In the midst of our own farmhouse restoration, there has been another much smaller farmhouse restoration going on in the nursery. This week I wanted to give you a tour of the girls’ dollhouse that we have been fixing up together.
Two years ago I found this little gothic revival style dollhouse at a local flea market for $15. Some of the gingerbread fretwork was falling off, shingles were missing, the door was broken, and it was very dirty, but overall the tiny farmhouse was in great shape.
The mauve and baby blue color scheme was a dead-giveaway that the last owner of this tiny farmhouse hailed from the 1980s. That color combo was all the rage back then. I was born in 1985 and I remember my bedroom having baby blue floral wallpaper with mauve carpet and a mauve ceiling. So the first thing we did was paint the exterior white to give it an update and to match our real farmhouse.
Since we named our baby Avonlee you might has picked up on the fact that Momma is a huge Anne of Green Gables fan. The girls are finally old enough to enjoy the books and movies along with me, so they didn’t mind when I suggested we paint all the gables, shutters, and trim green.
We even found a doll that resembles Anne Shirley to come live in the tiny farmhouse. Over the past 2 years, the girls and I have been carefully hunting, collecting, and curating all the pieces for Green Gables. Together we scoured thrift shops and flea markets as well as hand making many things for the doll house. It has been such a fun mother-daughter project to do together, but I think we are finally done with the makeover! So today we wanted to invite you to see a tour of the tiniest farmhouse…
The Living Room
We cut out lovely pictures from magazines and hot glued them to cardboard frames to create pint-sized gallery quality art for the farmhouse. Just like in real houses, artwork makes all the difference in making a house feel like a home.
The Kitchen
Right off the living room is the kitchen. This is probably my favorite room in both my real farmhouse and in the doll-farmhouse. I found the mini cast iron stove at a flea market and we added the handle from an old broken paint brush as the stove pipe. Several of the hard-to-find pieces like the kitchen hutch and dishes were birthday gifts we requested from family. I believe they are from Hobby Lobby.
The Bathroom
At the top of the spiral staircase is the tiny bathroom. We made all the flooring throughout the farmhouse from popsicle sticks, but in the bathroom I cut the sticks into tile-like squares rather than the planks that are in the rest of the house. Cami Grace carefully painted each square white to mimic Carrara Marble and then I hot glued them to the floor in a diagonal pattern. We gave the girls this $10 bathroom set from Ebay for there Valentines Day present last year, and I made the shower curtain from a scrap of an old dress.
The Bedroom
This cozy space is where you will find Anne whenever her mommies aren’t playing with her. The bedroom set was a Christmas gift from Grandma, but the beautiful hand embroidered bedspread is an antique handkerchief I found at Goodwill for $.99. The rug is a picture of a rug we cut from a Restoration Hardware catalog. I may never be able to afford a real rug from them, but this rug was free!
The girls have spent countless hours enjoying their Green Gables farmhouse and I hope you enjoyed the tour as well. I know I can trace my obsession with interior design back to my childhood dollhouse. My Dad and I designed and built it together when I was a girl. Rearranging and decorating it was a favorite activity of mine. I love that I can continue this tradition with my own little girls.
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Please join the conversation by leaving a comment below…
This is just darling! Brings back so many memories of me playing with my dollhouse! Mine had little electrical strips in it that enabled me to have lights in it! I spent hours decorating and playing. I still have it and all the furniture and maybe someday I will have a little granddaughter to share it with. I enjoyed seeing every bit of this 💗💗
Wow, that sounds amazing Tracy! Electric lights! You are going to be the favorite Grandma someday for sure! Thanks for stopping by the blog.
Oh my word….this is every little girls dream….it is PERFECT!!
I always wanted a doll house when I was a little girl.
You amamze me with your talent and I bet the girls really enjoyed this.
You need to do this with your granddaughters to make up for your not having one when you were little. It would be a fun bonding and giggle time with those sweet little girls!
This has inspired me to start looking for my granddaughter who will be 2 this month. I am SO in love with this little farmhouse though not sure if I enjoy looking at pictures of it more than the big one. I love everything you do!!
Wow. I am so impressed. I love all the sweet tiny details.
Thank you Mel, we are having so much fun together finding things and making things for the dollhouse. Glad you stopped by Green Gables for a visit!
It is absolutely adorable. How fun for you and your daughters. You had me at the popsicle floor!
Haha, too bad we can’t use popsicle sticks for flooring in real houses. Thanks for stopping by Green Gables.
I love this!!! How beautiful, and what a treasure for your daughters! My childhood dollhouse was a hand made one-story ranch my Grandma bought at a yard sale. I spent hours decorating and playing with it! I no longer have it, but recently my 18 year old daughter and I decided to fix up another second-generation dollhouse. She is artistic and comes up with the neatest items from household materials and clay! You’re never too old for dollhouse fun! (I love that you love Anne of GG, , too!!!)
You are exactly right! You are never too old to play with a dollhouse. I love how it brings so many generations of ladies together to enjoy nesting in the tiniest of nests! What a precious joy to share a dollhouse with your daughter! Glad you stopped by Bryarton Farm and our little Green Gables for a visit.
The Dollhouse of Petronella Oortman The Dollhouse of Petronella Oortman painted by Jacob Appel (1710). Below, the dollhouse itself. Petronella Oortman was a Dutch woman whose elaborate dollhouse is part of the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Her dollhouse was the inspiration for the 2014 novel The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.
I would like to mail you something to give to your girls. Do you have a po box or store in town I can send a small care package to?
I’m not a crazy person,just a mom with two small girls (and a boy).
Warm regards,
Annie from Arizona
This is adorable! I found the exact same doll house (but painted differently) for my daughters at an estate sale for $15 too! They were sooo excited to bring it home. I have left it as is so far and we haven’t got any furniture yet. I’m saving the furniture for birthdays, Christmas, etc! That will make it easier to build up a collection and makes great gift ideas for people. I usually always say books when people ask what to get the girls but doll furniture is now on the list! 💕 We love the way you decorated yours and the popsicle floor is great idea!
Sarah Jo, this is just so sweet!! I absolutely love doll houses and I’m 35! I always enjoy looking at the winner at the State Fair every year, incredibly detailed. When I was a little girl I played so many hours with my dollhouse. I cut pictures out of magazines for art, too! My grandma had a dollhouse at her house my sisters and I would play with every time we visited her. Just the other day I was rummaging in my parent’s attic and came across an old plastic bin with all my dollhouse things, I was ecstatic! The dollhouse is a goner but I am so holding onto all the cute things and people I played with inside. It brought me back to my simple, carefree childhood and made me so happy. Maybe I’ll have a daughter one day to share these items with. For now the Lord has blessed me with 3 boys!
You are a kindred spirit