Hold onto your miniature hats, it’s time for the fun part of painting and personalizing the dollhouse!
Our last post was full of the building process, which you can see by (clicking here) – so let’s move on to how we finished everything off.
After it was all assembled, it was time to schlep our 31″ x 31″ creation up into the sunroom for some priming and painting. Just like our office cabinets, kitchen cabinets, and the play kitchen we made for Clara, I used a coat of Zinsser Smart Prime (it’s no-VOC but amazingly good for blocking bleed through when you’re painting raw or stained wood) followed by two coats of Bejamin Moore’s low-VOC Advance paint (really durable and awesomely self-leveling). I went with Decorators White since we had it leftover from painting the office cabinets and the play kitchen, so this step didn’t cost us anything. Here’s our little house when it was primed but not yet painted:
And here’s my first coat of paint going on (I used a brush for some of the hard to roll places and a small foam roller for the more expansive roll-able places – like the sides, roof, and back).
Then I gave it about 30 hours to cure up before it was…
… wallpaper time!
I actually used the following things that I already had in the house (I just ransacked my craft bin/gift wrap closet) to wallpaper the dollhouse:
- Top left: Gift wrap sheets picked up from a local place called Mongrel a few months back
- Top right: Decorative paper from Michael’s leftover from some other project
- Middle left: A roll of leftover decorative tape from Michael’s (I just taped four strips of it to a piece of card stock)
- Middle middle: More gift wrap from Mongrel (this one’s actually from a few years back)
- Middle right: More decorative paper from Michael’s
- Bottom left: Even more decorative paper from Michael’s (I have a nice pile of leftover paper under the bed)
- Bottom right: More gift wrap from Mongrel
As for how I did it, I cut templates for the back wall of each room using regular old printer paper (taping a few sheets together if it was bigger than one sheet and trimming things until it was a nice snug fit). Then I just used that paper template to cut out the right sized piece of gift wrap or decorative paper. I used double sided tape to affix them to the back wall of the dollhouse, and then brushed a thin coat of matte Mod Podge over each of them – just to give them some protection from being scratched or ripped (except for the room with the decorative tape, which was already shiny).
As for furniture, I bought a big “mixed lot” of old dollhouse furniture (most of it from the 50s/60s) from eBay for $30 including shipping. Oh and for those wondering about scale, it’s 1/2″ scale. This is what it looked like after it came and I soaked everything in hot soapy water to remove years of grime.
But since those colors weren’t exactly what we were going for, I turned to my good friend spray paint. We knew spray primer and spray paint was the best way to permanently update the furniture (no-VOC paint would most likely scratch off within one or two play-sessions – and we really want this to be a durable and long-lasting gift) but we didn’t want the dollhouse to smell all fumey like spray paint, so I actually ordered this furniture in February and sprayed it all in March so it could be left in the sealed off sunroom (and brought outside on sunny days) to off-gas for a nice long time. Thankfully there’s nothing stinky about it after all that curing time, and it actually looks pretty convincingly done – as if that’s the color the manufacturer sprayed on it a few decades back. Speaking of color, some of them got leftover dark brown spray paint (with built-in primer by Rustoleum) for the whole “wood look.”
But most of them got white primer + paint as a base (Rustoleum Universal in Satin White) …
And then some of them got a shot of bright color on top of that primer + paint base, just for fun (thanks to leftover cans of random colors). Who doesn’t love a yellow washer or fridge? They’re Sun Yellow by Rustoleum, and the turquoise dresser in the background is Lagoon by Rustoleum.
They sat around in the sunroom after their March paint job so long that they actually got dusty by May. Haha. So here they are after a little rinse-down in the sink.
I couldn’t wait to finally get things into the house…
I didn’t put much thought into what went where since I figure Clara will be moving things around, and we’ll probably add some more items (like some much-needed wall art – maybe by laminating photos that we’ll print).
Oh yes, but what about dollhouse people? We couldn’t find many that we liked (they either had ceramic faces that we worried Clara would shatter or were a bit too big for the scale of our furniture, or were just kind of scary looking) – although I later learned about these, which are pretty darn cute… so we went with Olivia’s family.
