Skip to main content

Welcome to my "little" project

More than a year ago, now, I came across Petite Properties' Traveller's Rest. I've long had an interest in dollhouse miniatures; I love to look at little things on Etsy, but I'd never actually attempted anything in miniature before.

Somehow, though, I knew I needed to do this. I'm a little obsessed with coaching inns -- although it probably wasn't actually so fun to travel in the Georgian era, the romance of it really resonates with me. So I decided I was going to give it a go, and try to turn Traveller's Rest into a coaching inn. Possibly this was completely crazy to take on, given 1:48 is so much smaller than even traditional dollhouse sizes, but what I actually found as I got into it was that as long as I went slow, things (mostly) went okay.

It quickly became apparent, though, that ONE 1:48 house wasn't going to be sufficient to hold everything a coaching inn should, and I really wanted to give it some architectural and historic accuracy. I picked up a Petite Properties stable, and also purchased an old 1:48 barn in need of some "renovation," but even that wasn't enough. The current project is now up to EIGHT structures, mostly from Petite Properties. But building all of these is going to let me create a true galleried coaching inn!

I've already made a fair amount of progress, but I decided to start this blog to catalogue the journey, as much for myself as for anyone else with an interest in miniatures or this era of travel. In a way I suppose it's inevitable that I did this project, as it hits the intersection of a lot of things I love: history, architecture, and travel. Sadly, something I do NOT love is holding things until glue sets, but now that things are starting to come together, even that is feeling more worthwhile.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Where I bought all of the things

Updated 8/28/2021 with new shops I've noticed: I have been afraid to start on this post because it means going back through SO MANY posts and Pinterest pins and who knows what else, but I also know it's something I can do because I can recall how difficult it was to find items when I was looking to source everything I needed for this project. So this is as complete a list as I can make it, which means it's probably not complete at all...there are certainly shops missing where I just forgot where I got things or purchased one item from an Etsy or eBay store. I hope it will still be helpful to folks, though! Shops are generally listed under the category where I got the most items from but if I got a lot from several categories they are cross-listed. I've also included some web sites that have been on my radar or used for other projects even if I didn't use them for this one. They're  noted as such. These are all 1:48 scale or O Scale unless otherwise noted. Please

Setbacks and progress

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really completed anything lately. I am still working away on both Butterwick Houses, but I thought I would at least post some pictures of work in progress. One of the tricky things with these houses has been figuring out my plan to build them. The reason for this is that they will eventually be joined in some fashion -- their balconies will connect to form the gallery. The bottom part of them needs to be in a stone finish, and I couldn't put the lower windows in until the stone finish was done around them. But the stone finish couldn't be completed until the upstairs was more complete and I attached the balconies. Add to this a whole lot of wallpaper and details which means I really need to work on the rooms from the bottom up without the upper floor in place for each room, and it became a real conundrum. Ultimately what I decided to do was to do part of the front stone, particularly around the windows. I'll then ha

Completing the ballroom

I went on a major offensive this weekend trying to get the bedrooms of my Butterwick Houses done, and I did! But it's going to take some time to write up the details for those and I realized that I still haven't posted on completing the ballroom. It's simpler than many of the other rooms as it needs a lot of space in the middle for dancing. On one end are two Petworth Miniatures chairs, and a plant stand I picked up somewhere along the way, which is serving as a little side table to hold another Mini From Italy fan. The vases are actually lamp bases from SJS Originals on Etsy, with some Stewart Dollhouse roses inside and embroidery thread as the greenery. I'm pretty chuffed with how those turned out as I think it's my best tiny painting to date. The fireplace is from Victoria Miniland and boy those are a pain to paint. I think I tried spray paint first and it just wouldn't get into the detailed bits so I had to use regular paint (somewhere around here I h