Thursday, May 27, 2010

Kitchen Table Scales

It's been a while since my last post - partly I was busy working on my part of an article about Keystone for Dolls Houses Past and Present, and partly I have been a bit down - having some ideas for posts, but not the energy to put them together. This weekend I decided that I would start decorating the inside of my Lines DH/D, even though I haven't finished scraping the outside. So I'll take photos of that in the next day or so, and meanwhile, here's one of my ideas!


Several of you have posted photos of your dolls house furniture in different scales. When I was putting together my dolls house study and the Super City mini-building, it occurred to me that it would be fun to stand pieces in different scales on top of each other.

These kitchen tables can also nest:


and by placing them next to each other and looking from above, you can see that the long end of the smaller table equals the short end of the bigger table!


The largest table is 1/10th scale, and is vintage German (from Oese). The next one is 1/12th scale, and is also vintage German - it came in my VERO Rügen, and I think it's Crailsheimer. The pale green soft plastic table is 1/16th - 1/18th - it says 'Made in England', and I think it's Kleeware. The next table is marked Kleeware - it's 1/24th scale, and hard plastic. Then there's a tiny 1/48th scale cream coloured plastic table, which I think is by the Ohio Art Company (or a copy of their furniture) - and the tiniest is 1/144 scale, from the Sylvanian Toys dolls house for their dolls house.

UPDATE: Oese wondered on flickr if the scale of the pink table might be 1/10th, and the wooden table larger still. It's a very sensible question - it's clear that the tables are different sizes, but as I didn't measure them or include a ruler in the photos, the actual size, and hence the scales, was not obvious. So, I've now measured them, and here are their actual dimensions and the dimensions they would be in 1:1 scale. (Only in metric so far - I have measured them in inches too, but multiplying inches is a bit more complicated, so one thing at a time!)

The wooden table is 15.4 cm long x 10.2 cm wide x 8.5 cm high.
In 1:10 scale, this makes it 1.54 m x 1.02 m x 85cm.

The pink table is 11 cm long x 8.3 cm wide x 6.7 cm high.
In 1:10 scale, that would be 1.1 m x 83 cm x 67 cm,
and in 1:12 scale, it would be 1.32 m x 99.6 cm x 80.4 cm.

The pale green table is 8.85 cm long x 5.8 cm wide x 4.7 cm high.
In 1:16 scale, that would be 1.41m x 92.8cm x 75.2 cm,
and in 1:18 scale, it would be 1.59m x 1.04m x 84.6 cm.

The white table is 5 cm long x 3.1 cm wide x 2.8 cm high.
In 1:24 scale, that would be 1.2m x 74.4 cm x 67.2 cm,
and in 1:30 scale, it would be 1.5m x 93 cm x 84 cm.

(I don't actually know if 1:30 scale exists for dolls house furniture, but I wanted to see what it would be in a smaller scale than 1:24.)

I don't actually have a real-life rectangular kitchen table, just a small round dining table and the built-in kitchen work benches. So I can't measure a 1:1 scale table! What do you think? I think I'd be happy with the wooden table in 1/10th scale and the pink one in 1/12th - but the pink one certainly could be 1/10th. Perhaps the wooden one could be 1/8th (1.23 m long x 81.6 cm wide x 68 cm high), but again, I'm not sure if there are many 1/8th scale dolls.

I'm not very strict about scale in my own dolls houses, and especially with vintage furniture from many different makers and old dolls houses, I tend to do what I do with clothes - try it and see if it fits, within a scale up or down. But that means knowing roughly what will be a good fit - so knowing about scales does have some use!

15 comments:

  1. Hi Rebecca!
    I'm impressed. So many scales on the same picture. And a Crailsheimer table , which lets me dream, as well as the tiny table for dollhouse in a dollhouse :)
    was your article in the previous magazine, or in the next?

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  2. Hi Béa, Thanks! The article is for the May magazine, which should be coming out at the end of the month. Florine wrote the other half of the article, about Keystone dolls houses.

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  3. Hi Rebecca. What an excellent way to demonstrate scales. Nice collection of tables.

