Searching for a Barbie House became quite funny as Christmas got closer and closer. We had looked periodically throughout the month, but I was waiting for my hubby’s paycheck (gotta love it). 🙂 So, by the time this mula hit the bank, EVERY single Barbie House in St. George was sold out. No kidding. We searched everywhere. I looked at Costco where I had seen a darling Barbie House the week before…nope. We searched Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Sears, Big Lots, Kid to Kid…and the list goes on and on. I found a few that were still on the shelves, but they were all “doll” houses, not tall enough for Barbies. Nope, that wouldn’t work since my girls have a be-dillion Barbies and zero small dolls. We searched online with the intent of paying extra for expedited shipping to get it here in time and most online sites were sold out too. Most of the Barbie Houses we were looking at were at least $100.00. Most were closer to $200.00. It made me sick because I just don’t spend that kind of cash on toys. But, I knew that my girls would LOVE a Barbie House. I was in a pickle.
So, as always I start to scramble, and wonder WHY do I ALWAYS procrastinate!?!? Honestly….someone slap my face and somehow convince me to break this habit!
I didn’t want to ask Dan to build the Barbie House. He had been working long hours at work, and I felt bad. So, when he offered, I was so excited. I knew that I wouldn’t be much help. My belly is ginormous since Baby #4 is coming so soon, and leaning over to paint is just not possible without strain. At this point it was Tuesday Dec. 21st. We had three days. I vowed to help him as much as I could, and we went to work.
Dan found some plans, and since we had almost all the tools we needed, all we had to buy for this bad boy was two 1/2 inch sheets of MDF. We even have 1/2 a sheet left over.
Overall Cost: (two sheets of mdf at $24.00 each) $48.00 – $12.00 (half the sheet left over)= $36.00! We had all the paint on hand so we didn’t have to pay anything extra for that.
We wanted the Barbie House to be BIG. I wanted my girls to both be able to play with it at the same time. So, it sits right around 4 feet tall and is about 3 1/2 feet wide.
Dan had the boys at Lowes cut the sheets to the widths he needed, and got to work. The only difference that we did compared to the plans was that we used a finish nailer instead of screws to put the bad boy together.
We couldn’t work on it until the kids were fast asleep, so the nights began at about 9:30 pm, and we worked until at least 1:00am for several nights in a row.
What a hunk he is.
I was driving him NUTS because as it started to take shape, I kept putting the furniture in to see what it was going to look like! Sidenote: we didn’t find a great selection of furniture, so we need to acquire more. The furniture we did have was either built by me with scraps or was bought at All a Dollar (which surprisingly had a pretty good selection).
We had a scrap of carpet that Dan cut to fit a few of the rooms, and I added a rug too. Dan even built a small railing out of MDF for the stairs.
By night two of the project, Dan started painting. I opted out to avoid the fumes in our garage (since I’m preggers). If we could have painted outside I wouldn’t have been concerned, but since it was cold, he had to do the painting in the garage.
At this point we needed a band saw to cut the stairs. Luckily a friend had one. Thanks Aaron and Bri!
We painted the bad boy and Dan glued down the carpet.
The girl’s faces on Christmas morning were priceless. It was worth every minute!
Now I just need to acquire more furniture and decorations for the walls! I think it turned out GREAT, and the girls LOVE it!
That is an awesome Barbie house! Good job you two. Also, I've seen cute little wooden furniture at Joann's Craft Store, not sure if you have one of those where you live. But I always see them and think they are just darling 🙂
Check out this blog. She has amazing barbie houses.
http://insidethebarbiecraftroom.blogspot.com/
They will appreciate this much better!! One of a kind!!
I always procrastinate too…unbuyers remorse! I'm always trying to save a penny….
It's beautiful! Your girls must be thrilled. I helped my friend build a barbie house for Christmas too, here's how ours turned out:
http://chic907.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-make-barbie-dream-house.html
Also, check JoAnn's and Michaels or Craft Warehouse for small wood jewelry boxes that just need paint to look like dressers and trunks.
That is seriously AWESOME!! I have two girls (3 and 4.5), this would be great. I may give it a go – right now they are playing with MY barbie dream house from the 80's 🙂
Seriously, thank you! I have been thinking about doing this for my daughter's birthday coming up in Feb. I hadn't had any luck finding directions or house plans and so this helps so much. Thank you!
Just found a new project for my husband!!! I'm sure he will be excited..ha…ha…
But he will do anything for his little girl!
OH, you did such a great job! For wall decorations you can use postcards. Try and find something vintage and fun! You can get some tiny frames and put pictures of your girls in them to hang up on the walls. I have seen frames 1X1 or 2X2. Just look around in the dollar store or even make your own frame out of wood pieces and 90 degree angles. You can also use tin boxes that you find at the dollar store and put upholstry on them to make chairs, seats and sofas. hot glue is amazing!! Honestly, I think you did a totally wonderful job that your girls will treasure for a long time.
Brooke,
A few years ago we did the whole doll house thing for Adriana and we got tons of her furniture off ebay! I also found a set at target. If I were you I would totally hit Ebay. You will find everything you need there!!!
