BARN BUILDING

A couple of summers ago, my sister and I decided to finally build a miniature barn; in this post I'm going to share with you how we set about building it. The barn is open to the front, as I find this makes it easy to access. On previous doll houses I've had to store the front doors and this just leaves them vulnerable to damage, whilst attaching opening doors leaves little room to move. One of the criteria for our barn dollhouse was that it needed to be stored easily. We achieved this by designing it so we could have the whole ground floor come apart separately. The three walls sit in a small trough and hold together with two latches on either side of the back wall. The stairs and first floor then sit/ slot on top and two further roof panels sit on top of that. It is very sturdy when assembled and the stairs can be slotted in on either the left or right side, allowing for maximum flexibility and access to the open plan space. 

CONSTRUCTION

Before starting work on the barn, we drew a scale drawing and then translated this into a paper template for each piece. This helped give us a sense of the space and size before work began. We didn’t have any electrical tools so the barn was built entirely by hand using nails, hammers, wood glue and hack saws. The roof tiles and cladding were all individually cut by hand and this gives an authentic rustic feel.



Sometimes during the build, we came a cropper, when we measured too short and if you look closely, there are a couple of beams that don’t quite meet, so have been packed! 
The old adage - measure twice, cut once, comes to mind!



It is painted in Annie Sloan Chalk paint, Paris Grey on the outside and two coats of Pure on the inside. This paint is great; thick enough for distressing and can be used on the metal fittings as well. To add some realism we used sandpaper on parts that would naturally wear; footfall on the staircase, leaning on window sills. Afterwards we applied a coat of clear wax. 



I hope you enjoyed reading about my barn, I had a lot of fun making it. If you'd like to see more photos you can find them on my flickr, here, or by clicking on the flickr button on the right hand side, under the 'About me' section. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!