I Remodeled a House! ....... (okay, yeah, it's a dollhouse)

I (probably foolishly) took the week off of sewing this week in order to remodel a house! And yes, I don't mean my own home - I mean a display for my American Girl dolls. I've recently acquired some American Girl furniture pieces, and between that and my 15 dolls, my old shelves just weren't cutting it. So I found a free house shell on Facebook Marketplace, and put my own spin on it.
Do you collect American Girl dolls? And if so, how do you display your collection?
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[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

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[@kristalburns3490]

Remodeling a doll house can be as much work as a regular house. The wrapping paper as wall paper, try ironing it and attaching it to poster board then double stick tape that down. The windows are awesome!. Your flooring can be as simple as a nice slice of fabric that fits. For the 80's style room she needs a ton of posters and bits and bobbles in bright colors.

[@tephralynn]

For flooring you can use craft sticks/popsicle sticks, and glue them to poster board cut to fit the room. You can do a simple running bond pattern for the classic hardwood look or do something more fancy like herring bone or a parquet pattern. Then stain and seal as you like and pop the finished flooring in when it's all done.

[@angelaross1]

I know you are probably finished, but if yo do other rooms, use spray adhesive and attach to poster board. Then attach as “panel” to the walls

[@MissRoseTrucker]

You should print mini posters for the 90's Room! 🤩😍

[@roxiepoe9586]

You can iron paper. 1. lay down clean plain sheet. 2. decor paper layer. 3. top clean sheet. 4. iron. I also cut card stock to fit the intended area. Tightly cover the cardstock with the decor paper, folding over the edges to create clean edges. Then, double stick tape in. With velvet: I have NO idea!! Yours looks wonderful! Note: In the late 1960's, I attended Lincoln Junior High in Abilene, Texas. Our study hall was furnished with less fancy desks in the style of the one in your doll house. I loved those desks.

[@lynneh9744]

PS; chenille and velvet make great carpets. So does some damasks...Regency stripe fabric with the floral motif worked in is great as lower wall panelling. Small print fabrics also works well as wallpaper- you can hot glue all of that into place around edges and later it is easy to remove. Also you can use fancy braid for trimming half wall coverings or up near ceilings. Another good floor covering is using cardboard egg boxes torn up and glued in place, painted over in greys, and varnished over; looks like very realistic flagstones. You can do it onto a piece of stuff card rather than directly onto the floor. And crystal beads and broken jewelry makes great chandeliers and light fittings. Also, cheap peel and stick woodgrain printed vinyl tiles can be cut into strips or squares to make wooden floors, such as parquet floors or planking. Those windows look great!

[@arionrhod6383]

Iron the paper to flatten the wrapping paper!

[@pmclaughlin4111]

When I was a kid, I was absolutely in love with my neighbors waist high (to an adult) dollhouse. It will be interesting to see how yours is decorated in the future It may be a never ending adventure

[@robintheparttimesewer6798]

This brings back such wonderful memories of my grandfather making a dollhouse for my sister and I. He made it all himself. Grandma and a great aunt made a lot of things too. The lamps were wooden thread spools for the base. Fine doling with the plastic creamers on top to make the lamp shade. It was such a lovely gift. My sister and I are still upset that our parents got rid of it.

[@onegirlarmy4401]

For Kristen's room, you could use foam pool noodles from the dollar store cut in half to be used as a log walls. If you think pool noodles are too large, you could try pipe insulation. Also, you should fall down the rabbit hole of doll display shelf rooms like My Froggy Stuff does 🙂She has lots of tutorials about different ways to make and decorate houses.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I actually wound up doing faux log walls with contact paper for her room. There's an update in the little video I posted this evening.

[@Siansonea]

One thing you can do is to decorate wall inserts separately. You can cut the inserts out of rigid board or foamcore, and apply whatever paper or other decorative embellishments to the insert, and just tack the whole decorated wall onto the dollhouse wall with a few dots of hot glue. You can make a paper pattern of each wall to get the exact shape you need, cut out the foam board, decorate it flat (so much easier than trying to reach into a dollhouse) and then pop it all in. You can do the same thing with the flooring, apply whatever you're using to a separate foamcore board cut to fit the room, and you probably wouldn't even need to glue it down. The thickness of the boards will come into play, so you should do your back walls first, then your side walls, then your floor. The floor will also help hold the walls in place, though of course the hot glue would do most of the work. The advantage of this also is that foamcore is nice and flat, so your walls will look pretty perfect, and you can use rulers and the like more easily to make sure all your stuff is square and plumb. A nice finishing touch at the very end would be to build a face frame for the dollhouse, to hide the edges of the walls and floors, and make it look more like a piece of furniture almost. Just get some flatstock molding (you can have it cut to the lengths you need at the hardware store if you don't have a saw) and use small nails to tack them in place. Obviously if you need to move the dollhouse, you would have to remove the face frame temporarily.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Wow, those are great ideas!

