Returning to an abandoned project

In 2010 I was given a dollshouse by a family friend which I decided to turn into 12 Grimmauld Place from the Harry Potter series as it was a big Georgian style house which was a bit battered. The house needed completely re-painting and decorating. I completely redecorated the outside of the house to look like a London town house in need of repair. I started work on the entrance hall and drawing room and bought many items of furniture at dollshouse fairs. In 2011 I moved house and I haven't touched the house since then. I have decided to work on the kitchen next week, so I am going to outline the house so far.

The house as I received it

Inside

All of the blue and cream was either covered with luxury brick paper or painted white. I am now thinking that I should have used brick slips, but at the time I had limited budget. I probably won't change it as these bricks don't look too bad. Roof tile slips were purchased from Richard Stacey. They are much cheaper than the real slate but they look quite good and are easy to work with. They have a lighter grey on the opposite side too. I dirtied the paintwork on the house and added moss for an overgrown effect. A gritted effect spray paint on card was used to make the stone for the pavement and basement area. 

'Stone' painted bricks were made for the basement using balsa wood painted with white emulsion. The doors were painted with a black gloss and I added the door number 12 and a knocker.

 Inside the house, I worked on the entrance hall and the drawing room. I will have more up to date pictures of these in the next post as more work has been completed. I cut the staircase 
in half and built a raised platform. I used coffee stirrers to make floor boards and stained them. I then built a boxed in area to house the 'stairs' to the basement. I have attempted to age the wallpaper by creating rips and peeling effects.

The door knobs are described in the books as being serpent shaped. I purchased some small wooden door knobs designed for furniture. I then used polymer clay to create snakes heads to extend the size of the knobs. Detail such as mouth and eyes were added with a cocktail stick. After baking I painted with silver enamel paint, then glued nail art sticks to look like emeralds in the eyes, as this seemed like the kind of extravagance that the Black's would have in their house.

Furniture for the drawing room as made from a mixture of kits and pieces of furniture that came with the house. A couch was reupholstered to match the other seating.

Completed seating for drawing room