Small world

Reflecting our homes as they look and feel today, a new generation is reshaping the Lilliputian world of dolls' houses, says Rhiannon Batten

- Rhiannon Batten

'Some of the houses I've restored have had a water tank in the roof. You think you've finished decorating, but then there's a leak somewhere and the water starts pouring. This scenario may be heart-sinkingly familiar to some readers, but there is a saving grace: the houses Trevor Cain is talking about aren't real ones, but dolls' houses.

A Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) scholar, with a master's degree in conservation, Trevor specialises in dolls' house restoration - a niche he found himself carving by chance. About 25 years ago I wanted to buy a real house to restore, but I didn't have the funds. Then a dolls' house in need of restoration popped up on eBay. I knew nothing about dolls' houses but my passion was craft, and I thought I could start with that house. I happened to be talking about it in an Islington pub one day and a journalist overheard me. They wrote an article about me building my dream house in miniature because I couldn't afford to buy a real one and, overnight, I had a business.'

That business has been going well, especially since the start of the pandemic. One of the unexpected legacies of repeated Covid lockdowns has been the adoption of dolls' house making and collecting by a new generation. And not before time, according to Charlotte Stokoe, curator of the Kensington Dollshouse Festival, which brings together dolls' house makers and miniaturists with collectors. Charlotte says that, in the run-up to the pandemic, many dolls' house makers had retired. It was quite a worrying time. All these makers were leaving and there wasn't as much interest.' Then lockdown happened and 'we got this amazing insurgence of young enthusiasts who had discovered miniatures via social media.