[@ReneePowell]

The 90s room REALLY brought me back! I had the “American Girl of Today” with a bunch of her accessories, including the desk/computer, sleeping bags, and varsity jacket. I loved her so much.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I never appreciated the girl of today stuff when I was a kid, but I love it now!

[@911nmg]

About your question on collecting AG dolls and having dollhouses. I don't have AG dolls since I'm from Spain and never knew of them until a couple years ago, however dollhouses are my ultimate love, I have built one from scratch for my Mariquita Perez dolls (antique Spanish dolls from my grandma's childhood) and remodeled a couple others. Now I'm working on turning a kit into a 1920s cottage for the mailman and the teacher of a small english town (too much Downtown Abbey inspired me)

[@carolgalpin9334]

We made a house for our daughter's Sunshine Family dolls. Favorite accessory was handpainted pictures for the walls, done by my mother. Had some wicker furniture and some made by my husband. We had as much fun making it as she did playing with it.

[@nikigunn]

Dora does own the dollhouse. Your cat overlord owns everything. I made linens for a couple of dollhouses my friend made for his nieces, for Barbies instead of American Girl dolls. I made quilts they could flip over, sheet sets for the beds, throw pillows, and curtains. My friend hadn't even thought of curtains but he made curtain rods. He had working lights, doorbells, and it was fun to add to his project.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Wow, that's a lot of awesome details!

[@heatherkemp1846]

I think you should put 80s pop posters on the ceiling of the 80s room. I grew up and was a teen then, and we all had pop posters everywhere. Xx

[@lindagoesel3815]

Very cute. Can't wait to see it finished. Big box stores like lowes or home depot carry the type of flooring you need. Happy shopping.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks! I couldn't find any stick on flooring at Lowe's, so I still have to do some flooring updates, but I'm going to share a little house update tomorrow after the video goes live to everyone else, as I've made a few additions since finishing this video. ☺️

[@Lea-bw9wj]

This reminds me of when I was a kid I used a bookcase as a doll house for my Barbies. I used all sorts of scraps I found to decorate it. I divided the shelves with cardboard. Used gift wrapping ribbon as fancy edging around the walls. Hankies as carpet. What ever product box I could find that was about the right size as a bed, hankies as blankets. Because it was a bookshelf beds stuck out over the edge and you couldn't stand Barbie but I still loved it

[@dianaflener5616]

I LOVE your dollhouse! I want one now! I am a 62 yr old woman, sitting in her recliner, working on hand sewing a pink sweater for my doll (out of an infant sweater), watching you, a much younger woman, but still an adult, work on their doll house! Even at my age, I still love my dolls and sewing for them! I loved so many things that you did! Those picture windows - amazing idea! The contact paper on the walls - super neat! Have you thought about creating your own flooring on the computer and printing it out on paper. Instead of looking to find scrap book paper for the flooring, you can create your own! Also, on your velvet room - you talked about having the velvet not come up high enough. It might be possible to take down the wood trim, rip another strip of velvet to add above. Then where the seam meets of those two, you can hot glue a coordinating sewing trip piece over where the two velvets meet. Then add your wood piece back on top of the top velvet. It’s good to see other adults who have dolls enjoy creating many different things for them! I have a few doll pieces / accessories I don’t mind giving you for your doll house - just pay actual shipping from me to you. Let me know if interested and I can send pics of what I have. I enjoy all things on your KZbin channel. Thank you for doing the work to film and create your videos. Keep creating what makes you happy! Diana

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Ooh, printing flooring is a great idea! The reason I had the velvet stop where it did is because I don't have a way to cut the wood trim, and I wanted the wooden trim to go around the entire top of it (meaning it had to go under the window). What sort of dollhouse items do you have? Would you mind either dm'ing me on Instagram, or emailing me at [e-mail] about them?

[@pai009]

If you're worried about the window in the 90s room, you could put a scene in the window. Then cover the side, picture in the window and all with contact paper to cover the fact that there's a random picture there. This way the light won't damage the doll, and you can still have it look nice with the window. Also, doing the fix on the other side so it doesn't just look like 2 pieces of furniture randomly put together.

