The dollhouse renovations are underway and the first room i decided to tackle was the master suite, giving it a lush, fresh, modern look, perfect for any modern day mini bedroom for a boho Barbie and her Ken if he wants to stay over 😉.
The master bedroom originally on the second floor was painted a very dark navy blue and had a stairwell which came up into the room leaving no privacy for anyone in the master suite 🤔
So the first thing I needed to do was build a sub wall in between the master suite and 2nd floor landing, which I created the same height and shape as all the other internal walls, by creating a simple and easy pattern by tracing the wall and transferring it onto corflute to make sure it fits before cutting it out on thin mdf and then gluing it into place.
I repeated the same steps on the other stairwell leaving enough space to create a small laundry underneath.
Once the wall was put in , I decided to "wallpaper" the walls with some grey/silver fabric I had, which gave the room an elegant soft satin sheen and textured look.
I created skirting with paddle pop sticks too, even though it's more work for each room, I think it finished them off nicely.
I loved the wallpaper but wanted create more texture, and after seeing some beautiful wooden feature walls I was inspired to create a mini version of my own.
I calculated roughly how many sticks I needed and begun cutting off all the rounded ends.
I took 3/4 of the cut sticks and sprayed them with a blue/aqua coloured chalk paint.
I figured I didn't need to do anything to the blue wall other than a light sand and clean as I wanted the dark navy colour to seep through any gaps on the wall from the paddle pop sticks which may not match up completely when glued.
It was a very long process and was glad I chose not to do all the flooring like this in the entire house.
Had I decided not to do a symmetrical pattern it would have been alot quicker and once I got to the window, wow it really slowed me down.
The time it took was defiantly worth it in the end though and i think the finished result was amazing !
I was going to varnish or mod podge the wall to give it a low sheen and smooth touch, but I really liked the colour and look of the raw blonde wood so I left it natural.
This defiantly set the tone for the rest of the room and so begun the decorating !
I had a double bed I inherited with the house, but it was yellow and pink and didn't match the wall so I used the same chalk paint as the feature wall and sprayed the bed to match and added a matching bedhead from painted and raw popsicle sticks.
There was no mattress on the bed originally so I created one using a block of foam and covered it in white cotton fabric before gluing it to the original fake plastic mattress.
The next step was to decide on the bedding, and as I was going for a boho vibe, I defiantly needed something specific.
I rumaged though my large hoard of fabric but nothing stood out.
I remembered that I had just undertook a massive clean out of clothes which where now too small for my daughter and i had not yet taken them to the charity box.
So I dug through it and came across the perfect little print which was a pair of pants originally, my daughter had now outgrown and so i begun to cut them up.
With the pants i created the bed cover, pillows and drapes.
I used soft pink fabric for two of the pillows and created a mini seat at the end of the bed with a cushion from the same pink fabric and the grey wallpaper fabric for the base of the seat.
I needed some more colour and texture in the room and wanted a rug.
So when I was digging through my charity bag waiting to be donated, I came across an old dusty dark blue knitted beret which was perfect!
I cut the edges off the beret creating a perfect circle.
I used the off-cuts to make the pillows for the bed and chair, which I stuffed and sewed together, and sewed a strip of little white pom poms to the edge of the circle, in order for the knit to not fall apart and to finish off the rug with some cute pom pom tassels.
The blanket for the bed was made from soft pink baby fleece which I also had in my fabric hoard.
The rug and cushions turned out amazing so I needed to finish it off with what every room needs and that's a swinging chair !
This was super easy to make and only took about 15 minutes, but you need a few important pieces to make it work.
I started off with an old set of headphones which no longer worked anymore.
The ear piece was pulled/cut off the headphones to create the bottom of the chair.
I have a large collection of lace and found some which was wide enough to be the outside of the chair.
I cut two pieces of lace, one which wrapped around the chair for the sides and bottom and another small piece which was glued to the sides of the original long piece of lace to create a back.
I then got the same stretchy pastel pink fabric I used previously and covered the earphones.
Gluing the fabric to the shape of the earphone, and then gluing it onto the top and back piece of the lace ensuring it is angled slightly, so Barbie can sit in and swing without falling out.
The top of the chair was the easiest, using some wool and paddle pop sticks, I created the top of the chair which was able to hang from the dollhouse roof using two small hooks drilled into place.
Because Christmas is approaching I was able to purchase a cute deer wall mount head for the wall which i glued into place and decorated the rest of the walls with some wanderlust / inspirational prints.
I made the curtains from some old fabric which I hand dyed light pink with Dylon as it was originally an off white colour and didn't match, and then used silver leather tassels to secure the drapes.
I made the shelving from balsa wood and glued them together and secured them to the wall, adorned with some vintage Barbie accesories I inherited with the house.
The cabinet was inherited also, and was bright pink, so I lightly painted it the same colour as the bed leaving some slight pink streaks underneath to give it a washed look.
The wool wall hanging was handbcrafed by me after using a painted laser cut circle in my craft supplies and some wool which I weaved to the bottom edge.
The plant I decided to put in the room will be a theme in the house as I was lucky enough to come across a few different ones at a discount store for only $2 each, and as every house should have plants, this one is no exception and I had to snap them all up.
The end result of this room is the inspiration I need to keep me going and work on this project.
Now with the realisation of how big this house is and how much work I will have to put in, I have decided I need to have a set time frame for each room, so im giving myself a just under a week to complete each room. Wish me luck !
This i know may sound like enough time to get the rooms all painted and accessorised, but because I work most days and have two kids under 10 to keep me on my toes, this dollhouse can only be worked on late at night or when the kids are not around and by then Im usually exhausted and not really in the mood to renovate 😌
But with Christmas fast approaching I have no choice and have to get it done...
So the next rooms I am going to tackle are going to be the biggest ones.
The bathroom and kitchen!
I figure if they are at least finished the other ones will be a breeze to complete!
Now ...... onto the bathroom !
KJ xoxox
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