Paint, Paper, Stain and Stairs

Paint, Paper, Stain, and Stairs

I haven't forgotten the dollhouse. Haven't even stopped working on it. Just had so much going on I haven't blogged about it. So for you dollhousers out there, here ya go!

First floor stairs stained, painted, assembled and put into place. I have glued them down, I am not sure that I want too because if I ever chose to redo the hallway wallpaper, it will be much easier to remove the stairs and do it that way. They fit in tightly so I don't have to worry about them slipping out. I love the way they came out. This is not your ordinary stair case, it twists and turns with two landings on the first floor, has beautiful banisters and cut outs and add ons and oh, I just love them! The instructions were a little hard on how to put them together, so there was a LOT of comparing the pictures in the instructions and on the box to what I was doing, and then there was the fact that I wanted the part you stepped on to be stained while most of the rest is painted white... THAT was a chore, I had to put them together, with tape,to see what part would be what color, but I finally got it and am super pleased with how it turned out.

I pulled out the pieces for the 2 floor staircase last night, but wont start on it until after I get home from helping my sister and my niece this week. The niece is having her baby Wed. morning,and the sister is having back surgery on Friday morning. Someone is gonna have to stay at the hospital with Toni and then go home with them and take care of both of them for a few days. That gets to be me. I can finally pay them back for all the help they gave me while I was down with my surgery! Did I mention that they came over just to wash dishes and vacuum one day? My family rocks! And of course, don't let me forget to mention Savannah, my youngest son's lady friend. She stayed over and watched me bathe so I didn't fall, cooked and cleaned and babied me!

Okay, back to the dollhouse, I papered the walls of the first and second floor (as much as possible.) Jason took me to Hobby Lobby whee I looked around at the dollhouse wallpaper and said, “Pfft!” It was too expensive for my tastes and I didn't even LIKE them! So I moseyed over to the scrapbook paper and found something to use for the hallways. I have 3 in this house, one on each floor. And because I decided against lights in this house, I knew I needed to go with light colors whenever possible, so I decided on a golden tan color with white in them, but in 3 different designs, one for each floor. They match, but they are not exact. One floor has stripes, one has a sponge painted look and one has some kind of floursishy design. I also got a pink plaid and a pink and white scene type wallpaper (think Blue Willow dishes in pink... something like that) for the second floor bathroom. LOVE the way that turned out!

And, I then went to walmart and picked up a pack of scrapbook paper in teals and blacks and whites and golden tans. The entire pack goes well with hallway colors, and don't worry, (I see you cringing over the word black, I did use a little in the living room, but its a very, very small amount and looks great. So, the living room now has 3 walls done, one is the golden tan and white stripes with teal colored fluer-de-lei's one has a white with teal colored birds (tiny, tiny birds, so freaking CUTE!) and one has the black and teal. BUT the black and teal is about 1/8^th the room size. This room has 2 bay windows that will be installed at a later point and I plan on making the insides of those in the golden tan I used in the hallways, I think....

The master bedroom is also located on the second floor. It is being done with one wall papered in royal blue and white, with that fancy blue willow type of design.... why can I not recall what those are called right now? Probably will after I post this! The other walls will be painted white. And this will be the only room where I paint the trim in another color (gonna use the royal blue for this room) the rest will have white trim.

The kitchen (on the first floor) is painted yellow at the moment. I planned on doing it in yellow and white and using blue accents in it, like blue plates and curtains etc. I am thinking that if I can find a pretty yellow and white wallpaper with a little blue in it, I may do one wall but not sure yet as I haven't found anything I like yet.

Now, let me remind you guys that I am the Queen of Good Enough around here. I don't care it people tell me that I should ONLY use dollhouse wallpaper for my walls, because HONESTLY, its MY dollhouse and I like saving money and the scrapbook paper is adorable, way cheaper and much easier for me to work with. I have long been a scrapbooker and I can work with scrapbook paper easily. Also, I ONLY glued the edges of the paper down. I may change my mind about the colors or the paper at some point and want to redo them, having glue just on the edges will make this easier for me.

Okay, so there you go, what I have done on my dollhouse so far....

On another note, we found another dollhouse kit for the eldest granddaughter to do. Its slightly small (okay, WAY smaller than mine) and is a Tennyson dollhouse kit. The plan is to help her put it together. Let her do most of the work and have some fun doing the same thing that Memaw (that's me, is doing). LeiLei is 7 years old, but is the smartest person I know in this world. If she shows the slightest bit of interest in this thing, she will make it very nice! She has a horse barn and the little horses she go for Christmas, I think I will suggest making this into a farm house to go with the horse ranch. It would be adorable with a tin roof! Anyway, let you know how THAT comes out too! We may end up with an entire city before this is over! Here's a look at her house, as done by the manufacturer.

Oh, and sorry to my Nanny, I know you wanted me to count the hours this doll house is taking me, but I lost count somewhere between day one and hour 3....

On another note, I have decided to do our living room floor in pennies.... Yes, the real living room, not the dollhouse house one.... It will take about $6 per square foot and will look awesome! I have started gluing pennies to some tiles, and when we have enough tiles, we will lay them on the new living room floor and then use some super think polyurithane over it. Hey, it will will be awesome because:

1. my name is Penny
2. it will be pretty
3. it will up the value of my little house :)
4. it gives me a new crafty project to do

So feel free to send me your pennies. I could use them!

Until next time.... keep crafting!