IF you've always wanted the perfect house, then think small. Very small. Once upon a time doll's houses were for children. Now they're for grown ups, and it's easy to see why. For most of us, it's the closest we'll get to the Georgian rectory, the perfect country cottage or even the ideal pub.

Then there's the charm of the miniature. Furnishing on a tiny scale is fascinating and compulsive. If all you've known of doll's house furniture is the tough stuff you played with yourself as a child, then it's a revelation. Everything you can get in the adult world you can get miniature scale. From sausages to silverware, the complete works of Shakespeare or a tiny toothbrush, boxes of chocolates, pint pots, bottles of wine or a lawnmower. Everything is small and perfectly formed.

Best of all, you can decorate the entire house with a couple of feet of wallpaper, furnish it with the finest pieces and most expensive carpets, and know that no-one is going to trail muddy footprints all over it. Now that's got to be better than the real world...

When Bryan Thompson's adult sister bought a doll's house, he thought she was daft. "Then she fitted it out and furnished it and I could begin to see the appeal," he says.

At the time, Bryan was looking for a change. He worked in a travel agency, his wife Jan ran a BT shop but they both wanted their own business.

"My sister had bought her house from a kit and couldn't make it up, so I got a friend to make some houses and we started selling them at fairs." They lived in Kibblesworth, called the new business Kibblesworth Cottages and three-and-a-half years ago moved into Durham Market.

Their stall isn't much bigger than a doll's house itself, but contains a number of desirable properties. The Pembroke Grange, for instance at £199 is a seriously des res - especially, with free conservatory thrown in. Rolls of wallpapers , tiny sheets of wooden flooring perch on the shelves. And in the display cabinets, there is everything the house of your dreams could need, including some very nice Victorian style glass cranberry ware, made in Wallsend.

Suddenly, the idea of your very own Changing Rooms seems feasible.

"We get all sorts in here," says Bryan, "Doll's houses appeal to all ages, all classes, professional, labouring - men and women alike. "

Men usually like to build the houses, fiddle on with the electrics, while women do the decorating and furnishing, but many do both.

He deals mainly with items from the Doll's House Emporium. "Their catalogue is like a miniature Ikea." And has plans to expand the business, offer more houses.

In the meantime, nothing is wasted. "We have a house at home, and a shop. It's a junk shop, so anything that gets broken can go in there."

He once saw some dolls "with lascivious expressions" which gave him another idea.

"A pub on the ground floor - there's lots of things to kit out a pub - and then maybe some naughty ladies on the top floor," he grins.

Doll's houses are definitely not always for children.

l Kibblesworth Cotages, Durham Indoor Market. Tel: 0191 384 7887. www.kibblesworthcottges.co.uk .They also stock Tulip Bears, hand made in Durham, with no more than three made of each design.

NORMA Johnson says: "It's all about fantasy really, isn't it? Creating the house of your dreams."

She and husband Bernard had a gift shop in Beverley, selling a bit of doll's house furniture. When they moved to Helmsley for family reasons they opened Dolly Mix two years ago, devoted entirely to miniatures.

Norma specialises in finding the unusual and individual, often made by local craftsmen. "I love going round the fairs looking for things that are a bit different." This is where you'll find a tiny silver tea set for £200, splendid silk-lined riding hats, tiny sequinned evening bags. A little collection of straw baskets, or tiny boxes of chocolates. There are miniature gardening tools for miniature window boxes and even a tiny old-fashioned radio - plug it in and it works.

Looking through the many display cases, it's impossible not to aah and ooh and smile at the care and skill, and humour, that's gone into bringing our world down to size. Many of them are, by any standard, tiny works of art.

Norma, too, gets customers of all ages and backgrounds, including young lads, but the biggest buyers are "mature ladies". "I think they probably grew up in the war and didn't have many toys or treats and they're making up for it now," she says.

Some have as many as half a dozen houses to furnish. They could have an entire box of toys, the box about the same size as a matchbox, containing 20 perfect toys. There is even a doll's pram for £100.

Very few people, she says, furnish a house in modern style. Most go for Victorian or Georgian furnishings. "And some are very particular, everything must be just right for the time, though others mix things up a bit." Most of the mass-produced furniture is Victorian, but she has some individual pieces of Tudor style furniture - complete with tiny woodworm holes.

Doll's houses are growing in popularity in the north, but down south they're really booming. Many visitors make a point of calling in to the shop while they're here on holiday. "There's a lady from Wiltshire who comes in three times a year."

The perfect house with no rent, no rates, no mortgage to pay. Small is definitely beautiful.

l Dolly Mix, the Doll's House shop, Cleveland Way, Helmsley. Tel: 01439 771199. Open Wednesday to Sunday (incl). Closed Monday and Tuesday, except Bank Holidays.

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