Judging from what I've read online, the Willowcrest dollhouse kit by Greenleaf has a pretty big fan club. I decided to see what other minia...
Seeing how much I loved the stonework on her previous houses, Robin sent me photos of the Willowcrest she had made for Dean Roberts from Greenleaf. The Willowcrest is one of my favorite Greenleaf kits because of its architectural details, and Robin's meticulous brickwork makes this one so very special!
Judging from what I've read online, the Willowcrest dollhouse kit by Greenleaf has a pretty big fan club. I decided to see what other minia...
Judging from what I've read online, the Willowcrest dollhouse kit by Greenleaf has a pretty big fan club. I decided to see what other minia...
Judging from what I've read online, the Willowcrest dollhouse kit by Greenleaf has a pretty big fan club. I decided to see what other minia...
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footpr...
willowcrest, instructions, greenleaf, pdf,
Ever since I began building my Greenleaf WILLOWCREST Kit a.k.a "VILLA LEONE", I have been trying to settle on a local identity for it. You may find that strange, when you recall that my idea was that this house would be situated in the city of Venice, which should have firmly settled the matter. Yet despite all of my efforts at establishing it there, it wasn't looking TO ME, like it actually lived there. The exterior has been a challenge, of searching for "the secret formula" of how to make the outside look more "Villa" and less "Chalet", which was why I decided towards the end of last year, to leave it alone for a while, as I began working on the interior. With the hall staircase kinda resolved and the interior wallpaper panels PERMANENTLY GLUED into place, (which was in itself, another giant commitment for me ) I decided to revisit the exterior of the villa and deal with some of the identity crisis issues which I was still struggling with. my main concern were Paint Colors because these just weren't working for me. below is the orange/ off-white paint color BEFORE It took me a LONG TIME to settle on this custom mixed orange, however it ended up taking all the blame once I decided to change the color of the house. BIG MISTAKE! I made it WORSE, MUCH Worse ah me- and there was no going back either since I was all out of that orange paint. below is a photo of the HORRIBLE AFTER AND there were at least 15 MORE HORRIBLY UGLY AFTERS which followed one right after the other. The color in the photo is a taupe-green BLAH! Boo! Hiss! I re-painted the 2nd and 3rd floors over and over again, using every warm and/or neutral color I had on hand. When they didn't work, I sanded down the walls and custom mixed my own paint hoping to hit on that elusive "magic color combination", but it was all time wasted because everything I did looked awful and had to be undone. This painting and repainting fiasco went on throughout the month of January. I was in deep despair. It must have been the last week of January when I stumbled upon a PINTEREST photo of a popular craft called "Tejas"; which are painted Spanish roof tiles which are made to resemble Mediterranean house facades as well as other imaginative scenes. What interested me most about the "Tejas" was that within a very limited space, the artists were effectually able to convey an atmosphere of hot, ancient stone dwellings. 3-D renderings complete with with all the door and window fittings, balconies, roofs, plants, awnings, shutters etc., which gave the clay tile houses, both a sense of location as well as a long history. so Why, I wondered, wasn't I able to achieve this kind of effect with My dollhouse? Since this craft was new to me, I watched a demonstration on youtube which I found fascinating Especially the way one artist base painted her entire tile in BLACK prior to adding detail colors which gave the final finish a visual depth. And so with nothing left to loose, I re-painted my villa BLACK too! The next step was to dry brush the black with thin layers of shading and highlight colors to achieve dimension on the flat surface, which brings me to another issue I was having which was the Wall Texture I didn't like the texture of my exterior walls. There was either too much of it or not enough and I couldn't seem to get the balance right. So prior to painting the house black, as per the Tejas tutorial, I opted to add MORE texture by glueing on a few paper bricks, then feathering the edges with wall patch. When that was cured I applied a heap of glue and pressed bird gravel onto the wall over the plaster to give it a rough, aged texture as well as some extra character. below is the base coat of black paint with the bricks glued on and painted. the photos below and above are reversed. The bricks below are Before painting and the picture above is After they were painted. above is another AFTER. Over the black, I dry brushed a mix of gray, white, brown, black and cream, to build up the look of a concrete wall. I actually liked it and was on the verge of keeping it this way, however it still didn't look Italian enough to me- So I FINALLY gave up trying to think of something myself and used a picture as a color reference. *Something I should have done in the first place!* My inspiration photo and below is another AFTER with the new color At last I felt I was making some real progress! I painted both the ground and second floor a custom mixed golden tan and deepened the red doors with a brown antique stain. Staining the french doors had me looking twice at the main entry door again. I chose to change that too. below is the Red Door BEFORE sidebar: *I actually didn't have an 'issue' with the red door until I started messing around with the others. Nevertheless, it seems that I can't help but meddle.* My thought was to make the front door look "Heftier" (whatever that meant ) After searching through Pinterest I saw a door that seemed to fit the description. It required decorative nail heads By cutting off the tails of a number of teeny tiny paper brads and gluing them to the surface of the door, I got the "HEFTIER" look which I was after. I added some more metal findings to the raised panels and changed the door handle as well as its position. Then everything was re-painted and re-stained and re-aged, to achieve the AFTER Door as shown below I'm calling this door DONE! I'll take time here to mention the structural changes which I made to the 3rd floor attic windows which are on either side of the Willowcrest kit. After due consideration, I felt that they could be enlarged by removing the existing dormers and replacing the windows with larger ones using the original kit windows from the main floors as substitutes. Below is the BEFORE size of the attic dormer windows the larger Attic windows AFTER! Having changed them to a bigger size, will no doubt change the roofline once it is actually installed. However, I'll stress out about that problem later, since I can only be stressed with one problem at a time! But Hey! let's talk about wasted building materials! I wasted a perfectly good french door to make this solid panel of two small stationary kitchen windows??? Mamma Mia!- What was I thinking??? (head slap) To see what the panel looked like BEFORE, refer to photo 2 at the top of this post. and Before I forget, here is the AFTER results of all of my wall texturing project. more Texture was added to the right side of the villa, too. These green doors came about right after I'd finished painting them red, which meant that since I immediatley regretted the green, I had to re-paint them red brown AGAIN! will I EVER learn to leave things well enough alone? *sigh* ANYWAY.... that's not why I included the photo. Rather it is to show the infill of the roof overhang directly above it. I removed the half circle from over the door to fill in that wide disconnect between the two sides of the dollhouse and have a continuous line spanning the entire front section as it does on either side. You can see the brown wood infill in the BEFORE photo above. The AFTER is shown in the photo below. The lower left side of the wall will eventually have small window cut and installed, AFTER I get the kitchen floor plan worked out on the inside, so the photo above is both an AFTER as well as a BEFORE if that makes any sense to you? Decorative columns were added to the front corners of the villa, using wide dollhouse baseboard trims. Another AFTER is the repainting of the exterior light fixtures and beefing up the wall ornamentations. On the right side of the house, I framed in the round plaster carving over the window for no good reason, other than I thought I might try it. And since it looked horrid after my first attempt, it was reworked repeatedly. Rarely do things go smoothly for me the first time around. In the photo above you can see all of the extra age and decay on the right wall. FYI- the temporary roof over the dining room windows is only a stand-in. This is another roof which I'm not yet ready to deal with yet. The photo below shows what the window wall will look like AFTER the planter is re-installed. hmmmm?... Perhaps....? What about...? Should I add some ivy trailing down the front of the planter...? . given my history- do I dare? Just for FUN, I taped a tear sheet which Janine had given me, to the wall to give me the feeling of a house in Venice, however I'm still not convinced that this villa lives there, nevertheless- I love the perspective! And I love those blue shutters! So I made two sets of simple shutters for the front of my Villa. Well- they were supposed to be "SIMPLE", however not only did the wood warp as it dried, but the glue wouldn't stick! AND even after they were wrestled into submission, the shutters proved to be difficult to install and fought me all the way. The results shown below, are AFTER 3 DAYS of fiddling around flattening, gluing, painting, staining, drilling and installing them, and although they still require a latch- they don't close. Which brings me to another consideration. Should I bother installing the window glass? something else for me to stress out about. The Cat appears to have found the purr-fect place on the window ledge, to sun himself. "Do not disturb" is plainly written in those half-closed eyes. hello kitty And FINALLY here is my last AFTER; an awning over the balcony. Although, I've only just started on The Awning, it has already been made over several times and no doubt the process will continue on until I have resolved all of my current difficulties with it. "There got to be an Awning AFter" In the photo above you can see the faded paint on the concrete facade. I have left the 3rd floor front wall more raw than the rest of the house, because currently I like the effect. However, it does seems to need "something extra" up there. I've already attempted 3 different minor alterations and all 3 of them went BUST, so I'm leaving it alone- for now. When my daughter was over last week, she told me that if my villa was going to be located in Venice, then it needed MORE ALGE and more DIRT! I thought that I already had LOTS, but she said I needed more, so after a few tentative dabs here and there, I threw myself into it, and GRIME flew from my brush and was deposited all over the entire house. however- In hind sight, I feel I may have gone a bit overboard, so I've been sanding down the grime a little bit here, and a little bit there... ah me... around and around I go salt water stains on the base of the front door, dirt on the walls, slime on the stone, exposed bricks, peeling paint etc. etc. and I still don't know if I want this house in Venice! and I'm tired so its time for the AFTER WORD- After all that has been said and done, I think I FINALLY have a Mediterranean house. Maybe it's in Venice? or maybe not, either way- I am going to have to be content to just go with the flow and let Villa Leone decide where it wants to live. because- the stress of constantly changing things to make the dollhouse adjust to My ever-changing ideas is DRIVING ME CRAZY! I am as wound up as tight as an old pocket watch. I think I'm needing a break, so that I can get outside of my own head! Perhaps a mini vacation in a warm, dry spot, where I won't have to think about ANYTHING except relaxing for a while. and I know Exactly where I can go! move over cat elizabeth
