dollhouse: paneling and furniture

thank goodness, the deadline for the dollhouse challenge has been pushed back to february. i still may not be done by then, at the rate i'm going, but i may at least have the one room i've been focusing on finished.

i redid the paneling in the living room this week. i had finished it a few weeks ago, but really didn't like the way it didn't meet in the corners. there were also a couple of spots where the bay windows connected to the square walls of the house that overlapped and looked really sloppy, so i wanted to take those off and clean them up and fix them so that i could get the wallpaneling to meet up right. this really explains why it is taking me so freaking long to finish this - not only am i a perfectionist, but i am working with a dollhouse that was put together somewhat sloppily and in the wrong order, so i have to keep "fixing" various parts. well, and i've never done this before, so i am learning as i go. but, oh well, i would rather take my time and do it right and maybe not finish by the deadline. when it starts to become stressful it stops being fun, right?

so, back to my paneling. i made it out of cardstock that i embossed using a stylus and a lightbox. i printed the shape of the paneling on the back of the cardstock and then embossed it, each wall on its own sheet of cardstock. after my first mistake of not overlapping the panels, i went back and left a bit of overlap at each corner, which worked MUCH better.

don't worry, baseboard, crown and window molding will cover up all that sloppiness.

a have also been working on the copper roof, but stopped without finishing when i realized that there was NO way i was going to be able to finish the whole house by dec. 15 and instead focused on the living room.

i also installed a porch light. it works, it just doesn't want to stay on the wall.

the whole house as of this weekend:

i also got some more furniture:

LOVE this piano, it is SO adorable

chinoiserie secretary striking a pose with adorable ghost chair.

these pieces are a little small scale for the house, but i think the chair at least will still work. i am going to paint it with fabric paint cuz that beige is blah.

anyway, stay tuned, hopefully once school is out etc, i will have a little more time to work on it. if i had my way, i would stay in my pjs and dollhouse all day.

dollhouse update 3

I actually got a lot done on the dollhouse a few weeks ago, but then I got stuck about how to proceed and it has sat for several days.

But I did refinish this adorable set of furniture. Here is what it looked like before:

And here it is after:

Also notice the cute acrylic coffee table I made all by myself.

the things (1 and 2) i do for my kids....

i volunteered to head up the committee for lobby decor for the musical at the high school, "Seussical", which plays a bird girl in. someone had the idea to make lifesize cutouts of Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the Cat for people to take their pictures with. great idea, and i just finished them up a few days ago.

his head fell off and that is why she is holding it on for him.

even though it took a lot of time, it was super fun to make them. i forgot how much i love painting and drawing and creating.

i'm a giant weekly (monthly?) update

alright, alright, i've had a lot going on. but here's what i've done lately:

wallpapered walls and ceiling, put up trim in nursery

(does any one know what doll's use for caulk?)

wallpapered the dining room - and this one was a bear because i had to fiddle around in photoshop for a LONG time to get the pattern to repeat right. and then it was still off and i had to redo.

made a wood floor for the studio

made a herringbone floor for the dining room. also a big pain. i tried SEVERAL methods for doing the herringbone, this one little floor took like 3+ hours, but it looks a lot better than some earlier versions.

and yes, i bought a lot of furniture. SO excited about the miniature ghost chairs! i think they are scaled up a little, but since the dolls who live in my house won't actually LIVE there, (except for some possible babies in the nursery- but wait, that's creepy to have babies but not grown ups to take care of them.)

anyway, my girls are not terribly interested. maybe its because i'm a control freak, or maybe they just are into ipods and boys and watching Psych. so it's all on me. and i picked a really big house.

i'm a giant - weekly update

this is actually a bi-weekly update. over the last two weeks, this is what i've accomplished:

finished shingling the house

re-painted the outside a dark grey

installed tapewire for working lights

took out the staircase so i can fit my large hands into the space to install wiring

i also ordered some furniture and attempted to make a chandelier. the latter has not turned out so far, but i am learning as i go and think i may have figured out how to do it.

i am waiting on an order of more electrical components and some roofing material. the kit came with shingles for the roof, and the person who had originally started building the dollhouse had put sandpaper on the roofs of the windows, but i wanted to try a metal roof.

so, on the agenda for this week is:

install roofing

wallpaper

start laying flooring

try to not spend so much time on ebay looking at furniture

new chairs

not sure if i ever posted about the chairs i found on ebay for my bedroom, but i finally finished upholstering them.

i had been looking for some bamboo, mid-century lounge-y type chairs for a long time. every thing i liked was either too expensive or not comfortable, or both. these are perfect.

i love the bamboo, but also how they bring that modern vibe into the room with the shape. their scale is perfect, too, as our bedroom does not have a lot of extra space.

i created the fabric on spoonflower using a paisley graphic i found on the web.

i really like the way they turned out!

I'm a Giant, too!

When I think of the kind of people who are into dollhouses, this is what I think of:

spinster

hasn't dusted in a long time

wears sweaters with teddy bears on them

too much clutter

has had the same hairstyle since high school

This is NOT who I think of when I think of dollhouse people:

Emily Henderson

So, Emily has this whole "I'm A Giant" thing going on, decorating a dollhouse. Check out her blog for the details.

I got myself a dollhouse last week, as soon as I read about Emily's challenge, I was pumped. I had a dollhouse when I was about 9, LOVED IT!!! It wasn't fancy. I remember that I would get so bugged when my friends came over and moved the furniture around, that I GLUED the furniture to the floor. (Control freak?)

I've always wanted to REALLY do the dollhouse thing, you know, with lights, etc and chic, modern furniture. I thought it would be a fun project to do with my girls. They are now old enough to not just be in the way (not sure if they are super excited or not) so they are each going to do a room of their choice. I told them it can be whatever they want it to be. Annie wants to do a nursery, Erin undecided. Annie wants dolls to live in it, Erin and I think the dolls are creepy. We told Annie she can have babies in her nursery, because baby dolls aren't (usually) creepy.

So, blabbity-blabbity, anyway, here are the before pics of the dollhouse:

I got it off of Craigslist, it is already about half finished (which is good, because there is still a LOT of work to do!!!)

I will try to remember to post weekly updates. Mostly I have been shopping eBay for furniture and trying to figure out the directions for putting the rest of the darn thing together.

blue/green art

I love the way the overscaled, colorful art pops in these rooms.