After spending 15 years working as an art director for an advertising agency, thinking up TV campaigns and creating interior sets, Lianne Kilroy discovered a love for design and visual props. Ever since, she has channelled her passion into an imaginative hobby, creating a tiny doll's house version of her real-life home, one adorable creation at a time.
It all began when Lianne was 30 years old. "I was living in an all-white rental property in London and was desperate to de-beige it, but I wasn’t allowed to hang pictures, let alone paint it,” she says. “So I bought myself a doll’s house as a creative outlet. I kept it secret at first, because I thought it was a bit embarrassing. But I eventually stepped out of the doll’s house closet and found others that love it as much as I do. Now here I am, stripping mini wallpaper on a Friday night!"
Lianne's first doll's house was the perfect outlet for her creative energy and enabled her to let her imagination run wild. "One of the things I enjoyed most about my job was selecting props for the interiors," she says. "Since there are only so many times you can change your own décor, I used TV sets as a little outlet for that obsession. Having a doll's house fulfilled a similar need. Initially, it wasn’t about replicating my home, but about designing a space I would love to live in."
Some years later, when Lianne and her partner bought a stunning 1930s property in Cheshire, she had no intention of stopping her new-found love for tiny interiors and soon decided upon an altogether more unusual project! "It was only when I became a homeowner and had free rein over my décor – my husband is thankfully fairly tolerant to my ideas – that I decided to recreate the property in miniature. It's such a fun project and I love trying to work out how to shrink everything we own."
Lianne was lucky enough to inherit a brand new doll’s house from her husband’s grandma, which came with a lot of furniture that she was able to upcycle. “This has kept the cost of the project in check," she says. "It would be very easy to spend thousands on a doll's house, in fact a chandelier alone can cost hundreds of pounds!" As a result, Lianne has become extremely thrifty. Using eBay and charity shops to source the majority of her petite treasures, she has also taught herself how to make things by watching YouTube videos.
Lianne's playroom, created for her two children, is a beautiful and bright space, complete with nautical-themed walls, an antique armoire used for toys, and a unusual fireplace with gilded tiles. "Before I start a project, I sometimes Photoshop what the result will look like to check I’ll like it," Lianne says. "However, when deciding whether to paint stripes in the playroom, I used the most basic method I could think of." Lianne found the Markup app on her phone to be very useful and sketched décor ideas directly onto a photo of the room.
When it came to recreating the room in miniature, Lianne spent time trying to find similar pieces that could be upcycled. "I found a similar shaped armoire, added bamboo skewers to the doors to mimic the design and painted it using leftover paint from the real thing," she explains. Lianne also managed to find a miniature fireplace not too dissimilar to her own. "The fireplace was a lucky find and I customised it by cutting out 99 tiny tiles from gold card and sticking them in a herringbone pattern."
Elsewhere in the room, there's also a shelf of vintage globes, which Lianne recreated from second-hand jewellery, highlighting the depths of her imagination. "I bought blue beaded necklaces and bracelets from a handful of charity shops, printed out maps and stuck them onto the beads. It’s funny how you start to look at things differently, wondering what you can make them into." She also sourced a couple of pre-made doll's house globes to complete the tiny shelf.
The completed doll's house playroom is amazingly realistic, thanks to all of Lianne's clever handmade additions. As well as painting a tiny armoire, customising a fireplace and making an array of ultra-small globes, Lianne also made a rug by cutting up an old Babygro. The result, we're sure you'll agree, is incredible. There's even an ultra-petite doll's house inside the tiny playroom!
Lianne has also downsized her beautiful hallway. The real-life space is chic and simple, with a juxtapose of light and dark shades, gilded details and a striking striped carpet. The room's most recognisable feature, however, is its array of golden wildlife prints, which Lianne cleverly recreated by cutting out shiny gold lame fabric that she already had lying around. "I made a frame using long matchsticks, scaled down the heron on my computer and printed it out to fit."
The tiny hallway has been replicated perfectly and the artwork is almost too good to be true! “I’m quite an impulsive person, so I tend to use whatever I have to hand to get a project started," Lianne says. "I’ve creating mini light shades from Calpol lids covered in fringing, while buttons have become shower dials and clocks." Lianne proves that anything is possible, if you just have a little imagination.
When it came to replicating Lianne's son's incredible kid's bedroom, things became a little more tricky, since the space was filled with unusual items – including a car bed and a wall-mounted giraffe head. "I find myself eyeing up my children’s toys," says Lianne. "I recently stole a plastic giraffe from my son, sawed its head off and stuck it on the doll's house wall. It was the perfect mini-match!"
