Dollhouse Makeover - The Kitchen

 Dollhouse Makeover - The Kitchen

This is the second part of the series about the revamping of my daughter's dollhouse. As the whole endeavour had so many elements and different things that needed to be made, I decided to rather do each of the rooms as a separate post. This specific one will be focusing on all the little details of the kitchen. 

The kitchen proved to be a bit of a challenge for me. My daughter already has a plastic kitchen set she got for her birthday, and she absolutely loves it, so there was no way I would be able to make or build something else for her, or even paint them another colour - so I had to work with what I had. 

As mentioned in my previous post about the structure, I started with the walls and floor. I did the floor a few years ago, using mosaic tiles, which I simply pasted along the bottom to make it look like a tiled floor. The little square tiles did not fit the floor area precisely, so I used smaller white mosaic tiles around the edges to fill the gap. These little tiles also proved impossible to remove, so I decided to keep them as they were. 

What I used for the new upgrade:

Grey vinyl

Small and large craft sticks

Printed pictures

Laminating pouches

Old dishcloth

Green Felt

Domestos bottle cap

Magnets, bought at PEP

Old leftover fabric

For the back wall of the kitchen, I decided to go with a wood paneling look, using crafts sticks and white paint. I also used these craft sticks, with the rounded tips cut off and painted white, as skirtings round the walls of the kitchen. 

Above the paneling, I added some grey vinyl, so the walls appear to be painted grey, with the two side walls still white. 

I then placed the kitchen set inside the room and started working around it, as it took up quite a bit of space. My daughter had a small fridge and cupboard that came with the dollhouse when I bought it, but they were actually too small for Barbie dolls and did not fit in with the new pieces, so I decided to remove them. I kept them aside however, in case I could use them for something else later (be sure to read the upcoming posts to see what happened to these pieces).

For the window, I took a leftover piece of fabric and simply cut it into a square, making sure that it fits the window. I took a larger craft stick and stuck the fabric to the stick and both of these to the top of the window, using my mighty glue gun. 

I googled some pictures and found some really nice ones of leaves, which I printed, with a thick black frame. After cutting them out, I laminated them and stuck them to the side walls with prestic, to serve as wall art. 

I also bought some super cute magnets at PEP and stuck these to the back wall with prestic. The magnets fit perfectly, as they have measurements and a kitchen cheat sheet on them, which I thought was ideal for a kitchen setting.

Using some leftover green felt that I had in our craft supply cupboard, I drew and cut some large leaf shapes. I took the cap of an empty Domestos bottle and painted it grey, to serve as a plant pot. Using my trusty glue gun, yet again, I stuck the leaves to the inside of the cap, and voila, a beautiful pot plant. 

As luck would have it, I had an old dishcloth, which I cut into smaller pieces, hanging them around the handles of the kitchen set to make them look like dishcloths.

To finish off, I placed the small appliances and items that came with the kitchen set and put them around the kitchen to complete the look. 

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the plastic kitchen pieces, my daughter absolutely loves them and is absolutely thrilled with the new kitchen, which in the end, is all that really matters.  

And since I actually had all the things I needed for the makeover, the whole kitchen cost me only R11.99 for the magnets. Not too bad, even if I have to say so myself.