A visit to Het Poppenhuis (Arnhem)

Hello my friends,

I have been painting and gluing in order to build up the first wall sections for the first rooms. I will show you the progress on that next week, when there is really  something to show.

A few months ago I had to go to Arnhem for my work. A good friend of mine works in the same field as I do and we had agreed to meet and catch up prior to the meeting. Unfortunately we had to reschedule that cup of tea, so what was I to do with my morning?  I had a visit to the 'Het poppenhuis' in Arnhem on my miniature wishlist so It may have been fate, or just a coincidence, but I made an impromptue visit to the shop that morning.

Rika gave me a warm welcome and we drank a cup of tea while talking about this hobby we share. What I did not know, was that attached to the shop, was the office of DHN magazine. Naturaly I did not decline the invitation to visit the office and the studio where the pictures for the magazine are made.

After looking at Rika's private collection it was time to go to the shop. She mainly sells hand made miniatures. So there was a lot of great stuff to see. Since my time was limited, I still had to attend the meeting in the afternoon, I had to linger less and focus more. :-)

It is often difficult to choose, but choose we must. Every coin can only be spent once. I bought these two  hand painted vases. one can never have enough porcelain in my mind :-0 Next to it are four apothecary bottles and two tinware candlesticks.

I also bought this painted plate. Within the garland you see an orange tree and the text "Vivat Oranie" It is old Dutch spelling for "Long live Orange" from the 80 year war into the revolutionary period at the end of the 18th century the Princess Van Oranje Nassau were Stadhouder and held the highest (military) office in the republic. They were Princess but did not rule as kings. The faction in society that thought that the House of Orange should rule the Dutch Republic or at least hold the highest office, liked to show their political stance. Crockery and porcelain was one way to show this allegiance. Originaly it was meant as a show of gratitude, the House of Orange led us in the 80 year war to free us from the spanish crown and the opression of protestants. In the revolutionary periode at the end of the 18th century, having this kind of earthenware almost amounted to an act of defiance or treason. In 1795 the revutionary patriots had driven out Stadhouder William V, who fled to England. Therefore this plate needs a place, albeit an inconspicuous one, in Huis ter Swinnendael.

But there is more. I loved this baroque bust of a whig wearing gentleman in quasi Roman armour.  Is he a member of the Zonneschut family? Who knows, nothing decided on that yet, but he will get a place in the house. And then there are a set of 6 glasses and 2 glass goblets in the manner of the 17th century. All made by Gerdt Felka. I really love them. And since I will set the house in summer there was no reason not to pick these charming roses. You can almost smell them, don't you?

Lastly I bought these lovely two items. A stool and a tray. Both painted in a lovely way. It was the decoration that did me in. Especially the little stool. I love the light blue base with the rust and cream coloured decoration. I will try to imitate that colourscheme for the washing attic. That is where this stool will eventually end up. The serving tray is quite pretty. It can really end up anywhere in the house. I'll find an apropriate place for that tray.

Well, that is it for now. I hope you have enjoyed this little post and till next time!

Huibrecht

Time to start building! the cellars in the east wing.

The project of building ones own house is a time consuming endeavour. Stressful but exciting. Espescially when one can't help with the actualy building work and has a fulltime job. The project of building a dollshouse at the same time is also quite laborious. And, unfortunately, the dollshouse always comes last when choices have to be made between these three.

But an important step has been made! Those of you who have been following my little blog for a while, know that I started with drawing sketches of floorplans and facades to choose the type and look of the house. After the ideas of a Regency townhouse, a baroque 'Lustschloss' for a German Prince, and a castle in the Gothic revival style. In the end I decided to go for a Dutch country house built in de Dutch classicist style that was popular in the second half of the 17th century. The Dutch golden age for Architecture. But my search was not over yet…

First I drew a freestanding house (more than 3 meters in length!) that would take up an 

entire room to display it. Too big and too impractical… (sigh)

Then I drew this one room deep example. With an added tower as a little bonus. 

I quite loved the division of the façade, but the depth of one room bugged me. 

I missed the see through from one room into another which was so much 

fun in the first design.

I combined elements of the first two designs into what would/will become Huis ter Swinnendael. 

A house of double depth with a double height art gallery that can only be seen through other 

rooms and which will receive (most of) its light through a skylight topped with a dome.
Large and spacious but still standing against a wall and thus saving a lot of space.

Then, I made a 1:48 maquette of the house in cardboard. With the rooms lined with paper designs made with Windows Paint. The maquette helped to to give me a better impression of scale and decor. And point out a few flaws that the drawings did not reveal. So I adjusted those. For instance the first room floor height was lowered, and the central wing with the art gallery and the grand staircase was widened.

The model of the house. the focus lies on the rooms and their decor, and not the 

outside appearance. as you can plainly see. :-)

And the model broken down into the separate floors and rooms. The colour schemes are

not fixed but help to give the style and mood that I want to give each room.

Then I started to saw the nescesary walls out of  MDF to construct the first rooms....  That did not go well. I am not used to do carpentry. My measuring was not precise enough, my sawing was not straight enough. In short, a disaster. It all ended up in the bin. Apart from taking some time off of the construction side of things, the work on Huis ter Swinnendael continued.

And with time came a solution. I started to redraw the house in a designer program so that I could draw every component to the milimeter and then have it cut out by a local lasercut company. It took some time to get used to the design program, but finaly I had the right drawings.

Scaled to the millimeter!

And now, almost a year after I threw my hand sawn pieces in the bin, and nearly two week after I placed the order, this package arrived! Yess! And now the assembly of the first rooms can begin. These walls, floors and ceilings make up the roomboxes which later will slide into the house itself.

I won't build the house in one go. I start with the east wing, from cellar to gable. Then construction 

wil start on one of the other two parts. So in the end it will be 3 cabinets with rooms shoved 

together to form one large house!

It is time to come out of the box, my dears. I have long waited for this moment! :-)

First I will paint every surface with a white primer. That way I close every piece off from the air and prevent moisture from getting into the mdf. It should also reduce the risk of warping I'm told.

Room 1: One floor, one ceiling, and 6 walls? Check!

Now I can assemble the pieces.  Country houses like Swinnendael usually have thick walls and these are thin boards. This thickness is created by dividing the inner and outer wall panel with wooden spacers. This way these walls also leave space for the electrics, and for gib-doors, wall niches, secret passageways and all that. :-) Some wall panels will be fixed to the floors or ceilings and the "fourth wall" of each room will later be attached to the outer door of the cabinet. I want to be able to disassemble the rooms easily without having to rip up glued parts and damaging them. Hopefully this system of roomboxes will work in reality as it has done in theory. Only time will tell.

Well, that's it for now my friends. I hope that you have enjoyed this little post. The pics are not that spectacular, but for me this signifies an important step. The construction of Huis ter Swinnendael has begun in earnest! 

Huibrecht