The making of dollhouse

"Berenglore"

by Jenneke JR.

What making dolls was for the 80’s, were dollhouses for the 90’s. Especially in the early 90’s. You couldn’t open a magazine or watching a TV program there was always something about a dollhouse in it. Of course, I read and watched everything about it, because when I was little I had a dollhouse too, but that dollhouse looked different as the ones they were talking about in the 90’s.

My biggest wish was to have one of these dollhouses one-day, but when I informed around about the prices, I realized that these houses were very expensive to buy. At least, if you wanted to buy a complete one. But what then? The only option was to build one myself. But how? It took me months before I "solved" that problem. And the solution was much easier as I thought.

At the end of the year 1991 they broadcasted a TV series here in Holland in which they showed some things you could create yourself with using cardboard as the basic form for everything. In one of the series programs they payed attention to how to make a dollhouse yourself with that cardboard. I was so surprised, that I forgot to put the VCR on to tape the whole program. But luckily there was also a book available of the whole series and I ordered that.

In the book they described exactly how to build the dollhouse including a drawing of the house as well. The original dollhouse in the book looked like a Dutch house from the 17th century, but I wanted to make a much more "modern" version of it, at least at the outside, and putting my own ideas in it. I used the basic drawing of the dollhouse and rebuild it to the house I liked. But the rebuilding wasn’t so easy as I’m mentioning it here.

First of all I wanted a sunroom at the backside of the house with sliding doors in it and leaded windows. And also a bow window in the kitchen just like in our own house and a balcony with a sunshade on the first floor and all these things weren’t described in the book. Of course, I thought about all these things during the Christmasholidays. The only place to put such a "big" dollhouse in our own home, was to use the major bedroom.

Luckily there was a shop in our neighborhood then where you could buy all the equipment’s to build the dollhouse so I had no problems with getting all the cardboard’s I needed. I started with everything in January 1992.

First of all I had to cut some cardboard’s in small long pieces to form the basic of the house and to glue them on a major cardboard. Then I must cut the floors , walls and so on and decorate them with carpet and wallpaper. In the walls I need to cut some spaces for the windows and the doors which where made outside the house and where put back later into their final places.

I wrote already about the thoughts I had about constructing the sunroom and the bow window of the kitchen. Well, it was time to make some final decisions now. I started with designing the basic form for the sunroom. I cut out all the small windows one by one and layed some plastic between the two sides and glued them together after I painted them. The basic form was ready now, but now I had to deal with another problem. How to create a roof for it that looked like a real roof? I thought about it another couple of days and then my mother said: "Why don’t you use sand paper for it?" And I answered: "Yes, that’s the solution". With this, and some silver paper, it really looked like a real roof. I also created some window sills in it to put some plants on and some boxes under the windowsills to put some belongings in for the owners of the dollhouse.

 I guess, everybody knows in the meantime that I’m a real fan of teddybears as well so a name for the house wasn’t difficult to find: "Berenglore", and I already had some small bears who could live perfectly all together in the house.

The name of the house came on the front side of the house just above the bow window of the kitchen. The bow window was a challenge to make! Designing everything first, then cutting out every detail and so that one window stood open all the time and the others ones were permanently closed.

When I finished the front- and the backside of the house, it was time to glue the stonepaper on it. But I couldn’t do that alone so I asked my mother for help. You must have seen me, crawling over the ground with all the paper and glue laying all over the ground. When I glued the two pieces together (with the small pieces of cardboard in between), the basic of the house was standing and it was time to create the left- and right side of the house which you can open to see the inside of "Berenglore".

In the leftside I build a sash window and a little window for the bathroom that you can open and close again. The hallway with a big closet in it is a part of its own. The right side of the house has such a special part of its own too. Here you can find a part of the kitchen. The two parts are closed with hooks so those don’t fall apart if you walked to the room or a big car is crossing the street.

In the shop, I mentioned earlier, they also sold some things to decorate your dollhouse. I bought some things there for the stairs. And did you remember my father spoke about the train we had? Well, we bought some things for that train (like small houses, wood and so on) in a toystore here in Den Haag. I hadn’t been there for years, but when I went to it, I found there exactly the things I needed to finish the stairs and to make some railings for the curtains.

And maybe you thought: "Where did she get all the other things which are standing inside the house? I had most of the things for years. When I was little, I owned a Skipper (Barbie’s sister) and some other familymembers and she lived, with her family, in my old dollhouse. I saved everything and so was able to use all these things again. Some of these things are stored in the kitchen, in the bedroom and on the second floor. I also bought some new things for the house on special exhibitions I visited like the table and chairs in the livingroom, the kitchen cooker and the beds. At the other hand, I also made some things. Like the big closet in the bedroom and the one in the study at the second floor.

It took me till August 1992 till the whole dollhouse was ready. That was very quick if you realize what a big job it was to create everything, but I worked almost every day on it, sometimes till late in the evening and of course that helped to finish it the house in 7 months time. I made a whole video of the whole building of the house and it’s very nice to watch the tape from time to time. They even made a rerun of the program in which they talked about the building of the dollhouse on TV some months later so I taped that item now as well.

Of course, I also made some photos of the house when it was ready. In October 1992, I read in a local newspaper, that it was possible to send in a photo of a doll or dollhouse for a competition. I searched through all my photos I made of "Berengloren" and I sent in 8 different photos. A couple of weeks later I went to the exhibition of the photos here in Den Haag and I was very surprised and happy to read that one of the photos won the first prize in the category "Amateur Photographers". I thought directly on my father and how proud he would have been on me, because he won so many prizes with his photos in the ‘60’s.

These days, the dollhouse "Berenglore" is still standing in the major bedroom and a lot of friends and familymembers have seen it so far. Thanks to our family website and the Internet even more people are able to see it now.

And for those of you who like to know what happened with my old dollhouse I have good news. It started a new, second, life. I gave it back three years ago to the persons who were so kind to lend it to me many years ago. A friend of them totally renovated it and it has been sold so now it’s standing somewhere else and there’s another little girl playing with it. Isn’t that great?

And here are some more photos of "Berenglore":

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