The Tudor house design is among the most popular. From real homes we live in to doll houses, the affection we feel for this traditional design never waivers.

The Tudor reflects the early English great houses that were made by joining together a frame of hewn timbers, then pounding sticks to jam in between the beams. Finally, two plasterers would stand, one inside and one outside the wall, and press plaster into the sticks until the plaster squeezed through the holes between the sticks and joined the plaster being pressed into the wall from the other side. More layers of plaster left a masonry wall held in place by jammed lath with the hewn beams showing inside and out. That's the Tudor look.

The diagonal beams are diagonal bracing of the frame. Half timbered Tudor houses, ones that step out half way up the wall (so that the second floor is bigger than the first floor) became necessary when the wood supply could not keep up with demand and trees large enough to get timbers that would reach all the way to the top of the wall got scarce. Half timbering allowed the frame to be made from smaller trees. Tudor houses traditionally had the steep pitch and shed dormers of thatched roofs but neo-Tudor houses of the 1890 - 1920's had multiple intersecting gables and peak roof dormers because better roofing materials didn't automatically mean a leak for every roof valley. Tudor windows were arranged in long rows, often with a row of stained glass transom windows right above. Eave trim often-used scroll cut verge board. Balconies or enclosed screened rooms within the framing of the house are common, although porches (which attach to the outside of the house) are less so. A terrace is a more likely ground floor extension of the living space.

Perhaps it's because the Tudor design is associated with Elizabethan or Shakesperian England. Solid and yet quaint at the same time, we feel comforted by it's strength while we delight in it's interesting angles, old fashioned windows and solid doorways.

Whatever the reason, our love of Tudor homes is here to stay. Take a look at our Tudor Doll Houses and get one of your own today.