DIY Bookcase Dollhouse {That Might Look a Bit Familiar} #GiveAHome

Call of the search parties!  Lindsay has been found!

I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s been nearly two months since I wrote a post on good ‘ole Makely. I’ve had a lot of outside projects going on – taking over a big responsibility in my roller derby league, coaching two team of Destination Imagination kids (one of which won 1st place in our region and is going to the Texas state competition), and heading our elementary school’s talent show.

Since I haven’t been working on my house in the last few months, I decided to just disappear from the blog for a while.  I didn’t want to post stuff just to post stuff, so I chose to post nothing at all.  And then, I decided I needed a really awesome project to be my jump back into the Blogosphere.  I think I found it:

It’s a DIY dollhouse from a bookcase that looks just like my house!

Let me back up – Back in January, I partnered with Porch and Wayfair to design a dollhouse for charity. Five bloggers were selected to participate, and at the end of the project we were to give the dollhouse to a local group that works with children.  Wayfair provided a giftcard for us to order a bookcase from their site and Porch provided a budget for us to work with.  It sounded like a great partnership, and I was very happy to be a part of it.

I ordered the South Shore Axess bookcase from Wayfair and got to work planning the dollhouse.  I knew that I wanted to decorate it to look like my own home, so I needed to find some furniture pieces that looked similar to what I have.  I found a ton of good options on Ebay and bought the Huset doll furniture set from Ikea so that I’d have a few modern pieces to go along with the more vintage styled pieces.

Tom cut a few wooden dividers that I used to separate the shelves into different rooms.  With the help of some spray paint and scrapbooking paper that I picked up at Hobby Lobby, I was able to turn each of the rooms into a tiny version of my house.

Let’s check them out, shall we?

On the third floor, we have a bedroom modeled after Emma’s bedroom.  I found the perfect bed on Ebay, but I couldn’t pull the bedding off – it was glued on there REALLY well!  So, I just painted the bed and the bedding with craft paint.  What would Emma’s mini bedroom be without a green four poster bed?

I also printed out a photo of the oil painting that hangs above her bed and put it in an ornate gold frame. I added some pom pom trim as a nod to her real-life curtains, painted the stool that came with the miniature vanity (which looks so much like my grandmother’s piece that’s in her room) and added a piece of burlap to serve as a rug.

Next to Emma’s room is the office.  It’s sort of a cross between my real office and the computer nook in our home.

I couldn’t believe my luck to have found scrapbooking paper that looks so much like my herringbone wood wall!  Tom made that darling little hairpin legged desk (that looks almost identical to the one in our computer nook).  I printed out photos of my dog-themed Paint by Number collection, made a starburst “mirror” out of a bottle cap and toothpicks, and used another piece of scrapbook paper to look like my green overdyed rug.  I wish I would have found a little sofa and some accessories to go in the bookcase, but this could have ended up being a never-ending project!

On the second floor, you’ll find the playroom and bathroom.  In the playroom, I was able to use scrapbook paper to stripe the walls, and I spray painted the Ikea furniture to look more like the pieces I have in the room.

With cardboard and red glitter stickers, Tom replicated our Fun sign above the cobalt blue radio cabinet.

In the bathroom, I made a little shower curtain with some fabric that I used in our powder room, and I hung it from the wall with steel wire and buttons.  I also printed out the “Eat More Cake” sign from my kids’ bathroom to hang on the wall.

On the bottom level, you’ll find the kitchen and the master bedroom.  The kitchen is actually one of the rooms that I’ve never redecorated in my house, so I just decorated it with some scrapbook paper that I had on hand.

I am TOTALLY obsessed with the little mesh chairs around the green Ikea table, though.  I would probably never put polka dots in my kitchen, but I definitely wish those chairs came in life size!

The master bedroom is very close to what our bedroom looks like now.  I couldn’t believe how similar the miniature furniture pieces look to my furniture once they were painted.

I even printed out our little photos to hang above the furniture – just like in my real room.  🙂

This was such a fun project, and I highly recommend doing something like this if you are looking for a hobby to work on.  I could have added little accessories and rearranged furniture for months!

Take a look at the other bookcase dollhouses that the other #GiveAHome bloggers have put together. Here’s a little sneak peak of one of my favorites:

You can find the other ones here:  Yellow Cape Cod, Lia Griffith, and A Bubbly Life.

Disclaimer: I partnered with Porch and Wayfair on this project.  They provided the budget for the project, but I was not paid to be a part of Give A Home.  I spent my entire budget (and then some) on this fun little dollhouse.