Huyze Herkert, morning room: a dollhouse for in the dollhouse

The first piece of furniture I started with for this room, illustrates my point I made at the end of my second blogpost: it wasn’t planned to be in this room (not such a clear vision after all). I also didn't stick to my intention to make as much as possible from scratch. It is a generic piece with wide availability. Not a good start…

Well, in my defense: I found the cabinet in a grab box at a fair for a very low price and I liked the color and the shape. It was last year, at the very beginning of my dollhouse journey and I couldn’t resist, although I didn’t have a destination for it. Until I found some more pieces I couldn’t resist, at another fair: tiny 1:144 scale furniture.

I realized that the shape of the cabinet was very similar to the well-known Dutch dollhouses from the 17th century (the ones from Petronella Oortman, Petronella Dunois and Petronella de la Court - that I was fortunate enough to see all three in person this January!). And I had already decided I wanted a dollhouse for in the dollhouse. Destination found.

This cabinet dollhouse wouldn’t be intended to play with, but would be a showpiece. So where better to put it than in the morning room, as a symbol of wealth and a conversation starter for Lady Herkert and her visitors?

I didn’t give it a lot of further thought and jumped right in. I used wallpaper samples for the walls and ceilings and small pieces of wood normally used for model boat building as wainscoting. I resized paintings from the internet, printed tiny versions of them, glued them onto cardboard and then on the walls.

I primed and painted the metal cast furniture pieces I bought, used some ribbons to add a soft touch and crafted a plant. I made the latter by sticking thin pieces of wire between masking tape, cutting out leaves and painting them with acrylic paint.

I thought the dollhouse for the dollhouse was finished…