(Patricia Silver – French Chateau Dollhouse)

A Labor of Love and a Dream Come True

by Pam North

Once upon a time a wondrously beautiful French chateau was born, a 300-pound, seventeenth-century structure with 14 rooms all lighted and furnished in 1:12 scale. It took over 300 labor hours to coax into existence, and 100% of the dollhouse was made for a special client.
The starting point for the majestic chateau dollhouse was the longtime vision and dream of California resident Patricia Silver. Patti had visited the Loire Valley in France several times, where she had fallen in love with the iconic chateau castles, and she vowed to have a smaller version for her very own.
Patti first was introduced to miniatures when she visited the Art Institute in Chicago, with their fabulous Thorne Rooms display that she viewed several times. She had her first dollhouse at the age of seven, and then another one at age eleven, and she spent hours playing with them. Her first daughter, Deena, had a dollhouse when she was twelve. Patti has six dollhouses now, and has started another, but her elegant and historic French chateau is surely the crown jewel of her collection.
Patti’s vision for her proposed chateau crystallized when she collaborated with dollhouse artisans to make it a reality. Ed Jacobowitz of Manhattan Dollhouse (Manhattan NY) was the original contractor who made a sketch of Patti’s concept, then turned it over to to Mark Lusink (Majestic Mansions, Lula, GA) who drew up the the structural shell pieces, then gave them to another firm to complete the dollhouse. These builders were Ken and Bev Simon, co-owners for almost 32 years of Miniature Designs (Lawrenceville, GA), a full-service dollhouse and miniature shop in a 4000 sq. ft. brick-and-mortar store stocking miniatures in all scales, offering custom dollhouse building and finishing. Ken Simon is the master dollhouse builder with the talent and vision to create any client's dollhouse dream. Bev Simon is the one who keeps their store rolling and the website growing, and sometimes does some miniatures of her own.
Patti collaborated first with Bev Simon over a three-hour lunch to lay out what she wanted. then made two trips to Atlanta to see the results from Ken, refining changes before giving her final approval. The house took three years to build, and disappointingly arrived broken when delivered to Patti’s Beverly Hills home. so the chateau had to be shipped back to Georgia for repairs before finally making its way back to Patti permanently.
“When the dollhouse finally came to my home, and I saw it for the first time, it was magical, and it became a great treasure in my life,” Patti related. “I tried to furnish each room as a setting with its own life, so it would be like living there in that time period. When I look at each room, it helps me to express what's inside my mind and heart, and I love that it will touch other lives when they see my dollhouse. I wanted to create true-to-life settings, which took painstaking attention to every detail in each room. I also wanted to create an energetic mood, making the overall impression of the feeling of each room's layout balanced and free-flowing, with each piece of furniture arranged perfectly.”
She chose talented artists from America, France, Italy, Spain, and Russia. Some of her favorites who made the dollhouse exquisite and breathtaking were: Ferd Sobol Editions (dining room furniture), Dany Miniatures (fireplaces, accessories, bookcases), June Clinkscales (beds), Lighting Bug Ltd. (lights), Fern Vasa (dolls) and Tish Tierney (ballroom dolls), but there were many others as well.
“Every piece of furniture, figures, chandeliers, paintings, and books were chosen to represent a certain time period,” Patti continued. “The books in the library are actually readable. In buying each and every piece, one by one, I visualized where each piece would ultimately be placed in every room. My husband, seeing hundreds of pieces on the floor, was amazed that I knew where everything was going!”
Materials used in the house structure included: wood, resin, brick, slate roof tiles, marbleized stairs and pillars, laser cut parquets and inlays for hardwood flooring. After the stone texture was laser cut into the birchwood walls, creating a realistic exterior stone appearance, several layers of cornstarch and latex paint were used to enhance the stone look, then paints were used to achieve the faux aging of the stone. JP Sligh did all the exterior stone effects and Jeri Holt did all the interior marbleizing and intricate painting. Wilson Santiago, Bev Simon’s brother, of Dollhouse Linens and More, was the creator of the drapes and several dressed beds.
Ken Simon offered his view on the project: “To get some order to it, my feeling was that I should simply focus on the house itself. Our favorite part of this dollhouse is the beauty of this chateau and the opportunity through Patti's vision to create it, working through her ideas, and my making it become a reality for her.”
“The hardest part in making miniatures, I would have to say, is getting the idea of of your creation in your head and starting the project,” Bev Simon added, “Time would have to be our worst enemy when we have so many other jobs in the shop to do.” The Simons continue to look forward to whatever the next client wants to fulfill a dollhouse dream.
Patti shared her thoughts on her beautiful French chateau: “The beauty and joy in creating a special dollhouse is being involved in the design and building of it, with its floor coverings and chandeliers, and then buying each miniature piece, to decorate it with all the furniture, accessories, books, and other wonderful objects.”
Patti was optimistic on the relevance of miniatures, saying, “The future of dollhouses and miniatures should have a great deal of growth for both children and adults to enjoy.” Bev agreed, “I cannot see the hobby ever stopping. You can see the rising of it even since the COVID-19 virus came upon us. Ken and I have been lucky. We picked a profession that we simply love, working numerous hours every day, and we still wake up each morning ready to do it all again.”

Contact Information:
Name: Patricia Silver
Email: phdc27@aol.com
Telephone:  (310) 271-5200 home  (323) 216-6007 mobile

Name:  Bev and Ken Simon
Business Name:  Miniature Designs
Email:  dollhouses@miniaturedesigns.com
Telephone:  (770) 923-8500
Address:  3555 Lawrenceville Hwy., Lawrenceville, GA  30044
Website:  www.miniaturedesigns.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Miniature-Designs

Name: Mark Lusink
Business Name:  Majestic Mansions – Lula GA
Telephone:  (310) 271-5200 home  (323) 216-6007 mobile