Tag: dollhouse

My Sims 4 Pink Victorian House

It’s a mix of twee and cute with creepy and sinister elements. Much like my own house, hey-o!

A few of you had asked to see my Sims house when I shared our 2017 video games recommendations, and I’m happy to oblige. I’ve shared my Animal Crossing home before, but the building mechanics here are so much more open, meaning I could make a much more interesting and true-to-life house!

This one isn’t completely ‘done’ since it’s my active household. As my family makes more money, I remodel and add on. The social interactions and leveling up of abilities in the The Sims 4 are fun, but I play the game as a big virtual dollhouse and the building/decorating aspect is my favorite part.

The living and dining room are open to each other, and the kitchen is at the rear of the house.

There’s a back door that leads out to a porch and the yard.

Back inside on the first floor, there’s a hallway with a bookshelf at the end, leading to the first floor bathroom on one side, and an art studio on the other.

There are two more bathrooms on the second floor that look very similar, so I’ll just show the one.

The art studio! Ah, this is my fantasy. Painting in my jammies while my well-behaved toddler dances cutely beside me. (So close to real life.)

You can see from the floor plan that there are stairs heading down to the basement. It’s mostly empty down there for now. Then I learned how to make the attic usable while building a different house, so I did the same to this one. The exterior is a tiny bit different from these screenshots since I popped up the room along the sides with their Victorian dormers.

Up to the second floor! Three bedrooms, two baths.

I wish I could upload this to a sharing gallery, but I’m playing on our Xbox and they don’t have that feature. It also means that my builds have no CC, just base game, Vampires, and Vintage Glamour Stuff content. (I have zero interest in playing as a vampire but the furniture and decorations are the best.)

I hope it’s still fun to see though, even if it can’t be added to your Sims’ town. (And even if you don’t play The Sims!)

December 13, 2017
A Little More Dollhouse Progress

I’ve been painting the exterior of the dollhouse off and on, and I’ve finally finished. I asked Eleanor what color she wanted and I’m pretty sure she named every color but orange, so in the end we went with green.

It still isn’t finished though. There’s a front porch that I left off, and now I’m wondering if I should add it. I think there are shutters in the box with the porch too. This is an example of what the house could look like.

The window boxes and shingles are extras that didn’t come with the kit, but I’d like to add something like them to ours too. Do you think the front porch is a good addition though? It makes the whole thing a little more breakable (I’m thinking of August here), but maybe it’s more fun to play with a house that has a little overhang.

September 28, 2012
Choo Choo

We took a little trip to Berwyn’s Toys & Trains yesterday. It’s on Route 66, just a 10-minute drive from our house.

Kathryn told me about the place, and indeed, it is the stuff that little train-loving hearts dream of. Big train-loving hearts, too.

Given the time and money (because dag, it’s a time-consuming and expensive hobby), I’d probably have a miniature town set up. I was always enthralled with the attic recreation of the town in Beetlejuice. And hello, I worked my butt off on the dollhouse. As for the train part of the typical scale model setup? Whatever, that’s a bonus. I just want to make perfect little gardens and houses, with a cute but quaint shopping square, and funny little details.

I’ll settle for arranging and rearranging our Thomas toy train table with the kids. For now.

March 15, 2012
A Dollhouse Made Lovely

Well, I think I’m the only one that actually has a dollhouse to show you today from Emily’s original group of participants. I’m amazed though by the creativity and hard work that was put into dollhouses by the people following along with this whole crazy project! (Thank you, everybody.) Here are some of the people I’ve noticed, but please leave a link in the comments if I missed you.

Go Haus Go • With Two Cats • Warm Hot Chocolate • The Creative Salad • Change of Scenery • Silly Eagle Books • Redesign • Whiteowl: Found •Fleurishing • Coccoon Home Blog • My Mod Style • Call of the Small

I’ve been working on a Walton dollhouse, courtesy of Melissa and Doug. It’s been fun to follow along with this challenge, but I’ve really been making it for Eleanor. She loves it already, even though she’s a little young for it at just two years old. I hope she’ll enjoy it for years to come. I’ve tried to source things below but unless otherwise noted, you can assume everything came from eBay. Here’s a closer look inside…

The Kitchen and Dining Room

I bought a kitchen set and only intended to use the stove and fridge from it, but I ran out of time and just used the sink that came with it as well. I have a farmhouse sink that’s really cute, but it needs to be assembled. I’d also like to eventually make some cabinets and counters, sew a little skirt for the sink, and put up a backsplash. The dining wall also needs some large art, and a table! I rested a gift box lid on those little metal chairs. The light is a knob that I’ve had for years from Anthropologie, and the table settings and food all belonged to Brandon’s mom and grandmother. The paint color is Dill Pickle by Benjamin Moore.

