Okay. Wow.
So it became sadly apparent that my two year old is NOT ready for the epic dollhouse I made her. Any time she got near it she quite deliberately destroyed it. I don’t mean she was a bit rough. I mean she grabbed the door with both fists, propped her foot against the wall, yanked until it came off, and then turned and handed it to me.
That’s why instead, I made her something even SMALLER. But also, something that took a lot less work.
Ever since she was born we have read my daughter Goodnight Moon before bed. It’s one of her very favorite books. She found it in the bookstore the other day and plopped herself down on the ground and wouldn’t leave until I’d read it twice. So I couldn’t resist the opportunity to recreate it.
The fire place and lamp light up, but the house doesn’t. It was going to, but the house I built was too big, and I wound up cheating and just making yellow windows. I made most of what you see with the exception of the bunnies (purchased online, but I did make their clothes), the phone (3D printed), the elephant and giraffe and mouse (purchased online), the kitties (ditto), and a few things I printed: the tiger rug, the three pics on the wall, and the fireplace.
Here are some closer details!
The curtains were a massive pain. I glued strips of green ribbon on yellow fabric. It doesn’t look like I hoped it would, but it’s okay. The books were also a massive pain, and are glued on. I bought the elephant and giraffe, but made the creepy dolls out of clay. The little clothespins are from the dollar store and the mittens and socks are cut from fuzzy gloves
The little mouse on the fireplace is a charm. I have like twenty of them now because they don’t sell them individually. I glued down anything tiny like the mouse because let’s face it, she’s going to eat it if I don’t. Most of what you see here is clay: the tools, the clock, the candlesticks, (most of) the lamp, the brush, the bowl full of mush. The rug is cut from a dollar store placemat. The fireplace is made from foamboard and wood, and the picture frames from foamboard. I did buy some cheap dollar store doll furniture (the bed and rocking chair and round table), but I had to completely redo them to make them fit the house.
The phone is 3D printed, but I made most of the rest of this. The bunny’s clothes were incredibly difficult because I HATE TO SEW, so I got super lazy, glued white fabric to him, and drew the stripes on with marker. The bunnies are the one thing that can easily be removed for her to play with. Most of the rest of this stuff is glued down, although the drawers on the table do open for some reason (because I like to make things difficult???)
Here’s the same view again, but with the rocking chair and the old lady whispering hush added back in. I did that tiny bit of knitting on toothpicks. It was unpleasant. It is also glued because I will be super annoyed if it gets unraveled (and the ball of yarn is glued, too, because I’m not going to spend my life rerolling it).
The house turned out okay. I was disappointed because I wanted a bigger one with a tea light (battery powered, obviously) tucked into it and cut windows. I actually made it, but it was too big for the space. The whole thing is set inside a plastic basket from the dollar store. I cut foamboard for the ceiling, glued red felt for the carpet, and modge podged green paper for the walls. The only issue is that the edges are just a tiny bit curved, so things don’t lay quite as flat against the walls as I would like. But I was willing to sacrifice this in exchange for a sturdier base, and I couldn’t find a wooden box in the size I wanted for less than $50.
So there it is in all its glory. I’m generally pretty happy with how it turned out and hopefully the kid will actually get to play with it a bit before she tears it completely asunder!