Have you seen this floating around the blogosphere?
A few of the big time design/renovation/DIY bloggers are teaming up to put on the “I’m A Giant Challenge” – a challenge to design your own dollhouse top to bottom! How fun! And boy, could you splurge on some really great wallpaper if you only need 1 square foot of it…
The challenge is being hosted by the hilarious and awesome Emily Henderson from HGTV USA’s “Secrets fr0m a Stylist”. And I’m very excited to see what she, and the other bloggers come up with!
Emily's Dream House
It’s a challenge I’d love to participate in if I had any spare moment to do anything with my hands other than rock a baby. And if I knew it wouldn’t be used as a garage for Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train. Ah well… maybe when my kids are a bit bigger (and less likely to put all the furniture in their mouths) I’ll embark on such a project with them!
But I’ve actually did help create a dollhouse few years ago to teach a series for our church kids’ club. We were telling the story of “The Hiding Place” – and the house is an essential detail to the story.
Our dollhouse model of the 'Beje' - the "Hiding Place" house
Our dollhouse-sized model was built by the talented Mr. Ranson – a man who helps with the kids clubs at our church year after year. He even taught the kids how to do woodcrafts for many years.
It’s a copy of the Beje – the house that Hollander Corrie ten Boom lived in when she and her family hid Jews from the Nazis during World War II. It’s a crooked old house, with mismatched floor plan, a watch and clock shop out front, and a secret room built into the wall of Corrie’s bedroom.
The misaligned floors from the new house being added onto the old house
The watch shop at the front of the house with photographs of the real Beje and owner Casper ten Boom
Corrie's bedroom with the closet door that opens into the secret room
I painted each of the rooms and printed out tiny clocks and family photographs to hang on the walls, but had no time or resources to hunt down any furniture. But I recently spotted a few dollhouse furniture items on UsedRegina that may work! The seller even has items like a piano and a grandfather clock, which would fit so well with the story. My fingers are crossed that the furniture will fit. (I’ll let you know if I end up getting it!)
But back to the challenge, a used dollhouse would be a great starting point if you wanted to get involved, don’t you think? Who knows what kind of treasures could abound? Here are a few things I found:
If you're really crafty, this adorable Victorian dollhouse kit from UsedRegina be lovely!
Or if you're not crafty - or you're lazy - and you live in Sault Ste Marie you could buy this one!
Some would consider this move in ready, others might want to call in the decorator... Either way, this house on UsedVictoria is AH-mazing!
This big, beautiful two-story on UsedCowichan looks like it's still in need of reno's - perfect for the challenge, and ripe with design possibilities!
This well-priced vintage tin house on UsedEdmonton is worth checking out! (What toy manufacturer these days could ever get away with mounting a gun over the fireplace...)
And look at all of this beautiful miniature furniture! (Or maybe it's regular-sized furniture beside giant bottles of dish soap and sunscreen... hmmm...)
And how ridiculously groovy is this party pad on UsedOttawa?
And this is only a tiny (pun intended) smattering of the dollhouses out there on UsedEverywhere (possibly about to be renamed UsedDollhouses.com). And don’t worry, if you’re looking for one that real children can actually play with (you know, the hearty, plastic, washable, Fisher Price kind) there are lots of those too!
