What a great project for quarantine! Here's a site that might have some good paint combination ideas for you: Paint Ideas

Don't let the purists see that. The shutters won't completely cover the bottom windows when closed. ;-)

Pale yellow with black, dark red, or dark green shutters?

This looks informative:
https://historicipswich.org/colors/

Keep up the good work

Wouldn't it be cool if you could find some LVP scraps in a wood pattern to use for the floor.

Fun, I have tons of those scraps from our recent basement project. But it has a high profile

You have piqued my interest. Are dollhouses built to a standard scale? Or to a couple of different scales, kind of like model trains? So it's easy to buy (and for others to make/manufacture) all the little bits and bobs that go inside?

This is going to be so sweet!

Is the exterior body staying white?

How about a house number that is someone's birthday or other meaningful date. And don't say 2020 or 19 ;D

Are you familiar with the Art Institute of Chicago's Miniature Collection? It's quite fun to explore. I also have a dollhouse story to share. About 25 years ago, I saw a notice that the county jail had a project for the inmates to build dollhouses for sale, and this was in the fall so I thought it was a perfect idea for Christmas for my daughter. I ordered one but it didn't arrive on time as they got delayed, but eventually she got her house which I secretly called the jail house. Later my daughter was rather shocked by the whole story. It's actually a sort of Victorian style. We collected some furniture and she played with it happily for some years until I boxed it up. It has been in that box ever since, through several moves and even storage, and now is on a top shelf in the garage. I have no idea of its condition so I'm hoping it's not a complete shambles. I now have an 8 month old to pass it along to, so I won't open the box until it's nearer age appropriate so it's still a mystery.

There are a lot of dollhouse aficionados out there so I'm sure you'll find good resources along the way. I'll be following your progress, so keep us in the loop, please.

What a fun project! Have you seen the lastest issue of House Beautiful? Designers were given the same dollhouse and asked to create their version. Here is Caitlin Wilson's version:

House Beautiful

After you've visited Chicago's Art Institute and viewed the exquisite Thorne Miniature Rooms, head south down Lake Shore Drive a few miles to the Museum of Science and Industry. There you can see Colleen Moore's stunning doll house. A work of art from a fairy tale!

Great dollhouse! How fun. Hope you'll post updates along the way.

Ages ago I found a dollhouse shell in a consignment shop. I bought and painted for DD2's Christmas. Worked on it while she was at school and hid under a turned up side down trash can (new) in the basement. It was two stories, two room. The top floor/room was hidden by the hinged roof. A friend painted a large tree with a swing on one side, grass and a couple of small birds. I put on a cedar shake roof. It was adorable.

So cute, Jojo. Totally jelly.

Oh I have such fond memories of building.painting.decorating a dollhouse for one of my nieces. I painted a garden scene on one side.. much as Allison's friend painted on her DD's. I don't remember for sure but I believe I painted a tire swing-- or I made one for her. I know there was a tire swing involved!

I painted/wallpapered/floored and added some special décor pieces and basic furniture-- enough for her to start playing with .. but plenty remaining for her to craft and build out.

So much fun-- and a great project for this forced downtime!

I still have the one I bought for DD in our attic, covered with a sheet. It is yellow with white shutters and trim. The granddaughters played with it and it still has all of its furnishings and the 'family'. It wasn't anything spectacularly furnished at the time, but they enjoyed it.

I was thinking you could maybe paint or draw fine lines in the plywood to look like hardwood. Maybe too much trouble but I'd think maybe a fine-tipped marker might work easily enough. And perhaps if you are good at it, paint a checkerboard black and white 'tile' pattern for the kitchen floor or bathroom.

Such a fun project that you could take anywhere you like.

would you consider handpainting/stenciling wallpaper? Simple sprigs and rosebuds?

