How to Make a Doll Restaurant - the Walls

My niece's Monster High dolls needed somewhere to hang out and go out on dates. So I made her a restaurant and we're calling it Lola's Bistro. Their grand opening will be next week.

Materials Needed

• 22" x 14" x !4" cardboard box
• scraps of cardboard
• white glue
• paper mache
• styrofoam 
• paint
• wallpaper

Fold in the flaps of  your box, add more layers of cardboard to all sides, this will make it strong and when you add the paper mache, the cardboard won't warp, warping starts when the cardboard is really wet, so keep a fan on the box and don't make your paper mache mixture too watery.

I added a patio to the restaurant.

I added a back bench for seating in the restaurant.

Styrofoam and a long piece of cardboard for the back of the bench.

 

Now paper mache all of it.

Urgh, the patio warped...and it warped really bad...not useable, despite my best efforts it still warped, I think it was because it was a long piece of cardboard, I should have broken it up into smaller sections.


Solution:
I removed the patio by cutting if off with a knife, removed the flooring section and kept the side walls, I still have my patio and actually works out better because this will make it easier to store it. I will post pictures of the patio by the weekend.

 I like to paint everything white, more like a blank slate, then I try to get inspired on how to decorate by the things I find. Not sure what to do yet in this picture.

Then I found this awesome wallpaper. I wanted something simple. We want to hang viewers artwork in the restaurant, so we didn't want it to look too busy. We want the art to stand out.

Check out my post on the floors. I didn't paint it this time, I .... I'll tell you later :)
Got to go now, back to my real job.

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Oh yah, I gotta say it.... please vote for me :) for top 100 doll sites...we're at currently no.4 but go back and forth alot from 5th to 4th. 

Thank you for all you have joined and subscribed. You inspire me to start and finish my crafts. I love making these crafts for my niece and I love sharing them with you. Thank you so much for your comments.

Ginger :)

Dollhouse Update 4 of 4 the floors

Ok almost finished, I painted some coffee stir sticks and they are going to be my baseboards.

Now here is the finished look, I still have alot to do, make beds, furniture, decorating accessories, the kitchen and bathroom. I am so much happier spending time making those projects with this new floor.
Makes it worth it. I can't believe I used that awful plastic shelf paper.

I started this hardwood flooring project using white glue, I don't know why I thought it would be better than hot glue which I use all the time... after doing about a foot of flooring I started using the hot glue because it was alot faster, and then nucklehead me, forgot to sand the main floor, I sanded the second floor but urgh...forgot this one, and the glue didn't stick to the sticks that had the glue residue on it. I'm not going to worry about it now, because I have so many other projects to work on, but I will tackle it later, by sanding it well and re-doing the stain.

For now I will have to cover it with a rug (aka a bit of fabric).

Next on my to do list is the kitchen, not sure what I'm doing yet, I need to go to thrift stores, dollar stores and garage sales to find items that inspire me...

Thank you for visiting. :)