Unfinished Doll's Dollhouse by Handley Classics

Looking for a dollhouse miniatures store in your area? Having a hard time finding one? From New York City to Los Angeles and Seattle to Miami, we receive countless e-mail inquiries from customers wondering where they can go to purchase dollhouse furniture, miniature accessories, dollhouse kits and dollhouse supplies. Unfortunately, those seeking an in-person miniatures shopping experience, are finding it difficult to shop for miniatures in person. While small independently-owned dollhouse miniatures stores do still exist, many are going the way of the dinosaur.

With our tough economy, increasing competition and overhead costs and the growth of the internet over the last 15 years, many miniatures store owners have found it more cost-effective to sell online. While it is disappointing to some dollhouse enthusiasts that they can’t see, touch and feel the vast array of dollhouse miniatures merchandise in person, the move to online selling does ultimately benefit our dollhouse miniatures customer.

1. Lower Prices - Lower overhead costs mean lower prices for miniature buyers! Without the added overhead of store rent, utilities and excess employees, dollhouse store operators can sell their products at more competitive prices. For those miniature lovers on a budget, this is a huge plus – now you can afford to buy that extra end table or miniature lamp!

2. More Product Selection – Selling online allows some dollhouse miniatures retailers to offer a larger product selection. Depending upon the physical size of a store location, some dollhouse retailers can only afford to stock so many items for sale. There are currently over 20,000 different miniature dollhouse items for sale on the market today. Almost every miniature item from sewing tables to miniature baby bottles and tiny dollhouse copper tea kettles to fine lace curtains are available. Selling online allows retailers to reach a larger market and offer more miniatures for sale.

3. Convenience – We all know that shopping online offers more convenience than shopping a store in person. Buying doll house furniture and miniatures is no different. There’s nothing more fun than surfing the internet at 11:00 PM on a Sunday evening in your pajamas as you dream about the tiny accessories and beautiful collector miniature furniture that will someday fill your dollhouse.

Shopping online is a great benefit to all dollhouse miniatures customers. Look for websites with detailed photographic images of their dollhouse miniature products. This will allow you an up-close view of the miniatures before you buy. Also, look for important information in the product description such as details about quality and materials, scale and precise measurements.

When looking for an online retail store, be sure to also check the store’s return policy. Zoolabees Dollhouse Miniatures offers an excellent no-hassle return policy. We do this because we understand you can’t view the merchandise in-person and we want to make sure all of our customers are 100% satisfied with their purchases.

Dollhouse Chopping Utensil by International Miniatures

When most people think of dollhouse miniatures, forensics or crime scene investigations are usually the last thing to come to mind.

An interesting and fascinating use of dollhouse miniatures is the creation of dioramas or mini-vignettes representing the details found at a real scene of a crime. The crafter of these tiny crime scenes uses a dollhouse or room box and includes all of the lifelike detail of the life-size scene including furniture, body, weapon and even footprints. No detail is too small and each scene must include important components such as working lights and doors and windows that actually open. The seemingly most inconsequential details must be captured if the dollhouse crime scene is to be effective. These 3-D dollhouse crime scenes aid detectives in studying real clues that should be sought when investigating a real crime scene. They are also used as an important tool in training students and investigators who are interested in entering the fascinating field of forensics.

Thomas Mauriello, Professor of Criminology at the University of Maryland believes that in a world of computer-aided crime scene analysis, there is no substitute for hands-on experience – even if the hands are on a tiny doll representing the corpse of a victim. Mauriello has created 6 tiny crime-scene room boxes or dioramas which include important clues to the cause of death – be it accident, suicide or homicide. Conjuring images up from the scene of a horror flick, Mauriello’s miniature crime scenes include blood-stained walls and tiny death bed figures, many of which can be found lying face down in the garage or face up on the kitchen linoleum floor.

Mauriello reminds his students that the ability to examine the details of a crime scene in miniature form is essential – they cannot do that at a real crime scene as it’s impossible. It’s closed off so they cannot violate the integrity of the crime scene. Mauriello used to re-create his crime scenes by taking over a university house and turning it into a life-size crime scene. A huge undertaking, this would often take him days to prepare. Mauriello prefers the dollhouse miniature dioramas as they take much less time to prepare and are easily portable.

The originator of the dollhouse crime scene investigations was Frances Glessner Lee, an eccentric millionaires in the 1940’s and 1950’s who founded Harvard’s department of legal medicine. Lee spent as much as $3000 per miniature dollhouse crime scene diorama – close to the cost of a real house at that time. Lee was a perfectionist when it came to her dollhouse scenes. Bullets and shotgun shells were perfectly miniaturized and her miniature victims wore clothing carefully knitted by Lee herself. Lee became the honorary captain of the New Hampshire state police force and used her dollhouse crime scene dioramas mimicking real crime scenes to challenge the boys in her unit.

For more great information on this topic, we recommend reading The Dollhouse Murders by Thomas Mauriello.

Real Good Toys Dollhouse Kit in Victorian Style

For dollhouse novices and experts alike, choosing the architectural style of your dollhouse is an important first step in planning your dollhouse miniature project. Here is an overview of some of the popular styles available on the market today as well as the history of where these popular styles originated. This list of dollhouse styles was put together by Real Good Toys, a premier manufacturer of quality dollhouses.

