If like me you were without the 1982 Cottage flower boxes I made some from scratch for almost nothing: using a paperboard box from a discarded food or health and beauty item cut in half, sand the edges, cover in white contact paper, heat seal the edges with a lighter, cut to size florist foam, glue inside the open box, glue on florist moss, cut to length and shape dollar store thick gardeners wire, paint them white, glue them in, select plastic flowers from Walmart aquarium section or dollar store, attach to wires, stick in the foam and arrange, voila, here is how mine came out:
For me, the cottage was always more of a observatory/conservatory, greenhouse or gazebo type structure due to its open, airy design, so having lots of plants was key to its optimization. It's a several day project to wait for each stage of the assembly to fully dry/cure before moving to the next step, but it's a great in between project while you are doing something else because the steps are so small each day is only a few minutes. The final arranging was most satisfying as I don't think there are too many custom projects out there like this. I did forget to add the vertical lines like the original has, but I can add those later. The same week, while I was waiting for glue on this to dry, I was making a replacement yellow "cassette tape walkman player" for my 1984 Knickerbocker Snoopy. I noticed the finished product could be the same material for a replacement house door, or if you ever wanted good, solid doors for the front but didn't want to mess with wood or some other material. Here's how I did it: cut to size poster board, sand edges, wrap carefully with yellow contact paper (also from dollar store), heat seal edges with a lighter, I get crisper edges sliding them up and down the table edge while they are still warm, and pinching them gently, the door knob is up to you how it's done. Here is the Snoopy Walkman, but you can see how it's a close match to the color and thickness to the house doors. To make a hinge, I would pre drill with the tiniest drill bit where the pegs would go, then cut to length, glue in and paint yellow the same dollar store thick gardeners wire, let dry over night, then simply attach to house. The white foam square piece in the photo came with Walmart curtains I bought as packaging material, but it makes such great little tool for smoothing out contact paper projects, I used it when I frosted my shower door and window, and for various craft projects like these. For wrapping the pasteboard in contact paper, just wrap it like a tiny present, cutting the edges as needed prior to heat sealing. The finished project is surprisingly crisp and workable:
The grass yard in the first photo is a door mat I got at a home improvement or Habitat for Humanity store awhile back.
Here's the big house upstairs flower box I used as inspiration for the new '82 flower boxes:
And by the way, if you would like to pick up an affordable '82 Cottage still scour facebook marketplace daily for these occasional pop ups from the wild, you may have to drive a bit, but at least you won't have to pay shipping, you can inspect before you buy and maybe even negotiate down on price, plus they could have more stuff for sale making it one stop shopping with a potential bulk discount:
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Notice the search key words: 1980s (not 1982), and cottage (not dollhouse or doll house). Since everyone words it differently and typically does not 'key word load it', you will likely have to do and or save a few different searches using as few terms as possible, its more leg work but I have scored some incredible deals from unimaginative, and poor speller sellers. Also notice this one is missing the side support columns, this is fairly common, you can describe them and ask if they think they still own something like that that may have gotten separated (but is still in their possession!) or simply make replacements from wood dowels or scrap wood from the craft or home improvement store, I think if made well you could even measure, cut and score paper or foam board, tape or glue the sides really well and it would support the weight of some furniture, maybe even rulers would do it if you dont feel like crafting anything. =-)
Here's a renovated flip:
I think with black lanterns and mailbox along with plants and decor it would be a good final product.
Here's the original white flower boxes, the orange flower boxes only went to the Dream Pool set.
What it lacks in structural integrity it more than makes up for in original mid mod design, customization and overall play and display qualities.
You may also like this, the smaller scale works particularly well with the Cottage and Pool sets:
I noticed my 1978 Star Wars Cantina play set has a brown version of the flagstone floors and it got me thinking...How about his cool, miniature zen herb garden retreat upgraded add on for Barbie's house? The little blow mold form table counters are very reminiscent of the 1978 Sundae's Liddle Kiddle line. They are easily obtained on ebay rather inexpensively and of course can be customized in any way your imagination can think of:
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