[@kriscook2423]

So pretty. You're giving me inspiration to work my little thrift store dollhouse. You're never too old to renovate a dollhouse. It's lots of fun cause it doesn't cost several thousand dollars.

[@sally-annebuck4550]

This brought back memories of when I was little in the 1970's and making doll house out of a cardboard box and glueing bits of pages from old catalogues and magazines. We didn't have American Girl here, but we had Pippa dolls, about half the size of Barbie, that we played with instead. Really enjoyed watching this video 😊

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks! This is definitely an upgrade from my American Girl setup as a child - I had a cardboard box wrapped in wrapping paper with a dowel through it as a closet, plus a wooden Target brand bed set next to it on the floor! (Though to be fair, I did have a really nice Barbie house).

[@kathyjohnson2043]

You can dry-iron wrapping paper to get out ripples.

[@911nmg]

I know it may be a lot of work but I love popsicle stick flooring because it looks very realistic and can be stained to match any furniture or trim

[@cherylrosbak4092]

Very cute. Popsicle sticks make excellent flooring. Just water down some brown paint to stain them.

[@lesasmith427]

Put fabric or paper on poster board. You can get it most anywhere. It’s thin enough to cut with scissors. You can change a room easy.

[@SherBear88]

You could totally get the floor tiles from the $1.25 store and use that as the flooring in the doll house. They also have cute peelable wallpaper on Amazon that you can use as flooring in the doll house..

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I didn't find anything from the dollar store that I liked for flooring, so I'm still looking for that. Maybe I'll check out Amazon and see what they have.

[@jeansando6849]

Dora just cracks me up! I love how she just takes over.

[@christinehodgson7948]

If you move the house halves apart, you can add shelves between and have 3 more rooms. If you get catalogs, you can cut out pictures you like and frame them with card stock. You can also go around and see if shops have old wallpaper books. Voila, fancy carpets and wallpapers!

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I wouldn't have room for more width, but it's an interesting idea!

[@rhondalong152]

LOVE how it came together. Looking forward to future updates as the dollhouse progresses

[@foxylovelace2679]

Dolls really freak me out, but I super love that you love them and do all these crafts for them!

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I totally understand that. For some reason, most other dolls freak me out, but not American Girl or Barbie

[@samanthakessel7285]

@@LadyRebeccaFashions I have that issue with the dolls that can open/close their eyes.

[@jodieroundtree488]

Get press on flooring at home depot. You can buy by the 12x12 piece and cut with a straight edge to fit. There is wood look even. Marble, etc. about 70 cents each. Don't forget mod podge is easy! For paper or even fabric!

[@RuneyDude84]

Love this! Edit: I’m also working on a dollhouse right now, and I’ve been really struggling to figure out how to make good-looking windows. Picture frames is SUCH a good idea!!! I’ll definitely be using that myself.

[@bunhelsingslegacy3549]

I still have all my dollhouse furniture, even though the wooden dollhouse my dad made me when I was a kid in the 70s is long gone. I think the furniture is actually packed away in the box from a model car I built in the 90s... either the black corvette or the orange firebird.... For flooring, you might be able to find some "samples" from open boxes at Home Depot of their floor tiles that could be made to look like wood planks or a tile floor. Or heck, felt would work as wall to wall carpeting like was done in the 70s, 80s and 90s... or sheets of dollar store craft foam could be scored into planks or tiles then painted to look like any kind of wood or tile floor you wanted.

[@e.urbach7780]

That turned out super cute! I wanted a dollhouse when I was young, and my dad got my sister and I a dollhouse kit that you had to put together, but we never put it together! We wouldn't have had any space in our rooms to store it anyway ... For attaching the wrapping paper as wallpaper (or any other paper or fabric) that you want to be able to peel off afterwards, you can cover the wall underneath where you want the paper to go, with painter's tape, and then hot-glue the paper or fabric on top of that. If the hot-glue only gets on the painter's tape, then the whole thing should be perfectly easy to remove later. I think the wrapping paper needs to be smoothly glued to some white poster board or some thicker paper, and then attached to the wall, and it will not sag in between the pieces of tape. Also, I think you might end up needing to put a clear glass door or something on the front of the dollhouse, to keep the furbabies out!

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Oh wow, that's a great idea! And luckily, Dora hasn't been interested since I started putting things inside (and Lion hasn't ever shown interest, except when the paint lid was on the floor of the garage!)

