Barbie Vintage House REDO

Okay, so I'm in my local Goodwill...and sitting under a table was this Old Barbie house all folded up---for 499, yes, $4.99 for a mansion.

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A Victorian circa the 90's, 1890's that is....sigh...very much like our first house in N. Wisconsin built in 1902.

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I passed it by---because the Grand already has the NEW Barbie House we built last year for her, you can see the DIY and REDO posts here, HERE.

BUT, 

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We play Barbie's at Gramma's, too. 

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I passed it by---next time I came around someone had opened it, and I totally fell in love. 

It wasn't perfect, but it was in super condition. A fixer-upper, yes, but with great bones! 

At home, I left one side open to look at the construction. Quite ingenious as the whole thing folds up, and when open locks in place.

 Mattel released this house in a variety of colors over quite a few years, with small decorative changes and different furniture.

I brought it home and Hubby just laughed. He found a board to put it on in the extra bedroom.

I think a total remodel may be in the works.

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Here's the original configuration with the walls where they are supposed to be. The elevator really works, but the Grand can't reach it, so we are going to use it in place for more room and not even tell her it is an elevator. Some information on the internet said it was originally for the handicapped-Barbie that came in a wheel-chair at one time.

I wonder if I could extend that floor forward for more room. Oh dear, construction mess again, lol.

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Elevator going to the lower floor. Notice the built-in fireplace. I love the turret, can just see a Christmas tree in that space. Oh, and a window seat, to the left. The columns are quite nice, along with the stained glass windows. 

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The kitchen was in rough shape. Kitchen counter sink and appliances are in dire need of an updates.

Hmm...shopping list, look for compatible kitchen. And the front door is missing, having a hard time finding what it actually looked like?

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The stove was totally trashed.  

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Rest of the counter works, but..., it's so 90's.and no refrigerator, and no doors that open. NO STORAGE...lol? The decals in this house are really cute though.

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 The room above the kitchen...is the bathroom/bedroom. There are several cute little stained glass windows, throughout the house.

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Above the kitchen is the Bedroom/Bathroom,  The turquoise counter is the vanity sink, but...

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...here you can see the dresser/tub as it looks pulled down. 

I found a great article on the best Barbie Mansions, and this one is listed as it was originally furnished and set up, OLD Barbie Dream Houses. 

I love the the cottage feel to this house. We will keep that, and this one will be furnished with Gramma's taste with a more antique vibe. Except for the kitchen. 

Ebay will show a multitude versions of this house in so many different colors...all for quite a pretty penny, too. 

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Ahh, at the end of the bedroom is this built-in armoire. The drawers don't work, I may have to remedy that, somehow.

 And the elevator area with the elevator in place on the second floor.

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Having the house open this way, makes me think an addition might be the way to go. Extend the upstairs floor under the bathroom and also the downstairs with the bigger kitchen. 

The Grand is a major cook and so many mouths to feed...so hmmm.

 Also, one thing about Barbie houses, they have no closet space, we could do more sleeping area or closets. 

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Here's the front porch, with more stained-glass, all windows in great shape, planter box was empty, all except the mailbox intact. I love the posts and upstairs porch gingerbread.

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But, when the Grand showed up, we dug in my box of Barbie size leftover furniture from the DIY Barbie House, and the girls moved in even before the remodel. 

Notice the washer dryer now in the proposed kitchen addition. Our Barbies are very clean.

Currently there are 6 Barbies/Elsa/Anna. It looks like an addition will be absolutely necessary, we/they think. And the Grand says we need to find a toilet, and another sink.  A new upstairs floor will allow the bathtub to be used all the time. Like I said, our Barbies stay very clean. 

So Where are the boys?

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The 3 boys are lounging on the front porches and in the Tupperware pool. It was hot that day? Now, how do we find a man-cave for them or a bunk house? Another addition? Another house? Maybe they just visit, lol?

Stay tuned for remodeling updates: DIY Victorian Barbie house REDO.

I have some great ideas, a Victorian oval double bunkbed, a new kitchen, chandeliers, closets, a paint refreshening, and someplace for the boys?

Also some vintage Barbie furniture redo's.

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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Sandi

DIY Barbie House:Moving IN with Vintage

Well this is it, Barbie and Ken's moving week. I have been gone from blogland for a couple days, finishing up the furnishings and getting the plumbers, electrical, and appliances all hooked up. Such a lot of coordination to be done, somethings are still not ready. THIS is a totally OLD< NEW < GREEN>REDO>!

Let's see how Barbie and Chrissy like the new digs. Just listen to where all the furnishings came from!

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DIY Barbie House, almost all moved in.

