Georgian townhouse

It must've been in 2001 that I started this 1:144 scale matchbox house. In 2006 I finally furnished it and a young girl in Georgian dress (expertly sculpted by Pam Scott) moved in.


Structure

So far, the matchbox houses I've seen have contained a single room and lie down on their side, but the matchboxes I had were so large that the ceiling height would be ridiculous, so I decided to stand it on one end and divide it into two rooms instead. I faced the box with 1.5 mm (1/16") cardboard to square it up, and used the same for dividing it into rooms.

Starting with the actual matchbox cover, I measured the box and cut N scale brick and stone wall (printed sheet from the model railroad store) to fit. Before I glued them on, I cut window and door holes in the brick sheet, and painted window curtains on the box cover (I should've painted the bars too at that point, but I forgot and had to do it later, which was trickier!). To add dimension to the facade, I also added window frames cut from card and painted. The panelled door is cut from card as well, and has a no-hole bead for a door knob.

The roof and gables are built up with card, glued to the matchbox cover. I wanted a slate look so I cut strips of thin card, snipped them at intervals along one edge and painted them in various shades of grey, then glued them to the roof in overlapping rows. The chimney is brick print card around a wood strip, and the chimney pots are cut from toothpick ends.

Drawing room

The fireplace is made from my how-to's provided in the DIY section of this site. I made the sofa using the same concept as for the modern sofa in the how-to's - prepared fabric glued to a wooden base. The legs are whittled from walnut. Below the mirror there's a commode.

The rug is inspired by a large rug I saw in a period painting; Philip Reinagle's 1782 painting of Mrs Congrave and her children. The general color scheme of the room is also based on that painting. I made the rug oblong rather than square, as that's what I could fit into the room. You find the chart for it among the other 1:144 scale rugs in the DIY section.

Bedroom

The bedroom furniture and accessories are all found in the DIY section.

I've fitted a simple chimneyboard in the fireplace opening to stop the draught.



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