As some of you might know I love a diy/upcycling project. Breathing new life in something old instead of chucking it away. A few years ago we found this old barbie dollhouse on the side of the road. It needed a few repairs and a good clean, but overall it was in a good state. So we took it home and fixed it. My daughter liked to play with it, but her dollhouse was always a gigantic mess, like a toy bomb went off in there. I also thought that the wallpaper and the flooring in the barbie dollhouse was a little bit outdated. So I’ve been wanting to do something with it for a while. A few months ago I finally decided to give this project a go (with permission from my daughter), with the idea that I would give her the upcycled dollhouse for her birthday.
Before the Makeover… 
The first thing I did was remove all the wallpaper. This was a hell of a job to be honest :). With a spray bottle I wet all the wallpaper and after the paper was a bit soaked, I would scrape it all off. This took ages. Luckily on one rainy day the whole family decided to help me out, which definitely sped up the process (and made it also way more fun).
After all the wallpaper was removed, I started painting the dollhouse. I’ve put a primer on first, and after that I applied two layers of (waterproof) paint (Porter’s Paint, Popcorn Matte). I didn’t bother painting the floors, as I was planning to use adhesive vinyl for that.
When all the paint was on, I updated the floors with adhesive vinyl (from Kmart Australia). This was pretty tricky, but it made the dollhouse look so much nicer!
Lastly I painted the roof Flamingo pink (also Porter’s Paint), since my daughter loves bright colours (pink most of all).
After that I stuck the wallpaper on the walls with double sided tape. The wallpaper is from Meinlilapark and I printed it out on A3 paper sheets.
Finally, I added some of my dollhouse stickers from my shop The Travelling Doll House to the dollhouse to complete the look. One of the ideas behind using these dollhouse stickers is that the dollhouse stickers can replace some dollhouse furniture and miniatures, making it more spacious and less prone to mess. I was pretty excited to find out that it actually works in practice :). My daughter’s dollhouse has never been messy since the makeover. She told me herself that she likes to keep it pretty :). Another thing that I like is that the furniture and miniatures that we did keep in the dollhouse or added later, stands out so much more. I sometimes see photos of perfectly styled dollhouses full of stuff, which look amazing, but in reality will probably look like one big mess after one play session. I also feel that too much stuff is sometimes too overwhelming and distracting for kids, and instead of encouraging play, it seems to limit their play and their creativity (but I guess that’s the minimalist/hippie in me ;).
Renovating this Barbie dollhouse was a big job and not for the faint hearted :), but it looks amazing in my daughter’s room and seeing how happy it makes her and how much joy she’ll get out of it in the next years, makes it totally worth it!
The Travelling Doll House 