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Chrissy: I love the rug you got at HL, and this little Goodwill settee is so comfy. And this awesome chest of drawers made from an old jewelry box. Neat paint job, a real REDO on a $3.99 jewelry box from Savers.

Gee, Barbie, what else do we have to do? My feet are killing me.

Barbie: Thanks, Chrissy, and for helping me hang the pictures and setup the bedroom and bath. Well,

 I still have to move clothes in and finish the bedding. There's lots of sewing left here. Don't you just love the pearl $1 'B' from Joann's and that's where I got my $1 green mirror. They're so classy, though.

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Chrissy: Sure is. What's the purple fabric for and are you going to do something with your Michael's headboard?

Barbie: The purple will be padded on the headboard and sewn for a bedskirt, and the pink and stripe will be cool sheets and comforter.

Don't you just love the lamps made from purple umbrella ornaments and wood candlesticks from Walmart and Michael's?

Chrissy: Sure do, can't wait to see the chandeliers you ordered. When are they coming? I love all your IKEA frames too---really an inexpensive, unbreakable for kid's artwork or photos.

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Barbie: Chandeliers are coming on Sunday, and hopefully I will sew the bedding by then. There is room under this custom bed made by Grampa to hide most of my clothes. I have a closet in the bathroom, but it isn't big enough for everything.

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Chrissy: Looking through this cool window---with the Barbie logo design. You are so lucky,  I bet your little girlperson will be so happy to see your new house on Christmas!

Barbie: Oh, I hope so, but we still have to decorate the livingroom tree, wrap presents, bake cookies, and I need to wash up and change clothes for the supper, tonight.

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Chrissy: Let's go see what you have in the closet.  Wow, the bathroom is so big and bright, and I love the window---it matches the window in the bedroom. Love the tub and the tiled planter. Plants will look great in there.

Barbie: I have some hot pink in here, I had to have it somewhere, LOL. I have lots of storage.

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Cabinets by the toilette, and I did find a box of small Christmas trees. The wood cabinets were on sale at Michael's for $1.00 each, I spray painted them and glued them together.

Chrissy: Love the cabinet, and bottle trees are so in now, they look great. Show me your closet.

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Barbie: My closet is FAB! and was a DIY-- REDO of a Mattel Barbie Vending Machine that was broken. I found it at GoodWill for $1.99 full of all these shoes and purses! Now, it has great shelves for towels and stuff. Gramma even made me a clothes hamper and the vending machine part makes a great closet. (And the bathroom window and bedroom window were made from the plastic back---REALLY!)

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Chrissy: I love the hamper and you have all this great storage for towels and sheets. Where's the TP?

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Barbie: I sent Ken out for TP and bread for supper. Speaking of supper, I'm hungry, let's go downstairs and grab a snack.

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Barbie: Good thing we came down...the cupcakes for dessert are ready to come out of the oven.

Chrissy: I love the kitchen, it's so cozy and the dropleaf on the table really works. You have everything you need right there. And so much storage in your cabinets and shelving.

Barbie: Grampa built the cabinets, but the shelf was $1.99 from Savers. It was too big, so he cut it.
I made a great batch of cupcakes, don't you think! My favorite thing is the dishwasher...Never had a DW in the apartment.

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Chrissy: I love your shelves and the stove--- a custom-made stove is awesome. Your Grandpa is so handy!

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Barbie: The Farmer cookbook and all the food stuffs were from goody bags at Savers, or from Gramma's craft stashes. The cute strainer was from Great Grandma, and was an ornament.

Bing! Two more trays of cupcakes, I'm getting hungry for supper! Help me whip up a salad to go with the spaghetti.

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DIY Barbie Doll House: Week #3 Part-1 Windows!

I'm finally catching up on posting. This is actually week #3 for the Barbie House, so here we go with

 

Part 1-Windows.

I can't stress enough, making plans, be they to scale or just sketches with notes. We have chosen to work on this big project in sections-unassembled. By working on pieces you can move them in/out doors, work on the kitchen table, or hide when the granddaughter is around. But, you need something visual to keep track of what you are doing this way, ---so I refer to the plans all the time. Plans also helped in communicating with Hubby, we are from different planets afterall.

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Here are the windows in the middle picture for the three floors of the west side piece. You can see the light sketching of the appliances in the kitchen, and the tub on the third floor with a window above it.

Since the holes have been cut in Part 1 and sanded/primed in Part 2--now it is time to frame them out. Hubby actually wanted to make sashes that went up and down---however that amount of detail for a three-year old isn't necessary. So we compromised and I agreed to make window frames, with mitered trims on the outside and inside.

We chose to make windows only on the left and right walls, as the back will face the bedroom walls anyway.

