The Vintage Dollhouse

I'm so sad this blog has sat still for so long.  I actually have a lot to share, but not a lot of time for documenting so I'll just do what I can, when I can.  I'm honestly not sure I can remember how to insert and re-size the pictures correctly but here goes.

This post is about a dollhouse I made over for my girl's Christmas present.  It's one of 2 dollhouses my dad made for my older sisters when they were little.  Of course, I didn't take a before picture, but just envision a dirty white old dollhouse, still charming but in need of love.

Most of the furniture was re-used from the old set.  A lot of it I painted and generally updated.  I used a "fat quarter" of darling Liberty of London printed fabric for the window treatments and bedding.  The prints are so cute and the scale was perfect.  I did buy a new kitchen set with appliances and a dinette set (do people still say that? dinette?)  Anyway...that purple chair/ottoman, side table and couch were handmade by my mom.  I never stop being impressed by her skills.  I spent a month updating this piece and my mom and dad spent a few weeks building/making/sewing everything pretty much from scratch (times two.)  Impressed.

The living room is my favorite.  Like I said, my mom made that couch, chair and ottoman.  I re-covered the couch in the liberty print and re-painted the fire place (which she also made, I think) with chalkboard paint.  The framed print is just a fabric scrap and I also made the matching drapes.  The rugs in the house are grasscloth cut to fit and trimmed in ribbon.  Yep, this family of orphans went custom.  The only "people" are 2 babies, one school-aged child and a teenager.  The mom and dad were headless.  Not a fun thing to see on Christmas morning so I left them out.

I wanted to paint a few of the back walls, besides the attic playroom which went pale coral pink, all the walls are currently white.  I planned to do the kitchen turquoise and the bathroom in the same bright coral pink from the front door and shutters.  The roof and chimneys were originally red but I re-painted them in the dark grey chalkboard paint.  I think I planned to draw on scalloped shingles but I forgot about that until just now while I was typing this.

Forgive some of the photography.  These rooms were super hard to shoot.  This room needs some paint on the wall,  but I love the color the little curtains and picture added.  The rug is made from Polly's old roman shades from her nursery.  This liberty fabric was my favorite from the group.

The navy curtains and bedding are original to the home, circa 1970 with a simple addition of some new liberty accents.  The bed is pretty messed-up, it has no legs.  I was going to try to use screws instead and paint them white but I ran out of time.  I should have painted the wardrobe a fun bright color but didn't work that out in the planning phase.  This is the second custom grasscloth rug.

This young lady is the oldest child in the house.  She's the responsible older sister.  She reads the paper and eats cake for breakfast.  How cute is that ruffled curtain?  I made that, and my mom made the chairs and upholstered them.

Ha, the scale is a bit off between the cradle and the twin beds.  The cradle is actually bigger than the beds.  Oh well.  The curtains in this room look a lot like Liberty but they are actually original.  I added the little orange ball-trim.  I always wanted an attic playroom as a kid.  Something about them just seemed magical to me, I don't know.  These kids got one and it's pretty cute, too.

Looking at these, I'm reminded of all the things I planned to do but didn't but I still think it turned out pretty cute.  I try hard not to over-parent when she plays with it.  I only cringe a little when she moves everything around, but I do always clean it up back to the way I like it when she's done.  Merry Christmas, Poll doll.  P.S. Happy March!