Ever since I began building my Greenleaf WILLOWCREST Kit a.k.a "VILLA LEONE", I have been trying to settle on a local identity for it. You may find that strange, when you recall that my idea was that this house would be situated in the city of Venice, which should have firmly settled the matter. Yet despite all of my efforts at establishing it there, it wasn't looking TO ME, like it actually lived there. The exterior has been a challenge, of searching for "the secret formula" of how to make the outside look more "Villa" and less "Chalet", which was why I decided towards the end of last year, to leave it alone for a while, as I began working on the interior. With the hall staircase kinda resolved and the interior wallpaper panels PERMANENTLY GLUED into place, (which was in itself, another giant commitment for me ) I decided to revisit the exterior of the villa and deal with some of the identity crisis issues which I was still struggling with. my main concern were Paint Colors because these just weren't working for me. below is the orange/ off-white paint color BEFORE It took me a LONG TIME to settle on this custom mixed orange, however it ended up taking all the blame once I decided to change the color of the house. BIG MISTAKE! I made it WORSE, MUCH Worse ah me- and there was no going back either since I was all out of that orange paint. below is a photo of the HORRIBLE AFTER AND there were at least 15 MORE HORRIBLY UGLY AFTERS which followed one right after the other. The color in the photo is a taupe-green BLAH! Boo! Hiss! I re-painted the 2nd and 3rd floors over and over again, using every warm and/or neutral color I had on hand. When they didn't work, I sanded down the walls and custom mixed my own paint hoping to hit on that elusive "magic color combination", but it was all time wasted because everything I did looked awful and had to be undone. This painting and repainting fiasco went on throughout the month of January. I was in deep despair. It must have been the last week of January when I stumbled upon a PINTEREST photo of a popular craft called "Tejas"; which are painted Spanish roof tiles which are made to resemble Mediterranean house facades as well as other imaginative scenes. What interested me most about the "Tejas" was that within a very limited space, the artists were effectually able to convey an atmosphere of hot, ancient stone dwellings. 3-D renderings complete with with all the door and window fittings, balconies, roofs, plants, awnings, shutters etc., which gave the clay tile houses, both a sense of location as well as a long history. so Why, I wondered, wasn't I able to achieve this kind of effect with My dollhouse? Since this craft was new to me, I watched a demonstration on youtube which I found fascinating Especially the way one artist base painted her entire tile in BLACK prior to adding detail colors which gave the final finish a visual depth. And so with nothing left to loose, I re-painted my villa BLACK too! The next step was to dry brush the black with thin layers of shading and highlight colors to achieve dimension on the flat surface, which brings me to another issue I was having which was the Wall Texture I didn't like the texture of my exterior walls. There was either too much of it or not enough and I couldn't seem to get the balance right. So prior to painting the house black, as per the Tejas tutorial, I opted to add MORE texture by glueing on a few paper bricks, then feathering the edges with wall patch. When that was cured I applied a heap of glue and pressed bird gravel onto the wall over the plaster to give it a rough, aged texture as well as some extra character. below is the base coat of black paint with the bricks glued on and painted. the photos below and above are reversed. The bricks below are Before painting and the picture above is After they were painted. above is another AFTER. Over the black, I dry brushed a mix of gray, white, brown, black and cream, to build up the look of a concrete wall. I actually liked it and was on the verge of keeping it this way, however it still didn't look Italian enough to me- So I FINALLY gave up trying to think of something myself and used a picture as a color reference. *Something I should have done in the first place!* My inspiration photo and below is another AFTER with the new color At last I felt I was making some real progress! I painted both the ground and second floor a custom mixed golden tan and deepened the red doors with a brown antique stain. Staining the french doors had me looking twice at the main entry door again. I chose to change that too. below is the Red Door BEFORE sidebar: *I actually didn't have an 'issue' with the red door until I started messing around with the others. Nevertheless, it seems that I can't help but meddle.* My thought was to make the front door look "Heftier" (whatever that meant ) After searching through Pinterest I saw a door that seemed to fit the description. It required decorative nail heads By cutting off the tails of a number of teeny tiny paper brads and gluing them to the surface of the door, I got the "HEFTIER" look which I was after. I added some more metal findings to the raised panels and changed the door handle as well as its position. Then everything was re-painted and re-stained and re-aged, to achieve the AFTER Door as shown below I'm calling this door DONE! I'll take time here to mention the structural changes which I made to the 3rd floor attic windows which are on either side of the Willowcrest kit. After due consideration, I felt that they could be enlarged by removing the existing dormers and replacing the windows with larger ones using the original kit windows from the main floors as substitutes. Below is the BEFORE size of the attic dormer windows the larger Attic windows AFTER! Having changed them to a bigger size, will no doubt change the roofline once it is actually installed. However, I'll stress out about that problem later, since I can only be stressed with one problem at a time! But Hey! let's talk about wasted building materials! I wasted a perfectly good french door to make this solid panel of two small stationary kitchen windows??? Mamma Mia!- What was I thinking??? (head slap) To see what the panel looked like BEFORE, refer to photo 2 at the top of this post. and Before I forget, here is the AFTER results of all of my wall texturing project. more Texture was added to the right side of the villa, too. These green doors came about right after I'd finished painting them red, which meant that since I immediatley regretted the green, I had to re-paint them red brown AGAIN! will I EVER learn to leave things well enough alone? *sigh* ANYWAY.... that's not why I included the photo. Rather it is to show the infill of the roof overhang directly above it. I removed the half circle from over the door to fill in that wide disconnect between the two sides of the dollhouse and have a continuous line spanning the entire front section as it does on either side. You can see the brown wood infill in the BEFORE photo above. The AFTER is shown in the photo below. The lower left side of the wall will eventually have small window cut and installed, AFTER I get the kitchen floor plan worked out on the inside, so the photo above is both an AFTER as well as a BEFORE if that makes any sense to you? Decorative columns were added to the front corners of the villa, using wide dollhouse baseboard trims. Another AFTER is the repainting of the exterior light fixtures and beefing up the wall ornamentations. On the right side of the house, I framed in the round plaster carving over the window for no good reason, other than I thought I might try it. And since it looked horrid after my first attempt, it was reworked repeatedly. Rarely do things go smoothly for me the first time around. In the photo above you can see all of the extra age and decay on the right wall. FYI- the temporary roof over the dining room windows is only a stand-in. This is another roof which I'm not yet ready to deal with yet. The photo below shows what the window wall will look like AFTER the planter is re-installed. hmmmm?... Perhaps....? What about...? Should I add some ivy trailing down the front of the planter...? . given my history- do I dare? Just for FUN, I taped a tear sheet which Janine had given me, to the wall to give me the feeling of a house in Venice, however I'm still not convinced that this villa lives there, nevertheless- I love the perspective! And I love those blue shutters! So I made two sets of simple shutters for the front of my Villa. Well- they were supposed to be "SIMPLE", however not only did the wood warp as it dried, but the glue wouldn't stick! AND even after they were wrestled into submission, the shutters proved to be difficult to install and fought me all the way. The results shown below, are AFTER 3 DAYS of fiddling around flattening, gluing, painting, staining, drilling and installing them, and although they still require a latch- they don't close. Which brings me to another consideration. Should I bother installing the window glass? something else for me to stress out about. The Cat appears to have found the purr-fect place on the window ledge, to sun himself. "Do not disturb" is plainly written in those half-closed eyes. hello kitty And FINALLY here is my last AFTER; an awning over the balcony. Although, I've only just started on The Awning, it has already been made over several times and no doubt the process will continue on until I have resolved all of my current difficulties with it. "There got to be an Awning AFter" In the photo above you can see the faded paint on the concrete facade. I have left the 3rd floor front wall more raw than the rest of the house, because currently I like the effect. However, it does seems to need "something extra" up there. I've already attempted 3 different minor alterations and all 3 of them went BUST, so I'm leaving it alone- for now. When my daughter was over last week, she told me that if my villa was going to be located in Venice, then it needed MORE ALGE and more DIRT! I thought that I already had LOTS, but she said I needed more, so after a few tentative dabs here and there, I threw myself into it, and GRIME flew from my brush and was deposited all over the entire house. however- In hind sight, I feel I may have gone a bit overboard, so I've been sanding down the grime a little bit here, and a little bit there... ah me... around and around I go salt water stains on the base of the front door, dirt on the walls, slime on the stone, exposed bricks, peeling paint etc. etc. and I still don't know if I want this house in Venice! and I'm tired so its time for the AFTER WORD- After all that has been said and done, I think I FINALLY have a Mediterranean house. Maybe it's in Venice? or maybe not, either way- I am going to have to be content to just go with the flow and let Villa Leone decide where it wants to live. because- the stress of constantly changing things to make the dollhouse adjust to My ever-changing ideas is DRIVING ME CRAZY! I am as wound up as tight as an old pocket watch. I think I'm needing a break, so that I can get outside of my own head! Perhaps a mini vacation in a warm, dry spot, where I won't have to think about ANYTHING except relaxing for a while. and I know Exactly where I can go! move over cat elizabeth
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footprint and architectural details that lend themselves well to the cherub theme and overall feeling I wanted for the house. The windows frames are embellished with pairs of cherubs and flowers. A single cherub adorns the peak of the front façade. A focal point of the house is the lovely Romeo and Juliet balcony on the third floor . All the windows have ornate In a hammered finish. The other main point of interest is the amazing front door. The door is solid wood that was laser carved in an ornate pattern to scale. It was artisan made. Let's take a look inside. The interior color pallet is variations of golds and rose tones. Warm rich colors are used in the wallpapers, floors and ceilings. Turning staircases always add a lot of drama , and offer lots of decorating opportunities. The double French doors between the main entrance room and front room have full color floral stained glass window films. The double entrance into the front room has a laser cut room divider, and is stained in warm English Chestnut . The bay window has 4 matching staind glass window films that compliment the grapes in the wallpaper. Let's look upstairs... The side window has two Belcher style stained glass window films that work nicely with the toile wallpaper. Up to the third floor... This large room is full of possibilities. The bay window was made into a seat and the stronger rose tone color was used in the fabric to balance the lighter colors of the floor and walls. Let's go back outside and see the flowers and the last details of the exterior. The flowers custom selected for this house , are crisp white roses and filler flowers, lavenders and purples, and soft pink hand made hydrangeas. Also added to the landscape is a willow tree to match the name "Willowcrest "of the house. The window boxes follow the same color scheme , however use different flower selections. The fence and railings were done in gloss black. That stronger color choice was a good balance to the lighter and softer tones of the house. Two matching cherb planters were made for each side of the stair entrance. The mansard roof has a top railing, and two double chimmnies. The house has many fun features, and details, so we will finish with that. Enjoy!
