The One & Only Mattel Barbie 1978 A Frame DreamHouse Website For Devoted Fans

Sunday, August 15, 2021

How to Make Your House a Real Life Mattel 1978 DreamHouse

Once installed, these beautiful, maintenance free panels will give your house a unique, fetching look for years to come.

Contractor white paint is slightly cheaper than tinted, two coats are better than one. Railing easily found in any home improvement store, or custom made by local carpenters.

Easily ordered online, or custom made on site, you now have your white planter boxes! New Age nothing; these are groovy, baby!

Don't be afraid to add color, you'll need to complete this step if you truly want that 1978 DreamHouse look. Remember to purchase exterior semi gloss paint, and use a micro fiber foam roller after sanding and cleaning thoroughly.

Never be afraid to embrace a shocking yellow floor AND ceiling. Here we see it is smartly and correctly implemented into this bright, white space. It will be the talk of the neighborhood for years to come.

See, yellow floors DO work. Try not to clutter it up, we want to actually see the yellow floors. You can also try yellow carpet, or if your rent then large yellow shag rugs will do in a pinch. I consider it a non-chemical mood lifter for all.

Get ready to cross those rail road tracks into the spooky part of town to get these rare, vintage Harvest Gold appliances. Trust me, they still exist, you just may have to 'haunt' these used appliance stores for awhile and give them some elbow grease to clean them up good as new once they are delivered. Keep a bucket handy. 40 year old ice makers tend to leak every 3rd or 4th ice cube making cycle. Remember to pick up some orange and blue ice cube trays from the dollar store, too!

I clean mine with Lemon Pledge. Keeps the wood grain looking so new and attractive.

Thank you for letting me indulge in a sardonic, ironic post. It was fun, we must do this again soon.

Here is your newly staged dining area. and if you design the ceiling like the center piece has, it would look like this:

And if you can find this linoleum in harvest gold, you are set:

For a groovy Dream House door, simply paint the door yellow, and custom cut the breeze block pattern into plywood and attach.

After all the above made changes have been made, you should have a home resembling our beloved. Short of remodeling, here is what I think the closest thing you could find "in the wild" on real estate apps. The price is average, great lot and so forth. I would likely add green shag carpeting and mid mod light fixtures and decor.

Natural wooded lot, shed roof shaped sections, slat siding, vaulted ceilings, lots of natural interior light, large decks and even a cool carport make this one a winner! While 78-79 was the peak of this architectural movement, I have seen similar homes dating to as late as 96. Presumably, you could take old plans to a builder and get a brand new one. There are lots of books online with hundreds of similar options.

architecture houses design and if you just want a larger playhouse outside that can withstand the weather, then with some modification, this may be for you:

Perhaps an A Frame inspired doghouse? Just prime, paint and enjoy!

Call the builder, we have a plan:

Maybe a play house, dog house or shed designed from our 1978 A Frame DreamHome:

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Make Replacement Windows and Glass Doors Using This:

Ever wanted to make affordable window replacements for your renovation restoration project? How about filling in those big empty skylights with skylight 'glass'? Of, you could make your own floor to ceiling glass walls. As I was shopping at my local big box home improvement store, Home Depot, I noticed these plexiglass sheet in varying sizes near the lumber aisle. Finally, you can obtain the material inexpensively to fully customize your 1978 A Frame DreamHouse.

As you can see it's not expensive and is readily available in different size sheets. Not only can you use this as faux glass, you could frost it with basic plain window frosting, or any of the faux stained glass appliqués they have now in the bathroom aisle for $24 a roll.

So, while my A frame is currently in storage, when I do get it out again and set up, this is definitely going to be my next project. I will: fill in the skylights, add window glass to my 4th wall made from foam board and back the front doors with this so they are like the real life storm doors for real houses plus fill in the back doors window opening.

I need to look up how to cut these, but I am guessing it is with a table saw after taping the cut line to avoid chipping. Then sand the edges as needed. Most likely, a simple model or airplane glue will suffice to secure into place. For replacement windows, I would use the yellow auto tape in the car aisle or Amazon, I outlined in an earlier post to create the yellow frame edges for the windows or rear glass doors. For hinges, I would either tape into place, or if you are dexterous, use the smallest drip bit and drill tiny holes in the correct spot to create the hinge peg holes as found on the original windows. For the for pegs, you could drill the holes then fill with a small peg like I did in the closet door repair post. Use search terms in the search box on this page to quickly find posts mentioned. Good luck with it. =-)

Some dollar stores now carry yellow contact paper which could be used to make the edges yellow.

