American Girl Doll Sized Dollhouse

February 20, 2013

I should have been cleaning the bathrooms. Or meal planning. Or painting the rest of that room that is half done. Or trying to find out what exactly the mysterious odor is that lingers in my car….pretty sure the kids are to blame for that one.

But, instead of doing all of those important and wonderfully productive jobs, I spent the better part of last week turning a bookcase into an American Girl Dollhouse.

You see, I felt badly for my daughter’s Kit doll. She needed a home. She and her “accessories” were getting scattered hither and yon and I felt it would be in her best interest (and mine!) if she could have them (or at least some of them) all in one place.

So, I built Kit her own Home Sweet Home. And now I’m a little bit jealous of her.

I mean, she has hardwood (peel and stick) floors throughout, chair rails and even bead board (wallpaper) on the walls.

Kit even has hardwood floors in her bedroom. Sheesh! Now, I’m totally jealous.

My husband built her an attic using leftover scraps of wood and bead board. It’s screwed into the back of the bookcase with an ‘L’ bracket.

I decided that Kit would probably live in a house with a moss covered roof (scrapbook paper). I mean, she does come from the Depression Era so I’m guessing they didn’t have the resources needed for proper roof care.

Now, my daughter took one look at that roof and said, “where’s the chimney?” I tried to tell her that Kit was so poor that they had to take the chimney apart and sell the bricks to pay their bills but she didn’t believe me for some reason.

So, since “necessity is the mother of invention”, I got to work building a chimney.

A piece of brick scrapbook paper and a spaghetti box did the trick!

I was fairly certain that the attic needed a little round window but I wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish it.

I scrounged around trying to find something that would work and remembered this jar of Pink Himalayan Salt that I picked up so I could copy my sister’s Chocolate Dipping Spoons.

Who knew that pink salt could come in so handy? A piece of “sky” scrapbook paper and a dab (or two or three) of hot glue and Kit had herself an attic window.

One more reason to be jealous of Kit. She always has blue skies at her house! We live in Oregon so this is completely unrealistic for us but we decided that since Kit was already having to deal with life during the Great Depression we could at least give her blue skies.

With her scooter at the ready to take her on the next big adventure, Kit always knows that she has a place to call home.

Oh wait! It looks like Kit has a friend visiting. That would be Molly. But, she’s not just any Molly.

She is my Molly. The one I was given when I was a little girl. The one that was made by “Pleasant Company” before it was “American Girl”. She comes over to play at Kit’s house now and then and even though Kit always gets the cookie while Molly gets the vegetables (or nothing at all), they are still the best of friends!

I still have the original box Molly came in and her books and accessories. I’ll never forget the Christmas when I received her. And when I saw all of the “extras” I was overjoyed! A little stocking, a package from Molly’s father who was fighting in the war and all sorts of other little bits and pieces.

Many years later, I learned that while Molly and her Christmas dress were in the budget, her “extras” were not. My mother had lovingly and carefully replicated those accessories by studying the catalog and making them herself. The details were so perfect right down to the “stamp” on the package from Molly’s dad that I never even suspected that they weren’t the ones from the catalog.

Today, those “extras” hold far more value in my heart than even Molly does. Each time I look at them I imagine my mom secretly working on them and how thrilled she must have been when she realized that I couldn’t tell the difference.

I hope my own daughter will someday look back on her childhood and remember her mommy turning a bookcase into a dollhouse. Just for fun. Just because.

And I hope that she, like me, will feel all the love that went into creating something that fostered imagination and dreams.

Thanks so much for joining me today at the Fence and be sure to come back on Friday when I reveal my daughter’s Vintage Inspired Bedroom!

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