Jennys Home

Is it any wonder I am grooving on my new (vintage) Jennys Home, a neat little room box scaled for 1:16, which was masterminded as a modular set of rooms by Tri-ang (and its subsidiary Spot-On) and the magazine Homes and Gardens in 1965? Apparently every young girl then needed her very own series of Jennys Home rooms, where she could create her own tower of a home, or perhaps a chic, compact apartment, or even a delectable sprawl of rooms by the sea...it could be anything you wanted!

Honey, I'm home!

Tri-ang manufactured small and large versions of these plastic rooms from 1965-70, as well as a series of dolls, furniture, and accessories. I've been doing some reading and web searching, and have loved coming across information tidbits about the rooms and, of course, PICTURES!

**By the way, I have to mention that I have been resisting the impulse to add an apostrophe in "Jennys" throughout this post. I am going by the wording on the original box and materials (as difficult as it is!)**

First, an original leaflet, which came with the rooms, from a blog post by Celia of KT Miniatures (warm wishes to her as she undergoes surgery):

Here's another leaflet in color from a blog posting on a V&A site (the links are all sadly broken, but you can still read the main post). This shows some furniture options and is obviously giving us girls the hard sell!

It's no wonder girls wanted to collect up the rooms and decorate them to their heart's content! Here's more images of some of the original boxes from the Spot-On Collector website:

I love the tag lines, "A room of your own! A house of your own!"

This photostream by short_paws is pretty incredible and shows her (or his?) extensive collection of Jennys Homes. Here's a picture of short_paw's dream tower - WOW!

Pretty endless options for layouts and decorating -- I find these charming.

Rebecca of Rebecca's Collections has a Jennys Home, as you can see in this blog post from 2009. I hope she does not mind my sharing some of her photos here of her Erna Meyer dolls keeping house:

My own large, unfurnished Jennys Home was bought with the original box on eBay for less than $25. I have unsuccessfully bid for a number of Jennys Homes on UK eBay over the years, to no avail. This one popped up quite by surprise and I was the only bidder. I really do love when this happens -- it kind of justifies all of those hours spent on eBay late at night looking for a treasure!

How about a little tour? First, the original box. 

Then, the "naked" inside of the box, which looks quite good for its age. There are a few flaws: the original door has a small corner piece cracked off (still to glue), and one of the two roof panels has a crack. The sliding window to the front is a bit scratched, but other than that, it is in nice vintage condition.

Mine did not come with curtains, but it did come with a red/orange rug. The rug helped to set the mood for my first scene in the room, which features an original Jenny lamp that came with the box. I decided to completely cover the three walls to pick up on the rug's color and add some warmth with the wood "paneling," which is actual thick wood paper from the Paper Source.

As I was working on this scene I was reminded of a prior small room box experience, with my Miner Room-in-Miniature set, which is 1:24 scale -- you might remember this:

Same era, too! I love the continuity.

Do you have a Jennys Home...or a few??! Let me know!

Credits: Table is Dol-Toi; chairs are Reac; chair and ottoman are vintage Petite Princess; sideboard is vintage German; plant is TOMY; stool is from miniatures.com; patterned wall is DCWV scrapbook paper, and wood walls are wood papers from the Paper Source. Accessories are Tri-ang, eBay finds, Michaels, Lil' Bratz, and AG Minis.

The time it took me: 57 minutes