If you wanted to fill in upstairs openings, here is one solution:

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

A Frame Goes Hollywood!

Was flipping the channels yesterday and saw an old Olson twins movie with our beloved property. It reminded me of when I would watch Grace Under Fire, and the son's room had the Masters of the Universe Eternia play set (on Roseanne, DJ's room often showed Castle Grayskull), and the daughter's had the Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home house in the back ground.

When this came out, the pink house would not have been that old, and I wonder if they didn't use the middle section because it would have been too large and stolen the focus. Glad I found this 90's 'gem'.

In Married with Children, season two, episode 14, titled 'Guys and Dolls', features Peg and Marcy recapturing childhood memories with Barbie while Al and Steve go off baseball card hunting.

Now where have I seen these diagonal slat walls before? Here is Lindsey Wagner on the Dina Shore Show, year unknown, but likely 77-79.

tv television movies film famous celebrities actors

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Celebrating 200,000 Page Views!

Thank you all so much for making this possible! Please continue to share on social media like Pinterest, it really does make a difference. While I am still sorting out the issue of my comments/replies not showing, I do appreciate your commentary. Here's to another 100,000 views.

I think the reason why this toy home is so popular is its versatility (and quality). Kind of like LEGO. Here is a vintage letter attesting to that and toy gender versatility. Imagination, exploration, open minds, enjoyment and opportunity all go hand it hand:

Thursday, April 16, 2020

World's Smallest Barbie Dollhouse: Now in Classic Colors!

Currently, the best available price is on Ebay for $14 for the red and yellow version.

If you aren't familiar with the "World's Smallest", it is a pretty cool line of retro toys, they probably have made a tiny version of your favorite childhood toy from the 60s or 70s, I own the Lite Brite, Lincoln Logs and Adventure Team GI Joe. They even have a Barbie size record player (turntable) that spins records! All are a great value considering you can actually play with all of them, they are not like a Hallmark ornament, they really are mini version of the real thing. This set comes with the 3 best selling Barbies of all time: Zebra Swimsuit, Malibu and Totally Hair. They are smaller than, I think, the regular World's Smallest figs.

The stickers are reminiscent of the 1979 Colorforms set still around on Feebay. Feebay will also have HO and other similar scale furniture sets from overseas. Germany makes great little sets, but they are $35 a room! If you added a hook, this would be a deal of an ornament though.

https://smile.amazon.com/Worlds-Smallest-Barbie-Dreamhouse-Multi/dp/B084RFZ4HT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=worlds+smallest+barbie+house&qid=1587063545&sr=8-1

The designers have taken liberty to somewhat redesign the house. You'll notice the front lanterns are gone, there are 3 added upper balcony planters in purple or mauve, there are double front doors upstairs, vertical slats, the downstairs horizontal windows are now 4 panes instead of one, the windows look tinted to reflect the blue sky outside, and the vertical lower windows are square not rectangular.

This is similar to having the Colorforms house, you can take it with you in the car to play with during long car rides. Of note here is the particular choice of kitchen sink console...the same exact one I first showed the world on the blog how well it works, but with a yellow dishwasher. Since in the 15 years of collecting this house I have never, EVER seen another custom, much less yellow dishwasher added to the sink component, it is safe to say they got the inspiration from my blog post on here. Also, the white verticle cylindrical plant pots look especially like the ones I made from small plumbing pipe sections. Also, the bathroom vanity is like the arco one I used along with the Arco patio set I showed used with the house. Imitation is the most inner form of flattery, right? Though, it would have been nice to have been contacted since I was copied. I am disapointed for the red and yellow version of the World's Smallest Malibu house that there is not a yellow fridge or a green desk, which since they redisgned the stickers for this house anyway could have been easily done. They had legal permissions from Mattel to do this, so why they chose to design the house and furniture differently is beyond me. =-0

It would have been cool to have this in orange and yellow with more accurate architecture, but I'm happy with it.

The balcony railing is removable and the roof tiles are matched perfectly. the house is only one piece though.

PS: When applying the furniture stickers, they are moveable if you make a mistake or change your mind, I just use the edge of an exacto knife to pry off the corner, and the rest comes away, you can easily pop out the paper wall, place them exactly, and pop it back in. If making a Christmas tree ornament, you can custom cut a small piece of wire (dollar store), and bend around top center celing/roof beam at the peak and there you go! My new micro 1978 A Frame lives on my desk so I can enjoy it all day. =-)