Guest Designer Louize le Roux: Make Your Own Cape Dutch House

There is nothing that makes me happier than to share a pattern from a guest designer. At the beginning of this month Louize le Roux reached out to me with her design. Louize and her mother Anita live in South Africa, in the Western Cape. The Cape Dutch architecture is unique to her area and Louize designed and cut out a small Cape Dutch house, which her mother then built. The Cape Dutch style was developed in the 17th century during the early years of the Dutch Cape Colony, and is named after the Dutch settlers who influenced the architectural style. Traditionally, Cape Dutch architecture in characterized by several defining elements including whitewashed wall, thatched roofs, external wooden shutters, and central gables reminiscent of Dutch canal houses (more on this later.)

Most people hesitate to share their designs as they either sketch them out by hand or make them in Design Space, and worry that I will have trouble converting them into SVGs in Inkscape. In both cases I can take a picture of the design and import it into Inkscape, then use it to get the rough lines of the design. I then work to get each piece to fit together precisely and make several drafts of the the building until all the pieces fit and I determine the easiest way for the house to be built. Louize cut her original building out of thinner cardstock, so her mother had to glue together multiple layers to make the walls thick enough. I made my model out of my usual Kraft Board (120lb, 325gsm cover cardstock) so I did not feel that I needed to glue together as many layers.

Cape Dutch model as designed by Louize and made by Anita

I made just a few adjustments to the house. Louize and Anita used corrugated cardboard to imitate the look of a thatched roof. I made sure the under-roof was tight to all sides so as to not to let any light leak out under the corrugated cardboard. I also remade the stairs on the left side so that you can follow my Youtube video on how to make stairs, as I know they can be a very difficult element for people.

I asked Louize to write a little something about herself and her pattern:

I’m a 50 year old lady working as a Radiographer (x-ray technician). My brother bought my mom a Cricut for Christmas…. I was hooked.

I was first introduced to the magic of Miniature Paper houses via Jackie’s webpage ‘A Cottage in the Forest’. Now I’m the Cricut operator and designer and my mom is the Builder. My mom built almost all of Jackie’s designs and that forced me to try and design my own house.

I live in the Western Cape, South Africa and I love the traditional Cape Dutch architecture. This first design I kept to the basic features of a Cape Dutch house. For the next project I will try to design one of the more intricate Cape Dutch Manor houses that is found on the Wine Farms all over the Western cape.

Cape Dutch architecture is an architectural style found mostly in the Western Cape of South Africa, typically on wine estates. The style was prominent in the early days (17th century) of the Cape Colony, and the name derives from the initial settlers of the Cape being primarily Dutch.

The Cape Dutch architectural style is defined by the following characteristics:

Whitewashed walls
Thatched roofing
Large wooden sash cottage panes
External wooden shutters
Long horizontal structures, usually single or double story, often with dormer windows
Central gables, reminiscent of a Dutch canal house is a common, but not universal feature

More information on Cape Dutch architecture can be found at this link: https://approachguides.com/blog/cape-dutch-architecture-south-africa/

Louize

This Is How You Make the Cape Dutch House

Size of the finished building as designed will be approximately 6 1/8″ W x 4 1/2″ D x 4 5/8″ H. These measurements do not include the size of the base. I consider this an easy pattern if you make it without the stairs, and an intermediate pattern if you make it with the stairs.

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The Cape Dutch House Pattern Specific Materials

The free pattern for the Cape Dutch House from the A Cottage in the Forest Library. Design #92. Get the password for free by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
Ranger Texture Paste. I used this to get the limewashed white lime plaster walls. I thinned it with a little water and brushed it on. If you prefer, you can just paint the walls.
Corrugated cardboard sheet. I link to a roll of this on Amazon, but I was able to find a single sheet at my local craft store. Use the pattern pieces you cut with your Cricut to then cut the corrugated cardboard by hand.

Favorite Materials Supply List

Cardstock, Cardboard (Kraft Board or alternative), 30 point Chipboard, or Aluminum Can – your choice! Cricut is no longer selling Kraftboard, so I now link to the 120 lb. cover cardstock by Accent Opaque that I use.
Translucent Vellum or pictures to go in the windows.
Glue – If using cardstock, I suggest Bearly Art Glue or Art Glitter Glue. For aluminum cans, I use Aleene’s The Ultimate Glue. For cardboard or chipboard houses, I like Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. I put it in a bottle with a thin metal tip.
If using chipboard or kraft colored cardboard, start with a base of either Liquitex white gesso or black gesso as primer.
Decorative papers (optional – for cardboard.)
Multi-surface satin finish acrylic paints or Ranger Distress Inks or Distress Crayons (for cardboard or cardstock.) Both the FolkArt and the Craftsmart paint brands work equally well. If you use distress inks, make sure they dry thoroughly before handling the pieces or you will have stained fingers. I speak from experience.
Glitter Gel Pens. I love these for coloring in small details. The company also carries another set with metallic, neon and fluorescent gel pens.
Tim Holtz Texture Paste or Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste to make brick or stone chimneys, walls or sidewalks. I actually prefer grit paste as it makes my stonework look rougher or more craggy than texture paste.
Stencils to use with the texture or grit paste to make stone or brickwork. Be careful to buy or make stencils that fit the scale of your building. For brickwork I often use the Honey Bee Salvaged Bricks stencil or the Stretcher Bricks stencil I cut myself. For stonework I usually use either the Chimney Stone stencil I made myself, or the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Set #28 Stencils.
Bone folder (optional, but strongly suggested) A bone folder helps you make sharp folds when you are using cardstock or cardboard. I have found it even helps with aluminum cans. I now use my bone folder to deepen score lines all the time.
A Cutting Machine like a Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore
A hand-held craft blade like an X-Acto knife or Cricut TrueControl Knife. I also have a hand-held knife called the Excel Knife. It is nice in that it uses the cheaper craft blades, but the blade doesn’t work its way loose like the blade in my X-Acto knife often does. You will also need a cutting mat or a glass media mat to cut on.
Metal Edged Ruler with cork backing
An Embossing Machine and folders.

