olivia's dollhouse.

i have been wanting to build a dollhouse for olivia since before she was born.  i had a dollhouse when i was a little girl and loved it.  i searched and searched for ideas of what i wanted and had a pretty good plan.  i knew i wanted everything to be wood.  (i just hate plastic...) i wanted it to have a vintage/colorful vibe...so this past fall when i came across this little gem at one of my favorite children's thrift stores i almost died!  i almost walked right by it too!  this was an all-wood open-concept dollhouse just like what i wanted AND it came with all the wood furniture for only $60!!!!

natural wood is just not my taste.  i could envision this exactly how i wanted it when i first laid eyes on it!  my plans began to make an incredible christmas present for my little girl.  this was one of the funnest projects i have ever done!

the sliding doors before (they also double as window frames when the doors are opened)

i had to prime everything at least twice and then do 2-4 coats of paint depending upon the colors i chose.  shawnae helped me into the wee hours of the morning several times painting and priming away!

the finished product!!!

                  

 i had found this little dog house at D.I. months before i found the dollhouse.  originally it was blue.

because the dollhouse didn't come with any dolls, i looked around for quite some time on the internet but didn't find anything i really liked.  i got the idea on pinterest to paint little wooden pegs into dolls of our family!  i think they came out pretty cute!

the bedroom. i love this room.  i added a polka dot "rug," "wood" floors and wallpaper with a bunting on the wall and embelishments.  there is a bunk bed and a single bed as well as a cradle, an armoire, a bookshelf, a nighstand, and a lamp.



             
the livingroom.  i found the cutest scrapbook papers at my favorite craft store, Porters.  i added the "wood floor" and wallpaper, and found cute embelishments for art on the walls and i even added a "rug."

the bathroom.  i had to improvise and make a toilet, which i used part of the broken toilet that came with the set and a wooden block that we had.  

the kitchen.  i had to improvise in here too.  there is no fridge and i used another wood block as a countertop.  i'm going to add a little fabric curtain along the front of it and it will be like a little sink.

don't you love it?!  i do!  olivia doesn't play with it as much as i had hoped, but she didn't play with her baby dolls for a while either and now she plays with them all the time, so i'm hoping maybe she'll be more excited about it in a year or so.