Dollhouse art work

I wanted to post a couple pictures of the artwork that we made for the dollhouse. Everyone who wanted to, got to create a piece or two of art to hang in the rooms.

This first picture is of the exterior of the dollhouse. I finally finished the half-timbered trim on this wall as well.

In the attic, we hung this abstract by Amy.
This is the picture above the fireplace in the "den" on the 3rd Floor. It's a family picture from the Grand Canyon this summer. The day was cold and drizzly, but everyone had a good time.
This reproduction of a famous artwork is in the 3rd floor bedroom/family room.
Abby drew this picture of her and Barbie playing together for a 2nd floor bedroom.
This abstract is also Abby's work. It went in the yellow bedroom since it had yellow and red in it (as well as a bunch of other colors).
Molly contributed this art work (except the flower, that was done by Amy)
Here's the kitchen with a Barbie kitchen set added in.

This dollhouse was one of the largest projects and certainly the most time consuming that I've ever done. Overall it was a lot of fun to do, and I hope that she'll treasure it. The feedback I've gotten from friends and family (except for Santos L Halper) was so positive, thanks to everyone who commented!

The Dollhouse is Finished!!!

Here it is, all done and set up in Abby's room. The girls are playing with it as I type this. They love it!!

Here is the kitchen, complete with a table and chairs and food on the table.

The living room, of course blue barbie is sitting around watching tv, maybe that is why she has such poor circulation.

Here is one of the bedroom, Dorothy is not in Kansas anymore!

Toto is lost in the other bedroom!

This is the family room with a rope ladder leading to the attic. Anyone recognize the painting on the wall?

And finally the den, or apparently this barbie thinks it is a ballroom.

Dollhouse Part 5

I finished putting the trim on one side of the dollhouse and added the windows. Here are 2 pictures of the outside of the dollhouse.

Here's the interior of the house. We put the larger windows on the bottom floor, at Barbie's eye height. The upper 2 floors only have smaller windows, also at Barbie's eye level.

Dollhouse Part 4

Here are some more pictures of the dollhouse. We're slowly making progress..

Here are the shingles that Amy did on the roof. This side, with the chimney was pretty hard. The other side was a bit easier. Fortunately we didn't have to cut all the shingles ourselves. We bought them all pre-cut, and just had to lay them out and glue them down. We're going to leave the shingles their natural color and just cover them with a clear coat.

In the attic, the paper was too short. There was about 2 inches in the back that wasn't covered. So I built these (nonfunctional) boxes to cover the bare patch. The Molly had a lot of fun helping me paint these boxes.
We choose to go with a half-timbered (Fachwerk) look on the outside. We started painting the white parts. Once there's enough layers of white for it to look right, then I'll put the brown strips of wood over the unpainted parts. Molly wanted to help paint, and I was pleasantly suprised. She was able to paint inside the lines and smooth out her thick patchs of paint. Not bad for a 3 year old! Most of the rooms are carpeted in fabric. Here's one of the rooms with the fabric carpet, wood wainscotting and the papered walls. The ladder up from the lower level has been glued into place. The carpet has some sawdust on it, which I'll have to vacuum up later.

Another of the rooms with the wainscotting and edging around the doors in place. The girls really like the bird on this paper.

This will be the kitchen. The floor is vinyl, and also only goes back 12 inches. So the back 2 inches are just painted. I'm thinking about painting black spots on it, but I think that might be a little too much. Most likely I'll just cover it with a Barbie kitchen set.

Dollhouse Part 3

I've been working on the dollhouse slowly, as work and life keep interrupting. A few days ago the girls wanted to help while I was painting some of the trim.

Here Molly and Abby work together to paint what will be a piece of wainscoting.
And here I am supervising.


A few days later I started assembling the whole dollhouse.
This view is from the back of the dollhouse. I put the staircases in the back to try to protect them from little hands. So I'll leave the back off until I'm just about done with the whole dollhouse.

The Chimney goes from the attic (the fireplace will be added on the 3rd floor) through the roof. Cutting a vertical hole through a 45deg roof was pretty challenging.

The 2nd floor staircase. The stairs will be at the back of the house and have the railing against the wall. Hopefully that means they will survive kids playing with the house.

The white and black room will be the kitchen, with a doorway into the 1st floor Living or Dining Room


Here are the second floor rooms



The first floor rooms



The first and second floor staircases.