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Here I am cutting the straight, inside frame pieces of 1/2" wide by 1/4" strips for the inside of the window. These pieces are the same thickness as the walls, but will help to square up the holes cut by the saber saw. One skinny window, I used balsa wood 1/16" thick. for the skinny sides.

I'm using a small hacksaw with a fine blade and a wonderful teeny miter box...which was awesome. Just a few strokes and I was cranking pieces out. After a few trials and failures, the measurements were pretty accurate. I measured each piece individually...like most houses our house wasn't  perfectly square and some of the window holes needed help. These pieces were lightly hotglued directly to the walls one piece at a time.

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Hubby cut the first miters on the outside trim. We chose 1/4" x 5/8" wood for the trim. This would be very close to real in the 1"= 6" in Barbie world.

I hand-cut the other end of each piece for the window frames to make sure the measurements were accurate. Big power tools are hard to adjust for such small pieces of wood, not to mention chopping your fingers off.





Hardest part was keeping track of everything. I lined up the appropriate windows with the appropriate walls, we had 3 windows on one piece...so that was six trim frames for one side and 4 windows and 8 trim frames for the other. LOTS of pieces. I do not recommend cutting all the pieces at once...for confusion's sake.

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 Stacked up like this, they almost look like real windows at the lumber yard. We chose not to use glass or plastic on the windows, but you could easily use plexi-glass by slotting the frame pieces.

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Here were my main tools and a window frames lined up as they were completed. 

Measure, Measure, measure!

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I hot glued the mitered corners with a dot of flexible hot glue. This allowed hubby to square them up to the windows as they were applied to the walls.

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Hubby woodglued the frames for the outside windows.  He used a brad-gun to tack them in place. UPSIDE of using plywood, is you could hand nail each one. MDF is really a poor choice, everything has to be contact-cemented together, which is nasty stuff to use,  and you have major set-up times. Chipping is an issue and Weight is another factor; MDF is very heavy. Looking online at the dollhouses people made, you can tell the MDF ones, by the sagging floors. Just my opinion, I think plywood is the way to go, more expensive but worth it in the long run. Like many a investment, I will look at the total cost divided by the life of this dollhouse, say 10 years for a 3 year-old.

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Here's a closeup of the Filigree window for the bedroom, from the outside. The plastic insert is actually from this Barbie Vending Machine I found at Goodwill for 1.99--still crammed with purses, boots, and new shoes. Apparently the mechanisms didn't work well...the reviews were hideous. The person that donated this, couldn't even get the shoes/purses out of the rack. I did once I removed the back. I didnt' know that; I just thought Wow---what a neat (REDO) closet, not to mention the six sets of purses/shoes that were still in the cabinet to fish out.

 The back was covered in two panels of white filigree plastic, I thought we could use for bath and bedroom windows.

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***Upside of Mattel Barbie products*** Mattel uses flexible plastics and many of the pieces are easily dismantled: a few screws loosened, pry with a small flat screwdriver and the panels popped right out. Since I planned on using the cabinet in the bathroom and the back will be up against the wall.  MORE on this cabinet later.  I love the idea of a turning shoe display---too much fun. The filigree panels were cut apart on the miter saw with a fine blade. Easy---peassy!

OLD~~Remember When!
All this is a far cry from 1959 Barbies and our matchbox drawers, cerealbox cabinets and shoebox beds with pencils for posters and the cardboard lid for a canopy, but they were so much fun too. Nostalgia, anyone?

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Assembly of the plastic panels into the frames, they were hot-glued directly in the holes of the plywood walls and then we trimmed around them using more hot glue to fill the gaps...this will all be painted... and hid.

Hubby applied even pressure to the frames, so they didn't slide around and the filigree window was secured.

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Next, I used a small scrap of wood frame to fill in all the nail holes and corners. A metal scraper would have done more damage to the soft wood, this way I didn't make anymore dents in the wood. It looks really messy, but dries white and fast. LOVE this product for painted surfaces.

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Here's the other plastic panel window filled. You can see the wonderful details on the plastic, with the distinctive Barbie heads and hearts showing. A light sanding with the fine side of a flexible sanding block and the windows were ready for paint.

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I used one coat of spray Acrylic clear sealer, one coat of brushed on white craft paint, and then one spray of semi-gloss white paint---all non-toxic and kid friendly. The coats got into every edge, corner and crevice.  This gave the windows a nice finish. Don't you think?

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The crazy window spacings will make more sense, after the furniture is placed. I did design house to go with the OLD, NEW and REDO pieces I have found.

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I still have to tweezer off the hot glue, but this window is the best REDO of this post....I just love them, and I am sure Grandaughter, Barbie, and Ken will approve, too.

