Blogger's Own: Green Repaint OOAK Custom Barbie Dream House

Solution for not having a closet, balcony or balcony doors. Foam board inserts can  be covered with contact paper, scrap book paper, wall paper or anything else you like. 

Staggering the front facade forward provides depth and dimension. 

Upper center piece is nice and open for play/display when you reverse the usual wall configuration. 

The wall art is the back of someone's business cards. the white planters are plumbing parts from the hardware store. 

Gloria apps. 

Hand made flower boxes (painted craft cubes from michaels). 

My Magnum Opus is finally done and I am able to showcase it for the blog. I took a faded '79 Barbie A Frame Dream House that had no small pieces whatsoever, no doors, windows, balcony, closet or planters and fixed it up with parts I had and home made replacements for the rest. For the floors I used Velspar satin Everglade Glen paint from Lowes. It took two coats and I had just enough. It may have come out more saturated if I'd painted the floors white first, but I didnt want to risk crackling with a bad chemical reaction. For the roof pieces I used Velspar gloss Luscious Green, I did have to paint the roofs white (not primer, just flat white) in order for the color show over the faded red they were and in 97% of it there was no chemical reaction or textural imperfections. I stand behind this OOAK custom Mattel Barbie doll dream house project.

The windows are from a packet of report protectors from Office Deopt item #230890 for $10.99 and I had lots of left over for additional projects. I cut L shaped sections and scotch taped them into place. The same 'frosted glass' effect is used for the 4 doors on the back of the house. I used foam board to fill in the closet hole and paper board behind the diagonal slats (the house was always a little too open for me so I used a bit of artistic license to further customize this empty shell). The tile floor is just a copy of contact paper I have so is not attached. The front lamp posts are made out of leftover wood pieces I had from a project (originally an Ikea coat hook) and ping pong balls glued on top. The suspended globe light in the upper center section was made from a ping pong ball taped to a long thin strip of paper board. I ordered my ping pong balls from China as I didnt want to drive the 45 minutes to the closest ToyRus and didnt think Target would have them. I waited 2 weeks for them only to see them at the drug store in the beverage aisle as I was getting last minute 4th of July items, lol. The front stone patio section is craft paper from Michael's attached to a peel and stick floor tile. The doors where the hardest to make they are a sandwich of foam board, green paper board,  green electrical tape from Home Depot and more report protector 'frosted glass' with green thumbtack handles glued on. I wanted to make all the rear doors the same full length frosted glass as in the center section, but ultimately decided that veering too far away from the original house would be detrimental to its overall look and resale value. About 3/4 of the post covers on this home are made from paper board. Just cut to length and score with a good exacto knife and there you are. The washer, dryer and toilet are painted Gloria pieces. And as most of you know you can get indoor/outdoor carpet from the hardware store to use as grass. You will want to have double sided scotch tape to use especially for the doors, it was indispensable for this project. For the oven I could have used a transparent green report cover plastic to replace the pink, and green taped over the pink stickers on the fridge, but I had to stop the insanity someplace. =-) I like the staggered look of the side pieces being set back. Hypothetically, you could foam bard in the openings in the walls in front and rear to close the house in and make it look more realistic. If this house had a permanent place in my home I would do that. I think setting the side pieces back adds more depth, dimension and visual interest to the home, though in a straight line still looks pretty good, too! Also, eliminating the balcony, for me at least, removes some of the Bavarian ski lodge look and makes it more period '1970's Americana' ala the neighborhood from 'The Incredible Shrinking Woman'.

This is the house I creme bleached the parts on an earlier post. When I got the house I knew this was my chance to totally customize a house to whatever I wanted since it was without any small parts it was not worth restoring it to its original shape and it was bought inexpensively so I thought long and hard as to how to reinvent it. I have really only seen houses repainted either black and brown or shades of blue. I was going for a different kind of 'early 70's' look and thought green. If the floors are green then they can pass for green shag carpet and the darker green roof is just eye catching. I believe what we have is a monochromatic look in keeping with white walls and matching floor and roof pieces. I am very happy with the final product. The only thing I would like to have done differently is to have a complete house to transform and not just the shell. I do love this one of a kind small house and will probably sell it but want to enjoy it for a little while longer. =-) Also, I could have filled in the upper railings with paper board behind the slats to further close in the house, but just ran out of steam. This has been a several week long process.

PS: I may have gotten the idea from the 1956 Saturday Evening Post ad I read earlier that week.

Me spray painting in the garage, just kidding, I look nothing like Pat Kramer. 

During, quite messy, a word of caution, I did lay down a large heavy tarp but the color particles are quite  light and dry so they float around and land on anything (be sure to wear a breathing mask unless you want to hack all night) But anyway, painting green over yellow floor pieces took up lots of paint and would have done better being white first ( I didnt bother to paint the underneath), here you can see the roof pieces freshly painted white in order for the kelly green color to show. lots and lots of work, folks.

The inspiration behind the look, tall dramatic entryway, double doors and globe lights. I am not opposed to doing an accent rock wall ala the Brady Bunch I just dont quite know how to do it yet. All I have is faux brick for miniatures. Some of you TV fans may recognize this from the Tasty Meadows neighborhood.

And as a post script, a repainted avocado green 1977 Star Traveler, if you havent ever seen one of these in person I can tell you they are HUGE-NORMOUS!, hense the high shipping cost. They definitely, DEFINITELY dont make them like this anymore.

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