Rich Toys Vintage Dollhouse Tour: 9. Girl's Room

I want to take a moment to remind you that a section of the roof was cut and a board inserted to create a third floor for the dollhouse. Although I had initially planned to make a staircase from the boy's room to access the floor above, I changed my mind. The residents will just have to levitate to the top floor, won't they?

Adding the third floor allowed for two more rooms to decorate. This picture shows part of the cut section and part of the red chimney.

Just an interesting note here:  the first floor of the dollhouse is 8" high, the second floor is 7" high, and the top floor is a mere 6" high, and that's at the peak! So furniture placement is a challenge on this floor, to say the least!

The blurry-beige-curvy-things you see sticking out in the foreground are craft sticks. They are glued on to keep the removed section of the roof from falling through when it's put back on for storage. Also, when the dollhouse is in storage, there is a piece of plexiglas to fit the play side (open side) of the dollhouse further protecting it during the months the dollhouse is in the closet.

Prior to renovation, the girl's room was located on the second floor in the middle (current boy's room) and shared space with all the nursery furniture. Now, located all by itself, the girl's room presents nicely, showing off all original 1950's furniture. The bedspreads were handmade by my mother from material left over from one of my childhood dresses. Ever creative, mother used pink nail polish to paint the two lamp bases and the old radio to match the color theme of the girl's room.

The "Hodge-Podge" room is next... 

Rich Toys Vintage Dollhouse Tour: 8. Nursery & Necessary Room

The delightful nursery is located above the kitchen next to the boy's room. Oh, I see the twins are in trouble already! They were supposed to be down for their naps... 

The endearing, adorable nursery continues to be my favorite room in the house. I love the charming furniture & accessories and smile every time I look at this tiny space! No, we didn't have that many babies in our real family, but who can resist pink & cute & cuddly?

Here's a closer look at some of the nursery pieces:

Comfy blanket, mattress & pillows mother made

The children's chifforobe and nightstand:

Note another rug made by my grandmother!

And the toy box with the twins wearing grandmother's hand knit diapers!

I know I have way too many pictures of this little space, but I LOVE THIS ROOM!!!

Since you have had a peek at the bathroom, let's go in and look around... 

This diminutive bathroom holds all the essentials:  sink, toilet and tub. There's a bit of room left for a blue hamper and a tall, narrow shelving unit for towels and whatnot.

Grandmother made the toilet seat cover and rug

This section of the house where both nursery and bathroom are now located was formerly just one large bathroom. During the renovation, I carved out a prominent place in front of the large bathroom for my favorite room and squished the bathroom furniture way back. In general, I find the bathroom to be a plain, utilitarian necessary room and not much fun. So, I spruced it up a bit with a pretty upscale cosmetic mirror above the sink... 

Next on the agenda... upstairs to see the third floor addition... 

Rich Toys Vintage Dollhouse Tour: 7. Boy's Room

Until now, all the rooms we have toured contain furniture dating back to the 1950's: the dining room, kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. However, this next room (the boy's room) has newer furniture. Why? Here's the story... 

I would like to give myself credit for safeguarding this dollhouse for over 60 years, but that would not be quite accurate. Mother, many years ago when I was a teenager, had an opportunity to sell the dollhouse and its contents to a good friend with a young daughter. I told her to go ahead and sell, I wasn't interested anymore. Unbeknownst to me at the time, she tucked the dollhouse away for safekeeping until I was married with two children of my own. She then told me she still had the dollhouse and did I want it now? Yes! Oh my, yes! I couldn't believe it!

That's when the renovation of the dollhouse began: painting, wallpapering, and carpeting. Also, we needed a boy's room in the dollhouse (we had a son) and a third floor addition (to move the girl's room upstairs where the old original pieces would fit easily). So, for the boy's room, since there was no "hand me down furniture dating from the 1950's," I went shopping. The selections were all craft store/hobby store miniatures readily available where we lived at the time. These "new" pieces were fun to collect. In fact, I've seen similar pieces on Pinterest that have been painted with chalk paint and used for a "shabby-chic" look in more current, trendy dollhouses.

Have a look around... the boy's room reflects some of my son's interests and activities growing up. He loved little cars and actually had a large Micky Mouse on his bedroom wall. No, he didn't have that much furniture in his room or a rolltop desk, but this is a dollhouse, right?

Remember the grooves in the ceiling when we were viewing the master bedroom? Back in the 1970's after mother returned the dollhouse to me, I asked my husband to cut a small piece of spare paneling to put a third floor in my dollhouse. He cut a piece and fit it with the flat side up and the grooved side down which became the ceiling of the floor below. Then he carefully cut the roof (gasp!) to accommodate the furniture that would be in two more rooms upstairs. During this renovation, the dollhouse went from being my mother's and grandmother's house into being all mine -- and probably ruined her "collectible" status forever!

Did you notice the little train under the Christmas Tree and the one in the boy's room? When the children were small, my husband made an HO scale model train layout on a 4' x 8' table which he later sold to a friend before one of our moves. The cute little trains remind me of fun times playing with the small HO trains when the children were little.

Before we leave the boy's room and head to the nursery, look at the small cross-stitch rug I made (since I couldn't crochet). I made it to go in the original nursery, but after the renovation when the rooms were shuffled around, it didn't fit in the tiny nursery and ended up as part of the boy's room along with the shoofly.

The tiny nursery is next...