Judging from what I've read online, the Willowcrest dollhouse kit by Greenleaf has a pretty big fan club. I decided to see what other minia...
willowcrest, instructions, greenleaf, pdf,
Summer is over at last, and so is my moving. My Art Nouveau house has found a new home in my living room. I also had some time to make new minis. It has been a long time since I posted pictures of my house. The front is not completely finished, it lacks windows and balustrade. I have an Egyptian Mummy in my Curiosities Cabinet. As you can see, it's a royal one with fine linen wrapping and a golden diadem. I'm still unsure about the datation, maybe an unknown king of the XIIth Dynasty.
Greenleaf Willowcrest finished interior
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footprint and architectural details that lend themselves well to the cherub theme and overall feeling I wanted for the house. The windows frames are embellished with pairs of cherubs and flowers. A single cherub adorns the peak of the front façade. A focal point of the house is the lovely Romeo and Juliet balcony on the third floor . All the windows have ornate In a hammered finish. The other main point of interest is the amazing front door. The door is solid wood that was laser carved in an ornate pattern to scale. It was artisan made. Let's take a look inside. The interior color pallet is variations of golds and rose tones. Warm rich colors are used in the wallpapers, floors and ceilings. Turning staircases always add a lot of drama , and offer lots of decorating opportunities. The double French doors between the main entrance room and front room have full color floral stained glass window films. The double entrance into the front room has a laser cut room divider, and is stained in warm English Chestnut . The bay window has 4 matching staind glass window films that compliment the grapes in the wallpaper. Let's look upstairs... The side window has two Belcher style stained glass window films that work nicely with the toile wallpaper. Up to the third floor... This large room is full of possibilities. The bay window was made into a seat and the stronger rose tone color was used in the fabric to balance the lighter colors of the floor and walls. Let's go back outside and see the flowers and the last details of the exterior. The flowers custom selected for this house , are crisp white roses and filler flowers, lavenders and purples, and soft pink hand made hydrangeas. Also added to the landscape is a willow tree to match the name "Willowcrest "of the house. The window boxes follow the same color scheme , however use different flower selections. The fence and railings were done in gloss black. That stronger color choice was a good balance to the lighter and softer tones of the house. Two matching cherb planters were made for each side of the stair entrance. The mansard roof has a top railing, and two double chimmnies. The house has many fun features, and details, so we will finish with that. Enjoy!
Finishing Touches Shine I applied a coat of satin acrylic varnish to the painted siding of the dollhouse. This gives it a nice sheen and prevents fingerprints. I recommend you add this after the dollhouse is fully assembled and finished. Varnish is a like a sealer and will prevent the adhesion of glue so it should not be applied during assembly. I also found out that I had accidentally bought craft paint, with a satin finish. I had no idea they even made it that way. I had to return it and get it in flat. Again, you do not want to assemble the dollhouse using paints with glossy finishes. They will inadvertently seal the wood and since the dollhouse components have to be finished before assembly, you will have a hard time getting your glue to adhere. Apply the shine to the main walls only. Do not apply to bays, unless they are sided and never apply it to any components. Glossy finishes make every flaw visible and this is why you do not ever want to have flossy windows or doors. Using a flashlight or some other type of spot light you can move to different angles, will allow you to see what you have already varnished and what you haven't. Use a fine tip paint brush so you can get around components easily. It's a little tedious but it will be worth it in the end. Mishaps There is no such thing as a perfect dollhouse assembly. You might be able to do one with a quick build, cabinet grade dollhouse, where all of the components have been pre-assembled for you, but never on a tab and slot dollhouse. Tab and slot dollhouses are truly one of a kind. They are completely hand made, all the way down to the individual siding strips and shingles. You can try and make them as perfect as you can but there will always be things here and there you might notice. Most of the time, the builder seems to be the only one that notices so don't become discouraged and don't feel like you have done something wrong. Mishaps happen. Sometimes they can be corrected by redoing a certain process or, my personal favorite, camouflaging the defect. Camouflaging is the one thing that all dollhouse builders need to become very familiar with and not feel ashamed of doing it. Most times it's the only way to solve certain issues with a dollhouse that have nothing to do with how it was assembled and everything to do with the nature of the materials themselves. These dollhouses are not square nor straight. You have to make them appear so and if they takes placing a trim piece at an angle, then that's what you do. I had a lot of mishaps with the Beacon Hill but this one didn't have too many. Porch Roof My first mishap is in the porch roof. It is not in the middle of the front wall. Unfortunately, it sits slightly off center. This was completely my fault. I have no idea how it happened and its difficult to notice but I certainly noticed it when applying the corner trim. Even worse, the framing trim. On one side, the framing trim fit perfectly but on the other, it had to be cut and joined again underneath the porch roof. Hard to tell because I camouflaged it well. The cornice trim wavy dance, is another. The same thing occurred in the Beacon Hill. If the cornice is wavy or bent, it will not allow the fascias to sit evenly underneath, which is turn will make your brackets not line up. The wave of the cornice is magnified the more components are added. I fix this by making sure the fascias are straight and if this leaves a gap between them and the cornice, I just fill it with spackle. This, I can say, is not my fault. Remember, the dollhouse is not precision cut. Even when tabs and slots fall in there place, some walls will still be slightly higher than others. When you place a cornice on top of them, you get the wavy problem. Fascias Fascias, not lining up at the corners to make a nice, sharp, square corner. This is also not my fault, it seems to be an issue with every tab and slot dollhouse. This is why I made my own vertical, corner trim but I did not replace the fascias. All you have to do is add a blob of spackle to the corner ends, wait overnight for it to thoroughly dry and then sand it into the shape of a sharp corner. Wallpaper Woes It was a little difficult to obtain the wallpaper prints I wanted for this dollhouse. A lot of them were out of stock and appear to be on the verge of being discontinued all together. It was vital I got the bedroom wallpaper print, Blue DuBarry, because I have a custom bed that was specifically made to match this print. Something went terribly wrong with the wallpaper in the second floor stairwell/hallway and I was terrified the defect affected all of the prints. Thank goodness this area of the dollhouse is barely visible. Not that anyone would take notice of it anyways because the only one that knows what the color of the print is suppose to look like, is me. This wallpaper print must have come from a bad dye lot because, once wet, it became darker than what it's supposed to be. It has almost like a grayish, blotchy appearance. It is very hard to tell but like I mentioned before, I know. At first, I thought it was the wood or the wallpaper paste. That would have been disastrous since I wouldn't be able to fix the wood. I would have had to make templates of all the walls in order to apply the wallpaper to them instead. I also would have really hated to toss out my wallpaper paste. Yes Paste is so easy to work with. Since I was unable to re-create the same look on my other wallpaper prints, I could safely assume, this was not being caused by the wood or the paste. This just simply was, that sole print. I don't know how I ended up using it in the non-viewable area but I am sure happy I didn't decide to use it in the attic. Front Wall During the assembly I mentioned that the third floor refused to meet up with the front wall. This is typical of this kit. I had the same issue the last two times I assembled this model. The third floor meets fine with the side walls but comes short reaching the front one. All of that is hidden underneath flooring and ceiling paper. Staircase Single staircases will never come out straight. Good thing they are hidden between walls and this one has a lovely back wall to make it all the less noticeable that you could roll a marble from side of a step to the other without touching it. Hope my mini people can hold on to the hand rails well. Siding And Shingles They will rarely meet at the corners and at times, they can appear even slightly crooked but you can always camouflage it away with additional trim. Extra trim breaks the eyes from following lines, especially crooked ones. Also, remember that back edge trim not only smooths out the exposed back edges of floors and walls, but they also straighten out crooked ones. Just apply your back edge trim straight and magically, all of your floors and walls will follow suit. Even with a mishap here or there, you end up with a beautiful heirloom dollhouse that no one would ever guess has even one flaw on it and you get all the credit. You can visit this dollhouse gallery here.
