(Carinne Gee – Ivy Manor)

A Stroke of Luck Turns Into A Dollhouse

by Pam North

Carinne Gee always has loved dolls and miniatures, and building a dollhouse was something she had resolved to do in her adult life. Once she had a little more free time with her kids in school, she finally was able to add dollhouse building to her repertoire of skills. “It has been so much fun for me,” she commented. “I love all the different kinds of things I can experiment with: fabrics, clay, wood, paper, sculpting and building, sewing and painting. I’m never bored, and I’m always learning something new!”
A giveaway with Melody Jane Dollhouses in 2022 was the starting point for her most recent project, when Carinne  was the lucky winner of a 1:12 scale Glenside Grange Victorian Dollhouse kit. “I was so excited,” she recalled,”because it’s not easy to find front-opening dollhouses here in the US, so I’d been wanting to build one. When I started thinking about how I wanted it to look, I immediately thought of a little 1:144 scale house that I had built the year before. I decided to build my new kit to match my little house by using the same paint colors. I also added chimneys on the roof, moved windows around on the front of the house, and cut new window holes on the sides. I called the new finished piece Ivy Manor. I enjoyed the building process of this dollhouse most of all, and changing the kit to match my mini 1:144 scale house was fun.”
Carinne usually buys most of the accessories that go in her dollhouses, but she does make some herself. “I made as much of the furniture as I could for Ivy Manor. With the exception of the bed and the long sofa, I made all the other pieces of furniture, either building them from scratch, finishing bare wood, or building with a kit.” Her favorite pieces in the house are the miniature Smeg fridge and Aga stove. “I had those made for me by Oliver Clarke from OC Miniatures,” she said. “They are incredibly realistic and well-made, with opening doors and movable parts. He even custom-made the color for me.”
Carrine covered the outside and much of the walls with a faux stucco, using a joint compound found at a hardware store. “I love adding this to a smooth wall,” she explained. “It provides texture to make the wall have a more special character than just being a flat surface. It’s easy to spread on with a pallet knife. I sand it down slightly to get the finish I want before painting over it. It’s easy to do and hard to mess up, but if I find that I’ve sanded too much or not enough, I can just add more ‘stucco’, or sand more before painting. I also covered several of the walls with a faux stone using pieces cut from paper-pulp egg cartons. In the attic I covered the walls with faux bricks I made using cork board. The first floor has tile throughout the kitchen and dining room. I discovered Stacey’s Miniature Masonry in the UK, and I absolutely love their products. I purchased 1:12 scale terracotta tiles, laid them throughout the bottom floor, then grouted them, and they turned out beautifully.”
The middle floor has wood coffee stir-sticks, stained a dark mahogany, for the wood floors. “They didn’t turn out quite like I had envisioned, but I still like them. I used the same stir-sticks upstairs, but this time I stained them that same dark mahogany, then  painted alternating white and pink checks over the top. I lightly sanded the floor to give it a scuffed and worn look. The result was exactly what I wanted.”
A couple of the rooms gave her problems, not meeting her expectations at first. “The bedroom and the bathroom just didn’t want to come together as I thought they should. It took several weeks of moving furniture and other pieces in and out, trying different combinations to get the right look.” 
The final Ivy Manor  didn’t look exactly as she had initially pictured, but Carinne was philosophical about that. “My dollhouses never do; they always morph a little from what I saw in my imagination. Overall, the outside looks just like what I wanted. The inside, not unexpectedly, took on a bit of a life of its own as I painted and added pieces, but I’m pleased with the overall outcome.” Carinne has given   a wonderfully realistic ambience to Ivy Manor with an air of actually being inhabited, accomplished by avoiding perfect order in everything, and having a bit of clutter.
Her favorite part of the house is the sewing room. “I love my little sewing cupboard, filled with lace and buttons and other little bits and pieces I’ve found or made to go in it. I had found an incredible handmade loom through Jade at MrMonocles on Etsy. As soon as I had that loom, I knew I needed to make a sewing room to house it. I continually delight in looking at the loom and the sewing cupboard. Of all my mini-rooms, I think this is the one that I most wish was real. I’m not a huge fan of sewing, but I think if I had this sewing room in life-size, I’d learn to love sewing more!”
Carinne acquired new skills as Ivy Manor  was being finished. With no formal training in the miniature field, she had not had much success in her attempts to make upholstered furniture in the past, but she was determined to try again. “I worked on a pink wingback chair to match a sofa I had purchased for the living room. I took my time and tried to be patient with myself. It’s still not perfect or as good as most of the chairs I buy, but I’m very pleased with it. I feel like I don’t need to be terrified of mini-upholstery work anymore, so next time I’ll try to make something more ambitious, like a sofa!”
Inspiration for Carinne is searching Instagram accounts online to discover what others are doing, and she likes the accounts showing vintage cottages and homes. She also enjoys seeing things  in real life that she might try to duplicate in miniature.
Carinne’s workplace has changed. “I used to have a whole extra bedroom to work in, but a couple of years ago my husband started working from home full-time, and he took over the bedroom at that point. Now, my workspace is a little alcove upstairs; it’s not perfect, but it works with enough space for a couple of tables and two cabinets. Finding space in my house for more dollhouses will be a challenge, though; I might need to sell one in order to find more room!
She always is thinking about and looking for the next house she wants to build. “I’ve started building the Beacon Hill dollhouse kit by Greenleaf, and I also have a couple of room boxes I want to complete.”