My grandfather loved woodworking. He also made us china doll hutches and shelves. My hutch moved with me from mom's to Batesville, back to mom's, and into our house now. Nate refinished it before David was born to match the nursery furniture, and it is still in there. It reminds me of grandpa every time I go in there.
When I found out Molley was a girl, I knew I wanted her to have a doll house. Little did I know that when my sister Courtney found out Lyla was a girl, she wanted the same thing. In talking about it, we decided that we wanted to restore the houses together and give them to the girls for their 2nd birthdays. (Molley and Lyla are only 6 months apart.)
We started out project in December. Who knew that restoring 25yr old doll houses could take so much time! We picked the paint, found the furniture and people, and went to work. My dad helped us out by priming the houses. There was some wallpaper to be taken out that my mom had put in them for us. I wish I had a picture of what they looked like to start, but here is a picture of what the looked like after a coat (or 3) of prime and the floors painted.
Courtney and I wanted bright, fun colors. We didn't want this to be something that was to look at and not touch. Bright and fun they are!
This is after we painted the house and placed some of the furniture. We kept the exterior pretty much the same color as before. It had wallpaper in when we were little, but we wanted to paint it. After trying to paint in the tiny middle rooms, we wished we had picked wallpaper. :)
My kitchen and mom. I love the purple/yellow/grey color scheme. And yes, our kitchen is on the 2nd floor. It worked best with the colors.
Bathroom. I love the bubble looking stickers on the wall. They look like tile!
Playroom. Every girl needs a dress up room! There are some dresses that the girl can wear that will hang on the wall.
Landry/mud room, complete with a dog.
Family room with dad and brother. The girls love the TV because it plays music.
Bedroom with a window sticker, and a cross, just like my room.
The whole house. The front bottom we tried to faux paint grass. It looks better in person.
The house with the front on it. We loved the idea of curtains, and it only took us hours to figure out that we wanted plain white and not colored ones.
The front of Lyla's house
Up close of the doors
This is Molley's - address is her birthday
Lyla's
The sides of the house. I was so excited to find the picket fence done for me in the craft store. So much easier than making it ourselves!
They aren't perfect, but we love them! They took a while - several Saturday's, but they will be well loved by a new generation.
I think grandpa would love that we kept them, and cared enough to make sure our girls could play with them as well. There is one more that was Caiti's. We think we will work on it and it will stay at moms house for the girls to play with there. It was so much fun to do these together, and with mom. Even Caiti got to help some when she was home, and she supplied many of the scrapbook stickers that were used to decorate the walls.
I can't wait for Lyla to get hers and see how excited she will be. 6 months is a long time to wait to give Molley hers, but I know by then she will be ready to play with it.
