the lighthouse will be key. I'm looking forward to splurging on some battered-enamel cookware for the lighthouse stove. And there are a lot of good weathering tips on this site. Oh, furnishing the lighthouse will be great! But first I have to take all those jillions of pieces out of the box and turn them into something... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 I'm looking forward to splurging on some battered-enamel cookware for the lighthouse stove.I aged a set of the Chrysnbon cookware precisely because I saw no point in $spending all that money. The first thing I did after gluing together the coffeepot & teakettle was to prime all the pieces, inside & out, with flat black primer. For the items I wanted to enamel I went over them with black acrylic paint. The items I wanted blue spatterware I then painted ultramarine blue, barely touched a toothbrush to some white and ran my thumb over it, and when it had begun to dry I took a wet Qtip and removed "chips" with I then edged with a very thin line of more or less diluted raw sienna for rust. For the items I wanted aged white enamel cookware (saucepans) I mixed white with just barely touching the brush to the sienna and just a tiny bit of yellow ochre, again doing the "chips" the same way. I used a toothpick with a bit of tissue on the wet paint to thin the "enamel" here & there for wear. For the bakeware I sprayed the primed items with silver and then "washed" them with sienna & black to acieve the patina of use. I remember that the entire cookware set co$t about 1/2 to 2/3 the price listed for just the worn enamelware items. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pygmy_mouse Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 Excellent tip about the enamelware--thanks. I'll start practicing! Do you have photos you can post? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justmesue Posted September 5, 2007 Author Share Posted September 5, 2007 It was a gift for me, but it's been talking to DH! This is what he's got so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Librarian-Sarah Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 It was a gift for me, but it's been talking to DH! This is what he's got so far. Wow, that's something else. I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 Oh, Suzanne! Where did he find the lantern globe in the top? Oh, and the fire extinguisher is a perfect touch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justmesue Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 We are avid dollar store shoppers. LOL We have been lucky enough to find many little trinkets of small enough size, including that little metal fire extinguisher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallowell Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 If you ever go into a real lighthouse all you would have inside is living space on the ground floor and the rest of the tower would be a tall spiral staircase. But these kits are too cute to pass up even though they don't depict a lighthouse correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 All the lighthouses I've ever been in have the tower plus the keeper's house; other than a chair near the light so the keeper could trim the lamp as necessary, there was no furniture per se, just hooks & lockers at ground level for equipment. Part of what makes dh lighthouses such fun is decorating them as houses in & of themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jokelly Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 Lighthouses are different. Most are just towers with a keeper's house, but some do have living quarters inside the house. They're rare but do exist. There are a few on the Great Lakes like this. If you do a google search you can find examples of a few. I think one of them is Tarrytown Lighthouse in New York. I just love lighthouses. I have lighthouse chimes above my kitchen sink. They're supposed to be outside, but I can enjoy them more in the kitchen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SallyG Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 Go online and bring up Hooper Strait Lighthouse in St. Michaels, Maryland. It's a lighthouse that was moved from it's location years ago and is part of a maritime museum in St. Michaels, MD, which is about 15 minutes from where I live. I have been to the lighthouse many times, and some years we have climbed to the top of it to watch the July 4th fireworks. It's furnished very sparsely. The site should bring up at least one pic of the interior. The keeper did LIVE in the lighthouse, as it was out in the Chesapeake Bay. But only bare necessities were in the lighthouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuttiwebgal Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 I really like how your DH decorated your gift for himself....I only have a suggestion....I would move the desk/office area down one and turn that area into a work area with tools and fishing such as one might need to upkeep a light house. love the colors and have often thought about a lighthouse for myself! keep us updated....is their photos of the other sides? great job on the parlor/sleeping room! love the stove! nutti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalani Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 If you ever go into a real lighthouse all you would have inside is living space on the ground floor and the rest of the tower would be a tall spiral staircase. But these kits are too cute to pass up even though they don't depict a lighthouse correctly. Actually there was one about 16 miles from me (its demolished now...since the 60s) that was actually an A-frame...very different. The one on Rose Island is not a tower one either. (I'm fascinated by lighthouses can't you tell ;)) I do plan on picking up the half scale kit one day though....just for my fascination with them ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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