It's a matter of time, we always get lost..

I still haven't opened up all my Christmas Lundby yet, but I took some quick photos the other day as the last 2 sets (Smaland dining room & kitchen) arrived last Saturday.  So far the only set I've opened is the Stockholm set with the shower & jacuzzi, as I wanted to see if the shower would fit in the small left hand upstairs room in my "Dream House" (the Lundby version of Barton's Caroline's Home).  I feared it would be too tall, but it *just* fits in.

I still have some more recent Lundby pieces on my wishlist. I think the sets are the top of my list are mostly Smaland sets - the bathroom set with the roll top bath (I'm sure the Stockholm jacuzzi will come in useful, but I much prefer the roll top bath), kitchen accessories set with the herbs, & the new stereo sideboard, + the older Stockholm bedroom set (which I'd buy in a heartbeat if I could just find one).

I'm planning on using all of these in my Dream House but still need the roll top bath to complete the bathroom, the sideboard to complete the living room, + a complete bedroom set & more furniture for the spare room upstairs, though I'm not even sure what that room will be yet - possibly an office/craft room (the old Smaland TV set with the yellow bookcase might be handy to go in there with the brightly coloured Stockholm table & chairs).   However I think I have enough to start figuring out how I want to decorate the walls & floors of the house.



I'd love to find a way to replace the stairs in the dream house, whether that's making some myself, or using some made for another house.  I really love the stairs in the old Stockholm but don't have an old or new Stockholm myself (yet, maybe one day - I'd love both)  to measure to see if they would fit in the Dream House.  I do have a spare staircase (the type in the Smaland/old Gothenburg) but I don't think they would work in the Dream House - they're too tall & would need modifying + I want some open stairs, so you can see through to the rest of the room - the large room downstairs, which is supposed to be the living room, but which I'll be making into a large open plan kitchen/dining room).

I'm looking forward to opening the rest of the sets & trying them in my Dream House, & really hoping the layout I've visualised will work. 

Oh.. & Happy New Year! 

Cold blooded old times..

I still have a couple of things to arrive (they probably won't get here until the new year), but the rest of my Lundby Christmas gifts to myself arrived on Wednesday & in time for Christmas.  

I haven't deboxed anything yet, but I did have a peek in the boxes shortly after they arrived.  I'm looking forward to deboxing everything soon & having a play.

I'm still not feeling too great, depressed & hollow I guess, but I really hope anyone reading this is having/has had a lovely Christmas.  I'm definitely the Charlie Browniest this year.

❤

I wish A Charlie Brown Christmas would be on TV every year at Christmas here in the UK, but sadly not (must remember to get the DVD so I can watch it next Christmas). I love Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Time is Here & The Young People's Chorus of New York City did a lovely version of it on The Tonight Show recently.

Enjoy & Merry Christmas!

Catching up + Obsessions : Franz West Uncle chairs.

I have a pile of Elle Decoration from January this year onwards to catch up on, what with everything that has been going on since January I haven't had time or inclination to peruse them until now.

I got a replacement window in the mail today - my Lundby Dream House has all its shutters, but had a missing window pane, so now all the windows will be complete. 

As I'm getting back into the swing of things I've been thinking about things I'd love to try to make in miniature. One of them being the Uncle chair by Franz West.

 Photo: Christies

Franz West (1947-2012) was an Austrian artist & furniture designer. His Onkel Stuhl (Uncle Stool) were made in the 2000's & are brightly coloured synthetic straps woven over a steel tubular frame (86 x 51 x 55 cm).

With the colours & patterns created with the straps they remind me a lot of African textiles - they're very much like nwentom/kente cloth, a fabric made by the Akan (from West Africa - Ghana, the Ivory Coast & Benin) which is made from brightly coloured interwoven silk or cotton cloth strips.

 

Photos: Artforum magazine cover, October 2009 via Tumblr.

I particularly love how they were used in this kitchen, designed by India Madhavi in this Parisian loft apartment.

 

Photos: by Matthew Salvaing for admagazine.fr

I'm wondering if I could make some from wire with paper or flexible plastic in bright colours for the seats & backs (I'm sure these 2 tutorials would be very helpful - 1 & 2).  Something to think about..

Where the heart is..

I thought I'd take some quick photos of the most recent house I added to my little collection - it's the same as Caroline's Home made by Barton, but came out some time in the 80's after Lundby took over Barton in 1984 & sold as "The Dream House".  I bought it about a year & a half ago & haven't done anything yet, other than cleaning it up a bit, but I think it'll be a good place to start.

It's probably silly, but i'm so nervous about redecorating & making a mess of things, but this house is screaming out for some TLC & attention.  It's not in horrible condition, but it's far from mint, so I don't feel precious about it which helps my nervousness.   I'm thinking of totally redecorating not only the inside, but the outside.  I love the red door & shutters, but i can imagine the exterior could look great with some work.

The first dollhouse furniture I ever had was actually Caroline's Home furniture by Barton.  I didn't have the Caroline's Home house, but I clearly remember having a number of the items made for it when I was very little (5 or 6 years old).  I had the bedroom set (wardrobe, dressing table, bed), a sideboard & bearskin rug, pots & pans, plates of food & a pink tea set, a rocking horse, & maybe a pink & black bathroom set (bath, toilet, sink, which I think might have been Lundby rather than Barton), a cot & grandfather clock.  I'm not sure what happened to my first dollhouse or the furniture & accessories I had for it.  My Mum & I lived with my Grandparents until I was 6 years old. I can't remember the dollhouse coming with us when we moved & have no idea what happened to it.

