The Brentwood Dollhouse: Second Exterior Style

Another Brentwood Dollhouse joins the neighbourhood!  Meet the Brentwood Dollhouse 2.0! Designed by me and made by miniatures.com.  This post will go into detail about the exterior of this dollhouse and also touch on the original exterior since they share so many similarities.  

Additionally, you can check out my last bricking post for more, it's kind of part 1 of the exterior.

I'm so thrilled to share that the first 50 limited edition kits made in the USA have officially sold out!  Thank you to everyone who purchased.  I can't wait to see what you've done with your kits and how you style them.  Be sure to share photos!  The re-vamped kit is available here.

The second revamped edition of the Brentwood kit and has a few small changes from the OG design.  The windows are now factory-made like the doors which means they feature the same beautiful trim. (That said, I do love the 1st addition double layered windows too, so if you got that kit I think they are fantastic and love them equally).  As well the stair railings are now made from wood and not laser cut (not too big a change except you can stain them). 

The two changes I am most excited about? The mdf wall and roof pieces now have mitred cuts for even easier assembly. Yay!  And a very fun change we were able to add 2 additional windows on the sides of the house.  

To me the Brentwood Dollhouse kit always reminds me of those white painted all brick homes in the Southern USA.  So for my second Brentwood build, I went with the white brick again using my cork sheet brick method.  

This time I went a bit darker and cooler with my paint choices.  The door is black, the windows grey, and I removed a lot of the wood elements from before.  Now there are rows of bricks above the windows instead of wood lintels.  I added new porch lights that are just a bit bigger and more proportionate for the house too.

I added more copper accents with new gutters along the roof and some copper flashing above the portico roof.  

The garden features a raised bed with bricked walls and I did modern stone slabs for the pathway.

Let's get into how it came together!

Bricking:

I began by bricking the exterior (for a full tutorial see my previous bricking post here).  I didn't end up using the 1/2 scale shutters shown in the photos below, but I love them as an option.  I did use them on the original Brentwood design

I also continued the brick around the sides.

Then I painted the cork brick Sholji White by Sherwin Williams (which is slightly darker and cooler than the Alabaster white of the first Brentwood I did). 

Very important to note, Sherwin Williams flat/matte paint was awful on the cork, I definitely would suggest getting the paint colour matched at Home Depot with the Behr brand.  The Sherwin Williams paint cracked and was thick and not good.  I went back and got my usual Behr.  Always do a test.  The Behr only took 2-3 coats, whereas the Sherwin Williams you had to do a lot of thick coats and it still looked porous.

Roofing:

I went with a cool brown dye for my roof shingles and applied them in rows.  I found it was easier to draw the pencil lines on the roof pieces before assembly, but I applied the shingles after assembly.  

Now I could have just left the roof as is, but I decided to be a little fancy and add some copper gutters.  In order to do that I needed something straight and flat to glue the gutter lengths #1238 onto.  So I made some custom U-shaped lengths from 1/8" thick strip wood (various widths depending on the gable) and glued them to the house and roof edge.   

I finished the front facing sides on the two gables with thin 3/8 strip wood and used wood filler to hide any gaps.  And added in little pieces of stripwood in each gable corner.

I was then able to add my gutter lengths easily.

The downspouts are made from plastic drinking straws.  I first bent and glued them to the shape I wanted.  Once dried, I spray painted them with copper spray paint.  To attach the downspouts to the house I made little tabs: I spray painted a sheet of paper with the copper paint and then adding double sided table to the back.  Then I cut into tiny little strips.

I also added a piece of copper flashing at the very back of my portico roof by wrapping a piece of stripwood with copper sheet #9064.

Landscaping:

For the pathway I cut 1/4” mdf into rectangles, painted them grey and glued them to my base.  I left a gap in-between each stone and filled with glue and model train gravel.

I also cut 1/4” x 1.25” mdf walls to go around my raised garden and applied the same bricks around the outside as the house.   I then filled the interior with cut up pieces of sponge and layered model soil powder on top.  Used a collection of paper flowers and squeeze me bushes #9736, trees #1715 and #9735.  Around the perimeter I added two strips of Edge Hedge #949.

Finally on the deck I added a pair of the medium tapered “Terra-Cotta” planters #40410 which I spray painted copper and filled with paper flowers from my collection.

Lighting:

The finishing touch was adding these new Brass Carriage Lamps #2614.  They are the perfect size for this house and I love how you can see the bulb.  I decided to dull down the shade of gold so I added a wash of copper metallic acrylic paint.

I also added a piece from the LED light strip Cool White strip #95301 under the portico roof to further illuminate that area above the front door. The connector piece #9239 allowed me to tie it into my dollhouse wiring.

I finished the scene with some paper flowers from my collection and my favourite wicker bench (White Wire Settee #76075).

Doors:

I spray painted the Gun Metal Handles #65603 copper before adding them to the front door.

You can find all the items I mentioned above at miniatures.com by searching the name or item number.  What do you think of the new exterior?!