Small Wonder : All Dolled Up, Little Houses Are a Passing Fancy

Day and night, strangers stroll past the Balboa Island home of Lorri Kemp Clarke, pausing to stare in her living room window. The attractions are several dollhouses that Clarke has painstakingly decorated with miniature furnishings.

“At nighttime, we lay in bed upstairs and groups of people stand outside and talk about it,” she said of her creations. “In another house they would be for us, but here, they’re for everybody to see.”

Clarke’s childhood love of miniatures was rekindled seven years ago when her sister discovered Clarke’s dollhouse furniture in the attic of the family home after their mother died. The childhood dollhouse has since been installed in one corner of Clarke’s dining room, while two larger models dominate the living room.

A peek into one--a 30-inch, three-story Victorian dollhouse including wallpaper, carpet and furniture--reveals a mini-world of opulence. A mahogany spiral staircase fills the entryway and a tiny grand piano stands nearby. In the dining room, a dainty crystal chandelier dangles above a Duncan Phyfe dining room set. A sterling silver tea set rests on the tea cart and hand-painted china fills the cupboards.

On the second floor, a miniature bathroom boasts a free-standing porcelain bathtub with 24-carat gold feet and fixtures. A lace-canopied bed in one of the bedrooms was the first piece of furniture Clarke bought for the house, which weighs 50 pounds unfurnished. She paid about $2,000 for the tiny bed three years ago, she said, adding that she scours shops throughout Southern California to find the miniatures.

“It’s fun to sort of shrink yourself down and imagine yourself in these rooms,” Clarke said, kneeling to peer inside. “It’s exactly like a real house.”

Clarke, who also buys, remodels and sells real houses, created the Victorian dollhouse to “satisfy that craving” when she was unable to find a Victorian home to decorate. She tackles a miniature project as she would a larger one, she said.

“My fun is decorating just as a big decorator would do,” she said. “You hire the wallpaper man. You hire the electrician.”

Clarke’s hobby has even taken over the kitchen. She has created a scaled-down sweet shop on the counter, with a soda fountain, table and chairs, and a display case packed with tiny cakes, eclairs, jelly donuts and cinnamon rolls.

One doorless cupboard has been transformed into a display room for diminutive stoves, refrigerators and washing machines, which Clarke said her uncle used as models when selling appliances during World War II.

“These miniatures are just totally addictive,” Clarke said.