Tim Hartnall was browsing in Covent Garden with his daughters when he was stopped in his tracks.
“There was a dolls’-house shop,” he says. “And I just ogled these things.
“I thought I’d quite like to make one and see if I could sell it.
“So I did, a huge thing; I took it to a show and, blow me, I sold it on the first day.”
Two more followed, but work and parenting got in the way, as well as the restoration of his first car, the Series One Land-Rover he has owned since 1980.
But in ’08 he decided to make dolls’ houses for a living, creating them in the garage alongside the much-loved off-roader.
After exhibiting at a show in London, Tim and wife Angela found themselves approached by the “filthy wealthy” asking for models of their own homes.