This is a little cottage by Julie Bennett whose houses I love.
I bought this one as it reminded me of the shape of my grandmother's house in the 1960's.
It has the same four windows in the front and a door in the middle - typical of many Northern Ireland farmhouses from the era. I am not sure when the real house was built but the family were certainly living in it in the 30's and 40's - perhaps even earlier.
I am going to digress a little - my first ever doll's house was what I now believe to be a Triang 50 brought home when I was about 7 - hiding behind my father's back. It was a constant disappointment to me as it didn't have enough rooms - I wanted all the rooms in our real house to be represented - and my Triang as far as I remember only had 2 rooms ! I don't remember much about the furniture - the only bits I remember liking was a red plastic garden set.
My Julie Bennett house has some of the same annoyances for me!
The four rooms ( and her house did have 4 rooms so that was okay) are not even sizes. They are connected by an arch - but that's not right either. There is no staircase.
Once I came to terms with it not being quite as I wanted it to be inside I decided I would try to replicate the essence of the house rather than the house as it was - indeed even my memory is probably hazy on some things.
I decided to start with the living room ( this is in my house on the left - in the real house it was on the right )
I chose this room as it was the larger of the downstairs rooms . It was certainly the room in the real farmhouse that figured most largely in my life.
The real house had, by the time I was a child in the early sixties, a 1940's fireplace. It was simply a living room. I know at some time there must have been cooking facilities in this room so instead of the 1940's fireplace I decided to make one at which cooking could take place.
The family consisted of my grandfather and grandmother and their 5 children so I knew the cooking facilities in place in the 1960's could never have been the ones they used.
I remember going into many farmhouses in the 60's where there were similar fireplaces still in place.
In one in particular I visited there was a large fan bellows to help with the fire . It was operated with a large wheel to the side of the fireplace - I remember on one rare occasion being allowed to turn the wheel to fan the fire.
I used photos from various farmhouses in the North of Ireland as inspiration.
I constructed ( rather badly) the basic shape and indulged in my new love of poly filla.
The hearth is also made from card covered with poly filla , tiles marked out and then varnished- I added real coal dust and coffee(!) to give it that used look. ( this is the very cheapest coffee from the Bargain shop - fairly undrinkable - but at least I found a use for it.
The mantel was an after thought - it should have been added earlier in the construction. As I had no brown paint I used the coffee again to colour a mixture of glue and poly filla.
It is only sitting in place with blue tack - I may revisit the idea once I become more proficient. It does look messy - but let's face it things
I love the floors in Julie's houses but I may have to cover the lovely wooden floor as it is too fresh looking .I cannot recollect what was on the living room floor so I will have to consider this carefully.
The clothes airer is from a Petite Properties kit.
