For Dee Dale of Nottingham it’s all about the model making. She loves a challenge and never looks for the easy way of doing anything, always wanting to create the very best of every idea and design she has in her head. She tends to work at it until she gets the desired results – even if it means scrapping a project and starting again.

This amazing Beetlejuice house is only the third house she has made, and in fact only got into miniatures around three years ago. But as she told Miniatura, it’s not about the dolls houses themselves, it all about the things that go in them. This love of making things all stems from when she was a child of 8 or 9 when her father bought her a Readers Digest book called Things to Make and Do, which she still has.

Lydia’s bedroom

Dee said, “The book was filled with all sorts of toys, games, jewellery making, dressing up clothes etc., and the instructions on how to make everything. I adored this book and longed to be able to make the things in it. I attempted some as a child but most of the book required the skills of an adult to make the items.”

There were dolls house pages in the book which Dee particularly loved as they showed Edwardian and Victorian rooms made from everyday objects such as cotton reels and toothbrush caps. Her love of these little things didn’t go unnoticed by her parents and when she was 10 they got an uncle to make her a huge dolls house.

Beetlejuice lounge

“To be honest I was getting too old to play with dolls so it lived on the landing covered over with a tablecloth,” said Dee. “My longing hadn’t been for the dolls house but for all the stuff that goes into it.”

Dee’s interest in making miniature items really took off when her son left home and she turned his bedroom into a craft room. For her first project she decided to make four of her closest friends a cut out book for Christmas. She purchased the largest, thickest books she could find in the charity shops, and spent several days – and many Stanley blades, hollowing them out.

The kitchen

“I turned each book into an individual room and made a Fimo bookworm to sit inside the book rooms. The rooms had battery lights, tables and chairs etc. Each book and book worm was based around my friend’s individual taste. i.e. one was a horror book, another American Civil War, another was Winnie the Pooh and the fourth a romantic novel. It was after the Christmas that I decided to make my first dolls house.”

Dee explained that she has always enjoyed arts and crafts, and in the January 2020 sales she treated herself to a Cricut Maker. “This has been my saviour,” continued Dee. “Most of my furniture, cupboards etc have all been designed on here and then cut out to perfection. Thankfully just before lockdown I had stocked up on plenty of card, paints, paper etc. I also spend hours trawling internet tutorials to learn how to make things, and print things off as references and reminders.

The dining table.

“Most of the time I have an idea of how I want a room to be, but sometimes I start it and realise that my idea won’t work. Then I can sit for several hours deciding what else to do with it. My husband tells me all the time that I overthink, or try to over complicate everything – but I don’t want an easy way – I want to try and solve how to create the idea I have.”

Dee admitted that she has only ever been on one course, that was run by Lorna Payne at Tickhill where she learned some fabulous ageing effects from her, found out about Spackle and how to use it, otherwise everything else she has learnt is through trial and error or the internet.

The hall with lighting.

“Sadly, the time I was there I had developed an abscess and had the most horrendous toothache,” added Dee. “I could barely concentrate because of the pain and I ended up have to leave a day early to go and have the tooth out.”

Talking about the previous two houses she made before the Beetlejuice project, Dee said that the first house was a massive project of trying to build the Magic Faraway Tree, from the Enid Blyton books. “The whole thing took me about a year to make out of cardboard and paper mache and stood about three foot tall.

“I made many mistakes with this house, but I also learnt so much from it. It had a slide that went from the top to the bottom, built inside the centre of the tree and had six rooms in all. I made all the characters from Fimo to go in the house and was going to give it to my nieces. However, the tree was so large when completed that my sister-in-law did not have room for it! So I sold it for £60 to someone for their daughter.”

The chaise longue

For her next project Dee wanted to make a haunted house. So she purchased one from Gumtree for £30 which she says was quite run down. However, that effect all added to the house once she had transformed it.

For her third dolls house Dee wanted to do something different that hopefully no one else had done yet. She originally thought about making the Addams Family, but found several people had already done this. “My husband and I had enjoyed the film Beetlejuice when it first came out and loved the dining table scene – so that was the challenge to myself, to re-create the table scene.”

Dee’s husband bought her the house for Christmas and helped her assemble it over the Christmas period, she then started on the rooms in early January 2020. To begin with she sat and watched the film again and took lots of photos from the TV. “The first room I started first was the attic room,” said Dee. “I dived straight in without any plans, but soon realised that the lighting was going to be complicated. I had to pull back and then work out a new plan of attack. I then decided to start with the kitchen and ground level and work my way up.”

The Beetlejuice hall.

Dee still has the attic and the ghost reception room (where the man with the shrunken head lives) to complete, and the characters which she’ll make from Fimo, all in 1/12^th scale. “The attic has wooden walls and has a secret door leading to the Reception room. She added, “The attic is going to be tricky to light because of the sloping ceiling, and I want to try and re-create the lights that go over the model village.” Dee already made one model village but wasn’t happy with it, so has now started it again. “I’m also going to wood clad all the outside of the house. I think I should have done that first, but I was too excited when I started, so decided to leave that till last!”

With her Beetlejuice house close to being completed, I wondered what her next project was going to be.  Dee replied, “I have no idea yet, but whatever it is, I want it to be unusual and another challenge.”

Dee’s Beetlejuice house.