To get to the bathroom you need to walk through the scullery, or 'back kitchen' as it was called in so many of people's stories that I read while researching what my house should look like. People who lived through WW2 have embraced the internet and many memories can be found. A good spot is the BBC site The People's War. It was intriguing that in many older houses the kitchen was separated into a wet messy area for washing up and washing and a 'dry' clean area for food preparation and eating. We have an eat in kitchen in real life and I think how much more pleasant it would be to eat at the table without the sink and cooking pots waiting to be washed in the same room.
In the best traditions of Enid Blyton, spring cleaning has just taken place so the curtains are freshly washed and starched, the windows sparkling to let the sunlight stream in, clothes are soaking in a tub for the Monday wash and the first snowdrop of the season is in a jar on the windowsill.
In the best traditions of Enid Blyton, spring cleaning has just taken place so the curtains are freshly washed and starched, the windows sparkling to let the sunlight stream in, clothes are soaking in a tub for the Monday wash and the first snowdrop of the season is in a jar on the windowsill.
Click on the pictures for a larger view
Welcome to my new followers. I have visited some of your blogs and intend to visit more but spring cleaning is a hectic time! (I was pleased to be able to get a post in for February at all!) It is really flattering that people with so much talent find time to pop into my little cottage for a peek. Thank you.
Your eye for detail amazes me, nothing overdone, utterly believable. Love, love, love it!
ReplyDeleteThank you Susan. Sadly the real house has suffered from my dolls house playing and is nowhere near as organised as that little room. :-D
ReplyDeleteOh! The "brasso" and all the things are awesome
ReplyDeleteUn abrazo
What progress you have made! I love all the details. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely gorgeous! So realistic I feel I could just walk in to the room. Very inspiring!
ReplyDeleteJulie
Really fantastic,it looks so real that I can't believe it's a miniature room ! Great job!!! Jeannette
ReplyDeleteIt is gorgeous Christine, my Victorian scullery has many of the same details, but isn't nearly as finished as yours, not much has changed in 40 years as far as sculleries went.
ReplyDeleteChristine I adore this house and it brings back so many memories for me including Enid Blyton :) You have captured the scene so well
ReplyDeleteChristine - this is exquisitely authentic and lovely. Your project is really progressing beautifully. Intended to email answer to your postal question left on my blog - but can't find an email link to you. Is it possible to email me instead?
ReplyDeleteUn trabajo magnífico. Me encanta. Saludos.
ReplyDeleteAunt Fanny, I'm sure, would be thrilled to have a scullery as good as this. I can see a new title "Five Have Fun on Laundry Day".
ReplyDeleteBrilliant work Christine and as said before "Absolutely spiffing"!
Its just perfect you have done an amazing job on the room its so realistic! x
ReplyDeleteabsolutely fantastic ...the little touches like the embroidered peg bag just tie everything together ...btw my grandmother had a peg pag just like that :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a fantastic work; very deteiled.
ReplyDeleteBye Faby
such detail, brilliant
ReplyDeleteWow! I am quite embarrassed with so many lovely comments (and feel I have 'doubledipped' with my DHE friends commenting again :D)Thank you all. Building the cottage is the cake in my life but getting such wonderful feedback is definitely the icing!
ReplyDeleteRosamargarita - the Brasso (or other tin bottles) is easily made by cutting a fancy toothpick to the desired length and wrapping a length of shorter paper around it until you reach the desired thickness leaving the toothpick sticking out as the spout. Paint the whole thing silver with a different lid if you wish and google images for a label.
I have to head over and see your scullery Elga but am worried it will make me discontented. Your work is always so perfect. It seems as if all the progress in making women's work easier has been in the last 50 years after no progress for so long - thank goodness to be around now!
I keep feeling I should know you Kez! I see you are a fellow Australian and I have just signed up to your blog so I wasn't there before - sometimes I hate old age and increasing memory loss!
I love your cigars by the way. :D
Wow! This is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on the brasso. Your cottage is lovely and the pictures are so inspiring. Just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThis is looking fabulous, love it.
ReplyDeleteQue fantastico trabajo has hecho, es absolutamente preciosa.
