Wednesday, June 24, 2015

An ART DECO birthday house!



This is a Built-Rite doll house made by Warren Paper Products  in 1940. This art deco style cardboard house came to me new in the box...amazing that it had to wait 75 years to be played with!

This house was a birthday present to myself this year. I use that excuse every May to add another house to my collection. Like I need an excuse. I have been collecting dollhouses since 2005,  and my first birthday house was the same model Keystone Tudor I had as a child!  Ok, so I also got a Lundby Stockholm dollhouse for that same birthday....sometimes that happens...and sometimes I have several birthdays a year....



I love the look of the "glass blocks" surrounding the front door....



...and the patio with awning and flower boxes.



 The house is open in the back, and the base, with grass and carpet, is the bottom of the merchandising box.  



Most of the age appropriate furniture I have was much too large for the house,
so I made index paper furniture 
from some of the many patterns I have collected. 





Because the interior of the house was plain, I decided to copy 
the exterior doors and windows making changes to them
 to give the effect of being seen from the inside. 
This is the living room...



... the kitchen...


 
...bedroom wall facing the patio...


...and the bedroom.



Some of the furniture was easy to make....




 ...other pieces I made several times to get them the size I wanted. 
Notice the levitating pillow? 



I had several different pieces in the living room before I settled on these.



The LARGE radio was the last piece I made...so it stayed too large.



The stove was the hardest piece to construct, 
and yes I made it more than once.


 
Oh, it looks like our homeowner, Pauline Bachmeier, is napping on her patio.



Living room furniture...I did a cut and paste of 2 chair images 
to make the sofa....because I simply cannot do Photoshop!
 The radio and grandfather clock were constructed from google images.



Bedroom furniture...I love the art deco vanity. The bedside tables were made 
by enlarging the pattern of the vanity side tables.



Kitchen...all the pieces are from the same set. I added legs to the sink 
and a second top to the table so the table extensions could be open.



Patio furniture....the chair and stool were made by altering the chaise pattern. So was the flower box. Don't even ask. 



 Oh, it looks to be getting dark. Wonder if I should wake Pauline? 




The patterns I used were found on Pinterest, Google images and Ebay. 
Most of the ones I used are below.


I reduced the buffet pattern and used the piece in the living room 
between the 2 chairs.



This is the pattern for the chairs and the sofa, the back of the chair and the top and bottom of the round end table I did not make. 



The fantastic vanity! I think I found this on Pinterest
...but "le divan" was not available.



 I used the cabinet pattern for the living room side table
....changing the color to yellow. 





The bed came from a different set of patterns
....and the levitating pillow from a third set! 



I made all four of these pieces, adding a round top on the fridge by using a copy of the grill on the bottom. I also added an extra square top from the table pattern to show the extensions being used. 


I am so happy to finally have an art deco house!

21 comments:

  1. I do so love the house and furniture!!! Magnificent job on the furniture! If you get tired of it I would happily give it a home! Even the lazy chippy that lives there. HA!HA!

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  2. But it's not big enough for Chow to sit on!

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  3. Wonderful house and furniture! You did an amazing job!
    Have you checked out Agence Eureka, maybe they have the divan?

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion! Will do that right away. The same designer has some other pieces on Pinterest....

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    2. Thanks for the info, Yukari, I found it! And so nice to have a name for the artwork. cheers!

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  4. Hello Florine,
    Happy belated birthday. the house is gorgeous and your rooms are lovely.
    Big hug,
    Giac

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    1. Thank you Giac! I am so far behind on posting AND reading posts....never enough time in the day when you are retired!

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  5. What a fun house~ I love the colors and graphics.

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    1. Hi Philip....I've wanted this little house for years....and was so lucky to find this one in pristine condition...and reasonably priced!

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  6. Hi Florine. I love this house and the furniture you made. It all looks fantastic. Thanks for including the patterns. What fun to see it all put together.
    Susan

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    1. Thanks, Susan, and thanks to Yukari above I found the missing pieces and have started a Pinterest board on paper dollhouse furniture...Pinterest is addictive!

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  7. This house has so many interesting details; I've looked at your post several times, and something new catches my eye each time. The house is wonderful, but it's the making of the furniture that completely boggles my mind! That looks impossibly hard to me, but you made a perfect job of it!

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    1. It IS a delightful little house....and I was so happy to finally have a house that gave me the excuse to make this lovely mostly French designed furniture! Thanks for the kind comments!

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  8. Your furniture is just wonderful- I'd never have guessed it wasn't made specifically for that house! I love that you pieced things together to get the right combinations!
    And I'm with you on the birthday gifts- nobody ever gets me anything on my birthday lists (to be fair, they mostly consist of doll furniture and dollhouses), so I have no guilt about buying my presents for myself!!

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  9. So perfect! This is the nicest furnishing I've ever seen for this house. I'd always
    thought it was impossible to furnish but you've done in beautifully!

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    1. I was not sure how it would look but ended up being very pleased!

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  10. I felt so lucky to win one that was still new in the box!
    I am sending you some patterns for the Keystone chimney and email address of a lady who makes replacement parts for Keystone and Rich Toys houses...

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  11. That is completely adorable! Love the furniture, too.

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  12. Hello! I wonder if you could tell me how many pieces this house came with? I've recently purchased the same one (used, played with) at an estate sale and it seems mostly complete, but I'm trying to determine how many pieces are missing. Thank you!

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    1. Kristen you are in luck! I made copies of all the pieces because I sometimes like to make miniature houses (you can see the one I made under the Pages column in Mini Houses). My email is florinebettge@comcast.net, if you will email me here I will send copies of all the pieces so you can determine what you are missing and hopefully recreate what you need. Cheers! Florine

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