Clara loves Olivia, and when I saw a family set at Toys R Us that looked perfectly scaled for our house, we scooped them up. They’re bendy plastic so they seem pretty indestructible and Clara has so much fun putting them in different rooms (ex: “Olivia’s daddy is taking a nap” and “Olivia’s mommy is in the crib – so silly”).
Although everything changes each time Clara rearranges things, the room above is sort of a nursery with a crib, a vanity with a happy yellow chair (and tin foil that I added to make the mirror look more like a mirror), a baby piano (Clara loves playing one at Grammy and Tom Tom’s house) and a dresser. There’s even a little airplane “toy” for the nursery, that I found at Michael’s (it’s really a charm for a necklace, but the scale is right so I went with it). But more on how we’re keeping the super tiny things in the dollhouse Clara-safe in a second.
Speaking of scale, as John mentioned yesterday, we opted for an 8″ room height on the first two floors and a sloped attic that’d go from 6″ to about 10.” This was all a bit big for the scale of our eBay furniture, but we wanted to err on the side of giving Clara plenty of room to move around rather than being sticklers for scale – and who doesn’t love a room with extra high ceilings anyway?
The room below is sort of a playroom/ extra bedroom without a bed (remember this whole thing is still evolving, haha) so it’s mostly filled with random furniture, a fabric rug that came with the dollhouse lot, a small frame that I found at a thrift store for a nickel with the glass removed and a piece of tinfoil in there to make it resemble a leaning mirror, and a small potted topiary that I found at Michael’s from the wedding aisle (it’s actually a place card holder).
Oh and see those “ceramic animals” on top of the blue dresser above? They’re just plastic beads I found at Michael’s. I thought it was cute to add some animal friends to Clara’s dollhouse, and although Clara’s past the putting-things-in-her-mouth stage, a few smaller accessories like these and the previously mentioned toy airplane get put away in a box that only comes out when we’re playing together (so if she’s playing alone they’re not in there for her – just in case she gets any crazy ideas…).
The laundry room might be my favorite room. The metallic tape I used for the wallpaper doesn’t photograph as great as it looks in real life, but in person it’s kind of swanky and geometric. I loved spraying the utility sink and the washer bright yellow and adding that cute pink basket on the floor. And see that black thing hanging on the wall? It’s a thrift store find for 10 cents (it was some sort of plastic frame ornament or something) but I used leftover chalk board paint to make it into a hanging chalkboard by just painting the plastic disk inside the frame and hanging it up.
I love that we can change the message whenever Clara asks me to write something new (it actually says “Moooo!” right now at her request).
The next room is the bedroom, complete with a paper rug (I thought laminating it would make it last longer, but Clara has yet to pick it up and crush it so we’ll have to see if I get around to it). I’d also love to make fabric rugs from old scraps from her monthly pics someday, so I’ll keep you posted.
Oh and see the tiny metal camera on the dresser and the small flower pot on the other dresser above? Those are little doodads I found for a few bucks at Michael’s (the camera is a charm for a necklace actually – it’s another one of those things I tuck away when Clara is playing by herself since it’s so small). They also sell tiny flowerpots and fake flowers so I made that little potted plant and painted the terra cotta pot with the same pink nail polish that I used to make chevron pillows and a matching pink duvet skirt on the bed.
Here’s the bathroom with a mint green sink, and the other one of those plastic thrift store frame ornaments. Instead of making this one another chalkboard, I just put some tin foil behind the plastic pane and made it into a mirror for over the sink.
Oh and Clara was sad the potty didn’t open at first, but then was very excited when I taught her we could flush it by making a swissssssshhhhhhh noise with our mouth. Now Olivia and her family hang out in the bathroom a lot.
The living room is in dire need of some art on that blank wall, but it does have a funny little retro record player/TV cabinet (the white thing) with a “ceramic” rhino on top of it, so that tickles me.
My favorite guy in there is the tiny Burger I found on eBay. You bet I paid $3 plus $3 shipping to have him represented in the house. Haha. Clara was pretty psyched to see him. She calls him “Baby Burger.” It’s very sweet.