 

 

 

 

I think I'm going to swtich the layout of the downstairs - most often I see the ground floor room on the left as the kitchen, with the larger room with the stairs as the living room.  I think the bottom left room works better as a kitchen when it's in the version of Caroline's Home with a window on the back wall, but for this version I think it will make a better living room/snug, with the larger room being a big open plan kitchen/dining room.

For the upstairs I know there's going to be a main bedroom & bathroom, but I'm not sure what the third room will be yet & I'm not sure what the layout will be like, that will all depend on where the furniture fits best.  At the moment I think the third upstairs room might be an office/craft room.

Anyway, yet another project & lots to do.. I haven't bought any of the furniture I want to use for it yet, I have pieces in mind for the bathroom, & kitchen/dining room, but I have no idea what i'll use yet for the living room & bedroom.   

The Summer House.

Now that the weather is getting better, Mame Imp decided to put the Playmobil Summer House to use.
Where better to put the Mame's new (to them) red Lundby dresser & take afternoon tea coffee (using some Re-Ment polka-dot teacups as oversized coffee cups).

Summer House - Playmobil Vacation Cottage 3771, table & chairs - Jean of Germany, dresser - Lundby, basket - Playmobil (in hindsight I wish I'd dug out a smaller, more detailed basket from my Re-Ment stash), miniatures - mostly Re-Ment.

Replacement & different parts.

A little progress for the Gothenburg. Yesterdays arrival - 4 doors, 4 windows, stairs, banister & step (from a 1980's Gothenburg?) should resolve some of the issues - the missing windows, & the broken door handles.  All the pieces smelled very musty, but the musty smell seems to have gone since giving it all a good clean.

One of the door handles dropped off on its own while the pieces were soaking & I was able to get the handle from the other side of the same door off easily, & without any breakages. Hurrah!  However the door handles are a different colour than the door handles in my Gothenburg.  The "new" ones are gold, the ones in my Gothenburg are a darker coppery colour (& less shiny), I'm not sure if I should try spraying or painting them to match.  Something to consider..

It was interesting to see the difference in the banisters from the top of the stairs. 

At the top is the banister from the Småland, below is the banister from the 80's (?) Gothenburg. 

I don't understand why the Småland banister has the extra bit at the end (top left in the upper photo, top right in the lower).  

I've been frustrated with the extra bit since I put the Småland together, the banister doesn't fit properly because of it, & I've been wondering if I should try shaving some of the plastic off to make it fit properly.

Unlike the older Gothenburg banister (which appears to have been glued into place), the Småland one attaches with a screw at one end & a small round plastic piece which fits into the floor at the other end.  Because of the extra bit the banister ends up bending & not standing straight, which looks awful.

No progress with the Form Group in basswood yet, though I did finally dig out some stain & clear matt varnish, so hopefully I can get that done this weekend.  The next step will be gluing everything together.  

The stain I had in storage was rosewood, which isn't perfect (I think teak would be more appropriate), but I'm treating the 2 section I'm working on as another test piece anyway, as the wood I used isn't quite the right size.  What I already had, & have used, is 1.5mm thick, for a "proper" version I want to use 2mm thick, which I think is more to scale.

Arrival of the Gothenburg

Yesterday I received a Gothenburg house + extension, it's not in the best condition & needs a lot of work, but despite this, I'm completely smitten with it.

After buying the Småland (on sale, 40%ish off, at Amazon UK!) I admittedly felt a little disappointed. Though the Småland has some positives (being able to take it apart will make it so much easier to redecorate for one!) I definitely didn't feel smitten with it, though I think I will grow to like it more once I have redecorated & furnished it to my liking.

I'm not sure if my Gothenburg is from 1972 or 1973, it has the plain wooden frame, lovely wooden stair rails & banister, beige plastic doors, white brick paper on the outside, but has a red floor on the downstairs level of the main house, rather than the blue floors I've seen in the Gothenburgs in the 1972 & 1973 catalogues.

My favourite Gothenberg is just a little earlier than this, I think it's the 1971 version with the light blue floors, lighter abstract wallpapers + the plastic doors, wooden stair rail & banister, & I think when I redecorate my Gothenburg it will be closer to that style.

I have no idea how best to remove the wallpaper, or redecorate yet.  Doing up an old dollhouse is totally new to me, I have lots to learn.

My Gothenburgs Issues: 

• there's a small split in the front of the frame above the bathroom which needs fixing.
• most of the floors have stains & the felt carpet in the small bedroom was in very bad shape.
• most of wallpapers have stains & damaged sections.     
• the handles on either side of the door to the bathroom are broken.
• it has one missing window frame & 2 missing plastic window panes.

also I'm not sure if the wiring is functional, I don't have a transformer yet, so I will have to wait to test that out.

Lots of quick photos.  I'd already taken out the windows so I could clean them (they were very very dirty) - that's them piled up & waiting to be washed in the larger extension room. They cleaned up really well.

I've since removed the phone, clock, mirror & light, + removed the broken handles from the bathroom door.  There's no way of taking the door & doorframe out without taking the house apart, & as well as a replacement window frame, I'm hoping I can find a replacement door that I can take the handles off (hopefully without breaking them, they are very fragile) & attach to the now handle-less bathroom door.