[@MysteryMommy1]

Wallpaper and flooring samples were what I used 40 something years ago

[@jenniefowler4968]

Dollar tree has peel n stick wallpaper pieces and other wall accents that could work for doll houses

[@morrowdimtindomiel]

Just when I think that you couldn't surprise us with a totally different video topic, you drop this content. I love it! I have no personal interest in AG dolls or accessories. But, I cages enough of your AG content! Thank you for inviting us on so many of your little journeys via video.

[@beckybanta126]

So lovely & fun! I join the chorus of others that would like for you to continue to show us what you are doing or have already completed. Super windows. Attaching wallpaper on cardboard panels or similar is rather simply & sturdy. Wonderful work, Rebecca!👍🥰

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I'll be sharing a little update video shortly!

[@melissamybubbles6139]

Nice work. The dolls and accessories are nicely situated in their new house.

[@TealCheetah]

How nice of you to get Dora a new house :P

[@dotmann40]

This is so cute! When I did a dollhouse for my daughter's AG dolls, we used vinyl flooring from Home Depot to cover the floors. It cuts easily and isn't very expensive for a panel or two.

[@denisebennett3144]

House looks amazing. Well done. Be careful, dolls houses are very addictive.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks! American girl in general is so addictive!

[@lilykatmoon4508]

I adore miniatures/dollhouse stuff. I’m making a mushroom house out of paper mache and craft sticks for a gnome/house spirit.

[@adamreynolds9816]

Love this set up. I’m currently maintaining a large Barbie house. Custom made from 2 IKEA Billy bookshelves.

[@firecracker3911]

Fun! So exciting!

[@ingajohannsdottir1180]

Cute!

[@kirabowie]

I LOVE doll houses!! I love what you're doing with yours! That computer is sooo cute! And I love the room at the top!! The faux windows came out great!! 😍

[@zephiel70]

Hurray! A friend just got a doll house she wants to renovate, so this is definitely inspiring 🥰 it looks great so far, Rebecca!

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks!

[@rhondalong152]

I have an extra bedroom which I call my Dollcave. I have 3 My Girl's Dollhouses, 2 armoire(1 divided into two rooms, and the other divided into 5 rooms, 5 Ikea Stuva Frames (3 medium and 2 cubes), a 2 room Dollhouse I had made(which was broken in my move),that I've divided into 3 rooms and another room on top of the other Armoire, total of 36 rooms and over 127 dolls

[@margarethall1625]

This is soo awwdorable. I have Samantha's bed and commode plus Josefina's table and chairs and weaving loom. Right now they are stored with my dolls and part of my DVD collection in a cupboard in my room. I'd love to have better access to them so maybe some time in the near future I'll be able to do something like this for my dolls.

[@kelseypeterson5172]

I love how you did the velvet on the walls! That looks so good! And the picture frames as windows! I don't have a house for my american girl dolls, but I do have 4 barbie houses, one of which is in storage as I don't have enough room in my current actual house, and I make things for each room all the time. Appliances, bedding, furniture, decorations, I've even made a barbie sized sewing machine! It's fun to decorate and change it up and I have a lot of furniture I've acquired over the years so there's plenty to go around. The few american girl dolls I have currently just stand on one end of my bed with my stuffed animals since I haven't got anywhere else to put them yet😂

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Woah, how did you make the sewing machine? That sounds really cool!

[@kelseypeterson5172]

@@LadyRebeccaFashions Thanks! It is! 😊 it's mainly craft foam and cardboard, with a piece of a toothpick painted silver to be the needle, and some buttons I had to be knobs. I actually followed a tutorial from another KZbin channel called myfroggystuff, she does lots of doll sized crafts using ordinary things and recycling things most people throw away. I want to figure out how to make a older model machine for my dolls at some point to match my personal sewing machine, because the one I made for my barbies is more modern style as that was the kind in the video I was following. But it was fairly simple to make. I would imagine by just scaling the sizes up it'd be possible to make one for american girl dolls too, if you're interested, but I haven't tried it myself yet as I don't really have anywhere to put ag sized furniture.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

@@kelseypeterson5172 thanks!

[@lynndragon2536]

my mom used the decrotive scrap booking paper as wallpaper in her dollhouse when she built it and some fabric in places she wanted 'carpet'

[@Bexinmo]

90's girl needs some posters for her walls.

[@HockityPock]

ahhh, my inner child is screaming in jealousy that you have Samantha's pretty gold edged plateware. The dollhouse altogether makes a lovely display, there's obviously a lot of care and thought in it. (my samantha sits permanently in a third party knockoff student desk at my parent's house. someday i'll have enough space to display her properly!)