Next to the living room is the kitchen, with an oven/stove and a sink (complete with tiny dishes in it, which also go away when Clara plays alone because they’re pretty small) and a happy yellow refrigerator. I also made the table with the top of a little wooden box I had lying around and used a small paper gift box as the base. Another homemade flowerpot + faux flower combo went on top along with chairs from the eBay lot of furniture. Oh and that’s another paper rug I just quickly made and might get laminated for protection (or it’ll get replaced with a fabric one I’ll make down the line).
After loading in all the furniture, it was time to top it with a bow…
… and carry it out of hiding and into the living room for Clara to discover after her nap.
She ran right in as if it had always been there and picked stuff up and got right down to the business of playing.
It was so cute to watch her little brain work out that things were too small for herself, but perfectly sized for Olivia and her family. The little family of pigs was definitely her favorite part at first and slowly she picked up on things like baskets and chairs and the crib, bed, and toilet- which became fun to work into Olivia and her family’s routine.
We love that nothing is too precious to worry about because we really wanted it to be something she could go to town on without fearing that delicate things could be broken.
Thankfully since the furnishings are all plastic or metal, they should hold up to Hurricane Clara. Oh yes, and the fact that Olivia is holding a kitty = Clara’s favorite part (other than discovering Baby Burger). The girl loves her animals!
So it’s safe to say that she likes it. Whew. The next morning it was the first thing she talked about as we got her our of her crib. And we might like it a little more than adults should too (not that we played with it after she went to bed, ok maybe we did just a little).
As for the budget breakdown, here ya go:
- Wood: $35 (we did get to reuse a scrap piece we had for the back to keep costs down)
- Nails and wood glue: $0, already owned (but they might run you $5 if you don’t have them)
- Primer & paint: $0, leftover from painting other things like cabinets & the play kitchen ($70 would get you a gallon of each that would probably last for a ton of furniture painting projects like ours have – even big ones like cabinet painting)
- Dollhouse furniture: $30 (including shipping) bought as one “lot” on eBay
- Michael’s doodads: $5 (small flower pots, faux flowers, beads, camera and airplane charm, etc)
- Baby Burger: $6 (including shipping) on eBay
- Olivia’s family: $10, Toys R Us
- TOTAL: $86
Thanks to having lots of those odds and ends on hand (primer & paint, decorative paper and gift wrap, Mod Podge, and even a piece of scrap wood for the back of the dollhouse) we were able to come in almost $15 under our $100 goal. Actually $86 is lower than all of the used wood dollhouses that we found on Craigslist. Which I think means that momma should get $15 to spend on future upgrades and furnishings, right? Haha. Can’t wait to see how this thing evolves as Clara grows!
Have you guys used things like gift wrap and decorative tape as wallpaper? Any other plastic-beads-turned-ceramic-animals out there? We heard so many awesome ideas in yesterday’s post, from carpet samples or even wood/tile on the floor to using tongue depressors to make shingles. Love it all.
Psst- Check out Part 1 of this project here.
Kristen @ My Covered Bridge says
This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! I love the retro furniture. Clara will love this for a long time!
Amy @ this DIY life says
The building part was great (good job John) but the decorating…oh the decorating :) It’s got me wondering where all my doll furniture is. I had a lot of the same things you got for Clara. Time for my mama to get the third degree.
Christine says
As usual, you two are just all kinds of awesome. I love how bright and colorful and modern the house looks, and especially that Olivia’s family lives there! I want to make one for my daughter when she turns 2 now. Except I’ll probably need to have Winnie the Pooh and friends live there.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, so cute!
xo,
s
Kristen says
how cute is this?! i’m due to have my first baby in just a couple of weeks and am bookmarking this!
meg shannon says
I have been looking for used wooden doll furniture…this post makes me rethink that. Plastic does seem to make more sense.
Love the doll house and the “wallpaper” is perfect! Where are you keeping it? We will be making one soon (baby girl is 2 in July) and we cant decide if it should be a bedroom or livingroom toy.
YoungHouseLove says
Ours is in the living room since Clara’s play kitchen moved back into her bedroom a few months ago. It’s nice to have some play zones in common spaces and in her room too, ya know? Change of scenery does her good sometimes, haha.
xo,
s
Nicole says
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for this post!
