My mother built me a barbie house when I was a little girl, and I decided I would build my daughter one as well....especially since she is obsessed with these monster high dolls lately.
1) When picking out the wood, it really depends on how large you want the house to be. This one is over 3.5 feet tall. The only important thing to remember is to make the rooms taller than the barbie itself. We made the rooms just as deep as they were tall (around 14 inches).
2) We bought some wood from Home Depot (used thicker wood on the bottom), and simply attached it with gorilla glue (wood glue). We used duct tape to hold the sides while they dried over night.
3) I purchased these cute wood jewelry boxes and chairs from Hobby Lobby, and painted them. I also purchased some small wood pieces and wood stems (legs) and super glued them for the couches and tables I was making.
4) Here I cut part (1/4 size piece) of shoe box (left the inside open so the legs could fit under), and hot glued some cloth (from Walmart) for a makeup table. As you can also see I am using gorilla glue again to put the couches together. It's important to remember to let this glue dry for 24 hours.
5) For this part it really depends on how you want the layout of the house to be. I wanted a large living room, and a semi-larger kitchen. On top of that I wanted a master bedroom, and a second larger bedroom. We used gorilla glue and clamps to hold these pieces into place while they dried.
6) For the fireplace, I bought some small particle board pieces from Hobby Lobby, painted the visible sides black, and glued some thick sparkle scrapbook paper to the front and sides (also from Hobby Lobby). I super glued these pieces together, and then attached a portion of a painted shoe box lid for the mantle. Then I found a picture of a fireplace, printed it from the internet, and glued it to the back.
7) First its important to paint the ceilings white before painting anything. I was looking for bright colors of paint, and the cheapest paint I could find was from Walmart. First I painted these rooms with my desired colors (2 coats), then I modge podged some scrapbook paper from hobby lobby (much cheaper than wallpaper).
8) I made bean bag chairs our of rice and sewn cloth. For the couches- I hot glued some cloth from Walmart for the bottom trim, then hot glued this cloth around the foam (from Walmart). After this I hot glued these pieces to the chair. See below for updated version.
9) The couches looked a bit uneven, so I hot glued some lace sparkle trim (hobby lobby) around the cushions and it evened out nicely. I made 2 chandeliers (this is the smaller of the 2) out of a large (painted) plastic bottle cap, aluminum wire, and attached my desired beads.
10) I bought some carpet from Walmart, cut it to fit, and used a commercial stapler to staple the carpet down. The kitchen tile was from Hope Depot. To attach the top with support, we added old pieces of trim and drilled them to the walls and roof (very small screws).
11) I made the beds the same way my mother made mine. I just filed some kid shoe boxes with cotton. First I hot glued to bottom trim around, then tucked that cloth inside, and glued that to the inside of the box (around the cotton). My mom sewed the pillows, and we attached a lace trim ( Hobby Lobby) with super glue to the bed and pillows for decoration.
12) My mom sewed some sequin pillows for the couches (fabric from Hobby Lobby).
13) I got a little lazy on this one. For the bathroom sink, I just glued and painted some wood pieces from Hobby Lobby, and painted a sink on top.
14) I super glued some small mirrors (Hobby Lobby) in master bedroom and bathroom, and glued the sink in.
14) We attached some trim pieces (Home Depot) around the house and between toe rooms for stability and looks. The rest of the furniture she will be opening on Christmas morning!
