As promised-Part III American Girl Dollhouse Guide. This
post is created from the inspiration of my Facebook American Girl Group
Members. So once you have a plan, and have decided you are going to
build your own 18” dollhouse you might want to see some inspiration and get
some advice of those that have built one. There are a lot of ways to achieve
this task. I have two that I have found I like, and were willing to share
with us their experiences.
I have a great wealth of insight from our wonderful Doll Mommy’s
in my group American Girl Doll Play and a couple
families that have graciously agreed to share their creativity with our blog
members!
The first member is KelliBendixen and she can be found on Facebook (click her name). Please feel free to message her to ask more details on her Facebook page. Her and
her family was inspired by the idea of making a doll house out of a used
Entertainment center! Way to re-purpose and recycle!
1. These pictures are the original ad pictures
that Kelli found on a Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade group local to their family.
2.
Re finishing process- (Read the Q & A for more details below.)
3.
Finished product. WOW! Really nice! And relatively easy!
I did a Question and Answer type
interview I had with Kelli about her project.
Q: How much did your project cost?
A: Cost-wise, maybe $100 all together in purchasing/
building/lighting/flooring and supplies.
Q: How long did it take to build?
A: All in all, 3 weeks,
but that is mainly because of holidays and bad weather! LOL! I couldn't get out
of town to get flooring! Only took about an hour to sand, another hour to
prime. Painting was spread out a little more, waiting for one color to dry
before taping off next section.
Q: What supplies or skills did you need?
A: We used an 180 grit sandpaper. As for the
roof, we bought to small pieces of wood from Menards...cost $16. Hubby nailed
them together and put them on! So, hammer nails, sandpaper, Minwax paste, paint
and brushes. Lights are LED touch lights. The lights came in a 3 pack at local
home improvement store for $12. They have a sticky back and just stick on the
ceiling.
Q: How did you build your AG dollhouse?
A: I purchased the entertainment center for $50 from my
local Facebook for-sale page. We just sanded lightly (pressed wood) and then
used a primer. We asked on the same local Facebook page for any partially used
cans of paint lying around their house. Got a couple colors that way, and had a
couple of my own, so no cost there! Used Min wax paste finishing wax after
painting to help seal and protect the paint. Was like $6 for that. I bought
floor tiles with the peel and stick backs from local home improvement store for
little or nothing, as well as a small carpet remnant for the attic room. We
made the wall hangings using $1 wood plaques from Walmart craft section and the
same paints. Put some scrapbook stickers on them. Daughter had fun with that! I
like the "Dance like nobody's watching" one! We used a $1 placemat as
the rug under table. I made the purple couch out of cereal boxes, etc in the
pantry. Wrapped each piece in an old sheet and stitched together. I love
sharing the ideas! The other furniture was purchased, but we actually sold my
daughters doll bunk beds (didn't fit as well in this house) and the wardrobe we
had for her dolls in order to buy most of this stuff. Don't know what else you
may want to know.
Kelli, thank you very much for sharing your families’ project idea!
The next family that offered to contribute to my blog was
Millie and Jada Sousa! You can link to
Millie on Facebook at Millie Sosa. I have provided some pictures of their AG
dollhouse that they have been working on for years and are continually
updating, or adding too as Jada grows.
Millie and Jada spend quality time putting together very budget friendly
creations they find online or in our groups some are purchased items and Jada
has taken it to YouTube to make her own video’s and video channel about their
adventure together! I will share a link
to her YouTube channel as well!
Here
are some photos of the AG Dollhouse Millie and her daughter have created and
shared with me to share with my readers.
It is based on the use of bookshelves.
They bought sets of bookshelves due to the width-the shelves are two
units one in front of the other minus the backs to make up the 24" depth
for the doll furniture to fit.
Jada is age 6, and her and her mom have theme's for each of her doll rooms. She has a YouTube channel that she gives tours of each room or creation and some of the fun through a little girl's eyes of all the excitement of the American Girl Dolls in her life. I took some of the many pictures they shared with me and created a slideshow of just one of Jada and Millie’s room creations I liked and it is her Doll
School Classroom. I hope you enjoy it too!
Thank you Millie and Jada Sosa for sharing your idea's with our readers! I hope it inspires other's as to what the possibilities are with this dolly world~
Here are some questions and answers about this
School Room project with Millie.
Q. Which American Girl doll was this inspired
by?
A. The doll is the AG Doll Molly.
Q. How did you make your furniture?
A. The chairs are made of plywood, the chalkboard is from AG
school book, and the idea of making the books is from there and the letter
banner, butterflies poster, calculator, tissue box, crayon box, and folders are
from the AG school kit book. I use the doll to measure how long to
cut the plywood. I use wood glue and you could see it a bit because my daughter
made it and wasn't careful so she put too much. I recommend not using craft paint
like we did, get wood paint. We use craft paper for the walls and floor. We got
everything in Michael's (a local craft store).
Q. Where did you get your inspiration?
A. The table and chair was inspired by the videos we saw through
the years
Q. How much cost was involved?
A. The materials were about $15, and the AG kit cost $12.
Please go and subscribe to Jada’s You Tube channel JadaNmomFUN Sosato watch lots of
cute idea’s to make for your AG dolls!
Each of the items in the slideshow and in Jada's
videos were lovingly created by hand with the help of many of the online
American Girl Doll Craft projects that you can either purchase in a book form
from American Girl directly or just searching blogs or Google for craft idea’s.
American Girl sells craft books with projects and idea's for you to use your AG
or other 18" doll. Millie
recommends the following American Girl books that she uses with her daughter. There are many such books-and you can find these AG brand one's used or
new on Amazon.com or at Target.com. I have some links on my page to doll
toy sponsors that you can shop from the convenience of my blog! I have added a page that is a
store type setting-without ads and catered to your 18" doll needs from
these sponsors (I have done the searching for you). If you’re interested
in taking a minute to look you can shop from here.
Whatever doll house plan you decide on, have fun and take
some time to share in your child's world of imaginative play while they are
still little. You only have a few years
before they are off driving cars, and living their lives too busy to
'play'. Come join our group on Facebook
to share your creations and be inspired to help create some magical memories of
your own!
I will do one final blog post
for those Do It Yourself type that will provide some details on exact
dimensions, materials, and even some video links to aid you in tackling
building your very own AG Dollhouse.
Then comes the fun part of decorating it! Stay tuned! You can subscribe to Bloglovin and Follow my blog to be notified when I post something new.
~Jasmyn
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