I am so excited to be sharing with you the first blog post solely about my latest project-renovating my childhood dollhouse!
I shared a bit about this project when I first mentioned it and have been working on it slowly for a bit now and filming the whole process. It has been so much fun and I truly enjoying the process. If you love doll houses and miniatures an would like to subscribe to this series alone you can do that by clicking “subscribe me” on the right hand side of the blog and clicking “categories.” From there you will see “dollhouse” as a choice and if you only check that box you will only receive an email when I post new content to that category. I have also set up a new YouTube channel focusing just on the dollhouse project and you can find that here. I will of course be including the updates in my newsletter so if you are subscribed to that you will know when I post new content.
My plan is to share weekly updates on the project so I do hope you enjoy them!
In this week’s post I am introducing you to my dollhouse. Below is a video you can watch that shows the dollhouse and where I chat a bit about my plans.
The history of this dollhouse is that it was made for me by a friend of the family when I was young. I don’t remember receiving it actually but I know I have had it since I was around 6 or 7 years old. The dollhouse was well loved and used.
When I was about 12 I decided that I wanted to spruce it up and make it a more “adult” dollhouse. I saved my money and purchased furniture, added some wallpaper to make another bedroom and even put together my first piece of furniture that I made from a furniture kit. The kit was something my mother had been given (I believe) but never put together. When I embarked on my decorating journey she gave it to me to put together. The kit was this one here and I still have the finished piece. I am planning on updating it to fit the look of the house but including it in some way.
Once I finished my spruce up the dollhouse sat for many years until my children started playing with it. The shoe boxes that held all the furniture came out and they were played with once more. My son added stickers to the roof and quite a few pieces were broken but the dollhouse was still loved and played with.
When my mother passed away the dollhouse came home with us and initially my son had it in his room until he decided to make way for other things. It sat in the attic while I enjoyed hours of miniature artists videos on YouTube and Patreon.
Finally, I was inspired to bring the dollhouse down and give it a complete renovations. New roof, door, windows, flooring, wallpaper-the entire house is going to be made brand new. I knew I wanted to share the journey-maybe to inspire others to delve into this beautiful hobby-but also to document the journey for myself. Even if you don’t have a dollhouse you may, like I do, enjoy watching others make theirs.
The dollhouse needs a lot of work but I am seeing this as a slow project, a hobby that will give me space to create, to think and most importantly to image the goings on of this tiny little world I am building. I hope you enjoy the journey.
Until next time…
-Michele, aka The Dreaming (Dollhouse) Dilettante
Hi Michele! Your dollhouse is so charming and has so much history – what a treasure! I subscribed to your new YouTube channel, and I’m looking forward to watching the video as well as following your dollhouse adventures on your blog. What fun!!
Oh thank you so much Michelle! I am really enjoying this new hobby and have quite a bit to share already-thanks so much for subscribing and your constant support-it means so much!
I tried a bunch of ways to attach or provide copies of pictures of those bay windows, but nothing seems to work. And there doesn’t seem to be a way to download to this email. As I keep nothing on the cloud, I can’t post a link. Sorry but I think without a direct email, I may not be able to do this. But I appreciate that you may not want to give that out.
Hi Mary Kay! You are so kind to try all that! I don’t mind sharing my email you can send them to me at: michele at dreamingdilettante dot com
Thank you again!