Cape Cod

The Cape Cod style (c.1675 - 1950) reflects the difficult weather and thrifty builders of the early northeastern coastal villages. A traditional Cape Cod has a steep roof with small eaves to protect the house from heavy New England snowfalls and a large central fireplace to keep it cozy. The 1-1/2-story houses have living space in the attic. A Cape Cod has double hung windows with mullions, shutters and is finished with clapboard or shingles on the outside.

Colonial

The Colonial house (c.1700 - present) is an American adaptation of the English “Cotswold” or Free Holder’s cottage. In its earlier version, the Cotswold had an open fire pit inside the house and the smoke would find its own way out through the thatched roof. The fire room was on one end of the house so the residents could keep warm in the loft but still be away from the smoke. This 1/3 and 2/3 division of the house was still reflected in early colonial layouts showing up as offset front doors and non-symmetrical first floor layouts. As the Colonial design spread out from the earliest American villages, the typical features were of a house 1-1/2 or 2-stories tall with approximately a 45 degree roof pitch, narrow eaves (for shedding snow) and a narrow front-to-back so every room could be well lighted by the windows. The windows were small pane double hung with no frivolous ornamentation and had shutters. The doors were also plain and utilitarian. The walls were almost always clapboard or wooden shingles. The Colonial design took on the attributes of other styles that were popular at the time of its building, showing Federal, Greek Revival or Victorian details in their turn.

Mansard

Mansard roofs (c.1550 - 1870) are steeply sloping roofs with a flat or nearly flat top. These became very popular in the 17th century of Paris as they took advantage of the property tax laws, which did not tax attic spaces. The attic of a Mansard house had a fully usable attic and was tax-free! Architect Francois Mansart took advantage of that in his designs. The word “Mansard” comes from his name being on so many designs for houses with this roof design. See our favorite Mansard Dollhouse.

Plantation

The Plantation (c.1803 - 1862) houses reflect the elegance and grandeur of the American south in the early 1800’s. These houses have tall ceilings and a formal layout inside, often with fancy stairways. On the outside, columned verandas with balconies are the dominant feature to shade the interior and catch the breezes. It is the large balcony that differentiates this style from the Greek revival.

Tudor

The Tudor reflects the early English great houses that were made by joining together a frame of hewn timbers, then pounding sticks to jam in-between the beams. Finally, two plasterers would stand, one inside and one outside the wall, and press plaster into the sticks until the plaster squeezed through the holes between the sticks and joined the plaster being pressed into the wall from the other side. More layers of plaster left a masonry wall held in place by jammed lath with the hewn beams showing inside and out. That’s the Tudor look. The diagonal beams are diagonal bracing of the frame. Half-timbered Tudor houses, ones that step out half way up the wall (so that the second floor is bigger than the first floor) became necessary when the wood supply could not keep up with demand, and trees large enough to reach all the way to the top of the wall became scarce. Half timbering allowed the frame to be made from smaller trees. Tudor houses traditionally had the steep pitch and shed dormers of thatched roofs but neo-Tudor houses of the 1890-1920’s had multiple intersecting gables and peak roof dormers. The better roofing materials didn’t automatically mean a leak for every roof valley. Tudor windows were arranged in long rows, often with a row of stained glass transom windows right above. Eave trim often-used scroll cut verge board. Balconies or enclosed screened rooms within the framing of the house were common, although porches (which attach to the outside of the house) were less so. A terrace is a more likely ground floor extension of the living space.

Victorian

Victorian architecture (c.1830 - 1900) replaced the Greek and Georgian styles, rebelling against the classical symmetry and orderliness. The Victorian style is flamboyant and exciting with tall, steep pitched roofs; multiple gables and gingerbread stick trim or decorated verge boards accenting the eaves. Roofs are further emphasized with layered chimneys and finials or peak cresting. Windows are varied in size and shape and may project from the house in a bay oriel. The outside finish of a Victorian is multi-textured, multi-hued and uses every material possible including clapboard, stucco, board and baton; often mixing finishes. Colors are strong and varied with each layer of trim being a new opportunity for a change of hue or tone. See our favorite Victorian Dollhouse.

Queen Anne

The Queen Anne (c.1876 - 1915) ranges from the “Painted Lady” row houses of San Francisco to sprawling resort mansions. Queen Anne houses are exuberant and comfortable. Roof lines are steep with multiple and intersecting gables and majestic towers. In every section the windows are different - some narrow, some double, but there are always lots of them. Every surface of a Queen Anne house is interesting with many textures, many colors and lots of decorations. Decorations include shapes or patterns of color in the shingles, brackets, dentil eave moldings, beading under every edge with fans, ornamental plaster, patterned shingles and layers of fascia testifying to the builder’s own imagination. See our favorite Queen Anne Dollhouse.

Zoolabees Dollhouse Miniatures is an on-line retailer of inch scale dollhouse miniatures including miniature furniture, miniature accessories, dollhouse lighting, building supplies, dollhouses and dolls.