the back of the Willowcrest
Personal blog detailing the things I've learned (frequently the hard way), the things I've made, and the things I've done or want to do. Topics will include sewing, miniatures, cooking, school, travel and miscellaneous bits of randomness that please me.
Hello friends! Guess what? I finally finished the Willowcrest dollhouse I have been building. I have been doing a happy dance for a couple of days now. The last time I posted I promised to share the inside of the dollhouse. I am doing that today as well as sharing the newly completed landscaping. Below is a photo of the entire house interior. There are six rooms, an entryway, and a second floor landing. Unlike my last dollhouse, this one actually has stairs! I did not leave them out. Ha. I did, however, rearrange the floor plan. As I said, above is my version of the dollhouse interior. Below is a Pinterest photo of how the dollhouse was designed to look. (Note: Not my photograph) As you can see, I took several redesign liberties with the interior. Beginning with the first floor, I removed the wall dividing the original kitchen from the entryway. My thoughts were WHY put so much effort into the winding stairway and entry if it cannot be seen. I also removed the door between the kitchen and living room. The middle wall on the bottom is designed to have an angled wall beyond the door. I hated that angled wall. Not only did it make no sense, it was designed to have a fireplace on the backside, which really is not visible. So I not only removed the door, I built a completely new STRAIGHT-ish wall to divide the kitchen and living room. In my new design it made no sense to have the entryway lead into the kitchen so I switched the living and kitchen areas, and built a partial wall to add a dining room behind the kitchen. Come in and check it out. More of my living room and entryway. The open stairway. My blue and yellow kitchen and the pink dining room beyond. In the photo below the stove, oven hood, and shelf are on the newly built almost straight wall. You can also see the divider wall I added to create the dining room. The photograph below was taken from outside looking through the kitchen bay window. The dining room. All of the first floor windows feature decorative toppers on the molding. I made the decorative elements myself using clay and molds. A view of the dining room arched opening leading to the entryway. I made structural changes on the second floor as well. If you look at the photo of the house as designed (second floor image below) you will see a large visual impairment near the middle-left side of the second floor. I did not like that little wall at all. I felt like it closed the view of the house. By removing the little wall I took out the linen closet and the stairs to the third floor. I almost rebuilt the stairs, using a square design similar to the first floor, limiting them to the left front corner. Instead, I omitted the stairs. Above is my version of the master bedroom. The cranberry micro print wallpaper coordinates with the cherub mural on the ceiling. By deleting the stairs and the linen closet, my bathroom is larger than originally designed. I like it much better. I had to build a new wall to divide the bathroom from the landing. I moved the bathroom door further to the right to create more usable space on the bathroom wall. Above - a view though the bedroom window to the second floor landing. Below is the third floor of the house as originally designed. Again, I did not like it. I hated the chimney running up the middle of the room, eating up floor space, as well as the stairs opening and railings being in a awkward place. It left very little usable space in that large area. Not only did I ditch the chimney and stairs, I made three additions. I added three window seats. The third floor windows each had a small alcove, again that I thought of as wasted space. By building window seats the areas became more useful. My version of the third floor. At first I visualized this as the billiards room. And while that is still possible, it will be a decision made by the eventual owner. I did, after all, build this house to sell. My version of the room leaves a large open space that can have many uses. I am sure that as you looked at the rooms you noticed the ceilings. Each of the ceilings in the house is embellished on some way. I like the interest this adds to the interiors. I hope you liked the interior tour, including the descriptions of the changes I made to the house. Now let's move on to the landscaping. I mounted the house on a 19" x 23.5" board. I painted the board gray to match the house trim. Once the house was positioned, I added grass around the front foundation to create a small lawn. I also added a flowerbed to the front foundation. The right side of the house has ivy growing up the bay area. Each front windows has flowers, as does the balcony. I added two planters to the front porch and affixed flower arrangements in them. A small cart rests at the end of the porch. I added a few battery operated light fixtures to the house. The carriage lanterns flanking the front doors match the style of the house. The lights, like all but one on the inside, attach to the house via magnets. In the living room the sconces attach to magnets behind the wallpaper. The magnets were affixed to the walls and ceilings, making the lights removable for moving the house. Thanks for checking out my Willowcrest Estate dollhouse. If it does not sell before, I will be offering it for sale the first week of December at a Christmas craft show. I hope to have four houses and many Christmas miniatures to offer. Before you ask, yes, I do already have my next house planned. It will have a completely different look than anything I have done before. More on this later...
Finishing Touches Shine I applied a coat of satin acrylic varnish to the painted siding of the dollhouse. This gives it a nice sheen and prevents fingerprints. I recommend you add this after the dollhouse is fully assembled and finished. Varnish is a like a sealer and will prevent the adhesion of glue so it should not be applied during assembly. I also found out that I had accidentally bought craft paint, with a satin finish. I had no idea they even made it that way. I had to return it and get it in flat. Again, you do not want to assemble the dollhouse using paints with glossy finishes. They will inadvertently seal the wood and since the dollhouse components have to be finished before assembly, you will have a hard time getting your glue to adhere. Apply the shine to the main walls only. Do not apply to bays, unless they are sided and never apply it to any components. Glossy finishes make every flaw visible and this is why you do not ever want to have flossy windows or doors. Using a flashlight or some other type of spot light you can move to different angles, will allow you to see what you have already varnished and what you haven't. Use a fine tip paint brush so you can get around components easily. It's a little tedious but it will be worth it in the end. Mishaps There is no such thing as a perfect dollhouse assembly. You might be able to do one with a quick build, cabinet grade dollhouse, where all of the components have been pre-assembled for you, but never on a tab and slot dollhouse. Tab and slot dollhouses are truly one of a kind. They are completely hand made, all the way down to the individual siding strips and shingles. You can try and make them as perfect as you can but there will always be things here and there you might notice. Most of the time, the builder seems to be the only one that notices so don't become discouraged and don't feel like you have done something wrong. Mishaps happen. Sometimes they can be corrected by redoing a certain process or, my personal favorite, camouflaging the defect. Camouflaging is the one thing that all dollhouse builders need to become very familiar with and not feel ashamed of doing it. Most times it's the only way to solve certain issues with a dollhouse that have nothing to do with how it was assembled and everything to do with the nature of the materials themselves. These dollhouses are not square nor straight. You have to make them appear so and if they takes placing a trim piece at an angle, then that's what you do. I had a lot of mishaps with the Beacon Hill but this one didn't have too many. Porch Roof My first mishap is in the porch roof. It is not in the middle of the front wall. Unfortunately, it sits slightly off center. This was completely my fault. I have no idea how it happened and its difficult to notice but I certainly noticed it when applying the corner trim. Even worse, the framing trim. On one side, the framing trim fit perfectly but on the other, it had to be cut and joined again underneath the porch roof. Hard to tell because I camouflaged it well. The cornice trim wavy dance, is another. The same thing occurred in the Beacon Hill. If the cornice is wavy or bent, it will not allow the fascias to sit evenly underneath, which is turn will make your brackets not line up. The wave of the cornice is magnified the more components are added. I fix this by making sure the fascias are straight and if this leaves a gap between them and the cornice, I just fill it with spackle. This, I can say, is not my fault. Remember, the dollhouse is not precision cut. Even when tabs and slots fall in there place, some walls will still be slightly higher than others. When you place a cornice on top of them, you get the wavy problem. Fascias Fascias, not lining up at the corners to make a nice, sharp, square corner. This is also not my fault, it seems to be an issue with every tab and slot dollhouse. This is why I made my own vertical, corner trim but I did not replace the fascias. All you have to do is add a blob of spackle to the corner ends, wait overnight for it to thoroughly dry and then sand it into the shape of a sharp corner. Wallpaper Woes It was a little difficult to obtain the wallpaper prints I wanted for this dollhouse. A lot of them were out of stock and appear to be on the verge of being discontinued all together. It was vital I got the bedroom wallpaper print, Blue DuBarry, because I have a custom bed that was specifically made to match this print. Something went terribly wrong with the wallpaper in the second floor stairwell/hallway and I was terrified the defect affected all of the prints. Thank goodness this area of the dollhouse is barely visible. Not that anyone would take notice of it anyways because the only one that knows what the color of the print is suppose to look like, is me. This wallpaper print must have come from a bad dye lot because, once wet, it became darker than what it's supposed to be. It has almost like a grayish, blotchy appearance. It is very hard to tell but like I mentioned before, I know. At first, I thought it was the wood or the wallpaper paste. That would have been disastrous since I wouldn't be able to fix the wood. I would have had to make templates of all the walls in order to apply the wallpaper to them instead. I also would have really hated to toss out my wallpaper paste. Yes Paste is so easy to work with. Since I was unable to re-create the same look on my other wallpaper prints, I could safely assume, this was not being caused by the wood or the paste. This just simply was, that sole print. I don't know how I ended up using it in the non-viewable area but I am sure happy I didn't decide to use it in the attic. Front Wall During the assembly I mentioned that the third floor refused to meet up with the front wall. This is typical of this kit. I had the same issue the last two times I assembled this model. The third floor meets fine with the side walls but comes short reaching the front one. All of that is hidden underneath flooring and ceiling paper. Staircase Single staircases will never come out straight. Good thing they are hidden between walls and this one has a lovely back wall to make it all the less noticeable that you could roll a marble from side of a step to the other without touching it. Hope my mini people can hold on to the hand rails well. Siding And Shingles They will rarely meet at the corners and at times, they can appear even slightly crooked but you can always camouflage it away with additional trim. Extra trim breaks the eyes from following lines, especially crooked ones. Also, remember that back edge trim not only smooths out the exposed back edges of floors and walls, but they also straighten out crooked ones. Just apply your back edge trim straight and magically, all of your floors and walls will follow suit. Even with a mishap here or there, you end up with a beautiful heirloom dollhouse that no one would ever guess has even one flaw on it and you get all the credit. You can visit this dollhouse gallery here.
