Miss Frobisher's Cottage

The first dollhouse I built from scratch was Miss Frobisher's Cottage.

Miss Frobisher in her kitchen as the late afternoon sunlight streams in.
This picture was published with several others in Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine.

The cottage, twixt village and forest. A peaceful abode.


A side view. Most of the shrubs and plantings were made from various sponges, cut, shaped and painted. Some reindeer moss was also used. The flowers were plucked from silk floral sprays. Some of the flowers were tinted to make other colors.
The stones that compose the porch floor are made of drywall compound. The leading in the windows is from Gallery Glass.


Miss Frobisher's parlour. The chairs in the foreground look a bit outsized, it's just a trick of the camera. They are 12:1 like the rest of the furniture. The chair on the right is supposed to be an antique medieval period country chair. The rug is merely a piece of fabric. The shawl on the easy chair is a bit of cheesecloth from the hardware store. It can make a very convincing piece of soft knitted baby blanket too. The chimney stones are cut from scrap plywood. The hutch in the background is a 99 center from Michael's.

Here's another shot of the parlour. I've found some of the little figurines that come in Red Rose tea packages handy. One sits on the mantel. The silver jar is made from a wooden bead and a small peg. The peg is glued into the bead and looks quite pretty, I think.

This is the grate I whipped up for the fireplace. It's made from a couple of half scale balusters and basswood.

Here's the kitchen. A couple of the pieces on the understairs shelves are from my daughter's Barbie sets. The hutch is another Michael's item. The broom is made from a thin piece of dowell, stiff rafia type straw or grass that came in a gift package and floral wire. I'm going to give her a new kitchen table someday. I was desperate the day I made it and it was the best I could come up with at the time. The teapot and cup I made from polymer clay. The rag rug is made from embroidery threads that were stitched together in rows. It's rather convincing looking, I think, but it turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it would. The range is made out of plywood, with thin gold cardboard used to make the hinges, etc. The glowing coals are made from bits of paperclay that I painted orange, then blotted with black to look like glowing coals. The brick wall behind it is a piece of balsa wood. I used a blunt pencil to scribe in the lines that form the bricks, then I painted the whole thing. The pewter plates on the top shelf are discarded plugs from electrical boxes my husband used when he put in some new outlets. They can be pretty effective as long as you don't get too close.

Miss Frobisher's bedroom. The bed is made from plywood and scrap pieces. The hat is modeled out of polymer clay. The runner is another piece of fabric. The blanket folded over the railing is cut from my son's outgrown polo shirt. The dresser in the alcove is the bottom half of a Michael's hutch.

Here you can also see the lumber room, or attic store room.
Miss Frobisher hopes you enjoyed your visit.