The Hartnell’sKensington House has a side portico above a wine cellar. Found on the Daily Mail

The Hartnell’s Kensington House

Tim and Angela Hartnell, owners of Anglia Dolls House in Norfolk, modeled the Kensington House on an 1815 Regency property. Their attention to detail is paramount. To protect the 1:12 scale visitors from being exposed to the scurrying and clatter of the miniature staff bringing food to their table, each elegant reception room is entered from a servants’ corridor.

The scullery in the Kensington House can be accessed by servants without walking through the main rooms of the house

This access is concealed by ‘jib’ doors – doors without moldings or trim and covered in the same wallpaper as the walls. All these corridors lead down to the scullery and kitchen in the basement.

The facade of the Kensington House swings open to reveal the interior

Traffic Patterns

It was carefully considered in the design how a visitor would move through the dolls house space. Each room is accessed through a logical series of doors and hallways; each staircase has been placed in a realistic position.

The couple spends weeks carefully constructing, painting and finishing each home that they make. Tim focuses on building the primary form of the dolls house, measuring and carving the birch plywood to each customer’s specification. Angela specializes in painting, decorating and marbling the homes.

Back-Ordered

This attention to detail is paying off. The waiting list for one of their made-to-order creations is more than a year. The Kensington dolls house sold for ￡7,000.

Tim Hartnell, a former software developer, quit his job in 2008 and formed Anglia Dolls Houses to focus full-time on his passion. Angela left her position as a librarian in 2014 to begin working with him full-time.

Susan Downing, with Patrick Owens