welcome to the dollhouse
So, I bought a dollhouse. A huge, monstrous, gargantuan dollhouse. As you can see, that is my fully grown cat sitting on the porch. My mom found this treasure hiding in the back of a thrift store, and eyed it for a week until it went on sale. I got this thing for $65! It’s made of solid, unfinished wood, with the creator’s pencil markings still showing, and the back side of the house has just as many doors as the front. It’s so big the kids can slide on their stomachs through the front door, across the living room, and out the back without getting stuck.
I am so excited to paint and decorate and furnish it! But I need help, guys. How does one actually go about painting and decorating and furnishing an enormous dollhouse? The only step I have taken so far is to buy a roll of contact paper with a wood print, which I plan to stick on all the floors to make them look like hardwood. I thought maybe I could buy a pretty linoleum tile sample for the kitchen floor, maybe a couple of those self-stick carpet squares for the bedrooms? I’m not sure. Has anyone done this before? Where do I start?
Cool dollhouse! Love the cat too!
Mary
Comment by owlhaven — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 3:42 pm
What an incredible find! I can see it becoming a family heirloom that your daughter will look back on when she’s an adult and have warm memories attached to it.
I’ve never furnished one myself but have always longed to! Good luck!
Comment by JenZ — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 4:35 pm
That is so freakin’ cool.
The closest thing I’ve ever done to decorating a dollhouse is making diorama’s when I was a kid, so I probably won’t be much help. You’ve got great ideas already, though! Do you have any wallpaper remnants at your house? You could wallpaper some rooms, and if you don’t have any at home you could see if your local paper store has scraps. I’ll bet if you mooched around at antique stores or flea markets you could find cute little furniture. You could cut pictures out of magazines and then cut little strips from the wood contact paper you’ve got to make picture frames, for pictures to hang on the walls…you could cut little patches of carpet out for rugs or welcome mats…craft stores might have small, plain wooden doll furniture that you could paint to match your colour scheme. I’ll bet you could even make like, bedspreads and throw pillows for a couch out of old fabric.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Sorry. LOL. Have fun!
Comment by mamatulip — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Wow. You could almost camp out in that sucker.
Comment by Nancy — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Just had a thought - maybe scrapbook paper for wallpaper on the walls? There’s lots and lots and lots and lots of scrapbook paper out there - in some great patterns and designs!
Comment by JenZ — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I don’t know if they still have these, but for awhile the American Girl magazine had little rooms with funky little furniture, shaggy carpet, art, and everything in miniature sizes. Very cool. Also, sometime back they had an issue of Family Fun magazine that showed how to make mini-sized furniture out of things around the house. There are also hobby stores dedicated to doll houses if you want to spend some bucks. Michael’s might even have a section of stuff.
Have fun decorating!
Comment by amy a. — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 4:59 pm
oo! can i help? i know, i’m a big nerd, fine, but i really like dollhouses.
Comment by Steven — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Wow! That dollhouse is beautiful. I don’t have sugestions, but that will be so fun to decorate!
Comment by Sunny — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 6:58 pm
I want to see it!! I dont know what to do but I want to play with it when ure done!
Comment by Jenn — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 8:12 pm
my thought is to take the doors off the hinges maybe to paint and stuff, if you can try one first to make sure you can put it back together.
how exciting! I hope you post progress pictures.
Comment by Tess — July 7, 2006 @ July 7, 2006 at 9:22 pm
So. Stinkin’. Cool. Now I’m going to have to get a doll house. Thanks.
Comment by Alicia — July 8, 2006 @ July 8, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Check out Michaels for furniture and cute interior stuff. Really fun things like miniature bubble gum machines etc. My daughter is going to pee herself with jealousy.
Comment by misha — July 8, 2006 @ July 8, 2006 at 4:53 pm
That is so cool, Karli!! Love it! I have no advice on decorating the thing though. I stink at that!
Comment by emlouisa — July 8, 2006 @ July 8, 2006 at 8:57 pm
I’m waiting for pictures of a little white bird.
Comment by misha — July 9, 2006 @ July 9, 2006 at 9:14 am
Just google it, baby! I’m sure you’ll have all the expert advice you’ll need if you do some poking around on the web. Who doesn’t loooove doll houses? I LOVED mine when I was a kid. Great score!
Comment by Redheadmomma — July 9, 2006 @ July 9, 2006 at 11:20 pm
SO. COOL. I’m totally jealous. Not that I’d have anywhere to put something that size, but what an amazing find. And your cat looks just like my last cat - what a sweetie!
I’m no help on the decorating, though. I haven’t figured out how to do that for my full-size house yet.
Comment by Staci — July 10, 2006 @ July 10, 2006 at 10:53 am
So dang cool. I would love to do something like that. Have fun, lady!
Comment by Heather from One Woman\\\\\\\'s World — July 10, 2006 @ July 10, 2006 at 4:22 pm
I would love to help, but I don’t know much about the subject. I do, however, love the house. Have fun with it. Hope you post pictures when you’re done.
Comment by Caryn — July 10, 2006 @ July 10, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Oh yeah, that’s going to be fun.
Comment by fMhLisa — July 10, 2006 @ July 10, 2006 at 10:19 pm
http://www.miniatures.com/hbs/global/index2.asp
You will find everything you need here.
Comment by Natalie — July 11, 2006 @ July 11, 2006 at 8:32 am
Just a suggestion: Forget the carpet samples. Use upholstery samples for the carpet in the doll house. It works beautifully, and is better proportioned/size ratio? than the deep pile on a carpet sample. Beyond that, I’m not much help. Have fun!
Comment by Mom2Five — July 11, 2006 @ July 11, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Michael’s has a lot of stuff for minatures - you can look on line too - oooo - you are going to have such fun with it!
Comment by Grandi — July 12, 2006 @ July 12, 2006 at 9:47 am
How do we know that’s not just a really, really small cat?
Comment by Chris — July 13, 2006 @ July 13, 2006 at 5:02 pm