Oh my gosh--this is the third attempt at responding; C'mon Houzz--stop fritzing!Thank you all for the responses and the links. I spent much of today going down rabbit holes and loving every minute. Also I loved reading your dollhouse (jail house!) stories. I would love to see your old dollhouses if you have any photos. Better yet, uncover them from the attic or basement and join me in a labor of love (or give it to Mtn so that she can play, lol.)
Scale: most dollhouses are a statndard 1:12. That means one inch equals 12 inches. Ceilings are 8-9 inches, doors about 6, etc. Mine is homemade so the scale is more haphazard. My ceilings are just shy of 8 inches and both doorways are different sizes. It will be interesting to see what I need to do to get the door I ordered to fit. It hasn't come yet, but I believe shims will be in my future.I love the idea of hand stenciling walls and flooring, but I have an Essential Tremor which makes fine detail challenging. I'm excited about trying a checkerboard floor, though. That I could probably do with painters tape and medium sized squares. If all else fails, though, there are amazing online stores with things like toile wallpaper and Chinoise wallpaper too. And gorgeous flooring too.
Thanks Toby and Bestyears for the color idea links. I think I am going to do pale yellow with white trim and black shutters. I like the idea of a red door.

But here is the glitch. I don't know what kind of roof to do, The asphalt ones online have horrible reviews--skimpy more like sandpaper. I could easily do a cedar shake shingle roof but I know color is an issue due to the black shutters. If I paint the shingles grey, I'm worried that they will look like a junky haunted house from a craft store. I did find some gorgeous slate roof pieces from England, but the shipping would be forever and it is probably overkill for my little project.Any ideas? I'm open to alternate shutter ideas, just not red.

Oh, and Outside, what kind of roof was on your yellow house?

It's closed, as is everything else in England, but you can see some of the dollhouses on display at the Museum of Childhood. https://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/?collection_type=dolls-houses.

I know you are not furnishing the inside now, but wanted to share something with you. My SIL is working on a Victorian doll house with her GD; nothing really authentic, just little toy furnishings, etc . Two or things really caught my eye....the clock on the wall was a beautiful old watch face, a tiny roll of toilet paper made of first aid gauze, a lamp shade was a toothpaste lid (pleated, some would say dated 😜). She made authentic looking ancestor pictures cut from magazines for the walls (don’t remember how she framed them). I am so not creative, would never think of something like this.

What a neat project! I hope you don't mind if I live vicariously through your design process. I always wanted one when I was a little girl but I rarely played with dolls so my Mother thought I wouldn't play with one. But dollhouses are so much more than playing with dolls, they don't even need little people in them. I once read that they represented an alternative universe, a dream life of your own imagination and fantasy that you could create and control.

My own daughter didn't play with dolls either but she loved playing with her Maple Town play set that featured personified animal families - Patti Rabbit, the Bear family etc.

But I now have a grand daughter - hmmm.

What a fun project.

I never had a doll house, and I don't know why. My father was a carpenter after all! Anyway, I used to take my brother's left over model car kits and created miniature furniture from them.

One time at the local small town carnival I won a small plastic bathroom set in a midway game. I wanted that set so bad. The game was that you had to throw a ball into a cup. I was so nervous I threw the first ball right at the carnie. lol I ended up with the bathroom but I seem to recall the guy just giving it to me. What an odd game prize, but it's just what I needed for "my house".

I still have that and the other pieces I made in a cigar box in the crawlspace.

Jo, I finally got into the attic. It was fun reminiscing today, because today is my DD’s birthday. I was looking through old photos and found a Christmas pic from when we gave it to her! The roof is white, and as you can see this dollhouse opens in the front. I had forgotten, I replaced the original Victorian style furniture with something more sturdy, almost danish modern, for the kids (and later grandkids) to play with and enjoy. I still have the original pieces boxed up but am showing you a couple I brought down. They wouldn’t have lasted but a few minutes if small hands got to them.

The clock doesn’t look to scale but it is so cute and the desk blotter and letter are actually separate pieces. I just love the little ice cream set. I should probably get other pieces out and maybe sell them. Or ask my DD if she wants to keep them.

Outside, you made my day! What a fabulous dollhouse! Yours makes me want to keep on plugging away at mine. Thank you so much for the pictures. :)

Jojo - could you use sandpaper for the roof?

Maire, I probably could, but I think it might look too thin for the scale of the house. I ordered cedar rectangle shakes today to see how they look. If nothing else, they will fill several days putting them on. I saw some colonial dollhouses with the cedar shingles and they looked good. I'm starting with the shingles before adding exterior color. Its a wait-and-see project.

Thanks for the idea, though!

Here's something for that authentic "under construction" look. 4" H x 1.75" W

It's a stress toy! I have one on my desk right now left over from an architecture/design expo.

