Library Dollhouse Filled with Handmade Treasures

Marny Ennis Elliott has a big gift for making small things. If you go to the Children’s area of The Urbana Free Library, you’ll get a chance to appreciate her gift. In the dollhouse, you’ll find a plethora of detailed furniture, trinkets, and rugs. Elliott made many of the items in the dollhouse, paying special attention to detail in the rugs.

The dollhouse features 12 rooms, each with a handmade petit point rug. Most are cotton floss, at 24 stitches per inch. One inch takes an hour to complete. The larger rugs are 18 stitches to the inch, in fine wool thread. She creates all the original designs as she goes. The rug design in one bedroom matches the wallpaper, which is real wallpaper cut from a wallpaper catalog.

Though Elliott is not currently making dollhouses, she has made many over the years, including one for the Decatur Public Library which also features beautiful furniture and rugs. She also used to teach classes though local park districts instructing six students at a time how to design and assemble dollhouse furniture. Some of the bedroom pieces were favorites.

In addition, Elliott’s displayed other houses and individual rooms she’s made around the region, including at the James Millikin Homestead bi-annual Victorian Doll tea. She’s also given rugs and whole dollhouses for various auctions and raffles.

The Library’s 3 foot by 4 foot dollhouse is a 1930’s home, complete with a period typewriter and phone in the office. Elliott’s favorite room is the kitchen because she likes the rug. In one of the bedrooms, you’ll find a handmade quilt. Elliott says her years as a quilter and experience with needlepoint is handy when making all the pieces for the dollhouse.

And if you look carefully, you’ll find a miniature dollhouse in the dollhouse.

Elliott has other interesting hobbies which include collecting miniature books for display in dollhouses and creating acrostic puzzles. She’s always looking for pieces to add detail to the dollhouse, most recently adding a car in one of the bedrooms which she purchased at a model railroad show. She has also designed sets of needlepoint kneelers and chairs for churches.

Every wood scrap is a potential piece of furniture. “The dresser and typewriter stand are from wood scraps from a home in Evanston that my parents built,” said Elliott.

Elliott was inspired to start creating dollhouses and miniature rooms by the Thorne Miniature Rooms, which were conceived by Mrs. James Ward Thorne of Chicago and constructed between 1932 and 1940 by various master craftsmen. The Art Institute in Chicago has a collection of 68 beautifully detailed rooms. Elliott also participated in a miniature club in rural Lovington, Illinois, where she lived prior to moving to the Champaign-Urbana area 11 years ago.

The Library says the dollhouse is a popular feature of the Children’s area. Children are often planted in front of the dollhouse peering into each room, lost in imagination. It would be easy to lose hours exploring each detail.

Come see Marny Elliott’s dollhouse for yourself during regular Library hours, Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; and Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.