When people view my Dalton dollhouse, one of things they comment on the most is the marble fern stand. The stand and faux fern add an air of class and old-world elegance to the foyer, I think. And while these may look difficult, they’re in fact easy to make, almost as easy as a trip to your local hobby store!
The Marble Stand
When I stumbled on the stand in the cake decorating aisle of Michael’s, I didn’t have any idea how I would end up using it, but snapped it up in a flash. Once I chose the black-and-white marble flooring for the foyer, I realized how well the stand would complement the room, so I retrieved it from my craft cabinet, grabbed some acrylic paints, and went to work.
The pillar was a stark white, perfect for supporting layers of a white frosted wedding cake, but too plastic and artificial for a stand-alone dollhouse furnishing. What it clearly needed for best effect was some marble-izing.
Using a fine grained sea sponge, I first used two shades of gray and then a lighter beigy brown one, applying each shade and allowing it to partly dry for a minute or so before moving on to the next. You’ll need to dry off the sponge a bit after painting the stand, then dapple the colors so they blend slightly. You can play around with this, using other colors or a lighter vs. heavier hand, depending on what look you’re going for. But trust me, I don’t think you can go wrong in achieving the look of actual marble.
The Ferns
I used my Cricut to cut out a sheet of fern images of varying sizes for a more natural plant effect. (Cricut has a variety of images available, so select what you like best.) Before removing them from the sheet, I painted both sides with green acrylic and after this dried, I added some touches of yellow. I used vellum paper for the ferns, but were I to do it again, I’d go for a light card stock instead, To achieve the look of real fern fronds, I first searched for photos of ferns and based my paint choice on the colors there.
By the way, I used vellum paper for the ferns, but were I to do it again, I’d go for a light card stock instead. The vellum didn’t aborb the paint very well, which made it harder to work with. Another option is to use green paper in the right shade if you have some on hand.
I next weeded the fern images and then glued each one to a 2.5-3 inch strip of green floral wire (the fern “stems”.) Using a piece of styrofoam, I carved out a small section to fill the hole in the plant stand. Stick the stems into the styrofoam and VOILA! you have a great looking stand and plant ready to grace any room of your dollhouse.
Supplies:
- Pack of four 3-inch “Grecian pillars” for cake decorating ($5.49 at Michaels)
- Acrylic paint (one darker and one lighter shade of gray, one beige, and one green)
- Floral wire
- Styrofoam or dry oasis
- Card stock paper (white or a realistic green if available)
- Glue
- Green, small to medium gauge floral wire
- Cutting machine (or as alternative, buy and trim artificial, ready made ferns from craft store)
