West Milford resident turns passion into business with dollhouse store

By Ginny Privitar
Newfoundland — Girl or boy, woman or man, you will love visiting this shop — Miniature Dollhouse Creations.
Walking in, it feels like everything you could possibly find in real life, you will find here — in miniature. The displays are a delight for the heart and eye.
The owner of Miniature Dollhouse Creations, Delphine “Del” Ashe, just opened the store two weeks ago. She had been making houses and other miniatures in her home for 25 years, and sold her creations to miniature groups and on eBay Inc.
This year, she finally decided to open her own business.
Ashe started making miniatures as a hobby, around 25 years ago, in her 20s.
“I always wanted to live in a log cabin, so I actually built a log cabin,” she said.
Amazing miniature creationsAfter that, she kept building houses, doll-house kits and hand-made room display boxes that she would furnish with miniature items she bought or made herself. She created many food items and landscaping accessories.
Six years ago she built a fantastic large custom log cabin that sits in the store’s window. It has a country feel with miniature bedspread quilts and even a bearskin rug and a miniature version of her dog.
There are different dollhouses and many dolls in varied period dress, including modern, and all kinds of accessory items and room displays.
“Everything you find in a house, you can find here,” Ashe said. She has an excellent eye for accessorizing any display and is happy to advise customers and will show them how to put together a doll house kit they purchase.
In her store, there is a planting shed with tiny flowers, tools and even a tiny rabbit hiding under a table.
There is a sewing shop with a miniature dressmaker’s dummy, measuring tape and bolts of fabric, a tool shop so well outfitted that anyone would be proud to own the full-size equivalent.
Another display box features a bear and other wildlife in the woods at sundown.
Ashe created an exquisite full size nursery display box. An expectant mother stands in a room that has everything the new baby will need: layette items; talcum powder; bottles; a tiny teddy bear; a box of Huggies diapers, and a dressing table that displays a tiny sonogram photo.
In addition to the traditional sofas, chairs and tables of many styles, there are different computer desks with amazing accessories: a tiny computer, calculator, phone, adding machine and pencil sharpener.
You can even accessorize with a tiny box of cigars and an ashtray.
A large inventoryThe store carries an extensive array of miniature accessories: lamps; different food items; dresser and bathroom accessories; pots, pans, dishes; porcelain; miniature pictures to hang on the walls, including actual painted mini-pictures. There is even miniscule jewelry — necklaces, bracelets and earrings for the tiny 1/12 scale dolls.
Ashe even carries a large supply of hobby wood for DIYers. Layaway is available as are internet sales on her Facebook page.
She carries miniatures from Bespaq, Houseworks Miniatures, Micrographics Wallpaper and other well-known manufacturers, as well as artisan-made items from friends and craftspeople she’s met at miniature shows, most recently in Philadelphia in November.
Social media features, classesAshe will be doing a feature of the week on her Facebook page and in the store, so customers can become familiar with different designers and crafts people.
Classes in miniature work will be starting in February, beginning with all phases of electrical work including lamps, and whole house.
Eventually, Ashe will offer other courses like landscaping and flower-making. Future classes will depend on customer interest.
Ashe grew up in Waldwick, but she and her husband, David, and son, Matt, have lived in West Milford for 28 years. This busy lady not only operates her store, but has another business, Custom House Cleaning, where she works in the early morning.
Miniature Dollhouse Creations also takes consignments and does repairs on old dollhouses.
If you go:Miniature Dollhouse Creations
2713 Route 23 Lakeland Plaza, near end of Union Valley Road (Route 513)
Newfoundland, NJ 07435
Tel: 973-800-8808
Facebook: miniaturedollhousecreations
Hours: Monday - Thursday 11:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. -8 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. and by appointment.