Building a Dollhouse From Ikea Bookshelves: The Pinterest Challenge

The craft gods were on my side over the weekend.  I have so many projects going on around this place, I half expect Martha Stewart to walk into my living room and give me a fist bump at any moment.  (Although, my lack of perfectionist tendencies would probably only get me a raised eyebrow and a naughty finer wiggle from the Martha.)

We're in the midst of redoing our downstairs bedroom, which we plan on using as an office/playroom.  Part of our redo involves getting rid of these beauties:  

Two Ikea shelves that I'm pretty sure every other person in the western hemisphere owns by now.  They looked really good in our old industrial loft with cloud-nine ceilings, but in our current cozy Victorian...they look pretty out of place.  

Instead, we're moving some other smaller Ikea shelves (we have a problem) into the office.  I had seen this photo:

 floating around Pinterest months ago and considered doing the same thing for Madeline.  

While I searched for the above photo on the mighty Internets on Saturday evening, I came across this project at Ikea Hackers:  

It was perfect!  First, it helped solve the problem of what to do with our old shelves.  Secondly, it resembles the dollhouse I've been coveting on Young House Love for the past few months.

Thirdly, Madeline has been obsessively building houses for her Little People out of blocks recently.  And fourthly, ("Is that a word?" asked the vacationing English teacher.) it wouldn't cost us a dime!  To top it all off,  I knew Young House Love was hosting the summer edition of The Pinterest Challenge, and this certainly fit the bill.  

It was like....sigh....crafting destiny.  Can I get an AMEN?!  

When I get an idea, I don't like to wait.  Never mind that I'm in the midst of painting the office, (More on this later) and planning a wedding (Only a month away! Bong!) what we needed to be doing right that second was building a dollhouse out of our old Ikea shelves.  

Luckily, Eric is a good sport and he got to work the very next morning after only minimal amounts of nagging convincing.  

First, he disassembled the old shelves.  I don't have pictures of this because I was at the library soaking up free AC with Madeline during that particular point in time.  

 When I got back, this is what I saw:

He left the two bottom-most shelves in place, using the pre-drilled shelf holes as a guide for measuring.  Then, directly above the second shelf, Eric cut 45 degree angles in either side of the frame to rest the roof of the house upon.  

Eric worked from the bottom floor up.  I'd tell him how many rooms I wanted on a floor, and he'd cut a piece of wood to act as the divider between the rooms.  He'd screw in the dividers from the floor above before continuing up to the next story of the dollhouse.    

Next, Eric used the leftover parts from the top half on the shelf to cut two sections for the roof.  He cut two equal length boards at 45 degree angles so that they could be propped up against one another to form a peaked roof.    

A small wedge of wood was placed under the roof's peak to add some extra stability, and to make screwing the pieces together easier.  On the back of the roof frame he screwed in this metal thing? that I'm sure has a fancy name to further join the two pieces of wood together.    

Once the roof was assembled, he was able to measure and cut two more pieces of wood to act as the top two floors of the dollhouse.    

Eric used some hinges to affix the roof to the frame of the house as the tutorial from Ikea Hackers recommended.  He also added some screws for extra stability.    

After more drilling and screwing...(No, that's not what she said.) Lo and behold!  A house!  

The shelves are made out of particle board, so they were a bit rough and sharp around the edges.  I went over the entire thing with our eclectic sander to soften and round the hard edges as much as possible.    

Our lives would have been much easier if either a.) our Ikea shelves had been white, or b.) I wanted a dark brown house...but it was not to be.  So, I got to work spray painting.  

I ended up using three cans of spray paint, but looking at the pictures I took this afternoon, the house could have used at least one more can.  Maybe, I'll just tidy things up with an old fashioned paint brush when I get a chance.  

At long last, it was time to decorate!  

I have a ton of leftover decorative paper from Michael's from a package I used to make our wedding invitations last week, so I decided to make good use of that for the wallpaper.  

When I spray painted, I placed the original Ikea shelf backing below the dollhouse frame to shield the floor from paint.  What I ended up with when I righted the house again, was a perfect white silhouette of the house.  

Using the spray-painted silhouette as my template, I was able to easily cut the paper to size to fit each room.     

I gently rested the house on top of the paper one last time just to be sure I like the colors where they were.  

We were also able to use the spray-painted silhouette as a guide for cutting the shelf backing to fit the dollhouse well.  The backing was pretty thin, so Eric was able to use a utility knife and his hands to break it apart.  

We used our leftover Ikea nails to affix the backing, and finally, we had reached the last step.    

I am very happy to report that I will not be wallpapering my house any time soon because this was probably the hardest part.  Ha!

I had the paper all cut to the right size, but it was pretty difficult to get it lined up in exactly the right place.  I ended up using spray adhesive, but it was so sticky, that I think it made my life more difficult than it needed to be.  I'm sure there's a better way to do this.  

As soon as I was finished, Madeline swooped in to play.  

I love that Eric and I made this for her.  I love that we were able to recycle our shelves!  And?  I love that it only cost us a few bucks to buy whatever that metal thing is supporting the peak of the roof.  We had everything else lying around the house already.  

It's not perfect...it's totally homemade, but I think the Maddie Bear approves.  She keeps saying, "Maddie's house!  Dat Maddie's house!"  and even Little Mumma seems to enjoy her new digs.  

This was an incredibly long post, and if you made it this far, you might be a super hero.

However, you should totally go check out these amazing DIY projects by the Pinterest Challenge founders if you haven't already.  They're where it's at...two turn tables and a microphone.  Thanks for the inspiration, ladies!