To complete the miniature bedroom, Lianne also had to create a tiny tepee, which she handmade by cutting up an old pillowcase. "I will dress it up with some ivy, string lights and throw cushions. For the novelty children's bed, I made a net template by taking pictures of each side of the car. I then stuck them to a frame that I made from cardboard. I plan on making bed slats from lolly sticks," she says. We think this petite room might just be our favourite. Prepare to be amazed...
The finished bedroom is utterly adorable, complete with tiny toys that Lianne sourced from doll's house stores, charity shops and online auction sites. Mini crates replicate her son's storage units, while all of Lianne's tiny handmade items really allow the space to shine. Can you spot the giraffe head?
Lianne's full-size living room is a stylishly dark space, with a monochrome palette, glamorous furnishings, a centralised fireplace and plenty of decorative artwork. While making this room in miniature might seem utterly impossible, Lianne has managed it with amazing results...
We love how unusual and eclectic this room is. There are so many different elements to look at all at once, from the miniature rocking horse to the zebra-print rug. As well as sourcing similar doll's house furnishings and painting them to match the originals as closely as possible, Lianne also purchased tiny vases from Little Lucciola, to mimic the ones found decorating her full-size mantelpiece.
Lianne even created tiny artworks to match the ones on her living room walls, by scaling them down digitally and printing them out at home. This print, which was originally from Ink & Drop, was scaled down to one-twelfth, so Lianne could achieve an exact replica. A doll's house frame finishes the miniature make perfectly – although sometimes Lianne makes frames herself using matchsticks.
In fact, every single room in Lianne's house is home to a unique piece of art, so her collection of tiny photo frames is extensive! For her toilet, which is a bright and fun room complete with an eclectic gallery wall, Lianne simply purchased small frames and scaled down her pictures at home. A simple, affordable, yet effective way of reproducing her rooms in miniature!
As Lianne's real-life home is a work in process, she uses the empty doll's house rooms to test out design ideas. "I’ve finished a miniature master bedroom, which I’d like to copy in the real house. It’s quite a handy way to show my partner my ideas before commencing a project in real life,” Lianne says. “I expect the floor-to-ceiling pink mural might be a tad much for him, so I'll probably end up creating a toned-down version of what's in the doll’s house for our actual bedroom!"
As well as trying to persuade her husband that their master bedroom should feature a gold gilded statement ceiling and a floor-to-ceiling pink love birds mural, Lianne hopes her 3D moodboard will also encourage him to embrace this marble-effect wallpaper by Arthouse. Lianne has already shrunk a Chinese wall fan that she bought from a car boot sale years ago, and has painted a doll's house radiator gold to finish this dramatic test piece.
This 3D moodboard concept has also helped Lianne to design a beautiful bathroom, that she hopes to recreate in her actual home in the not too distant future. Complete with dramatic jungle-inspired wallpaper and gold accents, we imagine this tiny luxury bathroom will look even better in real life!
Despite Lianne's real-life kitchen not quite being finished, she has made a start on the doll's house, in order to test out wallpaper and cabinet ideas on a smaller scale. For one of the walls, she ordered a removable wall mural from Murals Wallpaper. "When I put in the dimensions, an error message came up saying that the measurements looked too small, but fortunately it still let me order it in that size! I need to decide if the real-life room can take a full-sized mural to match!"
Lianne is also planning a full-scale dream kitchen extension with French doors, so these have been added to the doll's house in preparation. In order to make the doors appear like they lead onto a garden, Lianne printed a landscape scene out and stuck it behind the frame. Clever and highly budget-friendly, this smart little trick has made a real difference to the overall finish of the miniature room.
Lianne has also made a start on creating tiny finishing touches for her doll's house kitchen, including wooden utensils and a fruit bowl made from soft coloured clay. For their fifth wedding anniversary, Lianne bought her husband a personalised chopping board, which she's cleverly recreated by cutting out the shape from wood and handwriting an inscription. "It was tricky writing so small," she says. "I'm not sure my husband would have married me if I'd have had this shrink-everything-we-own hobby back then!"
If all this wasn't enough, Lianne's house isn't the only place where miniature creations can be found. Outside, she has sourced a fairy door and a tiny wooden chest, which her children believe were delivered by the dummy fairy. The scroll in the chest reads: "Place your dummies in my giant chest and next time you go to your bedroom to rest, remember I flew by to take them away, for tiny babies who need them, no time to delay. Love from the dummy fairy." It adds a touch of magic to the garden!
Once Lianne has completed both homes, she hopes to shrink other peoples' through a miniature interior design service. “I just know I’m going to want to continue with this weird little hobby,” she says. “As a child I would have loved to see my bedroom in a doll’s house, so I hope to make that a reality for others.” We don't know about you, but we won't look at buttons or Babygros in the same way again! You can keep up to date with Lianne's progress via her inspiring Instagram feed, @bighouseminihouse.