I currently have my Grandpa building my little one a replica of the Pottery Barn Kids doll house and I love the additional help/ideas, especially the different paper backgrounds! I just love your blog, and cute little Clara :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw you’re welcome Nicole! Good luck!
xo,
s
Marcy Livingston says
This is so cute! I need to have a child immediately so I can make this house for them! I love how Clara’s toys are modern and timeless, rather than primary-colored-plastic-fisher-price toys…. they compliment the your house well, without being an eyesore.
ps. Cant wait to hear when we can pre-order the book! I will be first in line =)
Kathy says
The sweetest gift ever.
I love all the details like the little Burger.
You two are so talented.
Abby says
This is so cute! You guys did an awesome job!
An idea for art/wall treatments could be windows! You could make (or buy?) window-shaped frames and then stick a photo of a landscape or outdoor-looking paper in the back of it to give each room a view to the great outdoors. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, I love that idea!!
xo,
s
Kelly says
Your first commenter mentioned the doll house furniture at Michael’s. She’s right, I’ve seen it! It’s really cute, but it may be good to wait until Clara’s older because a lot of what I’ve seen there is unfinished wood (which will be fun for you to paint and finish!), but therefore also more delicate. Seven-year-old Clara would probably love it, though. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Such a fun idea!
xo,
s
GreenInOC says
So adorable!
You may have already to this suggestion but samples for cell shade blinds would be great window treatments.
I had a bunch from Blinds.com and just a month ago I finally threw them out after 2 years – I kept saving them in case anyone I knew was building a dollhouse because they would have been perfect!
YoungHouseLove says
So cool!
xo,
s
Jessica G. says
LOVE. THIS. POST. It brought back so many memories of my own dollhouse! My grandpa built it for me, and it was pretty sweet. My dolls were the Sylvanian Family (anyone remember those?), little bunnies I think. My mom cut up carpet samples for throw rugs, and made tiny pillows and blankets out of fabric scraps — you could use bits of Clara’s monthly backdrops! My house had a front and a back, so I used little terra cotta pots as planters around the front door. I’d “plant” them seasonally with twigs and leaves from outside. Oh and at Christmas the house got lights and plenty of ornaments and decorations! Clara (and, let’s be honest, you two) are going to have SO MUCH FUN!
YoungHouseLove says
Love it all! Haha.
xo,
s
Lauren Bee says
I can’t believe that Clara has her own miniature ceramic animals!!! Wow–so great! I just laughed and laughed when I saw the rhino in her house!
Eunice says
You’ve inspired me!! We inherited a HUGE wooden Barbie dollhouse that is covered in neon Barbie logos! I can’t wait to paint and do a makeover for my 3 year old!
Lindsey @ arkadian belle woods says
This dollhouse is so amazing! I love all of the color! So cute!
Emily Pilon says
I don’t even have kids yet and I want to build this. Most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I have forwarded to all my friends with daughters haha.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks Emily!
xo,
s
Julie R. says
Alright, I’m just going to ask, will you all adopt me!? Sooo awesome! Brlliant to use the Olivia fam, so much more fun, and of course they would totally rock a cool pad like that. You might need to add some art classics to the wall, like in the books. I’m inspired for my own ‘C”s big two in Aug, although I’m thinking Caribbean cottage to go with our island life.
YoungHouseLove says
Come on over, Julie. We’re happy to adopt you! Haha. And a Caribbean cottage sounds awesome!
xo,
s
Selena says
Oh, this is absolutely precious!!! Love it with all my heart. Sherry, you did such a wonderful job furnishing the dollhouse! I can tell you, this will be a favorite of Clara’s and her friends for a long, long time :)
Kari says
Fave paintbrushes EVER!!! I live in South Africa but everytime I visit home (Canada) I bring some back, they are great!
Jennifer says
Obsessed! I am pregnant with my first baby- a little girl- and I cannot wait to make her a dollhouse like this. I always wanted one as a child and never got one, so this will be something I enjoy as well. Thank you for such detailed info on the process of the build. It is just too precious.
Kari says
oh and the dollhouse is Perfect!!
