Restoring
a derelict 1940s doll’s house is a slow voyage of discovery and replacement,
all stages in a journey. I’m working towards a result that looks as ‘right’ for
the period as possible and also fits in with the way that the original makers
worked, with limited ‘make do and mend’ materials and varying skills.
This
shot shows the crude gloss white that was applied over the original shade of
mustard
yellow and on the left short wall I’ve chipped this off carefully to
reveal the original paint. Just to the right is a replacement ’sliding wall’
which gives a child’s hand access to the second bedroom, and the little bedroom
door was remade and fixed with new hinges. Eventually all the surfaces will be
repainted, or the 1960s paint carefully removed where possible, to return the
house to an authentic 40s colour scheme. To our 21st Century eyes this will
look very mournfully brownish.
Progress
in the Kitchen. 1930s/40s kitchens were generally small and when the gas stove gets in this one it will be positively cramped. The freestanding ‘utility
cupboard’ with a flap down front, was one of the few food preparation and
storage areas. A little central kitchen table could also be used and this
particular one, very basic varnished brown wood that has seen lots of use, was
cut down from a bigger one to fit in, reusing all the original nails to
reassemble it. The door to the dining room, with a built in serving hatch
(innovative for the time) has been returned to near original dark turquoise
blue. To the right the caramel coloured door is also very near to its original
colour. The primrose walls seem to be the colour they started out so I am not
touching those! Everything was in short supply during WW2 and ‘ends’ of paint
cans would have been used up on a home-made doll’s house and good taste in
colour schemes would not come into it. My task will be to blend my repaint with
the existing old surfaces using a number of techniques - forging 80 years of
use in play!
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