The Living Room

The tiny Jonathan Adler vases are from the Adler Barbie couch set we already owned for me Eleanor. The credenza is awesome and handmade, from OneFortyThree. It was my big furniture splurge in the dollhouse. The white wire chair is an ornament from CB2, and I already owned the mini Barcelona chair. The tea cart was a gift from Cassandra (thanks!). The gold folding screen and little accessories belonged to Brandon’s mom and grandmother.

The wallpaper is one of my favorite things in the house. Tiny houses! I also had some amazing wooden flooring to go in the room, but it’s going to be labor intensive, so I left it white with a sheet of woven scrapbook paper as a rug.

The Office

This room was going to be the nursery, but then I switched things around at the last minute. I already had the chair and chaise, but there’s no desk (oops). The accessories were in with the other little things from Brandon’s mom and grandmother. The rug and bookshelf were eBay finds. And eventually I’ll finish the stairs throughout the house. The paint is Ribbon Pink by Benjamin Moore.

The Bathroom

I showed you a lot of the bathroom before. The tile, dresser, and mirror were from eBay, and the slippers and ‘His and Her’ towels were from Brandon’s mom.

The Bedroom

I intended to sew bedding, spray paint the bed, and make some art for the room, but I ran out of time before the deadline. I made the rug out of leftover furry fabric from Eleanor’s Halloween costume. Again, I already had the chair, but added a kitty to sleep in it. I painted the dresser pink and hung a toy camera from the knobs.

The Kids’ Bedroom

This was going to be an unfinished attic, and the kids’ bedroom was going to be what is now the nursery, but then I realized that the two beds wouldn’t fit in the other space because of the stair opening. I made the mattresses out of two pieces of foam core, sandwiched together with fabric on top. I intended to make bedding, crafty pendant banners, cute artwork, and so on and so on. This room is the least finished of all. There’s a wee dollhouse though! And an Eames rocker that I had. The paint is Benjamin Moore’s Pink Peony.

The Nursery

The bird pattern is wrapping paper, and Eleanor chose the crib fabric. I had that white chair already, and the dresser was an eBay find. The rug is the same as in the kids’ bedroom and the living room: woven scrapbook paper.

The (Almost) Finished Dollhouse

I will eventually finish the things I wasn’t able to get to, without the pressure of a deadline. Eleanor (and August, if he’s interested) is still young, so there’s plenty of time. I didn’t do the stairs, which I had put so much thought into, and I didn’t even touch the exterior! I’m really happy with the end result (so far) though, and Eleanor is over the moon about it.

December 15, 2011
Like a Peeping Tom: A Peek Inside the Dollhouse

Here’s a little peek into the dollhouse from the outside. It’s ready (enough) to show you today, but I won’t be able to take and edit photos until I get the kids down for a nap later.

* It’s up! Take a look, right over here.

December 15, 2011
The Mad Dash Toward the Finish Line
I’ve spent all weekend dollhousing. My father-in-law has been instrumental, further cementing himself as perhaps Eleanor’s favorite person. While I painted and wallpapered walls, he built the foundation. Then he picked up the pieces to build the frame (my mother-in-law assisted in the building process too), while I moved on to painting windows and furniture, and making bedding.

* My site was down all day yesterday, so the first half of this post was originally set to go up Monday morning.

I’ve made a lot of progress in just one day, thanks to my in-laws (for assembling), and Brandon (for watching the kids so I could work)! It will not be completely finished by the deadline of December 15, but it’s getting closer.

Here’s a little peek at what the dollhouse is looking like now.

Still to do:
- build and attach the dormers
- paint the exterior
- add shingles to the roof
- build the front porch
- paint/stain the stairs and railings
- glue the ribbon runner to the stairs
- flooring for all rooms
- trim out the windows and doors
- add baseboards and crown molding
- sew curtains
- finish sewing all of the bedding
- make/find a dining table
- make/find a desk (if including an office)
- determine which room is which (I made some last minute switches)
- make/find end tables and nightstands
- lighting for all rooms (battery powered or just decorative)
- make art for all rooms
- build counters and countertops for kitchen
- assemble the farmhouse kitchen sink
- sew a sink skirt
- add a fireplace
- arrange and decorate all the rooms
- paint the exposed edges
- touch ups
No, there’s no way to do all of that by tomorrow (so that I can photograph it to show you on Thursday). I’m not just working on this for the challenge though; This is going to be Eleanor’s dollhouse. She’s only two, a bit young for the dollhouse, so there’s still plenty of time to finish it for her.
December 13, 2011