Miniatura would like to introduce another contestant from the recent More4 TV series, The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge. Thomas Murray from Carlow, South-East Ireland, made it through to Episode 5, the Rococo period, when contestants had to decorate the hallway with a mural, console table and chaise longue.
“I was happy that I’d got that far,” Thomas told Miniatura. “I hoped that I would get to do Rococo week. It was a tough room to do though, and one of the biggest rooms in the house.”
The TV show hosted by Sandi Toksvig saw ten contestants decorating an empty mansion week by week, competing in teams to create the best room. For Thomas, building and decorating mansions is something he has done quite a lot of, as his photographs show!
Talking about his early days of dolls house building, he said that he started with an Argos bookcase! From this he made a six-room Georgian town house. Once that was made, he decided to add on a basement and an attic. Pleased with his efforts, he continued to add on new rooms and decorate them. His six roomed house became a 25-room house, but even that wasn’t enough for Thomas, and more rooms were added. Finally, he stood back to admire his 110-roomed mansion!
But then disaster struck. The Dublin flat here he was living sprung a leak and his masterpiece was saturated. Fortunately, he managed to salvage 70 rooms and undaunted continued building dolls houses. Gradually he created another couple of mansions, including one for a friend, some houses in 1/48th scale, a Victorian house of ill repute, a model of the flat where he lived in Dublin, a gypsy caravan, and even a model of his mother’s house.
Not doing anything by halves, Thomas said that one of his mansions has 11 drawing rooms which are all different. “I base a lot of my ideas on Irish Country Houses and other well-known places. For example, one of my ballrooms is based on the Imperial Russian Palace, another room was inspired by the Palace of Versailles. I’d rather build a palace than a cottage!”
“I’ll be starting a kit bash soon, using three kits, which will become a 4ft x 4ft mansion.” Transporting his larger buildings to an exhibition is always a headache for Thomas but quite recently he and his dad managed to get the original 70-room mansion onto a wheeled platform so manoeuvring it about is now possible.
“The main 70 roomed mansion weighs half a tonne,” said Thomas. “My dad and I managed to get it onto a wheeled platform, but we were both white with terror as the huge mansion creaked under the strain of being lifted. We managed it however, and now it’s a lot easier to move around.”
As a boy Thomas was into Lego and was also always crafty. He added, “I’m so grateful to my parents and grandparents – they did not have a lot – but what we did have was used, which I’ll be forever grateful for. My grandmother had an original guidebook from Titania’s Palace which was like a Bible. I remember as a boy of about six or seven I was looking for something to do, I don’t like being bored. It came down to a choice between miniatures and model railways. I realised that everybody likes looking in through people’s windows – so it was miniatures.”
Thomas’ normal job is working at a garden centre in the grounds of Altamont house. “It’s the perfect job and I have a brilliant boss, who gave me time off to do the show. He said: I am not going to stand in the way of your dreams.”
Regarding getting chosen to go on the programme, Thomas was told that somebody had recommended him. “I am so grateful to whoever that was. I really loved the whole experience. It was exhilarating and stressful, but I believe you need to learn every day. I thought, if I go and do the TV show, I would be showing all my work and if I can teach somebody something I have learnt, it is a bonus. And, if the show inspires just one person to get into miniatures it’s an added bonus.
“I was at the Kensington show recently and two little girls came up to myself and Julie and said that because of the show they have really got into miniatures. I was so proud. You have to encourage kids. I hate to hear people putting someone’s efforts down. You have to encourage people.
“Being on the show was intense but enjoyable – I was fairly okay with this as I can think on my feet. And we all gelled together on and off screen, and we’re still in touch now. I think what we’d all like to do is go back and finish the rooms properly, without any rush or stress!
“But mainly what I wanted to do was to raise awareness of dolls house miniatures as a hobby. It’s fine in the UK but in Ireland it’s still behind closed doors. So, to raise the awareness and let people over here know it’s normal to be into dolls houses that would make me proud.”
Discover more of Thomas’ miniatures here:
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