Building ‘The End Terrace’ Dolls House (part 1 the stairs)

A view of a terrace house in red brick with a yellow front door and a double sash window. The house abuts a tall grey concrete wall with a fence above it that cuts off the end of the terrace row and the road. There is small front garden area with two stone gate posts, a very low wall and stone coping to the right with a hedge growing over it, and a taller brick wall to the left leading to the neighbouring house. Daisy is wearing a yellow high visibility work coat and black trousers and boots. She is standing on the pavement with a hand on a gatepost while looking at the 'For Sale' sign placed by an agent called 'Redi Bricks'. The whole scene is hand made at one twelfth scale.

When I started making The End Terrace for my new character, Daisy Bell, I wasn’t really sure what sort of house it would be.
I was, at the time making a dolls house for my friend, Amy, which was a vague copy of the 1:16 Tŷ Llygoden by external measurement.

A Georgian style dolls house with a central front door and five windows, a pitched roof with chimneys. In unfinished bare wood.
A 1:12 down to 1:16 cottage.
Interior view of the Georgian style dolls house showing four rooms, on each side of an entrance hall and stair well.
The traditional four room layout around the stairs.

Amy wasn’t sure of the scale she wanted and so I started with her house as a 1:12 small house and it ended up being a 1:16 big house.

However, in the process I also began work on a house for Daisy Bell and so cut out a second set of components. I very quickly decided that I didn’t want another Georgian style double fronted house, so common in dolls house circles, and the first thing I decided upon was to change the stairs from two short straight flights with a half landing to a single flight with a half turn set of tapered ‘winding’ treads at the top.
I wanted the stairs to also turn the other way to the previous house, and be a reminder of the stairs in the house I grew up in.
At this stage I was still working on the house being opened at the front in traditional style but I wasn’t happy with that as we shall see in due course.

So I began making the stairs by layering up wooden blocks, and then triangular blocks for the tapered treads.
Of course, I then proceeded to glue them them turning the wrong way!

The work bench with dolls house size wooden stairs in progress. A straight flight of six steps and a 180 degree winding section of six steps turning to the left.
Lefty tighty, righty loosey? No, that’s not right.

A second set of triangular treads were cut and glued the right way around. I roughly shaped the underside of each tread on the winders and then found that made it so much more difficult to hold when it came to cutting the groove for the central newel post!

Overhead view of the stair winder cl;amped over the table saw for cutting.
Hmmm, how safe can I make this?
A side view of the stair winder clamped over the table saw.
Looks ok to me!
A 'blade's eye view of the cut line under the stair winders.
Yeah, looks close enough.

OK, I did it in the end but there was a lot of self doubt and rechecking to make sure that the ‘Heath Robinson‘ set up would be safe for use on the saw. It was in the end and nothing went wrong bar being a tiny bit out of square.

Then came the shaping of the underside, that amazing curve that is formed by a skilled plasterer over bent laths, that I loved so much as a child looking at the stairs in our house.

Another view of the stair winders held in the bench vice and an F clamp.
Access isn’t easy here.
The stair winders awkwardly clamped to the edge of the bench for shaping and sanding.
How awkward is this thing?

I did a test fit in the house carcass I had and it seemed to do what I wanted so now it was worth putting some more effort into them.
It does show how much of an effect my childhood staircase had on me to want to do this!

A close up of the open plan room with the staircase set into it and a stick holding the top end up.
Even on tiny building sites supporting props are needed.
A close up side view of the stairs and winders, with a stick prop holding it up, in the back of the living room
Stairs fit, ‘cept for that gap at the top.

I asked Daisy to step in just to check the proportions were right.

A 1:12 scale doll standing at a scale 5 feet 9 inches (or 175cm), standing next to the stairs for checking the scale.
Looks like the scale is ok to fit Daisy.

I then added the long central newel post and the stair stringers carrying the form around the winders.

Side view of the stairs and winders with a tall newel post fitted, and the stringers on each side of the treads fitted.. The stair is clamped to the edge of the work bench.
Looking more like a real staircase.
Front view of the stairs and winders with a tall newel post fitted, and the stringers on each side of the treads fitted.. The stair is clamped to the edge of the work bench.
I can see myself walking up those.
Wall side view of the stairs and winders with a tall newel post fitted, and the stringers on each side of the treads fitted.. The stair is clamped to the edge of the work bench.
Those winders do work!
Top view looking down the stairs and winders with a tall newel post fitted, and the stringers on each side of the treads fitted.. The stair is clamped to the edge of the work bench.
Arghh, vertigo!

Of course, I should have added the stair nosings before doing that as it would have been easier! But I did manage to do that before I decided on the handrail.
I decided that the house would be a ‘modernish’ conversion, and that the original features of turned newel post, spindles and hand rail, as I had in my childhood home, would have been lost in the 1970s trend for modernisation. Also, to be honest, it was easier to make…

Wall side view of the staircase with hand rail fitted. A simple 1970s style of three 'horizontal' boards following the slope of the stairs.
Yay! Digging the 70’s modernism!
Front side view of the staircase with hand rail fitted. A simple 1970s style of three 'horizontal' boards following the slope of the stairs.
Looks safe to me!
Room side view of the staircase with hand rail fitted. A simple 1970s style of three 'horizontal' boards following the slope of the stairs.
How many people grew up looking at a stair like that?

Time for paint. I decided that a builder preparing a house for a quick sale would probably just paint all the woodwork in gloss white, leaving the bare wood where the stair runner was.

Front view of the staircase painted white leaving a bare wood strip where the stair carpet would be.
Needs stair rods!
Wall side view of the staircase painted white leaving a bare wood strip where the stair carpet would be.
Plain white gloss. I hope it has been properly sanded and prepped!
Room side view of the staircase painted white leaving a bare wood strip where the stair carpet would be.
I just love that curvy plastered underside.

That’s it for part 1. The next instalment will look at the changes in the house structure to accommodate these stairs and my thoughts on what sort of house this would be.

2 thoughts on “Building ‘The End Terrace’ Dolls House (part 1 the stairs)”

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