Move In Day

Everything is in the studio.  

Now I need to find the right place for everything and unpack.

The other half of my day was spent hanging Christmas lights outside.  

The small arched window above the garage is the miniature studio.  

Studio Progress

There is a light at the end of this tunnel!

 There has been a lot of progress on the studio this past week, in fact I have had a hard time keeping up with things ( like this blog!)  The walls are in, textured and painted. The new laminate flooring is in and the baseboards went in yesterday.

 We have been shuffling items back and forth because grandma got the same flooring in her area.  She will be sharing the studio with me.  Notice we still do not have all the electrical installed ( outlets, coverplates, and even some of the fixtures)  No door knobs yet on either of the two storage rooms and no grilles on the mechanical vents .  I am going to finish painting tonight and install the window blinds.

The finish carpenter is installing a wider window sill / shelf for grandma's plants.  We are getting excited to finish up and move into the space.  We have guests arriving next Monday for Thanksgiving so we have to have it all wrapped up by then.

Studio Update

The walls are taking shape.  Hopefully the contractors can finish up the drywall today.

 The space measures just under 500 square feet.

 The area with the windows is going to be Grandma's craft corner.  She likes to do scrapbooking.

 I am going to have a busy weekend.  I have to paint the walls and ceiling because the floor installers will begin next Monday!

The Energy Star windows designed for our region of the country.  

Woolaroc Lodge and Wild Animal Preserve

Frank Phillips enjoyed a cabin out in the country not too far from his city home in Bartlesville, OK.  The Frank Phillips home can be found here. 

The lodge was constructed in 1927 and consists of a large cabin structure that connects 8 bedrooms - 2 of which were for Frank and his wife.

The Lodge was unusual for the day and still contains much of the original furniture, decor and art work.  It overlooks one of the lakes located on the property.

The walls are lined with animal heads and antlers, none of which were hunted.  All of the animals on display died of natural causes and most of which lived on the 3,700 acre preserve that makes up the property

One of the more unique pieces of furniture in the lodge is the pine bark covered Steinway piano, custom made for the millionaire family.  It is actually a player piano !

In addition to the large drive-thru animal preserve on the property, it also houses a premiere world class museum which features the Phillips gun collection which has one of the most complete Colt firearms collections in the world.  There are also both historic and modern native American art displays and collections of unique items from the Phillip's travels.

One of the most fascinating displays that everyone always talks about is a case full of actual shrunken heads from South America

Mr Phillips and his wife are buried on the site in this mausoleum.

Here is another link to the Phillip's city home here. 

Frank Phillips House

The Frank Phillips House is located about an hour north of my house in a town called Bartlesville Oklahoma.  Frank Phillips was the brother of Waite Phillips - both gained their fortunes by creating the Phillips Petroleum Company.  You can see my post about Waite Phillip's home The Villa Philbrook here. 

The house is now a museum and is owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society.  Some of these pictures are from the home's webpage.

Below is a picture of the library.  The phillips were avid readers and the library contains over 2,000 of their original books.  The library also features a secret compartment or "saferoom" behind one of the sections.  These 1930's millionaires didn't want to take any chances!

The house was built in 1908 and underwent major renovations in the 1930's.  Most of the furniture and interior finishes are original to the home and date from that renovation.  Edward Buehler Delk was the architect.

The dining room table could be extended to seat 18 people.  The chandelier is Waterford Crystal and the walls are covered in silk.

The front parlor serves as the music room and is open to the foyer and the dining room.

The kitchen still looks like a step back in time.  The tour guide said that the kitchen was restored to look like it was during the 1930's.

Off the back of the house is the porch where the lady of the house was said to have spent a lot of time reading, playing games, and planning society events.

Upstairs, Mr Phillips and his wife had separate bedrooms.  His was painted decorated with murals and animal skins from his hunting.

In his bathroom, there was a barber chair and all the modern amenities of the day

Mrs Phillip's bedroom was very refined and tasteful.

 Her bathroom featured pink marble on the walls, pink fixtures, and a mirrored ceiling 

The phillip's never had any children of their own, but did take in two foster children.  Two young girls.  this was their suite.

More Tynietoy

My Tynietoy collection has grown.  Over the past several months I have added a few new interesting pieces.

The fireplace probably has the most interesting story.  

I purchased it from Susan Grimshaw.  Her website can be found at www.tynietown.com

She had this to say about the piece. "Among the archival Tynietoy papers and photographs I acquired last year were several copies of this photograph showing a fireplace with unusual decorative mouldings. The other Tynietoy items in the photo are all familiar from the catalogues. The fireplace I've posed in front of the photo was removed from a vintage Massachusetts dollhouse later moved to California that had been furnished with Tynietoy and other vintage furniture. The owner damaged it in removing it from the wall where it had been attached and the rear of the firebox was still painted black on the wall, so it never had a paper or cardboard backing. This fireplace is unusual in that it is stained rather than painted, it has an applied composition decorative molding and it lacks a marbleized or brick painted face around the firebox. Also, the hearth base has a brick-textured finish which may have been added by a later owner, although I see no earlier finish in the areas where the texturing has chipped off. It is the same basic size as a Tynietoy fireplace, it has the distinctive stepped mantel and it has routed fluting on each side that matches that found in some fireplaces built into later Tynietoy houses. I suspected it was Tynietoy when it came in the box with all the furnishings I bought from that house and when I later found this photo documenting an authentic fireplace with applied composition decoration, I felt more comfortable attributing this unique fireplace to Tynietoy.

 I purchased this desk and dresser on ebay

This sewing table is missing it's bottom drawer, but I am up for the challenge

The Hepplewhite chair is missing a piece on the back, another project for another day.
I may cover the seat with some fabric.

These last few images are more pictures from the Toy & Miniature Museum in Kansas City.

This is a collection of chairs designed and carved by George Henri LeClerc,who had worked at,and presumably designed,many of the early Tynietoy dollhouse furnishings during the 1920s/1930s; after his departure from the firm in 1938 he continued creating nearly identical furniture models on his own,and,notably,created some models in this larger scale. Most of his pieces are unsigned,excellent quality,and very rare to find.

 And lastly, I snapped a shot of the wooden people that were originally sold by Tynietoy.  I had not seen them in person.  

The rest of my Tynietoy collection can be found by clicking HERE

Tin Lithograph Doll Furniture

I came across a collection of metal doll furniture at an estate sale today.  The scale is too big for my taste, but still interesting and fun to see it all together.

The graphics on the inside of the "Polar Refrigerator" are great - note that it is labeled "Wolverine Refrigerator" and each rack is packed with everything you could possibly put in a fridge!

Here is the exterior of the Polar Refrigerator

This metal table and chair set have a image a little girl with a bonnet.  It's always 4 O'Clock in the kitchen below!

Here is a close up of the high chair by J. Chein with a working tray and teddy bear litho - I believe it dates from the 1950's.

I liked the graphics on this cupboard

  Here are a couple of old stoves of varying scales

This small stove was electric

There was also a brightly painted metal doll bed in teals and pinks with printed graphics of little red riding hood on the headboard and foot board.

While I didnt buy any of this stuff, I did pick up a few miniature accessories.