Bower Power
Centsational Girl
Ten June
Young House Love

Monday Morning Messes with Mumma and Maddie Bear: Bubble Art

We were at it again this Monday morning...making messy masterpieces of art on our back porch.

Except this time, The Catcher in the Rye shirt was replaced by The Sun Also Rises.  Madeline has been reading a lot of books that focus on American disillusionment recently...emo baby.

My mother sent me this link from Babyccino Kids a few days ago, and I thought, "Perfect!  Madeline loves paint!  Madeline loves bubbles!  Madeline love making a mess!  Let's do it!"

I have a problem throwing away glass jars because I'm auditioning for the new season of Hoarders, so I gathered three old containers and filled them with bubble solution.  Then I mixed a few drops of food coloring into each jar.  I opted for red, green and blue, although by the time we were finished, we had purple too.

The idea is that you blow bubbles and let them pop on white paper.  The dyed bubble solution leaves cool circular patterns on the paper.

Although Madeline wants desperately to be able to blow bubbles, she hasn't really figured that out yet, so for this project, I did most of the bubble blowing.    

She did, however, do a fantastic job of splattering bubble solution on the paper (and off the paper too.)  I think she was most happy swirling the colorful liquids around the jars though.  I was pretty sure we were going to have a spill on our hands, but we got lucky.    

 The bubble art turned out really pretty.  It sorta looks like marbled paper, and it really glows in the sun.  

I think older kids would go bananas for this project.  Blowing bubbles is so fun, and almost everyone has food coloring lying around the house somewhere.

Happiness Is...

 What's been making you happy this week?

What's Red and White and Blue All Over???

Madeline on the Fourth of July, of course!

She's got the red and white part covered.  Just add a blue dress, and TA-DA!  That's one patriotic baby!

The town I grew up in has a pretty sizable Independence Day celebration, and Eric plays his trumpet with the local band for the extravaganza on the evening of the third.  

Last year, Madeline was curious, but really too young to appreciate what was going on.  This year, we parked our blanket right up front so she could see her Dada playing in the concert.  We were there for a long time, and Madeline stayed up way past her bedtime, but she was SUCH a good girl.  She danced, played, clapped to the music and ate some ketchup...her favorite.  

 When we walked back to the car after the concert was over, Madeline held my hand very tightly and trotted along quickly.  She kept saying, "Lights are off!  The lights are off!"  and I realized that she hasn't really been out after dark before.  I think she was a little worried.

The next morning we headed to the parade to show America some love.  It started off as a cold, rainy day, but the sun broke through by the time the festivities began.  Jeans were not a good choice on my part.  Luckily, I dressed Madeline more appropriately.

Eventually, I moved us to a spot a little further back from the parade route under the shade of some trees.  It was getting a wee too sunny for we gingers.  Plus, all Madeline wanted to do was run around, and she had some more room in the grass to do so.  

 The parade features some very loud fire trucks and guns, so I was a little apprehensive about Madeline's reaction.  Last year, she slept through the entire parade, but I didn't think we'd be so lucky this year.  When she heard the fire trucks coming she said, "I'm scared da dem," but she handled everything very well.  No tears were shed, and she was content to watch as long as I held her close.

 And surprise, surprise, Madeline ended up falling asleep again!  People were shooting off guns right in front of us, but she barely flinched.  Something about parades just makes my girl sleepy....who knew?

 After the parade, we hung around the house and ate for the rest of the afternoon.  I set Eric up at the grill, set Madeline up at her baby pool, and I set myself up.....well, with a pitcher of Sangria.

 Happy Fourth!

Monday Morning Messes with Mumma And Maddie Bear

One of my goals for the summer is to do more projects with Madeline.

We spend a lot of time together playing and cuddling, but since she's not at school as much over the summer, I want to make sure I provide her with some other forms of stimuli.  Ya know, besides watching Tangled for the 223rd time.

Since we're about to celebrate our nation's birth, I thought I'd do something with a patriotic theme.  I used some painter's tape to mask off a giant star on some paper, tracked down some blue and red glitter paint I had hiding in the closet, cut some star shapes into sponges, and let Madeline get to work.

Not only did she do a great job painting the paper, but she did a great job painting herself.

When we were done, I took her straight out into the yard and hosed her down.  Thank heavens for washable paint!

Behind the Scenes (And Times): June

I've been neglecting the ole bloggy-wog for a good week now.  (Sorry, little buddy.)

The truth is I fell into a wedding-planning K-hole, which left me dreaming of failed invitations and Katie Holmes for most of last week.

Eric and I are getting married in mid-August, and due to my membership in procrastinators not so anonymous, I pretty much let a lot of the planning slide until...last week.

Amy came over, and for three whole days we toiled away on our DIY invites with only the Beek from the Creek to keep us company.  (Yes, I'm thirty-one years old and am still watching Dawson's Creek...shush your mouth.)

In fact, I've been spending so much time with Dawson the past few weeks that Eric suggested I sent out enough negative vibes into the universe to destroy Tomkat.  Personally, I think his questionable religious philosophies, nerdy laugh, and juicy prenuptial agreement may have had something to do with the demise of their marriage. Who can tell?  Perhaps it is my entire fault.  Maybe it's Dawson's eyebrow’s fault...they are awfully…bushy.  

 Anyhow...June is over.  I've been on vacation for two weeks already, and although I've spent most of my time sitting on my ass eating M&Ms while praying that my wedding dress still fits, I don't feel like I'm on vacation yet.

It's going to be a busy summer, folks!

In the meantime, here's a look back at the whirlwind that was June.