Before You Start...

This post marks the start in a series on how to build a dollhouse. You're going to be following along with me, dear reader, as I do just that. However, before we get to the fun stuff (watching me suffer), we need to get through a couple of preliminaries. Every book you read starts with the really boring "now preparation is important" speech, and I'm going to start that way, too. I'm going to start that way because, with the first couple of dollhouses I built--and never completed--I ignored it. I wanted to jump right in. I still do. The only difference is, now, I have a designated studio space so it's a little easier to do. But seriously, you need to pay attention to preparation. If you know anything about crafting, then you already know the basic "buy high quality glue"-type recommendations. I'm going to spare you those and, instead, give you my own list.

1. Designate a space for working on the dollhouse and nothing else. When I was in law school, my current dollhouse project lived on my kitchen table. This not only made for awkward dinner parties (my kitchen table was also my only table), but also for even more awkward crafting sessions. I'd have to unpack my supplies, work for an hour or two, and then pack them up again. I lost pieces, I forgot which moulding went to which room, etc. A good rule of thumb for space is, designate about twice as much as you think you're going to need--believe me, you're going to spread out.

2. Invest in some furniture--at a bare minimum, a table and a workbench. This doesn't have to be expensive. I still use the cheapo tables I bought at IKEA years ago, and they still work great. If you want a high-end workbench, Sears sells the entire Ultimate Garage series. It's affordable and sturdy. The idea here is, your dollhouse can live on the table and your tools can live on the workbench. If you have any extra money or space, consider investing in another workbench, to hold your "in progress" pieces--it's nice to be able to lay out all those little bits of molding you're sanding.

3. Invest in some organizational supplies. I buy all of mine at Target. Whether you use drawers, bins, whatever, find a way to keep your various woods, trims and other supplies seperate. I particularly love Target's small plastic kitchen organizers, little trays that are about 10" x 7". I have a ton of them (they cost about 1.50 each), and I put the bits for each room in a separate bin. That way, no matter how complicated things get, I'm still organized--and portable.

While it's tempting to go on and on about all the tools, tricks and storage ideas you need, I'm going to give it a rest. Lists like this are inherently difficult because everyone's at a different place in terms of available space, budget, and skill level. If you have any specific questions about tools, then ask me--and if you have some better ideas than mine, then please educate me (and my readers).