Rosie says
My sisters and I were always into dolls, but when I was about 12, I got really into making doll house stuff. I modeled mine on the Halfpenny dolls that Hearthsong used to sell (maybe they still do?) – made my own dolls out of pipecleaners, felt for the clothes, embroidery floss, and big wooden beads for the heads. I made a whole village of houses out of cardboard boxes, clomplete with a bakery (I used a flour and water dough and baked the tiny breads and pies compleatly dry, then coated them with glue (would use modpodge now), a fabric store (scraps of fabric wrapped on peices of cardboard for the bolts of cloth, embroidery floss balls of “yarn”), and a library (construction paper flued onto squares of cardboard for the books). I spent hours and hours making all the peices, which my younger sisters loved playing with. So if Clara gets into it, this thing could entertain her (and you!) until she’s a teenager!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds like so much fun!
xo,
s
Adeline says
What an amazing dollhouse! You did a great job!
My parents built me furniture for my barbie when I was a little girl and I loved it. Plus, it was so much nicer than the actual pink plastic house that you could find in store.
I bet Clara will have a lot of fun with her personalized dollhouse for many years to come…
Amanda Hevener says
This is SO COOL! It reminds me of the dollhouse that my dad started building for me when I was a kid. It never got done, and is still sitting in his basement under a tarp. And I’m 33 now…
Michelle N says
Awww I love it! So adorable you guys did a great job. Clara will probably remember it for forever. My uncle made me a doll crib with rockers when I was little for my Cabbage Patch doll. I still have it and it still in great shape after 25 years!
We love Olivia at our house! Does Clara watch Peppa Pig? My son loves all things pig! haha
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, we’ll have to check out Peppa Pig!
xo,
s
jess hogue says
I made my own dollhouse and used things like yarn elmers-glued in a spiral pattern to a piece of stock paper for rugs & toothpaste caps for vases. You will start looking at your trash and odd bits around the house in a whole new light… All of sudden, broken jewelry findings and beads become a chandelier, broken up sticks from the yard become logs for the fireplace, game pieces become home decor, a single-serving creamer cup becomes an oversized lampshade. The possibilities are endless. Have fun with it!
YoungHouseLove says
I love that! You’re so creative!
xo,
s
Sara says
Just have to say.. the fact that mommy pig has a baby pig in her arms has piqued my curiosity
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- nope I’m not prego! We’re not even trying yet. Not quite ready. Haha. How has it been two years already? Still feel like I just had Clara!
xo,
s
jenn aka the picky girl says
My grandfather and grandmother made my sister and I each dollhouses the Christmas we turned 5. He died several years ago, but before he did, he made a third in case my aunt ever had a daughter. She adopted Ella from China 4 years ago, and this Christmas, she’ll get the dollhouse.
It’s such a special thing. Mine is actually on a turntable, and the front is decorated with windows and a balcony. I’ve actually planned on painting it to match my house (that I painted last year), so it would fit in with my decor, and I could display it. An aunt also painted a miniature, and it’s glued to the wall.
Love the house, and I hope Clara gets many years of enjoyment from it.
YoungHouseLove says
Yours sounds awesome! I love that it turns.
xo,
s
Caroline says
What a precious doll house! She must absolutely love it! Good work, mom and dad!
Erika Rocio says
This is all very awesome. You guys are amazing! For future paper acquisitions you should check out Paper Source. http://www.paper-source.com/ I always walk out of there with quirky/beautiful paper (it’s sooo dangerous tho!)
Anywho, keep up the good work! <3 you kids.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, that sounds dangerous!
xo,
s
Page says
LOVE this. So what if I want a doll house for myself now? Or maybe I’m brainstorming a GI Joe version for my son. Whatever.
Katrina says
ahh so sweet!! this being back so many memories of my doll house I when I was little love that thing!! Is it strange I stop and stare at the cute doll house stuff from Hobby Lobby! lol :)
Crystal says
My husband made a folding Barbie house for the girls I babysat to play with and we used scrapbook paper for the walls and we bought one of those cheap sticky tiles that looked like wood, cut it into little strips and then applied it to the floor for a wood floor look. We cut up a stone looking tile into tiny tiles for the bathroom too. I also made a bunch of play food out of Sculpty clay. You can also make little picture frames from Sculpty and put little pictures in them for the walls. My little girl is only a few months old but I look forward to making a similar doll house for her in a few years! (Maybe sooner – my three year old son would probably love it just as much! haha)
YoungHouseLove says
So many fun ideas!
xo,
s
Robin @ our semi organic life says
What an adorable thing!