Steps to Make the Cape Dutch House

Download the Cape Dutch House pattern from A Cottage in the Forest library
Import the Cape Dutch House pattern into your design software
Cut out the pattern – I use my Cricut Maker. Texture if desired.
Fold the body of the house. Glue on the gable details.
Glue together the body of the house. “Limewash” with texture paste.
Glue on the window frames and doors. Attach vellum windows.
Glue on roofs
Add the bottom insert.
Add the stairs.
Make base and decorate as desired.

How To Make the Cape Dutch House

Download the Cape Dutch House Pattern

Download the Cape Dutch House pattern from A Cottage in the Forest Library. It is design #92. Don’t forget to unzip it. The pattern is available in multiple formats – as a SVG (scalable vector graphics), DXF (drawing eXchange format), as a studio3 file for Silhouette, or as PDF file. I now include a 1″ square in with all of my SVG, DXF and Studio3 files. Scale the pattern so that the square is 1″ to make the building in the size it was designed. Of course the wonderful thing about SVG files is that you can easily scale them to make your building whatever size you would like.

Choose between whether you want a regular back with the light holes at the bottom of the building (this is the option I make below) or if you want to use the Putz Back, where the light hole is in the back of the building.

Import the Cape Dutch House Pattern Into Design Software

As of this blog post, a Cricut Design Space update in 2021 broke the attached score lines. You will need to go through the pattern in Design Space and change the score lines to Score and then attach them to their object. I am still designing so that if someday Design Space fixes their problem score lines and drawings import as actual score lines and drawings attached to their object, though I have pretty much lost hope of that ever happening.

Here is a great tutorial from Jennifer Maker’s website on attaching score lines. I have started making all of my score lines red so that you can tell that they are intended to be are score lines.

Cut out all of your cardstock, Kraft Board or aluminum can pieces using the pattern. I cut the stair treads and sides out of 100 lb. cover cardstock so they would be easier to fold. I used the grey roof pieces cut out by my machine as guides to cut my corrugated cardboard by hand. I cut the rest of the pieces out of 120 lb. cover cardstock (this is the equivalent to Kraft Board.) If you want to make an easier version of the Cape Dutch House, skip the stairs and cut out two of the right sides and windows.

Refer to the PDF I included with the SVG pattern for the name of each of the pieces you need to cut out. You can texture your pieces using your embossing machine and texture folders if desired. I used Ranger Texture Paste to imitate the limewashed white lime plaster walls.

Fold the Body of the Building. Glue on the Gable Details.

Fold the body pieces towards the back or inside (mountain folds.)

Turn over the front and sides and glue on the extra upper wall pieces to the inside of the front and sides.

Glue the gable details onto the front.

Glue Together the Body of the House. “Limewash” with Texture Paste.

Glue the body together.

Now you want to use the texture paste to “limewash” your walls. The roofs will not cover all of the inside of your gables, so apply texture paste to the inside of the gables also. Paint your walls a soft white.

Glue on the Window Frames and Doors. Attach Vellum Windows.

Glue on the window frames and doors, except the door at the top of the stairs. Add the shutters.

Glue the vellum in place if you are using it.

Glue on the Roofs

Fold the under roof on the score lines. Glue the under roof to the front of the house. The under roof is designed to fit tightly into the building.

Now glue the under roof to the back.

Then run your glue onto the tabs and ridge of the under roof and glue to the sides, making sure you center on the side gables.

Glue on the corrugated cardboard roofs. If you want a more realistic looking thatch, see Rhonda Ashby Coulter’s Thatching Tutorial.

Glue on the gable roof, centering it behind the gables. One of the problems with using the corrugated cardboard that you can see in the picture below is this that the gable roof will not seal completely to the thatch corrugated cardboard beneath it. I used a little texture paste to fill the gaps, then painted it the same color as the corrugated cardboard roofs.

Add the Bottom Insert

Check the fit of the bottom insert piece, adjusting any of the fold lines as necessary. You may need to trim the corners. Glue in the bottom insert piece now as it will help to help to stiffen and square the walls of the building.

Add the Stairs

Glue the stairs together. You can find a video of how I glue my stairs together at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W20xqhqy1BM.

Glue on the stair back.

Glue on the stairway sides. I added a little wall to the right side of the stairway based a picture of a Cape Dutch House I found in Pinterest. I then limewashed the stairway walls, and painted the stairs a soft white.

Glue the stairs onto the building, then the door at the top of the stairs.

Make Base and Decorate as Desired.

Enjoy making the Cape Dutch House yourself! I would love to see your finished design. Please share a photo of it with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com