Total time on doing the windows minus painting about 3 hours for 7 windows, with two people on and off. Power tools involved, miter saw and compressor brad gun. Hand tools involved, hot glue gun, hack saw with fine blade, small miter box. Spray acrylic sealer, white craft paint and semi-gloss spray paint for finishing.

Did I mention sashed windows in 1:6 scale are over $30.00 a piece... 8 x $30==$240 dollars.

Next POST Week #3 Part 2___at last COLOR!

DIY Barbie house Week 1 Planning
DIY Barbie House Week2 Cutting and Painting
DIY Barbie House Week 3 Windows
DIY Barbie House Week 3 Finally Color
DIY Barbie House Week 4 Assembly

DIY Barbie House Week 5 Stairs and Moldings
DIY Barbie House Week 5 Final Lighting
DIY Barbie House Moving in with Vintage Furnishings

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Thanks for stopping by, and I will be sharing at these parties:

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Sandi

DIY Barbie Doll House: Week #2 Cutting, Sanding, Priming

Welcome to the DIY Barbie Doll House. I've been a bit stalled on posting, but I have been working hard and will get two up this week, and two up next week. If you want to catch up, here's Week #1 DIY Barbie Doll House.

Everything was done, but I wasn't sitting down long enough last week to post.

Besides doing the scheduled Week #2 Cutting, Sanding, Priming there was still more planning and finally deciding on the appropriate lighting as well as ferreting out moldings, colors and fabrics. More on that later.

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 After consulting the plans...we decided on a couple of adjustments and made the doorways and stairways 1/2"-1" wider than originally planned within the 48" width of the house.

I measured out the windows, doorways, and stair holes on the pre-cut 1/2"plywood pieces. Hubby cut the large pieces on the table saw and the holes with a saber saw.

There are twelve pieces in this house: 2 roofs, 3 floors with holes for stairways, 2 side walls with window cutouts,  1 garage wall, 1 bathroom wall on bottom floor, 1 kitchen wall on the stairway (open in a triangle) to  stairway to third floor, 1 bedroom/bathroom wall on the third floor 

and 1 back piece with the roof pitch.

We did not make any exterior doorways, (imagine them on the open side of the house)

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On the bottom is the east wall of Ken's Bathroom on the stack of 16" wide sidewalls, floors and roof pieces. All surfaces were sanded with 60-grit sandpaper with an orbital sander. It has a dust bag attachment that basically doesn't work, so I did all the sanding outside.

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This is one of the roof pieces, which we have left the full 48" and will cut after we see it assembled.

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 After sanding it was clear the 'bad' sides of the plywood had a few knots and dark spots. Not willing to fight dark marks seeping through my primer and paint, I gave all dark spots and knots a good brushing of shellac. It dries quickly and seals up many imperfections.

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I use sponge brushes for almost everything but detail work. They do not last long with shellac.
Since I had 12 pieces to deal with and 24 surfaces, I spread out on 3 sets of saw horses. The weather was warm, with low humidity, so everything dried very fast.

Next step was to fill all holes, dents, scrapes and knotholes. I used a new purple version of Elmer's wood filler that dried between white...with little shrinkage.After doing 24 surfaces...the first ones were already dry.

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I rolled a latex primer on all surfaces very quickly because the weather started to look like rain...!

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The dollhouse pieces all dried fast. Now the hard part is trying to picture new colors in the new Barbie house. One reason we are doing this, is the abominable purple and magenta pink PLASTIC for Barbie. So we are hoping to make the house a home, with more realistic colors and furnishings. Not that there won't be SOME pink.

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Here are the middle walls for between the rooms with their doorways. It is a puzzle. Most of the materials used from now on except moldings will be recycled or vintage.

Now choosing, pink multi for the bedroom and bathroom, green & white for the kitchen, and white, green, teal for the living/dining room, and sand/beige/wood for the first floor Ken's Man Cave and bathroom + Chicago sports colors. Having had boys, I almost think I'm looking forward to the 'mancave' more than anything.

Ken's says so too, he's really tired of sitting in a pink and white bathtub and is looking forward to his
own shower in sand beige.

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Coming soon, DIY Barbie House: Week #3 Windows and Surfaces--COLOR!

DIY Barbie house Week 1 Planning
DIY Barbie House Week2 Cutting and Painting
DIY Barbie House Week 3 Windows
DIY Barbie House Week 3 Finally Color
DIY Barbie House Week 4 Assembly

DIY Barbie House Week 5 Stairs and Moldings
DIY Barbie House Week 5 Final Lighting
DIY Barbie House Moving in with Vintage Furnishings

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle 

And always, thanks for stopping by, 

Sharing at these parties: 
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Silver Pennies Sundays 
That DIY Party 
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Sandi