The house turned out great BTW!!!
Well done! I think it is great when kids get something handmade, especially by their parents. A lot of love went into that Barbie house … I am passing this link along to my sister who has a little girl about the right age :o)
It looks great! Way to think quickly on your feet!!!
I love it- and it will last so much longer than the plastic ones anyway! Great work for your husband!
Great job! Once Lainey is a little older, this is definitely in her future. Just wanted to let you know I was at HObby Lobby and they have 1000203939 pieces of darling doll house furniture. Some really cute accessories too!
Love it!! Thanks for the blueprint. If I ever have a house with a playroom, I am making Mark build one of these. 🙂
PS. I am a fellow procrastinator–actually it's more like I have so many projects going on at once that I run out of time to finish all of them. And every year I vow to be different but it never seems to happen!
This would be a great surprise for my daughter, thanks for the post! Happy New Year!
Sherman Unkefer
Love it! Awesome job! I painted a dollhouse for my girls for Christmas also, it was a lot of fun! Dumb question for you…can I get your email address? I have a question for you…..
my email is boswell123@msn.com
oh my lawwwddd! i can't believe you posted the measurements for such a beauty! if ONLY I would have had this when I was a girl, I would have gone wild! i currently have two boys, and i asked hubby if he would build one of these for them, he said no. BUT I swear, as soon as we have a girl, I'm telling him me and the baby girl want one NOW! eeeek! I'm so excited about!
Instead of buying you can save money by creating your own kids doll house.
online toy shops
Thank you so much for showing us how u built it, my husband just used this plan and built my daughters' one for christmas, but he altered the plans, ours has an elevator!!! It is amazing!!!
I have been working on a Barbie house for my youngest granddaughters as a joint birthday gift for next year. It is slow going as I am almost 70 and a female. Difficult at times to bend and keep working as the back really starts to ache.
One of the things I am using to make this house different from everyone else’s is the walls. Except for primer the walls are not painted. My simple trick that lets me work on this for more time is regular wallpaper. Everyone is probably scratching their heads by now and saying “those prints are way too big”. I will agree they are too big. I bought plain white wallpaper, cut it to size for the different walls marking the number for the wall on the back of the paper lightly in pencil and also marked the number on the wall. Now I can sit and watch my shows while working and taking my time with how I want each room to look.
Other things I am doing that are time intensive: 1. I purchased 3 regular roofing shingles and trimmed them down to 1 1/2″ strips. I mark out scallops on a couple of strips each day but will not cut until I have them all marked out. Attaching these strips will probably take at least a week. 2. I bought 5 of those little meltable suncatcher kits at a dollar store and am using the different colors to attempt making a stained glass window. I am using leftover roof flashing (cut in small strips) for the lead lines which has to be carefully folded so none of the sharp edges remain. if you try this please be careful as this stuff is extremely sharp. 3. I wanted a tile bathroom and tub. Tried to make a form for tiles using aluminum foil but it did not work. Still working this one out, so more on it later. 4. Picture, mirror and wall art. Here is where garage sales, Goodwill, Salvation Army and any other thrift stores come in handy. A lot of old cheap brooches, earrings, pendants and other small items come apart. The back metal framing piece can be cleaned up with super fine sandpaper, spray painted, and become a Barbie size picture frame. One I made last week used a 1″ tall earring that had no match that I got for a nickle. I cleaned it up, attached jewelry wire to the back for a stand, painted the whole thing and then put a picture of Ken from an ad into the frame. This sits on Barbies dresser. 5. One of the old trustee items from the 80’s. Bread dough creations. Ok, this old bread dough can make vases, flower pots, hangers, or anything else that can be made from oven bake clay at a lot less cost. Make sure if you use this to put 2-3 coats of clear sealer on it to keep it looking good and keep moisture out.
Hope this info can give everyone some ideas,
I had a question about the dimensions of the two lower shelves. On the diagram, they say 16, but on the cut list it says 15 1/4. Can you tell me why you would make the walls 3/4 smaller? Thanks in advance!
Heather
Ok, we don’t remember fully, but we both think that the 16 inch measurement includes the width of the bottom floor board and the width of the ceiling of the bottom level also. So, the 15 1/4 inch measurement is for the wall to fit in between those two. Hopefully that makes sense!
Hi, I can’t find the plans online, do you happen to have a copy of the plans anymore? If not, could you tell me how deep you made your house? We’re hoping to make this for our girls for Christmas this year. Thanks in advance!
Shoot! That’s so frustrating. I guess that site is no longer available!
Hello,
What is the deep or the house, please.
Thank you.
I’m so sorry, we have since donated the Barbie House to charity since my daughters have outgrown it.
I used your basic layout to make a similar dollhouse. I t came out fantastic. I used plywood and routed out the connections. Added hinged doors and windows and got creative and made some of my own furniture.
The kids haven’t seen it yet but I’m sure they will love it.
Thanks for ideas.
YAHOOOOO! I bet they were soooo excited.