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Well, readers, you might know by now that this is an antiques blog; but this time I’m going to break my own rules and show you something that I made rather than bought. I started working with dollhouse miniatures around the age of fourteen. For my first project, I built a large sunny yellow Queen Anne dollhouse. I worked on that house in my grandparents’ basement every day after school for two years. While I was still working away in the basement (and burning my fingers with a hot glue gun), the movie Pride and Prejudice came to theaters (the Keira Knightley version, that is). I was enamored by everything in the film: the scenery, the lavish interiors, Mr. Darcy, and the soundtrack by Dario Marianelli. Of course I had read Jane Austen’s novel prior to the movie, but I was never able to connect with her story until I saw it on the big screen. That was the moment when I fell in love with period rooms. 

I had to make my own interpretation of it.

Using the movie soundtrack and daydreams in my head, I designed my own late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century period room and called it “The Darcy Room.” I built the wooden roombox. Then, I proceeded to paint, spackle, saw, glue, nail, electrify, stain, sew, bleed, and cry. It’s a ton of work, especially since I make a lot of my own interior furnishings to save money. Four years of college have passed since I started, and you can see in the photo above that I still haven’t finished the project. (I need to gild two more legs on my pier table and install two more sconces.) Such is life. I will get back to it.

For some perspective on size, I work in 1:12 scale. This means that one human-sized inch is equivalent to one foot in the model. My roombox is less than two feet wide. The porcelain doll, who previously belonged to another dollhouse enthusiast, is only five inches tall.

So now, click below to play one of the pieces by Dario Marianelli that inspired me and scroll through the photos of my roombox as you listen. Enjoy!