Judging from what I've read online, the Willowcrest dollhouse kit by Greenleaf has a pretty big fan club. I decided to see what other minia...
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footprint and architectural details that lend themselves well to the cherub theme and overall feeling I wanted for the house. The windows frames are embellished with pairs of cherubs and flowers. A single cherub adorns the peak of the front façade. A focal point of the house is the lovely Romeo and Juliet balcony on the third floor . All the windows have ornate In a hammered finish. The other main point of interest is the amazing front door. The door is solid wood that was laser carved in an ornate pattern to scale. It was artisan made. Let's take a look inside. The interior color pallet is variations of golds and rose tones. Warm rich colors are used in the wallpapers, floors and ceilings. Turning staircases always add a lot of drama , and offer lots of decorating opportunities. The double French doors between the main entrance room and front room have full color floral stained glass window films. The double entrance into the front room has a laser cut room divider, and is stained in warm English Chestnut . The bay window has 4 matching staind glass window films that compliment the grapes in the wallpaper. Let's look upstairs... The side window has two Belcher style stained glass window films that work nicely with the toile wallpaper. Up to the third floor... This large room is full of possibilities. The bay window was made into a seat and the stronger rose tone color was used in the fabric to balance the lighter colors of the floor and walls. Let's go back outside and see the flowers and the last details of the exterior. The flowers custom selected for this house , are crisp white roses and filler flowers, lavenders and purples, and soft pink hand made hydrangeas. Also added to the landscape is a willow tree to match the name "Willowcrest "of the house. The window boxes follow the same color scheme , however use different flower selections. The fence and railings were done in gloss black. That stronger color choice was a good balance to the lighter and softer tones of the house. Two matching cherb planters were made for each side of the stair entrance. The mansard roof has a top railing, and two double chimmnies. The house has many fun features, and details, so we will finish with that. Enjoy!
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footpr...
Hello friends! Guess what? I finally finished the Willowcrest dollhouse I have been building. I have been doing a happy dance for a couple of days now. The last time I posted I promised to share the inside of the dollhouse. I am doing that today as well as sharing the newly completed landscaping. Below is a photo of the entire house interior. There are six rooms, an entryway, and a second floor landing. Unlike my last dollhouse, this one actually has stairs! I did not leave them out. Ha. I did, however, rearrange the floor plan. As I said, above is my version of the dollhouse interior. Below is a Pinterest photo of how the dollhouse was designed to look. (Note: Not my photograph) As you can see, I took several redesign liberties with the interior. Beginning with the first floor, I removed the wall dividing the original kitchen from the entryway. My thoughts were WHY put so much effort into the winding stairway and entry if it cannot be seen. I also removed the door between the kitchen and living room. The middle wall on the bottom is designed to have an angled wall beyond the door. I hated that angled wall. Not only did it make no sense, it was designed to have a fireplace on the backside, which really is not visible. So I not only removed the door, I built a completely new STRAIGHT-ish wall to divide the kitchen and living room. In my new design it made no sense to have the entryway lead into the kitchen so I switched the living and kitchen areas, and built a partial wall to add a dining room behind the kitchen. Come in and check it out. More of my living room and entryway. The open stairway. My blue and yellow kitchen and the pink dining room beyond. In the photo below the stove, oven hood, and shelf are on the newly built almost straight wall. You can also see the divider wall I added to create the dining room. The photograph below was taken from outside looking through the kitchen bay window. The dining room. All of the first floor windows feature decorative toppers on the molding. I made the decorative elements myself using clay and molds. A view of the dining room arched opening leading to the entryway. I made structural changes on the second floor as well. If you look at the photo of the house as designed (second floor image below) you will see a large visual impairment near the middle-left side of the second floor. I did not like that little wall at all. I felt like it closed the view of the house. By removing the little wall I took out the linen closet and the stairs to the third floor. I almost rebuilt the stairs, using a square design similar to the first floor, limiting them to the left front corner. Instead, I omitted the stairs. Above is my version of the master bedroom. The cranberry micro print wallpaper coordinates with the cherub mural on the ceiling. By deleting the stairs and the linen closet, my bathroom is larger than originally designed. I like it much better. I had to build a new wall to divide the bathroom from the landing. I moved the bathroom door further to the right to create more usable space on the bathroom wall. Above - a view though the bedroom window to the second floor landing. Below is the third floor of the house as originally designed. Again, I did not like it. I hated the chimney running up the middle of the room, eating up floor space, as well as the stairs opening and railings being in a awkward place. It left very little usable space in that large area. Not only did I ditch the chimney and stairs, I made three additions. I added three window seats. The third floor windows each had a small alcove, again that I thought of as wasted space. By building window seats the areas became more useful. My version of the third floor. At first I visualized this as the billiards room. And while that is still possible, it will be a decision made by the eventual owner. I did, after all, build this house to sell. My version of the room leaves a large open space that can have many uses. I am sure that as you looked at the rooms you noticed the ceilings. Each of the ceilings in the house is embellished on some way. I like the interest this adds to the interiors. I hope you liked the interior tour, including the descriptions of the changes I made to the house. Now let's move on to the landscaping. I mounted the house on a 19" x 23.5" board. I painted the board gray to match the house trim. Once the house was positioned, I added grass around the front foundation to create a small lawn. I also added a flowerbed to the front foundation. The right side of the house has ivy growing up the bay area. Each front windows has flowers, as does the balcony. I added two planters to the front porch and affixed flower arrangements in them. A small cart rests at the end of the porch. I added a few battery operated light fixtures to the house. The carriage lanterns flanking the front doors match the style of the house. The lights, like all but one on the inside, attach to the house via magnets. In the living room the sconces attach to magnets behind the wallpaper. The magnets were affixed to the walls and ceilings, making the lights removable for moving the house. Thanks for checking out my Willowcrest Estate dollhouse. If it does not sell before, I will be offering it for sale the first week of December at a Christmas craft show. I hope to have four houses and many Christmas miniatures to offer. Before you ask, yes, I do already have my next house planned. It will have a completely different look than anything I have done before. More on this later...
The Willowcrest by Greenleaf my favorite dollhouse
Greenleaf Willowcrest renovation lounge before and after
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footpr...
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footpr...
