Kinley's Doll House Birthday Present!

      First blog post ever!Please excuse the mess I'm sure this will be as sleep deprivation and typing doesn't seem to go hand in hand too well for me. 

This project was such a labor of love I wanted to document it some how and seeing as Im not a blogger, I really didn't consider it at first.... That was until I got into it way more than I planned. I had set out with the intentions of getting a doll house, buying some furniture and that was that. Well dang ol' pinterest stepped in and introduced me to the wonderful world of mini's (doll house miniatures that is). Why is it that the tinier something is the cuter it seems to be?... puppies, babies, fiats? is it just me? anyways I plan to start this blog detailing how all this came about and my true surprise at my ability to make the things that went in, and even more so the genius behind most of the things I made.

After deciding I wanted to give Kinley a doll house for her birthday, I jumped on craigslist and what would you know, not 30mins earlier a lady had listed this....

By the next morning this lovely was in the back of my car headed home. Ill try to go through with lots of pictures and explain what all I did along with links to where I got ideas and tutorials. 

 starting with the outside. I repainted the white with delta creative, oyster white, I purchased it from hobby lobby. For the grey trim I used Annie Sloan's chalk paint, I had wanted to try it out and thought this was perfect trail run. I bought a sample size of French Linen and have a ton left, it goes very far. The roof and door I stained with BRIWAX, tudor brown. Adam helped me reattach the roof in the back where it had been broken off. I also attached the door as it had been broken off.

Firstly let me share where mostly all my inspiration came from Kris Compas. She is a genius and her things are so amazing! please check out her blog! she has wonderful ideas and is a master at the art of creating super realistic mini's. you can find her blog here

 here is the back, you can see near the top where I still need to figure out how i want to finish the part that was broken on the beam... and I'm not crazy bout the raw edges, but will get to that a little later.


The Kitchen: I made all the furniture in the house except for the fridge, stove, range hood, and sink and lower cabinets. The upper blue cabinets are made from mat board and a frosted paper for the glass with pins for the pulls.  Not sure if you can see it but i also made a small roll of paper towles that are sitting on the counter by the sink with paper and a small dowel rod. 

The table and chairs  are made from mat board and knitting kneedles. And the kitchen hutch is made from mat board with the pulls being pins. 

Here is a peak into the living room! I love this room! wish I had taken a better picture. The deer is one of my favorite things I made. It is so fun! I made it out of a pink cardstock I found directions here, and just sized down the pattern on my computer. for the curtains, I used a dowel rod and bought some very small eyelets at Joanns. After making several of the pieces from Kris, I took a leap and made the sofa table, its a replica of an Ethan Allen, I then made the chair and sofa, based of a Ballard Designs. Ill post more photos of those below. The lamps are made from paper.I used Kris's idea of cutting a long triangle with one straight edge and then wrapping and wrapping to form the base, it is attached to a button and I used, kris's idea for the lamp harp. The ceiling fan is from Hobby Lobby and would be workable if I had wired the house. It was just too much money. (p.s. Ethan Allen and Ballard designs give you measurements so it makes it easy to convert to 1 12 scale) 

Here is a little bit better look at the sofa and back of the sofa table. You can't really see here but the magazines are so cute I took cover photos of some Better Homes and Gardens and Living and printed them on shiny photo paper then scored and folded them in half and glued down. (set printer to max dpi to get best results)

I made the pillows using no sew glue.

Here is a not so great look into the up stairs bedroom. I re-papered the whole house using cute scrapbook paper I bought at Hobby Lobby. I found the best way to get all the angles was to to take computer paper and just gently align it in the area and then use my boning tool to make a crease where the paper needed to be cut. I dry fitted that until it was a good fit and then cut my cute paper.  The bed is made of mat board and cardstock, the mattress and box spring is made of foam board and a little felt for padding and then covered in cotton fabric.... also a tutorial from Kris. I made another paper lamp but this time made both side of the triangle angled. The yellow piece is modeled after a wonderful primitive piece, it was actually the first piece of furniture I bought for our married life. Ill post a picture farther down, but to make it more personalized I stitched a K for my daughters name on the white pillow shams and added a scrap book sticker K to the decorative pillow. I will be replacing the carpet and will need to finish off the raw edge. 

Another look at the yellow piece I also printed of a picture and stuck it in a frame to go above the fire place. The frame was originally gold and had a very not so cute picture in it, but you can buy them at Hobby Lobby. 

The nursery.. so I lied earlier I forgot about the things in this room... I didn't make any of them except for the curtains and I printed the picture which you can't see either. I did re-wall paper, make the mattress and baby quilt. I found the metal furniture at an antique store along with the wooden rocking horse. I would like to add more to this room maybe a changing table but that will have to be in the future. I still have her birthday to get done.... next blog perhaps? 

Oh, I forgot on the out side I put small flowers, just little piece I pulled of of bigger fake arrangements and added the light (hobby lobby) 

here are a few more close up photos these were as I was finishing at 3:30am so the lighting is terrible and they are iphone pics so I apologize. Hope you enjoyed it! Sorry I know it was long! If you have any questions or would like a tutorial on something I did let me know and I can see what I can do! Thanks! I hope she loves it Ill update with her reaction.