Tiny Doll House
M-Th 11am-4:30pm; F-Sa 11am-4pm
Entering Tiny Doll House during the holiday season, I discovered that even dolls decorate for the holidays. There were elaborate miniature houses on display, decked out in Christmas lights with small reindeer and Santas on the front lawn. Everything in the store, from the central houses to the rows of display cases to the tiny light fixtures in the back, were meticulously detailed.
Leslie Edelman, the owner of the store and the mastermind behind many of the designs, was in the (full-sized) interior design world long before he discovered the land of miniatures. He began making dollhouses and doll furniture shortly after his niece was born in the mid-nineties. He became enchanted with the idea of opening a niche business, building tiny furniture and traveling the world collecting dollhouse pieces. I had the pleasure of shopping in his original store on Lexington Avenue when my daughter was younger. We were busy fixing up a family heirloom and were thrilled to discover Leslie and his shop.
Many years later, I was so pleased to step back inside the wonderful world of miniatures. There are tiny watches, tea sets, board games and booze bottles as well as rows of minuscule cakes and musical instruments. There are modern leather seats and mini flatscreen TVs alongside beautifully crafted Lilliputian antiques. The houses themselves also run the gamut: There are stores, workshops, Tudor cottages, and federal mansions. Leslie even sells the people to go in the houses, ranging from a small rendering of Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter character to a woman in an elaborate sari sitting next to a small hookah. I was particularly taken by the teeny dolls and dollhouses made for the real dolls to play with. It is simply a boutique full of wonders for the child within all of us.
