Believe it or not but these two paintings are Belinda Armstrong’s first attempts at painting in miniature – and amazing they are too. Belinda who lives in the Cotswolds with husband Mark and little dog, Dan, has plans to try her hand at a seascape and a landscape in watercolours next.

“I went to our local School of Art and Graphic Design, and that covered a whole range of skills such as drawing and photography,” said mum of one, Belinda. “I got a nice grounding there, and later I got a job in an advertising agency. Now I help Mark in running his design business.

“With the paintings, which measure around 6cm x 8cm, I decided to just give it a go and see how I got on. I did the still life painting first which I was quite pleased with. And the other is quite a famous painting that I saw on the internet. I’ve tried to find out the artist for the portrait, unsuccessfully! I did a pencil sketch of that first, then painted in watercolours. Mark bought me some miniature picture frames for Christmas.”

Belinda has wanted to build a dolls house since being a child

Belinda said that she has always wanted to make a dolls house. As a little girl, she remembers having a bungalow style dolls house, but there was nothing inside it. She recalls, “I didn’t really have that much to fill the house with. I remember I used to get little items from Woolworth with my pocket money as a child. Remember Woolies?”

Eventually, some six years ago, she bought a Georgian Town House kit, and was soon putting her own take on it. “I did as much as I could myself in building it but had help from my husband in sticking it together. I’ve adapted it however and changed it somewhat from what it was meant to look like. For instance, I’ve changed the texture of the outer walls. I put sand in the paint to give a rough exterior, to try and make it look like stone. I spent a lot of time looking around Cheltenham at the amazing architecture for inspiration. Inside, I’ve put floor tiles down and I have used some painting techniques for the walls. Also, watching and referring to Pride & Prejudice (Kiera Knightly version) has been useful. I thought the house interiors in that film were amazing.

Surprisingly, Belinda has no plans for adding little character dolls into her Georgian house. For her, it is all about the house, which is still a work in progress, but is possibly around 85% completed now.

Belinda has gone for the minimalist look

Belinda explained that she has deliberately made the house as minimalist as possible. One reason being that there isn’t very much space in the rooms, but also, she wanted to concentrate on the main architecture – the walls, floors, lighting, windows and fireplaces. Plus, she is going to try and add paneling and architrave.

Under normal circumstances (Covid permitting) she and husband Mark often go to dolls house fairs and exhibitions, with Mark being fascinated by the amazing miniatures that people can create. Very often they will combine a dolls house show with a car show, to balance things out.

When shopping for Georgian furniture, Belinda buys items in bare wood, so that she can try different paint techniques on them. Always eager to try new methods, she finds that the internet certainly has its uses if you want to know how to do something. Her fireplaces are simply wood – but by putting her unique take on them, they now look like marble; and the bare wood furniture now has an antique walnut appearance.

“I just used various colour varnishes on the furniture and dappled them on with a paintbrush while referring to pictures of walnut furniture on the web as a guide. Top tip – always get decent references!!

“I always like to put my own mark on things,” Belinda concluded. And true to form she admitted that even the painting of the fruit has her own stamp on it. “There’s maybe more grapes and less apples in the picture as there were in the original painting – but it’s just my take on it.”

And why not? That’s what we say!

We’d like to thank Belinda for sharing her dolls house passion with us.