A Washi Tape Dollshouse

At the end of last year I took home a dollhouse from a teacher's classroom at my daughters school, planning on doing a quick reno on it for her. Here are some before shots...

I got the kids doing a bit of sanding and then painted the whole thing white.

Then on the last weekend of the school holidays I realised I better quickly get it finished! I used scrapbooking card to wallpaper the top rooms, and then just painted the bottom floors back walls. Then I had the brainwave to use the new Scotch® Washi and Magic Tapes to tape the floors (I especially love the blue patterned magic tape that I think looks like a mediterranean tiled floor and the black and white chevron washi tape floor which I can just imagine on some stylish New York loft apartment)

As I was taping the floors I was checking facebook for something and up came this photo from the Small Acorns facebook page of a dollshouse made out of cardboxes and decorated with pictures from magazines.  Can't believe I hadn't thought of doing this before as I was thinking the dollshouse was going to be a bit sad without any furniture! So I got my stash of Your Home and Garden magazines out (so glad I hadn't got rid of them when we moved) and had heaps of fun going through them for pictures  that would work for each room. 

My favourite pictures are the bookcases as they really look 3D on the walls of the dollhouse, and I love the couches in the lounge too. Some things are a little bit out of proportion and the upstairs especially is quite random but all in all it looks pretty cool and costs a lot less than my previous dollhouse!!

Here are some more pics...I used modpodge to stick them all to the walls, and then a layer of modpodge over all the walls and floors to seal them.

I was finding it hard to find a kitchen that would fit under the window and then I spotted this cute kitchen by Emily Henderson that LeeAnn Yare shared on her facebook page so I printed it out- easy!

I found out that the lovely painting I cut out for this bedroom is from the home of Hayley who runs The Art Room Limited- she spotted it when I shared a few pics on my facebook page! 

It was pretty fiddly cutting out this bunting but a lot quicker than making my own still! The mini art works on the left and right were from an ad for wallpapers in one of the magazines.

The arrow light is from Alex Fultons home 

I thought of Miss Molly Coddle when I cut out the turquoise peacock chair for the kitchen :)

So if you are wanting to do a dollshouse reno this is a great option- you could even washi or magic tape the walls- a lot easier and quicker than paint or wallpapering! (and if you want to change it it's really easy to remove the tape). This would be a great activity to do with kids too, just give them a shoe box and let them decorate it! 

Megan 

 PS: This is the last week of the Scotch® Back to School "Make it Amazing" Promotion so if you've made anything with the new Scotch® tapes upload a pic on the Scotch® facebook page here and you'll be in to win an i-pad mini- there are prizes just for voting as well. I've got one more blog post to publish 'Using Washi Tape at Home" so look out for that :)

Here are my other Scotch® Tape blog posts...

Getting Crafty with Scotch® Expressions tape

Washi Tape Craft Party

Washi Tape Kids Art and Crafts

Washi Tape Back to School ideas

Decorative tape ideas in the Classroom

"I seen the little lamp"

If you've read any of New Zealand's famous short story writer Katherine Mansfield's stories you may recognise the line in the title of this post- it's not a typo, it's the second to last line in Mansfield's rather sad story "The Dolls House".
I've always wanted to be able to light up the dolls house so I was pleased to see that the Lundby transformer came back in stock the other day so I could connect up the lights I had bought ages ago.  I had to buy two 'electric mix sets' as well to make a circuit big enough to connect all four lights and the oven and sink unit. I got my hubby to drill some holes in the back of the dolls house to put the wires through and then connected it all up and plugged it in- a lot easier than I thought it was going to be!

Like moths to a flame

Had to add an All Black's flag too of course!

And if you would like to read "The Dolls House" and three other Katherine Mansfield stories for yourself I have a copy of this book to giveaway- just leave a comment here or on my facebook page :)

Megan x

a mousehouse dollshouse

About a year and a half ago I saw this post on Lil Magoolie about a Barbie dolls house inspired by the interior designer Johnathan Adler and created by photographer Michael Williams. It really stuck in my head as a brilliant project as it combines all of the things I love- interior design, crafting, and making fun things for my girls to play with. I searched on Trade Me for a suitable 'do-up' wooden dolls house and was lucky enough to find a renovators dream one- it had a brown roof, painted blue walls with fake leaves stuck all over it, dark blue felt covered staircases, grey carpet and green felt all around the front but it was perfect as I was after a nice big one with lots of rooms.  I'd show you some 'before' pics but I lost them when my computer crashed last year!

