A Miniature Family & A Happy Home

We have a dollhouse here. It came from a yard sale by a man who kindly shared the story of the house. Apparently it was built by his grand father for him and his sisters to play. Now since his kids were out of home to college he wanted to down grade his house and no more needed it. Our luck. Because most of the wooden doll houses are on the upwards of a hundred dollars and this one was 25 bucks with some furniture and for bonus point it was handmade. We brought it home.

Our little girl was beyond excited with the new addition to her room.She wasn't asking for it but I had been on the hunt for a dollhouse since the time she started pretending that the underside of the dining table to be "own home" for herself and her dolls and animals.

The house as such was in great shape structurally. It only needed some rescue from the peeled paint and wall paper which I was very happy to get my hands on. It is no secret that I love design and decor - So I considered this one to be our extended home ( is there a phrase like that? ).

I painted it a few days ( by few days I mean a month!) after it came home. I put off doing more on it with lame excuses. Actually it was looking way better with a fresh coat of paint. But when she received a nursery doll house set for her birthday ( A big thank you to Aunt Shafina  - see there are perks when mommy has a thoughtful best friend ) , I knew now it was my turn to pitch in.

So here we present our baby Tico's nursery, ( It stared out as baby Ayaan's nursery but she has changed the baby's name since) in true Before-After style.

Before :

After :

The walls are adorned by red and white striped decorative paper from Michaels ( you find them in bins along with other scrap booking material ) . I have just plain glued the on the walls with a layer of mod podge for protection.

I found this wooded sun in the scrap wood section and painted it with acrylic paint . To turn it into a mirror I added the silver lining paper that came with swim goggles. Odd place to find a silver plated card board piece indeed. It looks good though. Right?

Next, the art above the crib is a magazine cut out from last easter time. I do cut out nice pictures from magazines and news paper to frame. Again odd, but it works like a charm to add some pretty colors to walls on the cheap side.

The butterfly and the clock are also from scrap wood section of Michaels and painted by the little one herself. She would proudly tell her friends how she made art for her "own home". That reminds me that fun can come life in any form and style - sometimes from DIYing your own art.

The curtains are plain yarn tied on skewers from kitchen. Yes the skewers has such uses too.

The book shelf - it looks like a fireplace though - but intended to be a book shelf - is her building blocks stuck together with super glue and then painted. I hope she is not missing two block pieces. See they even hold books.

The lamps - that is my favorite, hers too. They are X'Mas ornaments from last year. I think that part is quite obvious.

We have rugs too - where else the big brother and sister would play when baby is sleeping? They are decorative paper with a layer of mod podge too.

Now, no home is complete without the family. Here are some scenes from their daily life.

Dad feeding the baby and Mom reading. Does it happen ever?

A confession - the whole set up stayed like this only until I finished taking pictures - After that this happened.
You might think a Tsunami happened here. But only it is safe and fun Tsunami this time.

We are not done yet friends, because there are 5 other rooms and a roof garden in this doll house.Stay tuned.

Did you like our doll house? Do let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Happy weekend & Keep Smiling,
Anima