Doll House Remodel-Part 3

Part 3

Flooring

As I said in the last dollhouse post while the paint was drying I took the kids to Home Depot to get supplies.  My original plan was to get Popsicle sticks, stain them brown, cut them in different lengths and add them as the wood floor.  While at Home Depot I was looking a the flooring aisles and started looking at the laminate flooring...the word FREE caught my eye next to the word SAMPLE.  I grabbed a few samples of the laminate flooring and thought I was content.  Then I turned to the next aisle and found the vinyl wood flooring--thinner and for my project it would be much easier to work with.  So I put the other samples back and grabbed some of the vinyl samples.  Then a sales lady came and asked me how I was doing, I told her I was just dreaming.  Someday I would love to have wood floors in my dining room-someday.  The sales lady completely understood and told me no less than three times to take as many samples as I needed.  I thought to myself- "She said take as many as you need.  How many do I need to put in the dollhouse..."  So I grabbed more samples.

 Parkay flooring for the attic.

 Sapelli Red for the 1st and 2nd floors

This is what it looks like on the back.  It even has a wood grain feel to it.

Zig Zag Quilt

After I finished the pinwheel quilt for my nephew I had a good stack of triangles leftover.  After trying several designs I decided to go with a zig zag quilt.

This isn't a huge quilt, but will be perfect to wrap a bundle of joy in.  The colors are so vibrant and fun too.

I stitched in the ditch to quilt it.

By following the seams of the zig zags as I quilted it made the zig zag pattern on the back.  The white fabric is from a sheet--my favorite way to get white fabric :o)

I used the star fabric for the binding--I have used this fabric in other quilts too.  This isn't a hard quilt to do and is a good quilt for beginners.  Cut out a lot of triangles-lay them out on the floor to see what kind of pattern you are going to sew and sew one row at a time.  Fun and simple.

Doll House Remodel-Part 2

Part 2

Demolition & Paint Day

 To start the demo I wanted to thoroughly clean the outside and remove the wallpaper on the inside.  Because this is going to be around children I didn't want to use harsh chemicals.  I made a solution of 1 part water and 1 part vinegar--put it in a spray bottle and went to work.

The family room looked so different with just this much wallpaper gone.

My kids pitched in too.  They grabbed their plastic Ikea knives and helped me scrape and scrape.

The kitchen wallpaper glue had some hard to scrub off glue.  It took several different soakings to get everything off.

This is the chandelier chain that my grandma crocheted, it had a round sparkly button for the chandelier.

After all the scraping and carpet removal we had a big pile.

Doesn't it look great already?

Next I primed it all up.  If you notice the roof isn't well done that's because it is going to be covered later on.

A nice light coat of primer and it's ready for the good stuff.

I painted the outside of the house with this and the master bedroom--isn't that the trend?

 For the other rooms I used the paint the builder left in our house, I do not know the color I only know that it is Sherwin Williams.

While the paint was drying I took the kids to Home Depot to get supplies for the next part--I am super excited to show you the next part.  It was so fun to do.  Until the next dollhouse post have a great day!

Doll House Remodel-Part 1

When I was nine we had a handmade Christmas.  Each gift given needed to be handmade.  My sister and I each received a dollhouse-made by my brothers and Dad.  We made wooden blocks for my brothers.  I remember playing with my dollhouse for days.  My mom made dolls to go with it too.

It is a simple design, but leaves lots for active imaginations.  Now that I have a little girl of my own I wanted to update the interior and exterior a bit.

Here's a little tour of the home--I feel like it looks like some of the foreclosures we looked at when we purchased our current home a few years ago...

There is a little graffiti on the outside--I'm sure who ever did this meant well.

This is the living room when you first enter the house.  The wallpaper is from the kitchen in the home that I grew up in.  The chandelier is no longer there, but the chain that my Grandma crocheted out of gold thread is still attached to the ceiling.  The window treatments are made out of lace, looped at the top for extra detail.  The entire interior of the house is painted a light blue--the same color as the playhouse in our backyard growing up.

Next we move into the kitchen--the wallpaper color coordinates with the living room--also found in the kitchen of my parents former home.  Maybe this rust color will make a return.  You can also see that there was wallpaper on the upper portion of the wall--the residue is still there.

On the second floor (no stairs--just use your imagination) there is a little bedroom.  If you zoom in on the picture you can see some more wallpaper on the lower portion of the wall and pink walls above.  Lace valances with sheer drapes.  The carpet is extra from my sisters room--this will be ripped out first :)

Next to the bedroom is the master bedroom.  The textured wallpaper is from the mudroom of my parents home.  I liked to feel this wallpaper and liked the neutrality of it.  The sheer drapes will need to be replaced too.

The attic has some more wallpaper in it, this wallpaper comes from my Grandparents home-I believe this was in their bathroom or their kitchen.  Aren't you glad that we don't use wallpaper all the time now?

So there you have it--my 20 year old doll house ready for a remodel.  I hope you will join me through the process.  I am excited to bring it up to date and give it to my little princess to play with.

Primary Pinwheel Quilt

When my little nephew was born I made a quilt for him.  Baby quilts are so fun because you can try out a pattern and it usually doesn't take very long.  Well now his mom is expecting again and is due at the end of the month--so I made another quilt.

I wanted bright colors and I wanted to try two different kinds of pinwheels.

There were a lot of tirangles left over so I added some to the back.

The binding is the same colors as the pinwheels.

My SIL opening the quilt at the baby shower-she was surprised.  I love how it turned out.

Speaking of a baby shower I made some cake pops for the event--these little guys were supposed to be babies, but I couldn't find a candy necklace to make the pacifiers. They weren't as hard as I thought they would be and plan to try them out in different flavors.

Kitchen Mat Up-Cycled

I've had a soft squishy mat in my kitchen for as long as I can remember-probably at least 5 years.  The support it gives my feet and back while doing dishes and canning is worth having it around.

The wear and tear didn't bother me much until I saw Jen and Shelly paint chevron's on their Ikea mats.

But, the chevron pattern isn't my thing. After a google search of free patterns I found a free quatrafoil stencil made by Jen at The CSI Project.

First I painted the mat with 4-5 coats of primer.  I had it on hand and it covered the pox marks wonderfully.

I didn't realize how bad the mat was worn down.  Once the paint was dry I printed off the stencil on to cardstock.  Using an exacto knife I cut out the stencil.  I debated weather or not to use it as a stencil-and chose to outline it with pen on the mat and hand paint it in.

This was a little teadious, but worth it all.

It didn't come out perfectly, but a little paint would help.

I almost left it like this, but white in kitchens, especially mine, seems to collect footprints and dirt faster than I can keep up with it.

Using a smaller paintbrush and Calypso Blue paint I outlined each shape, this took several days of pockets of time.

Once the shapes were outlined in paint I used a bigger brush to fill in the shapes.  I added several layers of paint and a top coat of finish for more durability.

Isn't it fun?

 This took longer than I thought because I had a lot of other projects to do, races to run, and company to keep.  All in all I am so thrilled with the outcome and love the burst of color in my kitchen.

One more look of before and after...

Mother's Day Flower Pot

My kiddos went to a playdate today and made these cute pots.

First we drew a stem with a magic marker.

Then the kids used their fingers to make the petals and leaves.

The paint dried really fast and we were able to fill the pots and put the flowers in in no time.

Add a bow to finish it off.  These weren't made for me for mothers day-but it would be a fun and personalized gift.

After living in Phoenix for three years I missed the bulbs that the northern climates allowed for.  This is a view from my back door.

Happy Spring!