Lindaroo says
To make fabric rugs, there’s a product at the craft store called Stiffy that you brush onto fabric to make it, yes, stiffer. I bet you could do the same thing with the Mod Podge you already have.
YoungHouseLove says
So cool!!
xo,
s
sarah says
i just love this- great job! it reminds me of my childhood dollhouse that my uncle made for me. i spent so much time playing with that thing. i got such a kick out of all the mini furniture- i remember it had a mini coat rack in the “foyer” that i would hang the doll’s clothes on. i think my my mother handed it down to some younger cousins years later. i’ll need to track it down and see how it has held up! I know Clara will treasure this gift forever.
Gretchen says
You mentioned you might hang some laminated photos as dollhouse artwork – do you own a laminator? I’m thinking of buying one and wondered if you have any recommendations.
YoungHouseLove says
I was thinking of just getting it done at Kinkos or something. Sorry I don’t have one to recommend! Anyone else?
xo,
s
Wendy says
This is absolutely precious. You guys did a great job, and I can see why Clara loves it so much.
Can I come over and play too? :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, sure! Come on over!
xo,
s
sarah k @ the pajama chef says
that’s awesome! i had a dollhouse when i was little that i loved. unfortunately it got ruined in a move, so sad. :( but when my grandparents moved out of their house i got my grandma’s vintage dollhouse that she put together and had on display in their house. it’s a pretty sweet dollhouse and i can’t wait til i have a spot where i can keep it! currently it is in my parents’ basement. :)
Mollie says
I love it! Thank you for the inspiration, I can not wait to build one for my daughter. I hope that Clara has hours of fun playing and exploring her new treasure!
Judy says
What? No worms?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I know! I’m on the lookout- believe me!
xo,
s
Tracey says
OMG, that is so darn cuuuuttte. I so want to play with Clara and her new dollhouse! She is one lucky girl to have such crafty parents.
Jonesypie says
I love this dollhouse! you guys did a really great job! when i was a kid, i had two dollhouses (they were neighbors) and instead of people, we used animals too. i had a brand of animal called sylvania animals. mine were bears, but you could get all kinds of animals. i think i also had a family of bunnies.
my mom also made a whole bunch of stuff out of fimo clay for the dollhouse, like food for the kitchen. we had bananas and watermelon and a turkey! all kinds of stuff! very fond memories indeed. :)
my mom also sewed sleeping bags and collected tiny sticks and pebbles from the yard for a campfire! the possibilities are endless!
JR says
Oh how fun… super cute! Any thoughts about adding windows or curtains to any of the rooms?
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love to “renovate” over time and add fun touches like that!
xo,
s
Donna says
It came out so perfect! Some of the Fisher Price Loving Family pieces are really cute, too. Especially the minivan, which would no doubt come in really handy for Olivia’s Mommy when she is running errands, :) The horn honks and everything. I love that you found Baby Burger!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, so funny about the honking horn! Clara would love that.
xo,
s
Debbie @ My Little Mess says
Clara is such a lucky girl! I wish I had a doll house this fantastic when I was younger – I just got a plastic & cardboard “Barbie Hotel” haha.
I love the little details that you put into it – the little Burger and all the dishes and plants.
Meghan says
Wow! This is so fantastic! I had 2 dollhouses growing up that I adorded, but never really had much furniture for them. (And now that I think about it, didn’t really have dolls for them. Barbies and my little ponies didn’t fit very well in them.) You guys did such a great job, and there are so many clever ideas. Way to go!
andrea worley says
beautiful little doll house! I love it, I kinda want to play with it ;)
Mama Gigi says
That’s it.
You guys are truly amazing.
Seriously.
That is the most stylin doll house I’ve ever seen.
Now if only I could get my guy to play with cute little things. He just likes to POW!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I vote you make him an awesome punching bag or something. Haha. Or a big beanbag he can dive into!
xo,
s
Jess says
Adorbs!!! Love it, especially the mid-century vibe of the furniture! nice work!