Elizabeth's dollhouse

Today is my niece's birthday. She is no longer a teenager!

11 years ago, for her 9th birthday, I made and gave her a dollhouse for her birthday. I thought I would dig out the pictures and share them today.

The images are small, because I do not feel like re-scanning them. The pictures were taken with a film camera and were scanned. Back then we were still on dial-up, along with most everyone else, so there was no need to take high-resolution pictures.

The dollhouse is a "Theresa" which is a kit that was made by Greenleaf for a very short time.

I made some changes to the kit. I added basswood strip wood pieces to the porch railings to give them more dimension. I also changed the floor plan a bit by removing the stairs and adding a bathroom.

before: after:

I also added siding which I made from balsa wood, I covered the chimney with stones I made from plaster, I put stained glass windows in the front doors, and I put copper gutters on the roof.

This is an overall view of the back of the house, so you can see the relationship of the rooms to each other.



Here is my Tigger, inspecting the back of the house. If you look closely, you may see a dog on the second floor. He is also sitting on the front porch in the first photo. My sister's family had a boxer dog, Falco, at the time, so I found a miniature Falco for my niece.



This is the bathroom. I gave my niece the bathroom set and the wicker shelves, so that the room would be furnished when she received the house. I made the wicker shelves.



Here are the master bedroom and a girl's room. The master bedroom wallpaper has a butterfly pattern. The border in the girl's room has ponies on it.



Downstairs are the kitchen and living room. All the floors in the dollhouse, except for the floor in the bathroom, were made from maple veneer. I cut and glued each piece by hand, then sanded and stained the floors. All this was done before the house was constructed.



I made a bunk bed set and dresser with shelves for the girl's room. The bunk beds can be separated. I included pillows, sheets, and blankets, and a removable guard-rail for the upper bunk.





We drove 300 miles with the house to give it to her. We had to smuggle it into her house when she was not looking, since we arrived a few days before her birthday. We also stayed a day after her birthday so that we could make some accessories together, and take her shopping for some more furnishings for her house. She also moved some of her Fisher Price dollhouse furniture and people into her new dollhouse.

Here is Elizabeth, when she was 9 years old, with her house.