Hello friends! Guess what? I finally finished the Willowcrest dollhouse I have been building. I have been doing a happy dance for a couple of days now. The last time I posted I promised to share the inside of the dollhouse. I am doing that today as well as sharing the newly completed landscaping. Below is a photo of the entire house interior. There are six rooms, an entryway, and a second floor landing. Unlike my last dollhouse, this one actually has stairs! I did not leave them out. Ha. I did, however, rearrange the floor plan. As I said, above is my version of the dollhouse interior. Below is a Pinterest photo of how the dollhouse was designed to look. (Note: Not my photograph) As you can see, I took several redesign liberties with the interior. Beginning with the first floor, I removed the wall dividing the original kitchen from the entryway. My thoughts were WHY put so much effort into the winding stairway and entry if it cannot be seen. I also removed the door between the kitchen and living room. The middle wall on the bottom is designed to have an angled wall beyond the door. I hated that angled wall. Not only did it make no sense, it was designed to have a fireplace on the backside, which really is not visible. So I not only removed the door, I built a completely new STRAIGHT-ish wall to divide the kitchen and living room. In my new design it made no sense to have the entryway lead into the kitchen so I switched the living and kitchen areas, and built a partial wall to add a dining room behind the kitchen. Come in and check it out. More of my living room and entryway. The open stairway. My blue and yellow kitchen and the pink dining room beyond. In the photo below the stove, oven hood, and shelf are on the newly built almost straight wall. You can also see the divider wall I added to create the dining room. The photograph below was taken from outside looking through the kitchen bay window. The dining room. All of the first floor windows feature decorative toppers on the molding. I made the decorative elements myself using clay and molds. A view of the dining room arched opening leading to the entryway. I made structural changes on the second floor as well. If you look at the photo of the house as designed (second floor image below) you will see a large visual impairment near the middle-left side of the second floor. I did not like that little wall at all. I felt like it closed the view of the house. By removing the little wall I took out the linen closet and the stairs to the third floor. I almost rebuilt the stairs, using a square design similar to the first floor, limiting them to the left front corner. Instead, I omitted the stairs. Above is my version of the master bedroom. The cranberry micro print wallpaper coordinates with the cherub mural on the ceiling. By deleting the stairs and the linen closet, my bathroom is larger than originally designed. I like it much better. I had to build a new wall to divide the bathroom from the landing. I moved the bathroom door further to the right to create more usable space on the bathroom wall. Above - a view though the bedroom window to the second floor landing. Below is the third floor of the house as originally designed. Again, I did not like it. I hated the chimney running up the middle of the room, eating up floor space, as well as the stairs opening and railings being in a awkward place. It left very little usable space in that large area. Not only did I ditch the chimney and stairs, I made three additions. I added three window seats. The third floor windows each had a small alcove, again that I thought of as wasted space. By building window seats the areas became more useful. My version of the third floor. At first I visualized this as the billiards room. And while that is still possible, it will be a decision made by the eventual owner. I did, after all, build this house to sell. My version of the room leaves a large open space that can have many uses. I am sure that as you looked at the rooms you noticed the ceilings. Each of the ceilings in the house is embellished on some way. I like the interest this adds to the interiors. I hope you liked the interior tour, including the descriptions of the changes I made to the house. Now let's move on to the landscaping. I mounted the house on a 19" x 23.5" board. I painted the board gray to match the house trim. Once the house was positioned, I added grass around the front foundation to create a small lawn. I also added a flowerbed to the front foundation. The right side of the house has ivy growing up the bay area. Each front windows has flowers, as does the balcony. I added two planters to the front porch and affixed flower arrangements in them. A small cart rests at the end of the porch. I added a few battery operated light fixtures to the house. The carriage lanterns flanking the front doors match the style of the house. The lights, like all but one on the inside, attach to the house via magnets. In the living room the sconces attach to magnets behind the wallpaper. The magnets were affixed to the walls and ceilings, making the lights removable for moving the house. Thanks for checking out my Willowcrest Estate dollhouse. If it does not sell before, I will be offering it for sale the first week of December at a Christmas craft show. I hope to have four houses and many Christmas miniatures to offer. Before you ask, yes, I do already have my next house planned. It will have a completely different look than anything I have done before. More on this later...
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footprint and architectural details that lend themselves well to the cherub theme and overall feeling I wanted for the house. The windows frames are embellished with pairs of cherubs and flowers. A single cherub adorns the peak of the front façade. A focal point of the house is the lovely Romeo and Juliet balcony on the third floor . All the windows have ornate In a hammered finish. The other main point of interest is the amazing front door. The door is solid wood that was laser carved in an ornate pattern to scale. It was artisan made. Let's take a look inside. The interior color pallet is variations of golds and rose tones. Warm rich colors are used in the wallpapers, floors and ceilings. Turning staircases always add a lot of drama , and offer lots of decorating opportunities. The double French doors between the main entrance room and front room have full color floral stained glass window films. The double entrance into the front room has a laser cut room divider, and is stained in warm English Chestnut . The bay window has 4 matching staind glass window films that compliment the grapes in the wallpaper. Let's look upstairs... The side window has two Belcher style stained glass window films that work nicely with the toile wallpaper. Up to the third floor... This large room is full of possibilities. The bay window was made into a seat and the stronger rose tone color was used in the fabric to balance the lighter colors of the floor and walls. Let's go back outside and see the flowers and the last details of the exterior. The flowers custom selected for this house , are crisp white roses and filler flowers, lavenders and purples, and soft pink hand made hydrangeas. Also added to the landscape is a willow tree to match the name "Willowcrest "of the house. The window boxes follow the same color scheme , however use different flower selections. The fence and railings were done in gloss black. That stronger color choice was a good balance to the lighter and softer tones of the house. Two matching cherb planters were made for each side of the stair entrance. The mansard roof has a top railing, and two double chimmnies. The house has many fun features, and details, so we will finish with that. Enjoy!
Ever since I began building my Greenleaf WILLOWCREST Kit a.k.a "VILLA LEONE", I have been trying to settle on a local identity for it. You may find that strange, when you recall that my idea was that this house would be situated in the city of Venice, which should have firmly settled the matter. Yet despite all of my efforts at establishing it there, it wasn't looking TO ME, like it actually lived there. The exterior has been a challenge, of searching for "the secret formula" of how to make the outside look more "Villa" and less "Chalet", which was why I decided towards the end of last year, to leave it alone for a while, as I began working on the interior. With the hall staircase kinda resolved and the interior wallpaper panels PERMANENTLY GLUED into place, (which was in itself, another giant commitment for me ) I decided to revisit the exterior of the villa and deal with some of the identity crisis issues which I was still struggling with. my main concern were Paint Colors because these just weren't working for me. below is the orange/ off-white paint color BEFORE It took me a LONG TIME to settle on this custom mixed orange, however it ended up taking all the blame once I decided to change the color of the house. BIG MISTAKE! I made it WORSE, MUCH Worse ah me- and there was no going back either since I was all out of that orange paint. below is a photo of the HORRIBLE AFTER AND there were at least 15 MORE HORRIBLY UGLY AFTERS which followed one right after the other. The color in the photo is a taupe-green BLAH! Boo! Hiss! I re-painted the 2nd and 3rd floors over and over again, using every warm and/or neutral color I had on hand. When they didn't work, I sanded down the walls and custom mixed my own paint hoping to hit on that elusive "magic color combination", but it was all time wasted because everything I did looked awful and had to be undone. This painting and repainting fiasco went on throughout the month of January. I was in deep despair. It must have been the last week of January when I stumbled upon a PINTEREST photo of a popular craft called "Tejas"; which are painted Spanish roof tiles which are made to resemble Mediterranean house facades as well as other imaginative scenes. What interested me most about the "Tejas" was that within a very limited space, the artists were effectually able to convey an atmosphere of hot, ancient stone dwellings. 3-D renderings complete with with all the door and window fittings, balconies, roofs, plants, awnings, shutters etc., which gave the clay tile houses, both a sense of location as well as a long history. so Why, I wondered, wasn't I able to achieve this kind of effect with My dollhouse? Since this craft was new to me, I watched a demonstration on youtube which I found fascinating Especially the way one artist base painted her entire tile in BLACK prior to adding detail colors which gave the final finish a visual depth. And so with nothing left to loose, I re-painted my villa BLACK too! The next step was to dry brush the black with thin layers of shading and highlight colors to achieve dimension on the flat surface, which brings me to another issue I was having which was the Wall Texture I didn't like the texture of my exterior walls. There was either too much of it or not enough and I couldn't seem to get the balance right. So prior to painting the house black, as per the Tejas tutorial, I opted to add MORE texture by glueing on a few paper bricks, then feathering the edges with wall patch. When that was cured I applied a heap of glue and pressed bird gravel onto the wall over the plaster to give it a rough, aged texture as well as some extra character. below is the base coat of black paint with the bricks glued on and painted. the photos below and above are reversed. The bricks below are Before painting and the picture above is After they were painted. above is another AFTER. Over the black, I dry brushed a mix of gray, white, brown, black and cream, to build up the look of a concrete wall. I actually liked it and was on the verge of keeping it this way, however it still didn't look Italian enough to me- So I FINALLY gave up trying to think of something myself and used a picture as a color reference. *Something I should have done in the first place!* My inspiration photo and below is another AFTER with the new color At last I felt I was making some real progress! I painted both the ground and second floor a custom mixed golden tan and deepened the red doors with a brown antique stain. Staining the french doors had me looking twice at the main entry door again. I chose to change that too. below is the Red Door BEFORE sidebar: *I actually didn't have an 'issue' with the red door until I started messing around with the others. Nevertheless, it seems that I can't help but meddle.