Right, I'm going to moan about vintage dollshouse sellers

[SilverDragonfly1]

... which I'm sure will be super relevant to all of you . I hope this is the right category, I couldn't find one for collectors.

Now look, VDS. There is a difference between 'restored' and 'redecorated'. If you have carefully cleaned and mended a house, preserving every original feature possible even if it is tatty and using the correct paint colours and possibly reproduction papers, you have restored it. Congratulations! Your house is now worth more than you paid for it and collectors will want to buy and enjoy it.

If you have slapped emulsion all over the carcass and plastered modern 12th scale wallpaper from Hobbycraft onto the walls and sticky felt 'carpet' onto the floors, you have redecorated. Nice one! Your house is now worthless and the collectors who see you touting it for ludicrous prices on eBay or Facebook will be cursing you in their hearts.

Some people want to keep the house they've bought and in that case, do what you like. However, if you do that then advertise it for a price that would be steep for a mint original, bumping it up the FB group every couple of days and expressing dismay at how no one is interested in buying your masterpiece- I hate you.

God I wish I wasn't too wussy to post that on the groups I'm thinking of!

No, I get this. I got 2 vintage Triang houses last year. One to keep, one to sell. The seller had white emulsion throughout, bad 70s paintjob on the exterior but i hoped against hope that the paint would strip away and the glory be underneath...

Sadly no but I do now know the original flower designs and colours and my husband who is a very good artist, is going to copy. We'll sell that on as redecorated not restored. No trace of the original wallpaper under the 70s' anaglypta/emulsion, either so I am dithering whether to use repro papers (won't add to value but make it look nicer?) or just leaving it the pristine white so whoever buys it can do it to their taste.

I will be keeping the 1937 Triang 61 - although it had a bit of a 1970s/80s 'facelift' they seem to have left things intact under the facelift. Will slowly restore that as well as poss. I got the other one for £20, so even probably worth more than that as -re-decorated' and it does have a full complement of windows, etc. That was around 1947, I've been told. So the wallpapers were appallingly ugly, anyway. That said, I'd have been thrilled if they were intact under the dad-decor.

Haha, I'm not the only maniac- phew!

You can get copies of the front decals on etsy. I got in touch with a seller who was already doing dolls house wall decals in modern designs and after sending pictures, links to better pictures and very exact measurements she tried doing them and they came out amazingly! So that could be an option, although I think getting your husband to do them would have its own charm and be more 'in the spirit' than repro.

Regarding paper, it's not too dear but I only know of one seller and he isn't on eBay any more- you have to go via the Dolls house Past and Present site now. I'd probably go for white satin acrylic myself if selling. And yes, with the windows and sympathetic redecorating def still worth selling!

I have my mom's (she's 84) dolls house.. apart from ds attacking it years ago with a pen 😨 I have done nothing to it... I didn't even realise there was a market in dolls house restoration! Any advice on what to do with it? Please ☺

babyface.go to the forums here and ask. If you also put up a photo of the house, they'll be able to identify it if it was a manufactured one.

www.dollshousespastandpresent.com/apps/forums/show/1178449-general-discussion