Last month we met friends Gill Rance and Mandy Groves and who had both bought identical models of a Lectromatic Georgian house at a fair many years ago, but had decorated them in very different ways. The house, ten-rooms with central hallways, was a considerable size for a first project, but the amount of interior space, exterior surface area and wooden construction offered a tangible investment that could be enjoyed and furnished with time.
Where Gill had bricked the exterior of her house and painted the window frames, Mandy chose to wax the unpainted exterior of her house to give it the appearance of an antique. It is quite an imposing piece, which occupies pride of place in her front room, yet it never ceases to amaze Mandy how visitors manage to completely ignore its existence, as expressed in ‘Is It Me?’ issue 130.
“There’s a stigma attached to dolls houses,” explained Mandy. “Cross stitch is fine but doll’s houses - no. It’s a bit like the Freemasons; we’ll have to start rolling up our trouser legs or something.”