* My thought was to make the front door look "Heftier" (whatever that meant ) After searching through Pinterest I saw a door that seemed to fit the description. It required decorative nail heads By cutting off the tails of a number of teeny tiny paper brads and gluing them to the surface of the door, I got the "HEFTIER" look which I was after. I added some more metal findings to the raised panels and changed the door handle as well as its position. Then everything was re-painted and re-stained and re-aged, to achieve the AFTER Door as shown below I'm calling this door DONE! I'll take time here to mention the structural changes which I made to the 3rd floor attic windows which are on either side of the Willowcrest kit. After due consideration, I felt that they could be enlarged by removing the existing dormers and replacing the windows with larger ones using the original kit windows from the main floors as substitutes. Below is the BEFORE size of the attic dormer windows the larger Attic windows AFTER! Having changed them to a bigger size, will no doubt change the roofline once it is actually installed. However, I'll stress out about that problem later, since I can only be stressed with one problem at a time! But Hey! let's talk about wasted building materials! I wasted a perfectly good french door to make this solid panel of two small stationary kitchen windows??? Mamma Mia!- What was I thinking??? (head slap) To see what the panel looked like BEFORE, refer to photo 2 at the top of this post. and Before I forget, here is the AFTER results of all of my wall texturing project. more Texture was added to the right side of the villa, too. These green doors came about right after I'd finished painting them red, which meant that since I immediatley regretted the green, I had to re-paint them red brown AGAIN! will I EVER learn to leave things well enough alone? *sigh* ANYWAY.... that's not why I included the photo. Rather it is to show the infill of the roof overhang directly above it. I removed the half circle from over the door to fill in that wide disconnect between the two sides of the dollhouse and have a continuous line spanning the entire front section as it does on either side. You can see the brown wood infill in the BEFORE photo above. The AFTER is shown in the photo below. The lower left side of the wall will eventually have small window cut and installed, AFTER I get the kitchen floor plan worked out on the inside, so the photo above is both an AFTER as well as a BEFORE if that makes any sense to you? Decorative columns were added to the front corners of the villa, using wide dollhouse baseboard trims. Another AFTER is the repainting of the exterior light fixtures and beefing up the wall ornamentations. On the right side of the house, I framed in the round plaster carving over the window for no good reason, other than I thought I might try it. And since it looked horrid after my first attempt, it was reworked repeatedly. Rarely do things go smoothly for me the first time around. In the photo above you can see all of the extra age and decay on the right wall. FYI- the temporary roof over the dining room windows is only a stand-in. This is another roof which I'm not yet ready to deal with yet. The photo below shows what the window wall will look like AFTER the planter is re-installed. hmmmm?... Perhaps....? What about...? Should I add some ivy trailing down the front of the planter...? . given my history- do I dare? Just for FUN, I taped a tear sheet which Janine had given me, to the wall to give me the feeling of a house in Venice, however I'm still not convinced that this villa lives there, nevertheless- I love the perspective! And I love those blue shutters! So I made two sets of simple shutters for the front of my Villa. Well- they were supposed to be "SIMPLE", however not only did the wood warp as it dried, but the glue wouldn't stick! AND even after they were wrestled into submission, the shutters proved to be difficult to install and fought me all the way. The results shown below, are AFTER 3 DAYS of fiddling around flattening, gluing, painting, staining, drilling and installing them, and although they still require a latch- they don't close. Which brings me to another consideration. Should I bother installing the window glass? something else for me to stress out about. The Cat appears to have found the purr-fect place on the window ledge, to sun himself. "Do not disturb" is plainly written in those half-closed eyes. hello kitty And FINALLY here is my last AFTER; an awning over the balcony. Although, I've only just started on The Awning, it has already been made over several times and no doubt the process will continue on until I have resolved all of my current difficulties with it. "There got to be an Awning AFter" In the photo above you can see the faded paint on the concrete facade. I have left the 3rd floor front wall more raw than the rest of the house, because currently I like the effect. However, it does seems to need "something extra" up there. I've already attempted 3 different minor alterations and all 3 of them went BUST, so I'm leaving it alone- for now. When my daughter was over last week, she told me that if my villa was going to be located in Venice, then it needed MORE ALGE and more DIRT! I thought that I already had LOTS, but she said I needed more, so after a few tentative dabs here and there, I threw myself into it, and GRIME flew from my brush and was deposited all over the entire house. however- In hind sight, I feel I may have gone a bit overboard, so I've been sanding down the grime a little bit here, and a little bit there... ah me... around and around I go salt water stains on the base of the front door, dirt on the walls, slime on the stone, exposed bricks, peeling paint etc. etc. and I still don't know if I want this house in Venice! and I'm tired so its time for the AFTER WORD- After all that has been said and done, I think I FINALLY have a Mediterranean house. Maybe it's in Venice? or maybe not, either way- I am going to have to be content to just go with the flow and let Villa Leone decide where it wants to live. because- the stress of constantly changing things to make the dollhouse adjust to My ever-changing ideas is DRIVING ME CRAZY! I am as wound up as tight as an old pocket watch. I think I'm needing a break, so that I can get outside of my own head! Perhaps a mini vacation in a warm, dry spot, where I won't have to think about ANYTHING except relaxing for a while. and I know Exactly where I can go! move over cat elizabeth
Hello friends! Guess what? I finally finished the Willowcrest dollhouse I have been building. I have been doing a happy dance for a couple of days now. The last time I posted I promised to share the inside of the dollhouse. I am doing that today as well as sharing the newly completed landscaping. Below is a photo of the entire house interior. There are six rooms, an entryway, and a second floor landing. Unlike my last dollhouse, this one actually has stairs! I did not leave them out. Ha. I did, however, rearrange the floor plan. As I said, above is my version of the dollhouse interior. Below is a Pinterest photo of how the dollhouse was designed to look. (Note: Not my photograph) As you can see, I took several redesign liberties with the interior. Beginning with the first floor, I removed the wall dividing the original kitchen from the entryway. My thoughts were WHY put so much effort into the winding stairway and entry if it cannot be seen. I also removed the door between the kitchen and living room. The middle wall on the bottom is designed to have an angled wall beyond the door. I hated that angled wall. Not only did it make no sense, it was designed to have a fireplace on the backside, which really is not visible. So I not only removed the door, I built a completely new STRAIGHT-ish wall to divide the kitchen and living room. In my new design it made no sense to have the entryway lead into the kitchen so I switched the living and kitchen areas, and built a partial wall to add a dining room behind the kitchen. Come in and check it out. More of my living room and entryway. The open stairway. My blue and yellow kitchen and the pink dining room beyond. In the photo below the stove, oven hood, and shelf are on the newly built almost straight wall. You can also see the divider wall I added to create the dining room. The photograph below was taken from outside looking through the kitchen bay window. The dining room. All of the first floor windows feature decorative toppers on the molding. I made the decorative elements myself using clay and molds. A view of the dining room arched opening leading to the entryway. I made structural changes on the second floor as well. If you look at the photo of the house as designed (second floor image below) you will see a large visual impairment near the middle-left side of the second floor. I did not like that little wall at all. I felt like it closed the view of the house. By removing the little wall I took out the linen closet and the stairs to the third floor. I almost rebuilt the stairs, using a square design similar to the first floor, limiting them to the left front corner. Instead, I omitted the stairs. Above is my version of the master bedroom. The cranberry micro print wallpaper coordinates with the cherub mural on the ceiling. By deleting the stairs and the linen closet, my bathroom is larger than originally designed. I like it much better. I had to build a new wall to divide the bathroom from the landing. I moved the bathroom door further to the right to create more usable space on the bathroom wall. Above - a view though the bedroom window to the second floor landing. Below is the third floor of the house as originally designed. Again, I did not like it. I hated the chimney running up the middle of the room, eating up floor space, as well as the stairs opening and railings being in a awkward place. It left very little usable space in that large area. Not only did I ditch the chimney and stairs, I made three additions. I added three window seats. The third floor windows each had a small alcove, again that I thought of as wasted space. By building window seats the areas became more useful. My version of the third floor. At first I visualized this as the billiards room. And while that is still possible, it will be a decision made by the eventual owner. I did, after all, build this house to sell. My version of the room leaves a large open space that can have many uses. I am sure that as you looked at the rooms you noticed the ceilings. Each of the ceilings in the house is embellished on some way. I like the interest this adds to the interiors. I hope you liked the interior tour, including the descriptions of the changes I made to the house. Now let's move on to the landscaping. I mounted the house on a 19" x 23.5" board. I painted the board gray to match the house trim. Once the house was positioned, I added grass around the front foundation to create a small lawn. I also added a flowerbed to the front foundation. The right side of the house has ivy growing up the bay area. Each front windows has flowers, as does the balcony. I added two planters to the front porch and affixed flower arrangements in them. A small cart rests at the end of the porch. I added a few battery operated light fixtures to the house. The carriage lanterns flanking the front doors match the style of the house. The lights, like all but one on the inside, attach to the house via magnets. In the living room the sconces attach to magnets behind the wallpaper. The magnets were affixed to the walls and ceilings, making the lights removable for moving the house. Thanks for checking out my Willowcrest Estate dollhouse. If it does not sell before, I will be offering it for sale the first week of December at a Christmas craft show. I hope to have four houses and many Christmas miniatures to offer. Before you ask, yes, I do already have my next house planned. It will have a completely different look than anything I have done before. More on this later...
