Apparently I am not the only one who loves A-frames. A lot of comments on my last post revealed your affection for this style of house and I am definitely looking forward to refurbishing mine. By the way, Modern MC of Mini Modern recalls seeing my A-frame in kit form on eBay back in January. While she no longer has the images of the kit, it's a clue! Thanks, MC!
In the meantime, I wanted to share some amazing images of a handmade A-frame 1:12 house, courtesy of Martha B., whose father built it from scratch over a decade ago for her son. Just look at the quality of the craftsmanship, the great architectural accents, and layout. Feast your eyes on this:
Martha gave me some background:
My dad built it from scratch...not from a kit. His inspiration for it came from the old 1960's claymation T.V. show Davey & Goliath. In it Davey and his family vacation in an A-Frame (episode 'A Sudden Storm'). My dad sat through the video several times making notes for the exterior and interior... although he did make some adjustments to fit his own design.
He used 1" = 1' scale...helped along with our son's toy figurines from the show. Materials...he was very thrifty...using a lot of stuff he had in his work shop. Old plexi-glass from a screen door became the front window, scrap lumber and plywood became the floor, roof and window dividers. He also created and painted the chimney. The interior... he designed the kitchen with a sink (dug out a portion from the wood and painted it white) and put screws for the cabinet handles. A fireplace mantle is cut plywood with colored paper flames.
The IKEA furniture was added several years after Dad finished the house. He had made several original pieces...dining set with chairs and a bed...but much too fragile for our son to play with.
You asked if our son still uses it. No...those days are gone. He's now a teen. But we've set the A-Frame aside for his future family...:)
Neat, right? I adore the faux stone and the interior finishing. I tried to find an online clip of the Davey & Goliath episode to see the inspiration for this house, but no luck. I'll keep looking.
Eager to see some pics of the furniture?? Equally amazing as the house, and made with wood scraps, fabric, foam, and ingenuity:
All house and furniture photos by Martha B.
Thank you so much for sharing, Martha B.! By the way, you must head over to Martha's blog (or as she calls it, her "blogette"), Nibs. She referred me to two recent posts related to dolls houses -- one shows a great book find about modern dolls houses and the other about the wonders of handmade furniture. I know I will continue to follow Martha's posts.
I also heard back from Sandy Buchmann of Buchmanns Toymaker Shop about their A-frame, which I saw on their website:
Sandy says:
It was designed in 1976 and took 1st Prize at the N.Y. State Fair the same year. The idea came to me in a dream to do a A frame doll house with a removable Plexiglas front. At that time I had never seen an A frame doll house and thought that it would be fun to do. So my husband who is a wood craftsman, made the house with scrapes of things around our house and shared in the designing with me. Scale is 1" to 1 ft. The furniture was also made by us except the livingroom sofa and chairs. We have made it once again in different interior colors. Every thing we made from things we found around the house. Our Prize was won in the "something from nothing" category.
VERY cool, no? Another case where scraps and some creative elbow grease results in something new and interesting. I think we can all relate to dreaming about dolls houses! On a final note, the moderator of this Flickr group asked to include some of my A-frame photos. Check it out if you are looking for 1:12 inspiration in 1:1!