We gave it to Amelie for her 3rd birthday just as it was- it came with a little bit of furniture so the girls had fun playing with it. Then I got stuck into phase one- removing all the felt using two whole tins of acetone, ripping up the carpet and painting the exterior and interior. I matched the exterior to our real house with Dulux 'Mt Eden' on the roof and Dulux 'Lake Whakarewarewa' on the sides and painted the whole interior Resene 'Bianca'. Then.... I stuck it in the shed, ready and waiting for me to begin Phase 2- choosing colours and  themes for each room.......and there it stayed for at least 6 months- Amelie would see it in there and ask when she was getting her dolls house to play with- not much of a birthday present!! I got a bit distracted with other projects and I couldn't decide on how I was going to decorate it- wallpaper or paint, which rooms where, and the whole colour scheme (very important of course!) Finally I nailed it down to mostly yellows, turquoise and pinks which I chose for my 'real' house too so with that decided I was finally away. I went to a scrapbooking shop here in Tauranga (now closed unfortunately) and chose most of the 'wallpapers' and then it was just a case of deciding on the rooms and finding all the furniture and other bits and bobs for each one. Most pieces were from TradeMe or Lundby with some pieces gifts for the girls for their birthdays and Christmas.
So do you want to see the rooms? and yes I did go completely OTT with this project...

Amelie's room- butterfly wallpaper, bunting sticker and wooden 'A' from scrapbooking shop, bed, side table and wardrobe from TradeMe, set of drawers came with the dollshouse (I painted them all white),  Lundby mirror, photo frame, lamp and books, chair and 'rug' (and also couch in entrance way) from this MoMA set from the Museum of Modern Art, New York,  Lundby frames with mini art works - a mini version of the personalised photo art I made for Amelie and mini version of the pink bird artwork by Belinda of Moon Mum that I won in a giveaway from On Top of a Lily Pad blog.  I made the little quilt and cushion on the bed.

** For each of the art works I used in my dolls house I contacted the artists first to check that it was okay to put a mini version of their art in the dolls house and I only used art works that I had already bought for my real house or won as in the case above!**

Stella's room- Cot, change table and circle rug from Lundby, wooden cupboard, red trolley and toy from Trademe, rocking chair came with the dollhouse, wallpaper, rocking horse and wooden 'S' from scrapbooking shop ( I painted them in Resene 'Sargent Pepper'),  Lundby lightshade, frames from Lundby with a mini version of this art work from Belle and Boo, a mini version of the photo art I made for Stella and a mini version of this art work from Petit Collage. I made the cot quilt and cushion using a ballet girls fabric from Stitchbird Fabrics.

Here are the real sized art works along with a few more on our kitchen wall.

Lounge: Lundby couch and arm chairs that I re-covered in Amy Butler's 'Optic Blossom' fabric- yes I was even reupholstering for this project!! (once again my hubby thought I had gone slightly crazy), Lundby book case, books, coffee table and lamp, wooden beads for vases, wallpaper and Eiffel Tower from scrapbooking shop and mini binoculars from TradeMe. I made the circle artworks by gluing scrapbooking card circles to play- money coins.

Entrance Way: wallpaper and flowers from scrapbooking shop, hall table came with the dollshouse (I painted it and modpodged some craft paper to the top) Lundby vase, cuckoo clock sticker from the MoMA set and frame from TradeMe. Mini version of "Love" art work from Jen at Made By Girl.

Here's the real version of this art in our home...

Are you still with me, there's lots more...!!

Kitchen: Orla Kiely wallpaper-I don't actually have this in my home but I would sooooo love to! I scanned and printed an Orla Kiely address book from Small Acorns I had to make the wallpaper. You can buy the actual wallpaper here in NZ from Small Acorns as well. Mini version of "Home is where the HeART is" print from Dear Colleen, table, chairs and side board came with the dolls house (I painted them), Lundby oven and sink units, wooden stool and bowl, clock from this free printable from How About Orange blog

Master bedroom: wallpaper and flowers from scrapbooking shop, dressing table came with the dollshouse, wooden bead for vase, bed, bedside tables, armchair, ottomon and frames from Lundby, art in frames from scrapbooking card, I made the bed cover.

The craft room: desk, chair, shelf unit, sewing machine, scissors, basket with knitting, radio and pink sewing box from TradeMe, ironing board and iron came with the dolls house (I put a new fabric on top), heart wall decorations from scrapbooking shop, sewing badges from Angela. I made the noticeboard and chair cushion, "Get Excited and Make Things" print from here, wooden bead for pencil holder and toothpicks for coloured pencils.

Bathroom: MissPrint wallpaper sample from The Paper Room. Bath, shower, toilet, mirror, vanity and duck from Lundby, toothbrush and toothpaste from TradeMe, shelf and bottles came with the dollshouse- I added a Stitchbird Katie Rose fabric hand-towel.

So you can see why this project took a very long time to finish! It was so much fun designing each room and the girls love playing with the house, although of course it doesn't look anything like this at the moment- the girls just don't have quite the same appreciation for design and layout that I do....

And if you want to see more of my real house you'll just have to get your hands on a copy of the latest issue of Homestyle magazine out today :)

So do you have a favourite room?

Megan x

31/7/11 Thank you to Carrie at Ohdeedoh, Kellie at Minimusthave, Maddie at LilMagoolie, CoolMomPicks and Aimee at Baby Bites for posting about my dollshouse and to all the lovely bloggers and twitterers sharing it too!

10/9/11

The dolls house now has electricity! Check out this post to see more....