Hello friends! Guess what? I finally finished the Willowcrest dollhouse I have been building. I have been doing a happy dance for a couple of days now. The last time I posted I promised to share the inside of the dollhouse. I am doing that today as well as sharing the newly completed landscaping. Below is a photo of the entire house interior. There are six rooms, an entryway, and a second floor landing. Unlike my last dollhouse, this one actually has stairs! I did not leave them out. Ha. I did, however, rearrange the floor plan. As I said, above is my version of the dollhouse interior. Below is a Pinterest photo of how the dollhouse was designed to look. (Note: Not my photograph) As you can see, I took several redesign liberties with the interior. Beginning with the first floor, I removed the wall dividing the original kitchen from the entryway. My thoughts were WHY put so much effort into the winding stairway and entry if it cannot be seen. I also removed the door between the kitchen and living room. The middle wall on the bottom is designed to have an angled wall beyond the door. I hated that angled wall. Not only did it make no sense, it was designed to have a fireplace on the backside, which really is not visible. So I not only removed the door, I built a completely new STRAIGHT-ish wall to divide the kitchen and living room. In my new design it made no sense to have the entryway lead into the kitchen so I switched the living and kitchen areas, and built a partial wall to add a dining room behind the kitchen. Come in and check it out. More of my living room and entryway. The open stairway. My blue and yellow kitchen and the pink dining room beyond. In the photo below the stove, oven hood, and shelf are on the newly built almost straight wall. You can also see the divider wall I added to create the dining room. The photograph below was taken from outside looking through the kitchen bay window. The dining room. All of the first floor windows feature decorative toppers on the molding. I made the decorative elements myself using clay and molds. A view of the dining room arched opening leading to the entryway. I made structural changes on the second floor as well. If you look at the photo of the house as designed (second floor image below) you will see a large visual impairment near the middle-left side of the second floor. I did not like that little wall at all. I felt like it closed the view of the house. By removing the little wall I took out the linen closet and the stairs to the third floor. I almost rebuilt the stairs, using a square design similar to the first floor, limiting them to the left front corner. Instead, I omitted the stairs. Above is my version of the master bedroom. The cranberry micro print wallpaper coordinates with the cherub mural on the ceiling. By deleting the stairs and the linen closet, my bathroom is larger than originally designed. I like it much better. I had to build a new wall to divide the bathroom from the landing. I moved the bathroom door further to the right to create more usable space on the bathroom wall. Above - a view though the bedroom window to the second floor landing. Below is the third floor of the house as originally designed. Again, I did not like it. I hated the chimney running up the middle of the room, eating up floor space, as well as the stairs opening and railings being in a awkward place. It left very little usable space in that large area. Not only did I ditch the chimney and stairs, I made three additions. I added three window seats. The third floor windows each had a small alcove, again that I thought of as wasted space. By building window seats the areas became more useful. My version of the third floor. At first I visualized this as the billiards room. And while that is still possible, it will be a decision made by the eventual owner. I did, after all, build this house to sell. My version of the room leaves a large open space that can have many uses. I am sure that as you looked at the rooms you noticed the ceilings. Each of the ceilings in the house is embellished on some way. I like the interest this adds to the interiors. I hope you liked the interior tour, including the descriptions of the changes I made to the house. Now let's move on to the landscaping. I mounted the house on a 19" x 23.5" board. I painted the board gray to match the house trim. Once the house was positioned, I added grass around the front foundation to create a small lawn. I also added a flowerbed to the front foundation. The right side of the house has ivy growing up the bay area. Each front windows has flowers, as does the balcony. I added two planters to the front porch and affixed flower arrangements in them. A small cart rests at the end of the porch. I added a few battery operated light fixtures to the house. The carriage lanterns flanking the front doors match the style of the house. The lights, like all but one on the inside, attach to the house via magnets. In the living room the sconces attach to magnets behind the wallpaper. The magnets were affixed to the walls and ceilings, making the lights removable for moving the house. Thanks for checking out my Willowcrest Estate dollhouse. If it does not sell before, I will be offering it for sale the first week of December at a Christmas craft show. I hope to have four houses and many Christmas miniatures to offer. Before you ask, yes, I do already have my next house planned. It will have a completely different look than anything I have done before. More on this later...
A selection of dollhouses by artist Robin Carey, compiled by Sumaiya Mehreen
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footpr...
Seeing how much I loved the stonework on her previous houses, Robin sent me photos of the Willowcrest she had made for Dean Roberts from Gre...
This is the Willowcrest Manor Dollhouse. The project was started using a Greenleaf Willowcrest . The original kit has a friendly footpr...
Hello friends! Guess what? I finally finished the Willowcrest dollhouse I have been building. I have been doing a happy dance for a couple of days now. The last time I posted I promised to share the inside of the dollhouse. I am doing that today as well as sharing the newly completed landscaping. Below is a photo of the entire house interior. There are six rooms, an entryway, and a second floor landing. Unlike my last dollhouse, this one actually has stairs! I did not leave them out. Ha. I did, however, rearrange the floor plan. As I said, above is my version of the dollhouse interior. Below is a Pinterest photo of how the dollhouse was designed to look. (Note: Not my photograph) As you can see, I took several redesign liberties with the interior. Beginning with the first floor, I removed the wall dividing the original kitchen from the entryway. My thoughts were WHY put so much effort into the winding stairway and entry if it cannot be seen. I also removed the door between the kitchen and living room. The middle wall on the bottom is designed to have an angled wall beyond the door. I hated that angled wall. Not only did it make no sense, it was designed to have a fireplace on the backside, which really is not visible. So I not only removed the door, I built a completely new STRAIGHT-ish wall to divide the kitchen and living room. In my new design it made no sense to have the entryway lead into the kitchen so I switched the living and kitchen areas, and built a partial wall to add a dining room behind the kitchen. Come in and check it out. More of my living room and entryway. The open stairway. My blue and yellow kitchen and the pink dining room beyond. In the photo below the stove, oven hood, and shelf are on the newly built almost straight wall. You can also see the divider wall I added to create the dining room. The photograph below was taken from outside looking through the kitchen bay window. The dining room. All of the first floor windows feature decorative toppers on the molding. I made the decorative elements myself using clay and molds. A view of the dining room arched opening leading to the entryway. I made structural changes on the second floor as well. If you look at the photo of the house as designed (second floor image below) you will see a large visual impairment near the middle-left side of the second floor. I did not like that little wall at all. I felt like it closed the view of the house. By removing the little wall I took out the linen closet and the stairs to the third floor. I almost rebuilt the stairs, using a square design similar to the first floor, limiting them to the left front corner. Instead, I omitted the stairs. Above is my version of the master bedroom. The cranberry micro print wallpaper coordinates with the cherub mural on the ceiling. By deleting the stairs and the linen closet, my bathroom is larger than originally designed. I like it much better. I had to build a new wall to divide the bathroom from the landing. I moved the bathroom door further to the right to create more usable space on the bathroom wall. Above - a view though the bedroom window to the second floor landing. Below is the third floor of the house as originally designed. Again, I did not like it. I hated the chimney running up the middle of the room, eating up floor space, as well as the stairs opening and railings being in a awkward place. It left very little usable space in that large area. Not only did I ditch the chimney and stairs, I made three additions. I added three window seats. The third floor windows each had a small alcove, again that I thought of as wasted space. By building window seats the areas became more useful. My version of the third floor. At first I visualized this as the billiards room. And while that is still possible, it will be a decision made by the eventual owner. I did, after all, build this house to sell. My version of the room leaves a large open space that can have many uses. I am sure that as you looked at the rooms you noticed the ceilings. Each of the ceilings in the house is embellished on some way. I like the interest this adds to the interiors. I hope you liked the interior tour, including the descriptions of the changes I made to the house. Now let's move on to the landscaping. I mounted the house on a 19" x 23.5" board. I painted the board gray to match the house trim. Once the house was positioned, I added grass around the front foundation to create a small lawn. I also added a flowerbed to the front foundation. The right side of the house has ivy growing up the bay area. Each front windows has flowers, as does the balcony. I added two planters to the front porch and affixed flower arrangements in them. A small cart rests at the end of the porch. I added a few battery operated light fixtures to the house. The carriage lanterns flanking the front doors match the style of the house. The lights, like all but one on the inside, attach to the house via magnets. In the living room the sconces attach to magnets behind the wallpaper. The magnets were affixed to the walls and ceilings, making the lights removable for moving the house. Thanks for checking out my Willowcrest Estate dollhouse. If it does not sell before, I will be offering it for sale the first week of December at a Christmas craft show. I hope to have four houses and many Christmas miniatures to offer. Before you ask, yes, I do already have my next house planned. It will have a completely different look than anything I have done before. More on this later...
