NEWS COPY – WITH PICTURES – by Laura Heads
A pensioner has spent 26 years making this stunning life-like dolls house - complete with marble worktops, wooden floors and a hand-made carpet with 197,700 stitches.
Leonard Martin, 70, built the intricate house from scratch as a way to “keep busy” and soon became hooked on making it as real as possible.
The 6ft-long labor of love has six lavish rooms complete with cavity walls, marble and wood floors, soft furnishings and one-of-a-kind artwork.
Ceilings are painted plaster, which have been gilded with 24ct gold leaf, while the chandeliers feature #100 worth of Swarovski crystals.
Each wooden floorboard is individually laid and French polished and each room is delicately illuminated by tiny electric lights and glowing fireplaces.
“It is unbelievable, if I even say so myself,” said Leonard, from Charlton Marshall, Dorset, who has spent #6,000 on his masterpiece.
“I made everything in it. The carpets are made by my late brother who lived in Malta.
“The biggest he made was around 197,700 stitches, all made with a needle and silk, it took him 18 months, he was unbelievable.
“I had a famous artist paint seven mini pictures for me which went in the house.
“I individually cut out 5,000 bricks to put on the front and I made all the furniture from scratch.
“There are marble floors and all the floorboards were individually laid and then French polished.
“I built and designed everything, it really is something.
“The chandelier is all made out of expensive crystals so when it lights up it really is something special.
“It’s fully electric, so the lights come on and the fires light up, it is quite spectacular, the pictures don’t do it justice.
“If you just saw the pictures you would think it is a real house, not a dolls house.
“It wasn’t going to be this big. If I had the money I would build this as a full-sized house, but I’m living the dream in miniature.
“My mother would have loved it!”
Leonard began making the Edwardian house in 1987 as he worked in his international militaria shop in Boscombe, Dorset, which sold guns, swords and uniforms.
But the other half of his shop was given over to making and selling dolls houses, after growing up in a creative family.
His mother was a talented seamstress, while his father was a carpenter.
In his early career Len worked for John Lewis designing and making full-sized pelmets, as well as decorating their annual Christmas windows.
He even commissioned a friend of a friend, famous for creating the artwork in King Farouk’s palace in Egypt, to paint the delicate works of art for each room.
The home features six rooms, including a grand entrance hall, formal dining room, a red room, and a kitchen.
Leonard added: “I had it on display for the public to raise money for the local village hall then I had to move it back to my work shop where it’s still sitting on a table.
“It took four people to lift it into place so it won’t be moving any time soon!
“I have also built a fantastic funfair, it took me seven years.
“I’m 70 now so I’m a bit too old to do it, I would make more houses if I had somewhere to put them, but they are so big and too heavy to do now.”
Leonard hopes to sell the house to a stately home or something similar to preserve it – even putting a miniature ‘for sale’ sign on the front lawn.
ENDS