1930s House

Owned and created by the novelist Kate Long

(Of" Bad Mother's Handbook" & "Swallowing Grandma" fame)

This is a Dolls House Emporium "Fairbanks" house, bought off Ebay already assembled but undecorated & unfurnished.

KITCHEN

"Kitchens are so much fun. Lots of KT Miniature stuff in here, plus pieces by Phoenix, Shepherd's and Platt's Mini Packaging. I'm in the process of building a pantry outside, as there is currently nowhere satisfactory to store butter and milk! The Devon toffee tin is a replica of one my grandma had, that now sits on my real kitchen window?"

HALL

"Note the Wigan rugby league scarf hanging up - this is a northern household. The runner I printed myself onto a strip of plain beige DHE carpet; I wanted a subtler effect rather than a lot of modern carpeting."

DINING ROOM

"I used to know a lady with a 30's house and I especially remember her plate rack round the 'best' room. So I put one in here out of skirting board and had fun filling it with appropriate style plates. The lino I printed myself onto (again) photographic paper."

LOUNGE

"My favourite room. The Deco-style suite was made by a friend of mine and I built the magazine rack, coffee table and bookcase myself out of balsa wood, cutting the strips with scissors and painting the surface with dark brown enamel. I had fun sourcing knitting things and making a button tin - didn't everyone have a button tin? I used to play with my grandma's for hours."

BATHROOM

"You'll recognise Celia's tiles here, printed onto photographic paper for a shiny effect. The Deco light is from the DHE and the sink, slightly out-of-scale, is Renwal. I made yellow and black Deco-style curtains for this room to match the walls and picture rail. This is the room I'm least satisfied with, though; it's very hard to find a period bathroom suite in 1/12th."

MAIN BEDROOM

"I put a Lloyd Loom set in here, re-sprayed gold, like my grandma used to have. I also copied her religious-style pictures. The curtain fabric I made by printing old 30's patterns onto white handkerchiefs."

2ND BEDROOM

"This is set up as the bedroom of a teenage boy; his model aeroplanes hang from the ceiling as my father's used to, and many of the books on his shelf are copies of ones my dad had when he was young."

SPARE ROOM

"In here are kept sewing items, Christmas decorations, lots of old magazines, photos and books, a train set, a defunct gas mask (it's just post-war) and a trunk."

I am sure you will agree with me that Kate had created something truly inspiring and wonderful here, and KT Miniatures would like to thank her for all the time and effort that went into photographing & wording all that you see on this page! Sadly Kate had to sell this house and contents due to lack of space as I gather her young son did not wish to share his bedroom with it...fully understandable. The house now resides in Scotland and the contents in Belgium!

All photos and editorial belong to KT Miniatures and each individual contributor. No reproduction of the text or photographs may be made without the strict permission of KT Miniatures and contributor.