A quick, inexpensive solution for dollhouse!

[Lissiefan]

Well, I've seen some great ideas on this board for "rooms" for the dolls. The ones I've been REALLY excited about would, unfortunately, take more time, money, and space than I have available to me.

However, my dds have too much AG stuff now to just have it around their room. I was really afraid the furniture would get stepped on and ruined, and we DEFINITELY didn't have enough accessory and outfit storage.

Let me tell you what I did! It was quick, easy, inexpensive, looks great, and greatly increased the play value of the stuff the girls have!

Target has these sets of plastic drawers...Sterilite makes a three drawer equivalent, but the ones I bought are by Iris and have 4 or 5 small drawers on top, and a large one on the bottom. They come with attachable wheels, but we didn't use those. These bins of plastic drawers are about 25" high and about 15" deep.

They look kind-of like these but are much cheaper in the store than online:
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B0006O0EBK

I then went to Home Depot and bought a melamine board (you could use any finish you wanted) used for closet shelving. It was 8' long and 15" wide.

I put the shelf board on top of three bins (one on each end and one in the middle). We haven't done it yet, but you can actually create "second story" by just using 3 more bins and another board!

This actually creates "rooms" between the bins, and a "roof-top patio" on top of the board. The rooms are just about the perfect height! I'd like them even better if they were 18" deep, but I couldn't find ready-cut boards that wide. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

We also (you wouldn't have to do this but it's fun) cut pieces of cardboard the right sizes, covered them with fabric contact paper from Walmart, and attached them to the sides of the bins, and to the wall between the bins. It looks like wallpaper, and hides the contents of the drawers from the sides. They have a solid red, that seems to go well with Felicity's bed, and a blue striped one that looks great with Kirsten's stuff. It's in the hobby/craft department, and comes in rolls that look just like contact paper. [img]graemlins/rose.gif[/img]

The drawers have added TONS of storage! We now have 2 hat drawers, 2 shoe drawers, a toy drawer (Twister game, croquet set, etc), a sock drawer...you get the idea.

We turned the area on top of the board in to a school room (using the historical desks) and even found a great doll-sized "filing cabinet" from Target, too!
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B0002DJOX4
The drawers in the filing cabinet fit all of the school accessory sets we have, as well as the school lunches. This is SO much nicer than it looks in the picture. The box is wood, and high quality. The drawers are metal. My daughters and all of their friends have practically swooned over it!

The best part about this whole thing is ease and expense. The plastic bins were on sale for $9.99 each (Reg. price is only $14.99), the board was around $20. The filing cabinet was not really necessary, but REALLY fun.

Altogether we spent about $70, and a couple hours, and have an incredibly organized and usuable spot where my girls can enjoy all of the stuff they got for Christmas! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

I'd love to take pictures to show you all, but I don't have a digital camera yet. Maybe I'll borrow one.

I know this is NOTHING like some of the fancy and wonderful stuff I've seen some of you do, but for us it was a great solution!

Brenda

<font color="#051E50"><font size="1">[ January 09, 2005 02:12 AM: Message edited by: Lissiefan ]</font></font>

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 09, 2005 09:26 AM: Message edited by: Lissiefan ]</font>

[dornroeschen]

This sounds like a very creative and easy way to get storage and play-value combined. Great idea, Brenda!

[kitschywoman]

I use those three-drawer rolling bins, too! Right now I've got three of them completely filled, and I need a fourth. [img]redface.gif[/img] I don't have the room to set them up permanently, but they're light enough that I can stash them in the attic and bring them down at a moment's notice. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[americangirlsrus]

Brenda,

What a very wonderful and creative idea!! I might try that!

[Candie D]

OOOOH thank you for the wonderful idea...I LOVE LOVE LOVE crafty things like this! I am DEFINATELY gonna try this when we move again. Right now all the kids are in one room, gotta love military housing! Really it's not bad, but the boys would destroy this and then I would be furious! But, in our next home, hopefully, we will have the kids seperate again...so I have been thinking of how to give DD a "play" area for her dolls. Thanks for this idea! Candie

[americangirlsrus]

Okay, I'm really wanting to do this. Is the 8' board in the closet organizing section of home depot?

Also, is the fabric contact paper in the craft section or kitchen section of walmart?

Our AG stuff might just become organized yet!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Kathy Henning]

I have 6 Iris carts for doll clothes storage and a tall chest of drawers. I keep the chest in the dinning room and it looks like a storage place for table linens, Surprise! The other Iris carts are stored under my computer L shapped work area. I took one drawer out of each cart to make is shorter and added those drawer to one chest and it became a taller one for clothes.

[ninasmom]

Thanks for the wonderful ideas! We have got a lot of AG clothes from Christmas, and they are everywhere. We have to come up a solution quick or we will lose track of which shoes go with which outfit. I would love to do a home project to build a doll clothes organizer. I hope Lowe's or Home Depot have some ready-made kit for this. I just want lots of drawers, each one can hold one complete outfit set (including shoes, socks, etc). And I can label each drawer, like "Samantha's Nightgown", "Bitty Baby's Birthday Outfit", etc. This way, when my girls change doll clothes, they can easily find the ones they want and they will know where to put everything back. No more mess in the house, I hope, I wish.

June

[Grapedy1982]

We have three guys very handy with a hammer and saw in our house who, unbeknownst to them at this particular moment, are going to build my mom and me a doll house along the lines of what Maria's husband did in their basement. Only not that big, lol. It'll be about 7 rooms, three stories, and an otherwise un-useable wall in my room.

I also have a ten-drawer dresser that as soon as my sister gets moved out to her piano studio in the backyard, half of it will be used to store all our doll clothes.

[Lissiefan]

To answer questions:

* The 8'x15" boards were NOT in the closet organizer section of Home Depot. It was in lumber. You can get ones that are like 4' in closet organizers, but the longer ones were in a different section.

* The fabric contact paper stuff was with fabrics/crafts at Walmart. I imagine even someplace like a Michaels or Hobby Lobby would carry it. It's called "FabriCraft" peel 'n' stick fabric from Delta. They even had some smaller rolls that worked as a wallpaper border!

Brenda