November's year as a big three-year-old has begun! I admit, I may have gone a little overboard in the gifts category this year. But, in my defense, this is the first holiday since I've had her that I can say that! Previous holidays have been lean for me financially, plus I always anticipate plenty of gifts for her from others. This birthday, however, I budgeted ahead of time and saved to buy her a play kitchen from IKEA.
We'd been enjoying so much imaginative play together at home, playing 'kitchen' with her toy pots, pans and play-food. She'd outgrown her first baby play kitchen, yet still enjoyed the kitchen toys that went with it, so I really wanted to get her a full-size play kitchen. I know children don't need expensive items for imaginative play, but this was just something I wanted to get for her. And boy did she love it!
I was ONLY planning on getting the kitchen for her birthday....but when I went to Ikea to pick up the kitchen, I found the CUTEST set of mini Ikea dollhouse furniture, as well as a fold-able dollhouse backdrop board! The board was the perfect size to fit inside a bookshelf we have at home, which really got me thinking...
I should make a dollhouse out of an entire bookshelf
And that I did. Like a madwoman on a mission, I spent the next 12 hours before November was due to return home from her dad's reorganizing my apartment to make room for our new additions, building her kitchen (what an ordeal!), wrapping it, getting some sleep, and then waking up early to revamp a used bookcase into a dollhouse.
It was a very simple process, and the end result was awesome! Now, let's make yours.
You will need:
-An old bookcase, desired size
-Glue
-Scrapbook paper, with patterns resembling wallpaper, carpet, and flooring (mine came from the same package we used for our DIY corkboard and weather board projects. It even just so happened to contain two sheets with a wood panel pattern for the floor, and cloud/sky pattern for the windows!)
Extras:
-Dollhouse furniture and accessories
-Dolls to fit the house
-Ribbon or thin, colored tape for lining windows
Select the scrapbook paper you would like to use, and decide on placement for the walls and flooring. Cut it down to the correct size to fit the dimensions of the bookcase, if necessary. Glue the backside of the paper to line the bookcase walls and upper surface of the shelves (dollhouse floor), overlapping when necessary to cover all inside surfaces.
You can see in the picture above how my middle 'room' was larger and needed a strip of the green chevron pattern to cover the extra space near the 'ceiling.' This extra pattern added a really cute touch, but feel free to use more of the same patterns for a more seamless look.
Add extra touches like windows! If you don't have sky-patterned scrapbook paper, you can simply use a square of blue. You can line the windows by gluing strips of ribbon around it, or use thin colored tape. Once finished, let all the glue dry, and add the furniture! Voila, dollhouse!
In the picture below, you can see the Ikea dollhouse backdrop I mentioned. It's super cute and can be moved to whichever floor November feels like putting it on, or taken out completely.
November loved it! Can you tell by this face?
Her dollhouse is currently filled with a mix of different sizes and types of dolls and accessories, but November isn't picky about that! I do, however, hope to get creative and perhaps make some more furniture and accessories in the future, giving it a fuller and more cohesive look.
This would make a great Christmas gift for your little one, don't you think?
Originally posted at Tess and Tigerlily
Tessonja Odette