ReplyDeletebesitos ascension
Hi Christine, thanks for visiting Cozy blog but dont forget to give me a holla at For the love of minis also. I just love your scullery. It is so cute and realistic. I would love a room like this myself. LJ
ReplyDeleteThere's a little something on my blog for you! Please pop over and take a look.
ReplyDeleteJust, lovely, lovely lovely! Such an eye for detail!
ReplyDeleteYour scullery is amazing. So many fantastic details. The washing in the tub so very real.Wonderful work.
ReplyDeleteHugs Maria
I've been watching an older series called The Victorian Kitchen, which you can see on YouTube. It is full of amazing detail about how food used to be prepared. Have you heard of it?
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Love the photos, too.
ReplyDeletePerfectly perfect... Love your blog and mini world. I'm your newest follower and would love to invite you over to visit and follow me when you get a chance.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful week...full of design and minis.
xoso
Sandy
I really like this little domestic scene, it has so much detail, I wasn't sure where to look first. Great fun, and beautifully done!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing!
regards
Andy
It looks great. When I was growing up we lived in an old cottage with a coal range in the kitchen but all the preparation and washing up was done in the scullery. The laundry was done in a separate building - the washhouse - the bathtub was in there too. All the hot water had to be heated in the copper - I see you have one on the corner - and the transferred to the bath - or the washing machine - bucket by bucket. The copper was really quite large, sheets and towels went in there and were actually boiled for a little while. No germs would have survived that laundry regime!
ReplyDeleteThankyou so much Christine for your lovely comments on my blog :) Your scullery is wonderful, so authentic! Love the little details, the peg bag and the plates..
ReplyDeleteMe encantan tus trabajos, la pena es que no tienes el traductor de idioma para poder comprenderlos.
ReplyDeleteFelicidades. Mª Jesús
I love your Scullery. So much little details. Your work is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHugs from Craftland
I hope you will have more of your wonderful mini work to view soon! I watched a great program called The Victorian Kitchen (I saw it on YouTube, not sure if you can watch it in the UK)from the 80's in England, which shows how things were done in kitchens back then. I got a lot of great ideas and you might enjoy it too. Take care! - Alessandra
ReplyDeleteHi Alessandra, the errant husband returned in March so dolls house progress is minimal while we muddle through reconciliating (at times escape to the idealised atmosphere of Hollyhock Cottage is a great temptation!) Thank you for your continued encouragement. I'll have a search through YouTube for The Victorian Kitchen - it sounds fascinating. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh dear... I am so sorry for all the troubles you have been enduring. I hope that you are doing well. The mini world is so much more happy and ideal than real life can be - aren't we fortunate to be able to escape to it at times? You will be in my prayers.
ReplyDeleteSoy tu seguidora 300!!!
ReplyDeleteI've just found time to go through my favorite blogs, I'm sorry I'm so late Christine. I had a good look at your photos, and I have to admit, although I tut at myself for it, despite all the accessories and finishing touches and furniture you have in this room, my favorite part is how realistic the walls and floors are! I know right?! It was the first thing that popped out at me, although of course, I love the whole set up here. Wonderful :)
ReplyDeleteHi Christine, it's great to have found your blog and especially the pictures of the 'back kitchen' - that's what my greatgrandma called hers too. She had a copper in one corner, but it was just a tall copper cylinder, not bricked in. I love your attention to detail, I must try and make an embroidered peg bag on a coathanger, remembering no 40s/50s kitchen would have been without one! And both your sink plumbing and flooring is perfect. I'm just beginning a house/shop that is set in 1948 and can only admire all your work. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you for all your comments especially those of you with memories of kitchens and sculleries like this. It's really thrilling to know that I have brought a spot of nostalgia into people's lives.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Chas, I hope you begin a blog so we can enjoy your progress as well (you may have one but it isn't showing publicly) and welcome to Sandy too, I need to do some serious catching up!
Hi Christine, I have begun a blog on the 1948 house/shop and am a first-timer - both at blogging and 1/12 kit-building - so if you have the time to take a look at mydollshousekitandcaboodle.blogspot.co.uk
Deleteyou'll see I'm still very much at the beginning!
I meant to say last time that I think your bathroom is wonderful too. I'm inspired now to make the effort and include the plumbing details, because exposed piping was all part of the 'décor'in those days!