July 2, 2007

Awesome Dutch Miesian Dollhouse Costs $15 And Half A Day

dutch_dollhouse.jpg

That's Dutch as in JD, Juniper's dad, of course, not the country. Though the Netherlands is known for the quality of their kid's design, I'm afraid the whole Bugaboo-pushing lot of them takes a backseat to our Dutch, who singlehandedly revived the lost 1970's art of plexiglass dollhouse-making and built a Mies van der Rohe-style doll house out of Herman Miller scraps and a Saturday morning in the shop:

All in all, the dollhouse cost me about $15 to make, including screws. But considering that my woodworking experience consists of about an hour watching the New Yankee Workshop and maybe half an episode of Bob the Builder, I don't think it turned out too bad. I love it when minimalist taste, thrift, and complete lack of craftsmanship all come together to form a happy trifecta.
The best part, of course, is that it's a replica of their own Mies townhouse. It's like a license plate frame on a VW squareback that says "My other car is a Porsche"--and it actually is.

The Mies van der Rohe Dollhouse [sweet-juniper.com]
Previously: Where all the cool modernist doll houses at?
DIY plexiglass dollhouse by Better Homes & Gardens, c. 1972

2 Comments

w00t! I was looking forward to your blogging this.

My favorite parts are a)Dutch so graciously cuts off at the knees the "I'm not a carpenter (master craftsman, joiner, etc.), type excuses for just buying whatever crapola the market makes readily available, and b)his making explicit his appreciation for the kind of play his daughter can and will have with it.

I'm a groupie, so easy to discount, but that man gets so much flack from some quarters for the decisions he makes, but the "Parent Differently" tag at the bottom of his page says it all for me-and I wish more people would say "Screw it" to the flock, as well.

Good for posting this; perhaps it will take the sting out of the earlier post revealing that Juniper's dog has come down in price. Poor Dutch.

Yeah, I dunno if I can buy this, "I'm not a master carpenter bit". I mean maybe he's not doing dovetail joints, but his carboard car and sailboat were quite a few steps beyond just setting up a box and having the kid draw on it. The guy's amazingly creative and good at executing his ideas.

[and his cardboard axles held up far better than my aluminum Miniboo ones. I'm very jealous. -ed.]

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