'Tis time to go on a virtual tour of Tiny Bag End! I should warn you, there are about 30 pictures behind this cut. But, come on, how else am I going to celebrate the (near) completion of the interior of my dollhouse? :P



(If you came upon this post at random and have no idea what's going on, you can find out the backstory here.)





We begin by approaching from the outside, with Tiny Frodo. Actually, all the Tiny Hobbits and Friends graciously agreed to remain outside for this little photo session; the sad truth is, they're the least realistic looking things in the place.







You're not too good to peer in through the windows, are you? Here is a peek at the kitchen and pantry, respectively.



Alrighty, enough skulking in the bushes. We open the round green door and walk into... the foyer! Here you can see what I've been working on the last few weeks. Vertical beams, built-in shelves, and big white wrinkly lumps meant to simulate the inside of a hill. You know, tree roots and stuff. Things of note in this room: many action figure accessories hung on the hooks, and Gandalf's hat on the chair. The umbrella-holding thing was given to me by my dear friend Moosefluff, who I hope doesn't mind seeing it used this way...

Through the door in the foyer is Frodo's room. Not much new in here, except those shelves above the fireplace, which I took care to fill with tiny books in as cluttered a way as possible. Oh, and there's a little wooden toy horsie on wheels sitting on the floor, but you can't see it from this angle. I thought it was cute and I wanted it. And surely Frodo kept a few childhood toys lying around...

This is the view of the foyer from Frodo's door (that's the back of the front door we're looking at). Another reason I had to kick out the Tiny Hobbits for this is I would surely have knocked them over, trying to get these Hobbit-eye camera angles. The pattern on the back of the door is not metal, by the way. There are black hinges about an inch long holding up the door, but the rest of the pattern I made using the liquid "lead" stuff they sell at craft stores for stained glass projects. I bought it to make the black lines on the windows, but I figured you can use such things for more than one purpose. I did copy the pattern on the door from Peter Jackson's movies; I just love the look of Bag End in FOTR.



Glance to the right and you will see the doorway leading to the dining room. There are a disproportionate number of dining room photos, for which I apologize. I can't help that the dining room is especially photogenic. *shrug*

You may notice that many of my nifty new shelves above the doorways have nothing on them. Who'd have thought I'd run out of tiny knicknacks before I ran out of shelf space? Oh, how sad, I guess I'll have to make and/or search for some more. ;) If anyone has any ideas for what a Hobbit might display on a little shelf, I'd love to hear them. In the kitchen it's a different story, though; no trouble at all finding things to put on shelves. And that's where we're going next:

Here be the kitchen, one of my favourite rooms, mostly because I love making tiny food. I used to make fridge magnets of tiny food when I got bored, but this is so much more satisfying. Filling all those tiny jars with spices and other likely-looking substances was also oddly satisfying. The best looking food was not made by me, however (the dinner platters, the cutting board with cheese and crackers...); those I bought from a miniatures store.

I'm very proud of my little cooking fireplace. It's hard to see in the big pictures, but here's a good view from an older picture (before I put on the oven handles):



All the fireplaces except the one in Frodo's room started as unfinished wood or plaster, actually, because finished things are so darn expensive. But the kitchen fireplace is my pride and joy because for the longest time I couldn't figure out how to make it. Once I decided that hobbits probably wouldn't have any kind of regular stove, I tried to find a cooking fireplace to buy. I did eventually find some online, but they were both too large for the kitchen, and, being handmade, too expensive (I can't afford to spend $40 on a single item, geez!). So I got an unfinished wood fireplace, the same kind that's in the dining room, and finished it with some pieces of rubber textured to look like brick, and some little ovens of basswood that I made and fitted in there. There are four oven doors with handles, low enough to set a pan or kettle on top, and a space in the middle behind a grate, for the fire. I don't know if this is exactly how a cooking fireplace is supposed to work, but it was the best I could do, never having seen one. Oh, and may I just say, iron paint is awesome! I found that at the craft store; it actually has ground-up iron in it. I used that to make parts of the fireplace look like iron, as well as most of the light fixtures (I didn't like the look of all that shiny brass).

Now for the pantry! I installed many a tiny shelf in here. :P All that tiny food I make has to go somewhere, after all. See that bowl of corn on the left? I love that bowl of corn. :) I bought it a few weeks ago too. I wish I could make tiny food that good! But no, I must stick to simpler things, like apples, tomatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. And pies, of course. We'll see some of them in the next picture.

I just had to get a better view of the shelves on the left. 0:-) Yes, I do have many more tiny pies than are displayed here, as some of you know; I just can't stop wanting to make those cute little things, dagnabit! :P But I decided in the end that three or four pies in the pantry would have to suffice.



On the way back out through the kitchen, we must glance briefly at the outer wall, which was very hard to photograph without a convenient doorway to poke the camera through. Anyway, there's the door to what will be the vegetable garden, and yet another view of tiny food.



Now we're back in the dining room (hey, I gave you fair warning about the gratuitous dining room pictures...), and we're going through that doorway on the left to get to... the living room.





Did you notice the tiny Elvish horn? :P If so, you must have been using extrasensory perception of some kind, because it's barely visible. It's white and tucked between two vases, but I have it prominently displayed on the shelf above the fireplace, because it's so cool. :P Here's an older picture where you can actually see the wee horn:







It was made for my Tiny Hobbits by the extremely talented Elwen, who also makes beautiful dollhouse curtains and beds (check out her ebay store!). She also very kindly made the little rug in the bathroom, which you'll see... right now!



Here we can see the tiny bottles of unknown substances, made of beads glued together. I also made some little piles of towels out of felt to put on that lower shelf. When I was taking these pictures, I didn't have anything to put on the bathroom shelves, so I had to come up with something to put there...

Now, from the living room...

...we shall peer into Bilbo's room, through that barely visible door on the right!

I don't know why, but I'm very fond of these shots I got by sticking my camera through doorways. Hee! Anyway, here's the rest of Bilbo's room. I think I need more tiny books. They don't have nearly enough clutter, poor bookwormish Hobbits!



Another through-the-door shot. I've just turned the camera around so that it's in Bilbo's room, pointing out through the doorway.

Now we have toured the whole smial. Naturally, we shall exit via the dining room. 0:-)

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to get your tiny plastic cloak off the hooks on your way out. Come back and visit anytime. :-D

Oh, I suppose I should include a view from above with the Hill off, so you can see the layout: