Artofit

Samantha's brass bed was a $5 Craigslist squee. Embroidered pillow from the thrift shop. Frame from dollar tree with black and white photos of Venice from the computer. Wooden floor is contact paper. Rug is a placemat from cost plus. Guitar was bought from a street fair. Rocking chair, brass ice bucket and ice beads, plant holder and blanket rack were all from the thrift store. Champagne includes an ornament and bottle of bubbles. Blanket made by Oma. Window from Dollar atree. Scarves from the thrift shop and $.99 Only store

A Barn in the Countryside for Horses & Entertaining

Tour a 5-stall barn in the countryside with beautiful stalls from American Stalls. This space is designed for horses and entertaining.

I have a lot of historical dolls as you all know by now, but what I don’t share often is my modern dolls. I thoroughly love my historical dollhouses, but sometimes it’s fun to work with current styles and design. This summer my husband and I started a five-room dollhouse for the Truly Me dolls of my collection. In my post American Girl Place Chicago you all got to meet Ella and Emma. They are my two Truly Me 61's that I dress as twins. The modern dollhouse is to be Ella and Emma’s home and has two floors. The top floor consists of three rooms: Emma’s Bedroom, Ella’s Bedroom and a shared Walk-In Closet. This house is the first of my houses to feature real doorways leading into other rooms. All of my historical rooms are complete without any sort of pass through. As I started designing the twin’s bedrooms, I wanted them to have very different themes and personalities. I chose to create a personality for Emma’s room as a girl who is trendy, smart and loves to read. Her room is simple and clean, but has her favorite things near. Emma’s bookshelves are filled with her favorite American Girl books, camera and a real working Etch A Sketch. In the corner sits her Julie doll and on the bed a giant chair pillow to relax on with a book. [gallery ids=1163,1164 type=rectangular] I am completely hooked on buffalo plaid! I tend to choose it in my own home decor and my wardrobe. As we started the modern dollhouse, I knew one room must be designed around buffalo plaid. 😀 When I mentioned it to my husband, he suggested we do a feature wall in the room with shiplap and here we are! The house shell is an IKEA Pax cabinet, but larger than the usual one we use. This particular one is 93” tall, but it is laying on its side, so we get a house that is nearly 8 feet long. I bought two add-on shelves to be the rooms walls and they are nailed into place since the normal brackets aren’t made to hold them in this position. Before installing them, hubby cut doorways into them. The doorway leads into the walk-in closet and continues on to Ella’s room. Emma’s room is 28” tall x 29” wide x 22 1/2” deep. The bed is the American Girl Canopy Bed. I painted it black and added Emma’s name to the foot board. I bought two buffalo plaid tea towels for the fabric. I couldn’t find what I wanted in the fabric section (imagine that), but these are perfect. One towel is the bedspread, the other towel I cut up and made two pillow cases and an accent pillow for the chair. The chair originally was blue and went with Girl of the Year 2008 Mia’s bedroom desk. I painted it with a gold metallic paint and really was impressed with the result. [gallery ids=1157,1155,1165,1156 type=rectangular] On the wall I wanted to get the look of an old barn window. The “window” is an empty picture frame and the wreath is garland hung with twine. I bought three gold glitter picture frames and printed out pictures of animals wearing glasses for two of them 🤓 and used the third one on the nightstand. The nightstand is a craft box I painted and added pulls to. The working lamp is from the dollar store but I painted the ugly shade gold. [gallery ids=1151,1160 type=rectangular] I used Cricut vinyl gray paper for the wall covering to mimic gray paint. The vinyl is very easy to work with and doesn’t run or puddle like paint would. Hubby cut lattice to be the shiplap and I painted it lightly with white craft paint. I didn’t want any form of gloss so it would keep a casual, rustic feeling. The wood is glued onto a piece of foam board that we cut to the appropriate size. We did this because it is much easier to keep the shiplap in straight lines and didn’t require as many nails. We used finishing nails to attach the shiplap wall to the back wall of the Pax. [gallery ids=1161,1159,1156 type=rectangular] I found the antelope head at Target. It was perfect just the way it was! The house shaped shelf was white and I painted it gray. The pineapple (which I decorate with in my own home) is a pepper shaker. The Rubiks Cube and Etch A Sketch are real working miniature toys. The succulent plant is from Target's Dollar Spot. I painted the pot gold because the terracotta didn't go with the theme. [gallery ids=1172,1177 type=rectangular] The free-standing bookshelf is three cubes I found at Michael's. I removed the drawers and painted them black. The light fixture is a locker light and the geometric shape works perfectly with the room. The E above the bed is a refrigerator magnet. (Ella has a matching one.) I wrapped twine and twinkle lights on the canopy. They give a nice soft glow. [gallery ids=1174,1175 type=rectangular] I hope you love Emma’s room! To see details about Emma & Ella’s Walk-In Closet, Ella’s Bedroom or Emma’s Room: Christmas Edition visit the posts! Sleep tight Emma. 💗

