Simple Dollhouse Makeover

I love a good dollhouse makeover. From my research, it seems like a lot of people spend months painstakingly adding super small details to every room and spending a lot of money on excess decor. In this blog post, I break down some simple and cheap ways to give a doll house a major transformation.

Simple Dollhouse Makeover

I am so fortunate that my parents invested in some higher quality wooden toys that my minimalist mother just happened to save. Now that I have a family of my own, my mom is passing down some of those toys to us. I am so thankful! With a few quick changes, I was able to do a simple dollhouse makeover on my childhood dollhouse.

There used to be a 1990’s version of a Makerspace, where as my mom describes it, a bunch of older men would get together and do wood working together and sell what they made in a little store front. She bought a set of children’s table and chairs, a doll high chair and bassinet, and a dollhouse from them. My mom saved all of them and now my daughter gets to enjoy them as well!

Original Dollhouse

This was the dollhouse that I had growing up. I spent hours playing with this dollhouse. I think the wooden hearts on the top are quintessential 90’s and I love the color palette that my mom chose. It even still had a few fake plants on the window sills and the top two windows are broken and held in place with packaging tape.

My mom also painted the inside rooms.

I wanted to give the dollhouse a facelift and make it a little more gender neutral. I knew I could fix the broken windows, replace the sparse flower beds, and make it look a bit more polished.

Simple Dollhouse Makeover: Exterior

First, I removed the wooden hearts at the top of the dollhouse and did an overall wood fill and sand to the entire piece. I gave it a fresh coat of paint: Silverado Sage by Magnolia Paint is the green color, No Limits by Sherwin Williams HGSW 1461 is the deep navy color, and Pediment by Sherwin Williams is the off white color.

I’m still not super happy with the front door “windows”, I may come in and fill them in later. I may also add more greenery or small little pots to the front steps.

I used a spackling knife to remove the trim around the top two windows and I replaced the window pane with a similar plastic that I found on a cheap picture frame. You can’t really cut this kind of thin plastic. (You score it with a blade and then break it!)

I really struggled to find small florals that I could put in the window boxes. It seemed like dollhouse flowers were going to be really expensive. Instead I bought this faux foliage from JoAnns and glued on the leaves to the flower boxes. I think I like the overall more neutral look.

Simple Dollhouse Makeover: Interior

Scrapbook paper for Wallpaper

For the interior I thought it would be fun to do something a bit different than just paint. I loved the thought of “wallpaper” and incorporating some fun patterns into the house.

I found this collection of scrapbooking papers at my local JoAnns. It is Park Lane – Sonoma. I fell in love with the geometric and floral patterns. I also love that it had some “wood” paper, which is perfect for floors. You will need to buy two packs of paper in order to have enough to cover three walls in each room.

(Whenever shopping at JoAnns be sure to use coupons! I got this stack of paper for $3 on a super sale.)

To size the scrap booking paper to the walls and floors I placed a corner of the paper into the upper corner of a wall and simply gave the paper a crease at the floor and exterior of the wall. I then used my paper cutter to give it a clean straight cut.

To adhere the paper to the walls/floors I used double sided tape. I knew this may not be the best long term solution, but I didn’t want to use a strong adhesive that would ruin the walls. I can always try a hot glue gun, replace the paper, or decide to paint the walls if this doesn’t work out long term.

Room Tours

The following are close ups of every room. I discuss the furniture in the following section.

This scrapbooking paper was my favorite! I also felt like the original floors in here were good enough to keep exposed.

Another room with the paper wood floors and fun floral wallpaper.

This tile floor is actually the tile floor my mom made with a ruler and pen for when I was little. It was still in pretty good shape and I love it, so I incorporating it into the renovation.

I love how the paper wood flooring turned out!

Another favorite paper. I love the dark green florals with gold accents!

I thought the paper I used in this room looked a bit like tile. If I used a patterned floor I tried to use a more subtle wallpaper, so the little room didn’t feel overwhelming.

Plan Toys Dollhouse Furniture

I am so happy that my mom also saved all of my dollhouse furniture from my childhood. It is high quality wooden furniture from Plan Toys, which you can purchase in the US through Bella Luna Toys or other small retailers.

To my surprise, the Plan Toys dollhouse furniture has not changed in 25 years, so you can purchase this exact same furniture!

We also have a lot of additional pieces like play kitchen food, lamps, books, and other small knick knacks. My daughter is still little and we have a baby on the way, so I decided to keep the decor simple, at least for another few years!

Sustainability

I love giving my childhood toys or toys that I find second hand (like our play kitchen) a makeover so they can serve our family for years to come. Reusing toys through different childhoods keeps those toys out of landfills.

Higher quality toys that can last a generation or through multiple children typically cost more than their cheaper plastic alternatives. This gorgeous dollhouse from Plan Toys is everything I would love in a dollhouse, but we cannot afford the $380 price tag. Buying second hand is a great alternative!

You can also look for brands that are focused on sustainability. Plan Toys use water-based colors, glue that doesn’t contain formaldehyde, and uses leftover sawdust to create their “PlanWood”(™), which they make their toys out of.

Plan Toys even makes a Green dollhouse complete with solar panels, wind turbine, recycling bins, rain barrel, and more.