Are you guys ready for a really fun makeover project? Everyone knows I love me a good before and after so I can’t wait to share what my husband and I have been working on the past couple weeks. This is my childhood dollhouse that I helped my dad build when I was 8 years old. I have so many happy childhood memories playing with it for hours. I’ve held onto it for 30 years and many cross country moves because I knew that one day I would have a daughter to give it to. Just so happens that now I have 2! It’s been boxed up for years so it was such a fun surprise to see what was tucked away inside.
These are all the original pieces I had growing up to play with.
That little corn flakes box gets me. My dolls would eat that for breakfast every morning.
Once we pulled it out though I realized just how bad of shape it was in and how dated my little 30 year old house was.
With that 80’s style heart trim….
and those heart shutters….
and it’s busted windows 🙁 Someone tried to break in and steal my corn flakes.
I decided to give it to the girls a few weeks into the start of quaratine right when they were really getting antsy. I knew they would still appreciate it even in it’s outdated style.
It’s been a nice distraction and has kept them entertained for hours. 
My husband and I got in and played for a bit.
We both knew that it needed a makeover so I started to research what other people have done with their old dollhouses and was amazed with the creativity that went into them. I never really thought about miniatures before and how much fun they could be but this project has opened a whole new craft phenomenom to me. I’m already thinking about how to decorate the dollhouse once its finished for Halloween & Christmas! 
I found a website online that had so many cute pieces that I decided to reach out and see if they wanted to work together. Just so happens they did…so a huge thank you to miniatures.com for teaming up with me and helping bring this project to another level! I’ll be sharing all the pieces I got from them, a few basic diys that I worked on and all the remodel work that was done in this post. The second post will be the final reveal and all those cute details I can’t wait to share. So now it’s time to get to work. Here is a little recap of what the house looked like to start.
Here it is all cleared out.
We did find the door that was never installed so that was a plus to not have to build one from scratch!
First part of demo was removing all that outdated trim. Just using a sharp razor blade we cut it all off as close to the base as possible.
Then off came the scalloped window seals…
and those heart shutters.
No more busted windows!
I thought about replacing the shutters with rectangle ones to make it look more current but since we weren’t replacing the original windows that have the arch we needed to keep the arched shutters. So we just cut the hearts off. Also it might look like my husband did all the work since its his hands in every photo but I got in there and got dirty too!! 🙂
It really is a small dollhouse so to make it feel as big as possible I wanted to give it an open concept. I felt like it was a true house reno. Tearing down walls and everything. We took out the dividing wall & stairs….
and cut out the railing up top. Dolls don’t need stairs!!
Here’s a look at what it looked like after demo.
To start the remodel portion my husband did a patch job on the floor and I primed all the trim and darker colored walls with a matte white.
I painted the bedroom a crushed coral…
and what will now be an art room instead of a bathroom got a few coats of this pretty sky blue.
I primed the outside with a matte white as well.
We decided to build a new porch instead of going with the original stairs my daddy made for it.
The base of the porch was made from Balsa wood and we used this porch rail set to frame it. Just had to measure and cut it to fit our needs. I had some railing leftover in the end so you’ll have to check out my next post to see what I did with it.
A few mishaps happened during demo so we filled those with wood filler and sanded it down before I could finish painting.
To replace all that heart trim from before we used a simple roof ridge moulding. It comes natural and we painted it white.
We cut it to size and glued it down using balsa wood glue and then taped it to sit overnight.
The next morning I was able to remove all the tape and finish painting the entire outside a crisp clean white. I used a satin acrylic paint from Craftsmart. The shutters got a couple coats of satin black and once dried I was able to glue those back on. I still had lots of touch ups to do but it was looking so fresh and so clean!
While I was painting my husband was making porch posts so we could install the railings. They’re made from balsa wood and he just rounded the tops using an orbital sander.
I have always wanted one of those dutch doors. When we move out to the country and build our dreamhouse it’s going to have one and so was this house. The original door had a cutout in it so my husband cut a piece of wood to fit inside and filled the gaps with wood filler. Once sanded and painted you can’t even tell it used to have a window cutout in it. Using a dremel tool he rounded it out a little more to fit inside the door frame. Check out my next post to see the finished dutch door.
Using pine wood strips from the craft store we added all the finish trim to the front and sides…
…built some flower boxes for the downstairs windows…
…and my daughter painted the stairs for the porch.
Now that the outside remodel is almost done I wanted to share some of my favorite products Ill be using on the inside.
Ornate Frame
Also, how cute is this armchair?
And this cute little stove! I’ll be using this round pedestal table for the dining room just have to figure out which color to paint it.
I found the cutest peacock inspired headboard from Dilly Dally Dollhouse.
I attached it to a piece of balsa wood for the base and my husband repurposed the legs off my old coffee table. I tried to reuse as many pieces as I could from my stash of childhood stuff.
I made a mattress out of cardboard and some leftover foam I had on hand. It’s not pretty but it’ll be covered in fabric so that doesn’t really matter.
I wanted a porch light but couldnt find one for under $20 so I decided to make one. Using a tiny glass jar I added a gold brad nail to the top and wrapped gold wire around it. I then attached that to a piece of wood and it came together really cute. I’ll share the finished light in my next post but here’t the jar and brad nail combo. Also…lets keep in mind the nail salons have been closed for months….
We moved inside next and started to install the floors and wallpaper using a spray adhesive.
The black trellis paper I used as a tile floor for the art room. The bedroom got a cream carpet I picked up from the craft store. You can see I already installed the sunburst mirror in the bedroom.
We then flipped the house over and installed a patterned scrapbook paper on the ceiling. The paper reminded me of vintage ceiling tiles. You can’t really see this when the house is turned over but there was an ugly gap in the ceiling from where we had to patch where the stairs were and I couldnt leave that visible.
Next came the install of the downstairs wallpaper, flooring and you can see that I painted the front wall the same sky blue from the art room.
I am so in love with this floral wallpaper called vintage rose and I seriously want it in my own house. Its reproduced from a pattern found in Theodore Roosevelt’s home and I just love it’s vintage feel. I used a piece of black scrapbook paper behind the fireplace to make it look more realistic and my daughter helped glue it in. The fireplace is from miniatures.com as well but this particular one is now discontinued but I love this victorian style one just as much. Isn’t it all coming together so beautifully?
A few final things to put together before I can get to all the pretty inside. My daughter helped put together this artist paint box kit for the art room…
…and my husband whipped up this French Country Wing Chair. This is a kit that you assemble and you are able to pick your own fabric. It’s the cutest thing once it’s complete!
So that’s it for this post guys! So much work went into this makeover and I can’t wait to share with you the final reveal. Thanks so much for sticking around! 
Brenda says
Makin Memories!
Rickie Powell says
So fabulous….as usual. Families in action !