Dollhouse Makeover

My mom's had this dollhouse in her garage, for I dunno, a few years maybe? Maybe just a year or so. She bought it for $10 at a yard sale. The previous tenants were mice. We know because it was filled with plenty of mice poop when she bought it (gross, I know!), but my mom can't resist a bargain and she could see its potential. This last visit, I said to her, lets work on the dollhouse while I'm here. Mom thought that'd be fun too, so she immediately put on some rubber gloves and got to scrubbing. I let her do the dirty work. GROSS, I tell ya! First she evicted the mice and all their dirty furniture. 

After a thorough scrub in bleach solution and dry in the sun, we painted the inside a cream color.

We covered the living room wall in mismatched vintage floral wallpapers. The rug is linen. We bought it at an antique mall in a pile of napkins and hankies. Below more of the interior was coming along.

We found some cute kitchen furniture at Hobby Lobby. They didn't have much that we liked, but this table and chair set was adorable. We used an embroidered linen for the rug here. Other than the living room wall, all the other walls so far are covered in scrapbook papers that we got from Hobby Lobby. 

For the bedroom, we did a redish-grey-brown toile print. And another embroidered linen napkin for the rug.

I love the bathroom. These pictures aren't the best, but this paper is one of my favorites that we used. It's a navy paisley sort of print. And we found the porcelain toilet and sink at an antique mall during my visit, both for $4. We still need to make curtains for most rooms. And I'd like a claw foot tub, though the bathroom is itsy bitsy. 

We painted the outside charcoal grey (same color as the outside of my mom's house) with cream trim. I took this picture before the outside was finished, but it does look much better now. I think we'll cover the roof in moss or bark chips. 

For the bedroom, my mom spent a few hours making a custom bedskirt. She did it all by hand. She's going to make pillows and a cover too, but here's the bed so far. We also made a headboard out of twigs. The mirror above the bed came from Hobby Lobby.

We turned one room into a library (a man cave since the rest of the house is turning out a bit frilly, not that the library is just for the man of the house, but we did want a masculine sort of room too). We covered the walls in book pages from an old worn Shakespeare book. I know it's terrible to tear up a book, but it will likely have more eyes on it here than in its original state.

And the kitchen. We have cake and that's about it for now. But does one need more than cake? We made some little curtains from a hankie. And we re-used the old kitchen appliances until we get some new ones (we bleach soaked those appliances). 

We need more furniture and have quite a ways to go on some of the rooms. Before I left we did find some adorable vintage nursery dollhouse furniture, and the nursery is coming along too. My mom says she'll wait till I get back in November to work on this some more. It was soooo much fun working on it with my mom, and I can't wait to find more furniture and get back to it when I visit again.