CHRISTMAS GIFTS : Home Petite Home : Dollhouses aren’t just for little girls anymore. Building and furnishing the tiny domiciles has become a family hobby.
‘T’was the night before Christmas, and Dad was hammering the dollhouse together. Mom was getting the shake shingles ready for the roof. The stained glass windows, wallpaper and electric lights would come later.
Yes, girls still play with dollhouses. So do grown-ups, who take it seriously, often spending hundreds of dollars on tiny exquisite furniture. And boys are getting into it too, although they might prefer a miniature general store, garage, farmer’s barn or fire station to a frilly Victorian mansion.
If you’re thinking about a dollhouse this holiday season, there are a few things you should know. First, this is not a cheap hobby. Sturdy dollhouses suitable for children come in kits that begin at about $80. Some stores will assemble them for a fee.
They come in all sizes, and of course, if you want to go all out, you can spend several hundred dollars on an elaborate three-story Victorian style. Size-wise, a starter home might be about 25 inches wide, 16 inches deep and 24 inches high. The scale runs one inch to one foot.
The kit usually includes the basic exterior shell of the house. The plywood pieces are all pre-cut, and the kit generally comes with nails. The only tools you’ll need at this stage are a hammer and glue.
Look for a kit that has 3/8-inch thick plywood, store owners recommend. Cheaper kits come with thinner plywood that takes a more agile hand to put together.
Don’t start this project on Christmas Eve. You’ll drive yourself bonkers. Plan on at least two evenings to finish the shell.
Putting one together is not for everyone. Debbie Markytan of Ventura bought a kit last year for her 8-year-old daughter, Amy. She worked on it sporadically for months.
“It drove me crazy,” she said. She finally gave up and bought another kit for $110. She paid $50 more to have it assembled. Although it’s not finished, she has about $300 invested in the house and furnishings.
“It’s an investment that will take her through the next couple of years,” she said. “So far, I have not been able to get her away from it.”
For some, the project isn’t a teeth-grinding task, but a way to bring the family together.
“This can be a real family hobby,” said Angela Tringali, owner of Angela’s Miniature World in Camarillo.
Parents, she said, can do the assembling and some of the interior decorating. If the kids are old enough, they like to pick out the paint for the outside and wallpaper for the interior. They can make the exterior brick, or maybe tack on wood siding. They can glue on fancy window casings and shutters, and install staircases.
Dollhouses now even have electric lighting. Parents can install a 12-volt system with thin copper tape that can be wallpapered or painted over. Then they can buy tiny working Tiffany lamps, or splurge on a $100-plus chandelier.
When it comes to furnishing these houses, the possibilities are endless. Serious collectors might consider expensive, finely detailed antique replicas. But kids can buy cheaper furniture.
Tringali said that, for about $35 per room, kids can buy the essentials: couches, chairs, beds, tables. If they want people in their house, they can pick up a family of four for about $15, or they can spend a little more and get the folks dressed in Victorian garb.
“They don’t always put people in them,” she said. One girl has a family of bunnies in her house, another a family of mice.
Tringali even sells Barbie dollhouse kits that start at about $200 and run as high as $500. The ceilings are higher than standard dollhouses to accommodate Barbie dolls.
There are literally thousands of tiny accessories kids can buy for their houses: grandfather clocks, some of which even work; porcelain bathtubs and old-fashioned toilets; beds with canopies; cribs; highchairs; pianos; fireplaces; paintings for the walls; pot-bellied stoves; pets and bird cages.
For girls, the nursery is usually the room they like to furnish first, according to Larrianne Hilditch, owner of Larrianne’s Small Wonders in Ventura.
Hilditch sells dollhouses for boys, but more popular are the general store kits that run about $70. A boy can stock it with produce and tools.
She advises parents not to buy delicate furniture for their child’s house.
“You don’t want to give them something and then say, oh, you can’t play with it,” she said.
At what age is a dollhouse appropriate? Store owners say it depends on the child, but 6 seems to be the most popular starting age.
Hilditch has advice for parents who try too hard to help their child decorate and furnish the house. She sees them try to sway their kids away from some odd color combination. The kids get disappointed and frustrated.
“Whose house is it,” she asks. “It’s the child’s, so she should use her own imagination.”
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Storyteller Jim Woodard is offering a Christmas-oriented storytelling session for kids ages 6 to 12 on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the old wooden church in Heritage Square in Oxnard. Sponsored by the Oxnard Redevelopment Agency, the program will range from a fantasy tale about the first Christmas tree to a legendary story about the election of Abraham Lincoln. Admission is $1 for kids and $2 for adults. For information, call 483-7960.
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The Santa Susana Repertory Company will present its fourth annual production of “A Christmas Carol” Friday through Dec. 20 at the Conejo Valley Park, Dover and Hendrix avenues, Thousand Oaks. Performances are on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7.50 for students and seniors, and $5 for children. For information, call 374-8282.
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Here’s where you can find dollhouses and miniature accessories: Angela’s Miniature World, 2237 E. Ventura Blvd., Camarillo, 482-2219; Larrianne’s Small Wonders, 1910 E. Main St., Ventura, 643-4042; and Handy Place, 1407 E. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley, 527-0704.