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  4. Do you realize, Rebecca, that your "Stacked Tables" and "Nesting Tables" sculptures could be in any art gallery? The shape and colors are great! I particularly like the view from the top... I expect to see a copy of it hanging on the wall of some mini-modern house any day! In fact, may I copy it to hang in my Brio house?

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  5. Very clever and illustrative! So clearly gets your point across. Scales are tricky and I think this is the best example seen so far! Great work. Can't wait to read your article. CM

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  6. I love this nesting idea! It definitely helps to show the scales. Thanks for sharing :)

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  7. Thanks, Pan, CM and callsmall!

    Hi Florine, I must admit that hadn't occurred to me at all! You're very welcome to copy the view from above to hang in your Brio house :-)

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  8. Hehehe - what a funny idea! So simple and so cool! I really love pictures which just shows furniture or accessoires and the pictures you made have their own special charm!

    And I like to see the progress on your "Lines DH/D house", too! But I also can imagine that it needs its time, we all have jobs and so we couldn´t spend so much time on our hobbies as we wish we could... And you wrote an article,too - how exiting!

    *Nicola

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  9. The third picture is almost a Fibonacci sequence, if you arrange them into a spiral. You turn miniatures into high art, Rebecca.

    I guess being a bit down is the price you pay for being so creative. Strong colours are better than beige - but the dark patches can be hard to bear. Just remember, that soon you will be back in the light...

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  10. So sorry to hear you have been a bit down Rebecca, I know the feeling of not having the energy to blog... But a nice idea to show off your tables and the different scales like that! I love the nesting tables and the last picture!

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  11. Hi Nicola, yes, I don't take many photos of just furniture or accessories, but this was fun! I might do some more.
    The Lines DH/D is coming along well - inside! So there will be photos soon :-)

    Hello Anonymous, thank you for your kind comments! I have to admit, that I don't know anything about the Fibonacci sequence other than its name - but I did think of trying a spiral with these tables - couldn't quite work out how :-)

    Hello Helene! Lovely to see you back in blog land! I often use dolls houses as a diversion from real life pressures, but felt a bit blocked even with dolls houses recently. Decorating the inside of the DH/D, even though the outside still needs work, has got me going again I think. Maybe I should employ you and your family to work on the outside - after painting your real house, how hard could a dolls house be?! ;-) (Did you have to do a lot of scraping and sanding before painting? That is the tedious part, I find!)

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  12. Sure, just send me a plane ticket and I'll come and paint your dolls house :-) Luckily the wooden cladding which we painted is new, (we had carpenters to do that job)so it was just the paint job that had to be done. And Trond did everything that involved using the lift, but I was never the less fully occupied the whole weekend. And we still need a second coat...

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  13. ¡Hola Rebeca!!
    Que fotos mas bonitas y creativas!!! El tener juntas diferentes escalas en un mismo tema , de verdad es genial !!
    Saludos
    http://florff.blogspot.com/

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  14. Hi Rebecca - I just found you through your 'fly swat' comment on leftcoastmini blog. I lived in Darwin for a couple of years but moved to Sydney end of 1998 (I'm originally from NZ). And we have another thing in common, I see you're a Linguist - I'm nearly finished a BA at UNSW with a double major of Linguistics and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (my original 2nd major was Indonesian but after completing 3 yrs of language study I switched).

    I have a scratch build (frontless and roofless!)1:16 house on my blog, and altho I own a few vintage Lundby pieces they don't have a home at the moment. I've now moved into 1:12 which I do like but there is still an appeal in the slightly smaller scale I think, but I feel 1:24 is just too small. There are certainly some great 1:16-1:18 things around now!

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  15. Gracias, Flor!


    Hi Norma, thanks for visiting! Guessing what CM made those chairs from was fun. Wow, your studies sound really interesting - and we have another thing in common, as I noticed that you list family history as one of your interests too! I've been researching mine for many years, and recently started using those tools to research dolls house companies - fun!
    The only 1/24th houses I have, I think, are metal or plastic with plastic furniture. I like them, but I don't find there's as much scope for creativity with them. Some people do amazing things in that scale, though, and 1/48th.
    Look forward to seeing your photos from the fair - wish I could have gone! Maybe next year ....

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