Tag / operationdollshouse

by jo

Operation Dollshouse – Part Two

So last week we left the house as a shell which needed some personality, with gorgeous furniture inside but already Madam has decided she needs a bathroom. As luck would have it, she was ill on Monday still so Shaun stayed off with her and the two of them added paper to the inside of the house, and decorated the roof with orange ’tiles’. It reminds me of a kind of Dubrovnik orange – and looks fantastic.

dollshouse-2

There wasn’t enough orange paper to go round so I had to head to Poundland on Tuesday for their bargain packs of paper and fabrics (£1 of course!) – where there was a matching shade as well as some fabulous scraps which have since been made into carpets for the houses.

tuesday

Tiger Stores have some fabric tape in stock at the moment (for £2-3), as well as some really good sticky paper (£3) so I bought a few bits – and these were used on the carpets as it’s good strong tape but easily moved. The sticky paper I used on the other side of the carpet – both sides are on some light card which is just slotted into the house, mainly to strengthen but also in case H fancies changing the carpets – then she has two options for each floor; the scraps from Poundland or a design from Tiger! It works pretty well.

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One thing H feels she’s missing is a bathroom – it was our local car boot sale today and I found someone selling some Le Toy Van pieces (including ones from the starter set!) but no bathroom bits – and anyway we need to build an extra room for that! We did get some chairs which will fit in well, there’s just no room (but now I’m thinking a roof terrace on top of the bathroom.. ha, I’m getting a bit carried away here…) – but this is the joy of making the house this way, you can do anything.

So right now we’ve fully papered walls, floors and the roof – but we’ve still the outside of the house plus the chimney to do, as well as the bathroom.. and I just found a bargain Le Toy Van set on ebay! We’ll see how things go… H may have to earn the set through good behaviour… (is that mean?)

by jo

Operation Dolls House – Part One

We’re big fans in this house of making toys using cardboard boxes. For ages H had a car, which was essentially a box with four glued on wheels and the Mario Kart Wii wheel for steering – the rest was H’s imagination – and she loved it! The car had to be written off, the box converted instead into a pirate ship which has lasted just as long and is just as loved. Recently we’ve come to the decision it’s time to recycle it – it lives upstairs and isn’t played with as much (if only you could do that to all toys), so my next idea was hatched – we love The Mouse Mansion by Karina Schaapman which is about a house where mice live made from recycled material (it is amazing) – and while we’re not at home for long enough to do anything which comes close to that, a simple dolls house would work.

The right kind of box was procured, then it was finding the time to put it together. Any good dolls house needs some preparation time – so H and I spent one Wednesday morning doing potato prints to be used as wallpaper and carpets. I fully intend to go through my scrap fabric collection and make H some curtains for the house too.

Operation Dollshouse

So today Shaun and H assembled the box to make what will be her new toy. A roof was made (with a chimney), as well as a floor so the box was broken up into two rooms.

We were sent a Le Toy Van starter pack of dolls house toys which are a perfect size – and also fit all her Playmobil toys nicely too. The furniture is all wooden and gorgeous – another incentive to make sure the house looks fabulous when it’s finished.

Le Toy Van Furniture Starter SetRight now H’s imagination is off, and she was playing with it immediately. The house still needs some work (the aforementioned windows and decorations), but it does seem like H may miss nursery tomorrow, so Operation Dollshouse may be finished sooner than we think… I love anything which gets her imagination going, you don’t need to buy the best toys to have the best imagination.

Operation Dollshouse

We’ll be back with more updates on how the house is going… this is only the start (I give it a week before we’re ‘building an extension’…)

We were sent the Le Toy Van set for the purpose of review from Dollshouses.co.uk – all opinions are our own. All Operation Dollshouse progress can be followed on Instagram with the #operationdollshouse hashtag (by myself or Shaun)