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

That was an amazing steal from an estate sale! Now I just hope to find her party treats to go with them!

[@wheenmist]

Love it. Hope to see the fully finished look. Home Depot has miniature moldings and such.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks! There's another short video up with the finished look (or at least, how it is so far).

[@elainehoffman7709]

I do not have an AG dollhouse currently, but I have seen woman taking Ikea cubes and stacking them together to make AG doll rooms and making it into a huge dollhouse. Your dollhouse is probably more solid and durable.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I've seen people use the pax unit from Ikea as well, but I figured that would be too tall for my space.

[@marjonantoons7538]

Your videos make my Tuesday night. Leaving the day behind me and laying in bed and watching you make something nice! Thank you!

[@EilonwyG]

I wish I had room for something like this! As it is, I need a new book shelf for books, but man would I love to have this! Of course, mine would have far more asian ball-jointed dolls, as I only have two AG dolls (I almost bought the limited edition Sapphire girl back in December, but I couldn't swing getting her). Sadly, my girls are just sitting on a pile of stuff from all my crafting.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Lol, I really didn't have room! That's why it's right in my living room!

[@kathyjohnson2043]

What about framed miniaturize fashion plates during the time period?

[@asiabryant207]

I love this idea

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Oh my gosh, I love that. I did do a little update with some framed 18th c paintings! I'm going to post a little update tour later today.

[@patriciapost962]

Love ♥️ seeing what you’ve done so far with the dollhouse. Makes me want one too. Maybe some day. I have 8 dolls right now, thinking about number 9, and they need a house. Yours is so cute! And so lucky to find for free.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks! Yeah, I found that once I passed 12 (and started getting some furniture pieces) that a house like this became inevitable!

[@carlawegner7156]

My mom and I loved this video! Makes us want to get a dollhouse but we don’t have space…. I hope you can find some wood looking contact paper. Maybe a flooring sample cut to size?

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Thanks! I mean, I didn't really have space either. That's why it's in my living room! 😂

[@Worldbuilder]

I can *so* picture an old kitchen in that bottom left room for some reason… :)

[@mikeymullins5305]

when i was a kid i partioned off a corner of my room to be my doll house. I had a big peice of cardboard that i cut a door into and some very grand plans... hovewer i dont think it lasted terribly long

[@Wingedshadowwolf]

I don't know about Dora, but my cats would probably try to hang out behind the dolls.! You might want to get some plexiglass(or actual glass) doors for the front.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Luckily, she hasn't shown any interest since the furniture went in!

[@lilykatmoon4508]

I LITERALLY had almost the exact same computer throughout college and grad school, lol!

[@kayta84]

Love the velvet trick! It looks so good ❤ for wallpapers/floors have you looked up stick on wallpaper? It works like contact paper but it have more patterns and textures since it's wallpaper😊 or stick on vinyl's? And it's not too much stripes, never too much stripes!

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Most of the wallpaper I was seeing was more than I wanted to spend. That's why I was mostly trying to go with dollar store items!

[@MiyaP_AG]

Whenever people talk about pink and frilly like Samantha, I just think about the fact that in her book, she actually doesn’t even like the color pink that’s why it was so confusing to me on why they did her be forever doll in a pink dress

[@onegirlarmy4401]

The 90's girl needs a Titanic poster!

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Haha! I love that idea.

[@shawpaperiekas600]

Every time you said commode I thought you meant a toilet. Didn’t realize there was another meaning for that word. 😂😂

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Yeah, I'm guessing it meant something different in the Edwardian era? 😂

[@JanealJohnson]

The 90's room needs cute boy posters

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

😂

[@sandiemable]

Great video Rebecca; I would ask for a play date, but I live too far. LOL! xoxo's Sandie

[@hattyburrow716]

Hmmmmm, I think commode means something different in America….here it means a movable toilet 😹

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Yeah, I think it usually means toilet here now too. Maybe it was different in the early 1900s?

[@KaloCheyna]

Could that wrapping paper sit flatter if you press it flat with a dry iron before attaching it to the wall?

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Possibly? Too late now!

[@Knackiwoman]

part 2 of the barbie cosplay plss

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

Coming out next Tuesday! 😉

[@Knackiwoman]

@@LadyRebeccaFashions ok thanks

[@qienna6677]

Please post an update in your community tab, I don't use Instagram.

[@LadyRebeccaFashions]

I posted a new video on here yesterday with the updates!

[@qienna6677]

@@LadyRebeccaFashions Thank you