Dreaming of an ideal AG storage system - suggestions please!

[Sail-Away]

OOOoooOoo Lucky you!

I am sure she is going to adore the space. I would make a space if I had it too. I think I would like clear cabinets that I could keep items behind so I would have less cleaning.

There are so many ideas flashing through my head.....mmmmmm.....sounds devine.

[Kathrine]

You are so lucky!
Would it be possible for you to take a picture of the room for us to see? It would make suggestions so much easier.
Maybe you could make one or two of "Meg's rooms", and decorate them quite plain, that way they wouldn't belong to just one girl, but could be decorated from day to day for whatever girl Diana(or you) wanted to play with, it would take up less room than a room for every girl.
Also you could make the room with legs, as it is easier to play with something that is lifted of the floor, and you could make shelves or a staple underneeth(sp) it.

[marymax]

storage is a big problem for me also....I have the scenes and settings for two of the dolls....plus my own room...I have found that you need a place off the floor to set up your rooms and be able for a child to play with it....if you do one generic room it could serve as bedroom, living room or kitchen that way the furniture could be stored on a shelf till you were ready to use it....now the clothes and accessories I am still and probably always will have a problem storing...and remembering where they are....hat boxes for the hats is almost a must...but hard to find...when you have many hats you really need a real hat box that will hold half a dozen or so....I dont think I would cut a hole in my wall....but I may put up a pretend door....

Mary

[americangirlsrus]

Sounds like a fun project! I don't know how permanent I would make anything, since collections grow and evolve. We have the same problem with the furniture, it's so big to leave out, and putting it away and pulling out each time you want to play isn't the easiest solution either. It's more of a challenge when you have more than one doll's furniture, too! Do you have more than one girl's furniture collection?

[dianasmama]

Right now I don't have a single complete collection of any one girl, and I don't really have a lot of furniture. The closest I am is for Felicity because of the retirement issues, I do have her bed, table and chairs and writing desk.(but not her night table)

Kirsten's table and chairs and Josefina's desk and stand.

In hiding, I have the blue trundle bed which I think will be cute for Kailey or for Marisol when she comes out and/or Lindsey that we just got. I have an unfinished pc of furniture from JoAnnes that is an armoire that I'd like to paint to coordinate with the trundle bed. I'm not wild about the bedspread that originally came with the trundle and will probably make one to match Diana's.

Kathrine, right now I'd be too embarassed to show anyone a picture of this room. I never quite got out all my sewing "stuff", but took out all the storage, so right now tons of stuff is just laying all over the floor. As a sewing room, it always felt very small and cluttered with a machine and table, storage, ironing board, etc.

But, as a doll play room, I think it will be very nice. I just went in and measured. The room is 14' across the center of my house and 9'5" deep, with a 9' ceiling. The entry wall is worthless, between the door opening and the closet. The wall immediatley to the left would be hard to place anything on because it would be harder to get into the room then. That leaves me the far right wall. The window wall is much larger than I thought, at 14' not 12'. On either side of the window I have 32" of space, and what's nice is the window is placed 37" above the floor that's certainly tall enough for any "room" set up.

Meg's Felicity room is 4' wide. Her picture doesn't look that big and all the items just fit into the space, but wow! 4' is a lot. It's just so hard to determine when I don't have some of the other girls furniture to determine scale and if they would all have to be this big. Guess I too, should start with Felicity since that's whose furniture I do have mostly for now.

I just know that all this "stuff" cannot stay in the family room for much longer, especially after xmas comes! DH will be certain to lose his patience by then. We'll be adding Felicity, her furniture, some clothes and Penny to the mix! Kailey and the trundle bed and maybe the spa chair will be joining us in April. And then there's always Marisol! Yikes! Plus, if it's more out of his sight, then he won't know how much we really have! heehee!

Open to any great suggestions you ladies have!

Laurie

[jrtmom3274]

Laurie,
Your room sounds great! I can visualize so many different configurations. One great place to get ideas would be the Organized Living store at Kenwood. (It's not in the mall; it's on the other side of I-71.) The girls in there have GREAT ideas, and if you're not interested in their pricing, you can can the ideas and run with them! [img]smile.gif[/img]
I'd love to see photos of your room-- or maybe Diana will let Kit & I come play! hee hee!
Heather

[dianasmama]

I have a small spare room (used to be my sewing room) that I'd really like to convert to doll space. It's right next to Diana's room, and I'd love to cut entry space into one of the walls, by DH is adamantly against that proposal.

So anyway, I've been dreaming about the ideal space. I love the idea of the rooms that Meg and many of you have done. I really want to try one for Felicity for Diana's xmas this year. However, you still need space for all the little collectibes, clothing and I also have all the 6 paperback book sets, short stories, as well as all of the available cookbook, crafts and some others.

The room is not extremely large, it's maybe 9' deep and 12' wide. On one 12' wall there is a closet and the door opening in to the room, the other wall has a very decorative window in the center, so these are really unusable. Here's what I'm thinking for one of the 9' walls: Shelving across the entire lenght, placed at least 21" apart. I'd like to section an area off for each doll, large enough for her to stand up, set up all of her books and have a hanging rod suspended from the shelf above to hang up her clothes. Maybe some extra space for hats and accessory items that are not used in the "rooms" if I ever even get around to having any of those. Otherwise, I need to allow room for any furniture.

I think this would work out better than a bookshelf unit since I wouldn't be able to get the deep spacing of 21" probably. I really need to get in there and measure, I keep it locked and off limits to Diana since there is some xmas stuff in hiding in there! I'd like to plan for the future, (meaning lots of dolls!) so I have to determine how much space each doll will take up. Also, what kind of haning apparatus I will need for the clothes rods. At one time I was thinking about bathroom towel rods hung on their sides. The dowel needs to be small enough to hold the AG hangars.

I still want room on the floor to play. I'm trying to think of all this, because as our collection grows, DH will be much more happy about things if they have a place. Luckily for us, one of us worries about such things, I guess. I'm the type that doesn't worry if toys get put away from one day to the next, they just get pulled out again anyway. I've never been the neat one in the family!

Anyone else have any great ideas? What would be your ideal space?

Laurie

<font color="#051E50"><font size="1">[ October 26, 2004 12:49 AM: Message edited by: dianasmama ]</font></font>

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ October 26, 2004 12:52 AM: Message edited by: dianasmama ]</font>

[dianasmama]

Wow, these are all such great ideas...now just to get the room clean! Then, hopefully, I'll be on my way!

Laurie

[nicolej]

WOW!!! Lots of good ideas.
Anyone have any pictures of their doll rooms/doll corners?
I've got a little room/office - and I mean LITTLE - like 6' square - it used to be a bar off the living room. I'm going to make myself a little office/meditation/doll room in there. Not sure how yet!!! [img]smile.gif[/img] So keep the ideas coming for storage in small areas!!

[OSusannah]

Laurie-did you know my other hobby is cleaning out and organizing? Clean Sweep is one of my favorite shows-or it used to be when we had cable for the summer. Just repeat after me, "My labeler is my friend." [img]biggrin.gif[/img]