Oh wow, Blu, you are my aspiration! We have the same layout too. According to my math, our houses are probably just about the same age, too! The general store is incredible. What an eye for detail you have. Thank you so much for posting these pictures.

bluebird - wonderful. I remember years ago JoAnn Fabrics used to carry minis of all sorts. I just couldn't resist them, even tho I had no real use for the items. Still have the miniature books in my library in a book case.

Outside, it looks like your daughter is holding a Cabbage a patch style doll...handmade? We have some around here, too

Jo, I'll take some new pictures, with some pre-picture cleanup, as it's had suffered some very localized “earthquake” damage. I know we have close up pictures of each room as they were upgraded over the years, but I can’t seem to find them.

The house also has gutters, a front brick walkway (with real mini bricks), modernized kitchen - do note there is vent over the range which is on an outside wall 😁, and much of the original furniture has been replaced. I was very fussy about scale, and of course, when this was originally made, there were many more choices than there are today to buy mini stuff. There were Williamsburg style repro furniture kits which we used to refurnish, with very nice scale details and real brass hardware. As I mentioned earlier, our most recent dog, when she was a very destructive puppy, destroyed some of it. I sourced new in box kits on EBay, but because I can’t get the same fabric I will also have to change the drapes...I guess in real life it would be time, too.

Bluebird, yes it was! We were trying to recall last night who made it for her. We think it was a gift from her grandmother. She was more excited to see the round Snoopy Christmas ornament in the foreground on the tree. She still has it, along with a lot of other Snoopy ornaments she has collected over the years. Enough for an entire tree full.

I love your house and general store! A true labor of love. I can recall going to one display of miniatures on display not long after this (early 80’s). They were incredible.

I didn't read all the responses, so maybe someone else suggested this, but you can easily stain the cedar shingles/shakes for the roof any color you like. I have cedar shake siding and it takes a solid color (or semi-transparent, but think you'd want solid) stain nicely.

That is wonderful Bluebird. Makes me wish I had at least a daughter along with my two boys.

Here's a picture of the living room after the first round of furniture. The carpeting was made from uncut corduroy fabric, which was easily available back then. We made several of the lamps and lampshades, and, as mentioned before the furniture including the grandfather clock was made from the Williamsburg repro kits. I think the dog ate both the sofa and the wing chair.

For my daughter's dollhouse, I went shopping for (real) oriental rugs online and printed out images of them to use in the bedroom and living room.

jojoco, I love the colors you've chosen! About the roof, I've always thought that pieces of reed (the kind used to weave baskets) would make a cool roofing material on a small house. It would look more like cedar roofing though, so probably not for your application unless you like the look. Here are some of my scrap pieces of reed arranged so you might be able to envision what I'm talking about... I only had the single 1" piece handy, and the others are 1/2" stacked like roofing materials would be. Sorry it's sideways. :p

I think sandpaper is a great idea. To make it thicker, back the sandpaper with mat board or foam board. You could even skip the sandpaper and custom-make your shingles. For architectural style, I'd choose the base material for thickness, cut to shingle size, slather on glue and sprinkle it with sand. Could use colored sand or even paint it. For texture you can use things like fiber paste, etc.

Great ideas, party music! I've actually ordered cedar squared off shingles that I think will have a brownish stain--although you never know with some online orders. I'm thinking of doing it exactly like you did. wish me luck!

Came across this picture of the children's room in the dollhouse, probably taken in the early 80s. Check out the beds carefully.

I could totally get into this, can't wait to see what you do Jojo.

Mtn, go on Facebook marketplace and type in dollhouse. ( Do a second search with "Dollhouses" for more options.) There are tons for sale, and a bunch in your neck o the woods. One woman in VT with multitudes who will ship them. Ugh, though, just looked for the woman again and couldn't find her. But I know she had 20 or so dollhouses. Grab one and join me in this great way to kill time.

Oh, and Blubird...a resident gekko? I did a double take!!!

Chameleons, there's one in each bed. Nice, eh?

Inspiration?

https://www.messynessychic.com/2017/04/11/this-flappers-dollhouse-cost-more-than-most-peoples-homes/

deegw, that is fabulous...the floors the artwork, just spectacular.