Making it Lovely

Tag: I’m a Giant! Challenge

  • A Dollhouse Made Lovely

    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.


  • Like a Peeping Tom: A Peek Inside the Dollhouse

    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.

  • The Mad Dash Toward the Finish Line

    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.

  • The Dollhouse Floor Plan

    The Dollhouse Floor Plan

    The dollhouse is starting to take shape! Figuratively speaking. The actual dollhouse is still very much in its flat-pack form. I’ve been waiting to assemble it because the instructions recommend painting and wallpapering first. So that’s what I need to concentrate on now: choosing paint colors, determining the layout, and deciding which wallpapers to use where. Here’s the plan so far:

    I’ve shown the pink/lavender bathroom fixtures to you before, and the dollhouse wallpaper and stair runner choices too. As for the layout, there’s an eat-in kitchen on the first floor, along with a large living room. The second floor will house the bedroom (with a bed like this, perhaps?), bathroom, and nursery. Two kids are sharing a bedroom on the third floor (inspiration photo here), but I’m not sure what to do with the other room up there. I thought about leaving it as an unfinished attic, complete with boxes and miscellaneous stuff strewn about, because come on. That’s funny. Right now I’m leaning toward making it into an office space, or maybe a craft room. Any ideas?

  • The (Mini) Bathroom Fixtures are Here

    The (Mini) Bathroom Fixtures are Here

    Hmmm. I wanted them to look like candy, but um, they don’t. They look like badly glazed dollhouse furniture.

    Do you think I should try to repaint the fixtures, or leave them as-is? I do like how luminous the glaze is, even if it is terribly uneven. The bathroom will be the small room on the second floor of my dollhouse. I think I’m going to use that gold patterned paper as wallpaper, and I’ll probably make a different mirror to go above the sink. The ceiling will either be wallpapered along with the walls, or it will go shiny gold.

    I’ve been thinking about this whole dollhouse challenge. I think there are two ways for me to go about decorating mine…

    • Tastefully decorate the house so that the only way you could tell it’s a miniature is with a coin in there for scale. Design each room like I’d design a real room, just scaled down.
    • Go crazy and kooky. This is not a real house, dang it! Why not have gold ceilings and pink fixtures and hot pink stairs with striped runners (not that I’ve decided yet)?

    I’ll tell you, I think the second option sounds like a lot more fun. It’s a fantasy! Why not fully embrace that?

    How many of you are working on dollhouses along with us? How are you approaching yours?

  • The “I’m a Giant!” Challenge

    The “I’m a Giant!” Challenge

    I’ve really been feeling the urge to just start decorating a whole new house from scratch. I love our home, but there’s something to be said for starting at the beginning again. So I’m going for it. A whole new house!

    OK, a whole new dollhouse. Is it weird to be as excited as I am about this? Because I am very, very excited here.

    Emily Henderson is putting together the biggest little challenge in blogland: The “I’m a Giant” challenge. Here are the bloggers participating:

    …And you! We would love to see what everyone else out there can come up with. Oh man, Etsy. Prepare thyself for the onslaught of searches for dollhouse furniture.

    “Eleanor is going to have a really awesome dollhouse someday.”

    That’s what I said two years ago when Brandon gave me the miniature designer chairs that you see above. So I have a good start, but dollhouses are not furnished in chairs alone. I’ll be looking for miniature furniture, making things, bringing in lots of color and pattern, and decorating my heart out. I loved making shoebox dioramas and decorating my dollhouse when I was a kid, I loved creating models when I was studying architecture, and I’m going to love this challenge. I’m doing this for me, but also for Eleanor and August. I want to create something so magical for them that not only will they love it, they’ll also want to share it with their kids and tell them about how their mom made it.

    I adore the way Emily describes the challenge.

    It’s like a virtual Quilting Bee. Just a bunch of people crafting together and not making each other feel weird. Let’s not be ashamed of having a ‘hobby’. Let’s not be afraid to love the detail that goes into miniatures, the workmanship, the obsession. It’s a forgotten craft that we are going to give its due respect.

    There are big plans to organize a show in LA of the finished houses, and we’d like to feature your projects there and on our blogs. So, do you want to get in on the fun? We’re going to start now and finish our houses by December 15. Of course we’ll all be sharing our progress as we go. I’m using a Walton dollhouse courtesy of Melissa and Doug for the challenge (and they’re offering 15% off with the code DH15 if you want to use one of theirs too). You could also make one, get your own, or maybe find a vintage house that needs some love. It doesn’t even have to be a traditional dollhouse, or even a room! Think art project. Think conceptual. Just think of something, because we want you to play along too. We want to spread some fun, see some creativity, and work on a big internet craft project. Together.

    Obviously I’m in. Are you?