I've officially started... (wordy & picture heavy)

About 6 weeks ago I was approached by a friend about making a dollhouse for her twin daughters. They will be turning 7 in May. So I sat down with Mom & Dad and we came up with a relatively simple design. The dollhouse will be a 4 foot tall by 3 foot wide bookcase style dollhouse. There will be 3 floors and a rooftop patio. The 1st floor will be the living room & eat-in kitchen. Next level is the spa-style bathroom and den/rec room. The final floor will be a bedroom for each girl complete with canopy beds!

Since not only are the girls fraternal twins (one is blond the other brunette) but they also have VERY different personalities, I will be making their rooms similar but unique to each girl. B is a tomboy who loves the color purple and monkeys, while A is a girly-girl whose favorite color is pink and loves butterflies!

Both girls love Disney princesses, each has a unique favorite. B's is Snow White while A's favorite is Cinderella.

My intention is to create a dollhouse that blends both girls likes into a fun place for their dolls to play! My drawings are almost complete, and I will be heading to the home store in the early part of next week to buy my lumber and supplies. I will also me making a trip to the craft stores to check out scrapbooking papers for wallpaper. Although now that I think about it, I might have to check out the stationary and party stores instead. Each floor is going to be about 15inches high, and unless I want to do wainscoting (which I might do in a room or two) in the entire house...scrapbook paper is NOT going to cut it.

Tomorrow will be spent getting my kitchen table cleared off so that I have a place to start building. Although the dollhouse will live out in my Garage for a few weeks while I sand, paint and wallpaper. Then I will bring it inside to assemble. That way I can work on it inside where it's warm.

I initially hadn't intended to put true windows into the house, I had thought to make faux ones with scenery pictures on the inside looking out and pics of the interior of the house on the outside looking in. But I have a feeling that will be harder than I imagine...so I an going to reconsider putting real windows in. I'm building the frame out of 1/2 inch ply or MDF...so I will need to look into some kind of cutting tool that can do the interior cutting. ANY SUGGESTIONS???

On to the official start...one of the pieces Mom specifically asked for was canopy beds...I found a pair of this great bed on ebay. It wasn't until it arrived today that I realized in addition to the bed, was a pair of nightstands with LIGHTED lamps!!! The battery pack sits inside the nightstand and by twisting the lamp the little light turns on! I decided I want the lamps to look like the brass ones from my childhood. (I really MUST remember that enamel paints take WAY longer to dry than acrylics! LOL) I think I've smudged them atleast 4 times already.


I'm contemplating adding some gold trim and fringe to the lamp shade as well...right now it seems way to plastic-y for my liking. I am also thinking about a coat of matte spray paint to take the shine down a notch. I've only put one coat of gold on the lamp and already it looks 100 times better, all the neat details are actually coming out. Tomorrow (or atleast several HOURS from now) I'll add a second coat. I think it will also get a light antiquing too, but not certain.)
I also got another awesome furniture buy, but I think I will save those pieces for another day!
Have a great weekend!!!