I have been asked on several occasions to do a tour, of sorts, of the rooms of my dollhouse. The house has seen several changes over the years, and with each I have thoroughly enjoyed the process: from contemplation to design to completion. However, much like a real house, the spaces are ever evolving, out of need or just for whim, so another update will probably be in order in a few years! Collectors of anything, whether it be dolls, thimbles, soda cans or even cars- all have one thing in common: they need a space to display or store their collections. So in my house, when the dolls and their things started multiplying, seemingly exponentially, it was time to start thinking of building a dedicated space for them. And that meant a house. A doll house. Of course for dolls that are 18" in height, a less than what I shall call ordinary house was in order. It would need to be tall enough to accommodate the dolls, wide enough to fit furniture with room to maneuver and deep enough to set up scenes in. So it would need to have some moderate size to it. I started out by making lists of the spaces I could imagine wanting to create for the dolls. I consulted my girls, who at the time were both under 10. (This project's first incarnation dates back to 2008). They wanted bedrooms and a bathroom. I wanted a classroom, a colonial kitchen, a living room. We'd have to do some compromising. I decided upon four boxes each measuring: 24"D x 48"L x 28" H And I wanted to add a bonus attic space on the third floor for Kit and her things. The boxes were built in the basement, then very strategically and carefully carried up and set in place. They are comprised of two long plywood boxes stacked on top of one another, thus creating four separate spaces. The attic was added separately, later on. The house is located in a first floor guest bedroom that also doubles as my sewing room. I knew I wanted the rooms to have windows and I wanted a door. I tried to place the windows in sections of the wall that I felt would best suit various types of rooms, as I wanted to be able to change the rooms and their time periods when it suited me. Walls were primed and painted and floors were covered in leftover pieces of carpet and engineered wood, repurposed from other real house projects. The kitchen floor was taped off and painted in the checkerboard pattern. I added trim around the door and windows. Later I added interior bars to the windows. After decorating and adding furniture, for a long time the house looked a bit like the pic below, though not always quite this tidy: This picture was probably taken back in 2009 or 2010. My two girls and their modern dolls had their bedrooms, Addy had her bedroom, we all agreed on the kitchen and Kit had her attic space. Everyone was happy. But like most houses, through the years, there's been a need for remodeling and updating. Or maybe just because I love and embrace change. Notice that the kitchen flooring had been repainted early on, changing from the blue to black and white. That's me and my ever present need to refine. Last month I decided that I needed to make some changes, yet again. Now it's latest arrangement looks like this: No grand sweeping changes, just some cosmetic tweaking and furniture swapping. And I'm happy to have added a 19th century parlor to the mix. I still don't have my colonial kitchen though. Now the tour.... A 19th CENTURY PARLOR Would Addy have had this refined of a living space? Not likely, but she is of course enjoying it anyway. Many of these items here you may recognize from various American Girl collections: Caroline's parlor and accessories, Rebecca's settee and kittens, Felicity's nightstand and tea caddy, Cecile's desk and Kit's flowers and vase. The other items are all found or made objects that work well for a parlor setting. The little rug was gifted to my by my mother in-law. It was purchased by her sister, who lives in Italy. Look at this little crystal door knob I fashioned from part of a wood finial and an acrylic bead. I cut the top off of the finial, painted the base gold and hot glued the faux crystal on- and voila- vintage knob! Addy's a bit curious as to what is on the other side of that door.... SALLY'S ROOM Sally collects Hello Kitty. And loves Japanese anime. The little shelf is just a small piece of wood that I cut and routed then mounted to the wall with wood glue. I very recently added the door, complete with hinges and tiny knobs. I had wanted to add a door from the house's inception, but just never seemed to find the time to commit to it. All the little pieces and parts that comprise her room were collected over a span of several years. The better percentage are actually not items purchased from American Girl. They were found or made objects from a host of sources that work perfectly in scale for the dolls and the room. THE KITCHEN This is the room that has seen the least amount of change over the life of the dollhouse. I committed to the two windows, and mounted the cabinets to the wall making furniture placement limited. I don't mind, as this arrangement makes the most sense. Kit's stove works seamlessly with Molly's table and chairs and American Girl's Sweet Treats Bakery Case, from a few years back, functions perfectly as a peninsula in the space. Much like a real house, everyone seems to gather together in the kitchen. KIT'S ATTIC SPACE Kit could't be more happy to have her own space- to share with Ruthie and Grace too, of course! The walls are constructed of plywood. I stained and added trim pieces in strips along the walls to mimic an unfinished attic space. Here Kit sits and types out her newsletters and stories. KAYLA'S ROOM My 10 year old claimed this room for her doll Kayla (seated) and went about arranging the furniture to her liking. I think she did a great job. Kayla is a bit of a social butterfly and is always inviting this friend or that friend over to play the Wii, giggle, gossip and eventually raid the kitchen. The white dresser is a vintage jewelry box that I stripped and repainted. I painted the mirror to match the rest of American Girls McKenna's neon green room accessories. More eclectic mixing of American Girl goodies and found objects. Another view. For this picture I am standing, or rather shoved into, the far west corner of the room, in an attempt to capture the house in it's entirety. And following the theme of change...if you haven't noticed, you can see, my 10 yr old had her way just in the last few days with the kitchen space and was happy to remodel it with the addition of the red Our Generation kitchen. She had always pooh-poohed Kit's stove and thought an updated modern look would be more appropriate. I'm not sure I'm sold. But if it keeps her interest in the dolls for just a little longer, then I'm happy. And just for a chuckle...my oldest and her amusing antics... It appears that someone has slipped through the time warp door and discovered a found object of her own! I keep removing that darn laptop (don't want the universal laws of time and space to go awry) and somehow I keep finding it again and again seated with Addy. Hmmm... Miss Addy looks innocent to me. ;) But my 13 yr old claims her innocence as well, so who to believe?? Have any questions about any of the items seen here or about the dollhouse? I am always happy to answer. Teresa

Welcome to Kirsten’s Cabin! I loved the Kirsten books as a child and always wanted to live in that cabin. The series describes it as a one room cabin on Uncle Olav’s farm. This is the first home the Larson’s had in America after immigrating from Sweden in 1854. With much help from my husband, I created my interpretation of that cabin. The cabinet or shell is an IKEA Pax closet system. After running numbers on different options at the hardware store, we decided this was the best and most affordable option for us. The unit I chose is 78” tall and 39” wide and cost $90. I added on 2 adjustable shelves at $15 each. This created three separate “rooms” stacked on top of each other for displays. Kirsten’s cabin is 25” tall and 22.5” deep. There are two identical sized “rooms” above her. This size is just enough room to hold all of her furniture pieces, except the trunk. [gallery ids=104,107 type=rectangular] As I grew my Kirsten collection over the years, I stored all of the accessories in her Pleasant Company Trunk and her furniture in storage tubs. I tried displaying her pieces on bookshelves and would switch them out from time to time. Now everything is neatly displayed and visible, with the exception of her clothes that are still stored in the trunk. [gallery ids=99,100 type=rectangular] I chose peel-and-stick vinyl flooring to cover the walls and floor. My husband used a nail gun to secure the vinyl to the walls. Using historic photos for reference, I wanted as many things hanging on the walls as possible. My husband cut pieces of trim and molding to the sizes I specified to make the shelves. He drilled holes in the two large ones and cut dowel rods to be the pegs. I rubbed brown craft paint on them and wiped it off immediately to create a stained appearance. The windows are pieces of molding and the outdoor scenes are pictures I printed off on to copy paper. I used two different place mats as rugs, to separate the bed and table. [gallery ids=103,102 type=square columns=1] Most of the items are from Kirsten’s Pleasant Company Collection. I added little pieces that are size appropriate to the shelves to fill them in. The arrowhead, Blue Willow China and the grinder (a pencil sharpener) were all purchased at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home gift shop. The windmill and trinket box are from Kirsten’s trip to Holland, MI during Tulip Time to see DeZwaan Windmill. She also got personalized wooden shoes! The red lantern is a Christmas ornament. [gallery ids=108,105,106 type=rectangular] I love that I get to see my collection everyday. My husband and I really enjoyed creating the little cabin and have went on to create more rooms. To see other historical rooms in my doll house, take a peek at these: Addy in Mrs. Ford’s Dress Shop, Kit’s Kitchen, Maryellen’s 1950s Diner and Addy’s Parlor! 😊 [gallery ids=109,110 type=rectangular]