Haunted Manor: My first dollhouse renovation!

I found a $10 well-loved dollhouse on the Facebook Marketplace and bought it. I’ve been wanting to toy with dollhouses and miniatures, but didn’t want to completely start from scratch! This dollhouse is much bigger than I expected — I realize now I totally miscalculated what 3″ means — but it’s half the price of the smaller dollhouse I saw and considered.

Pink and white dollhouse
3 feet means THREE ACTUAL FEET, JANE

Charlise suggested the haunted house theme after I said I couldn’t think of a theme to do, and I instantly loved it! It’ll be a great challenge for me, but also totally possible.

I had a Sabrina The Teenage Witch Polly Pocket Doll Set when I was younger that I loved, so a lot of my reference totally comes from that — it’s just slightly darker, considering the haunted house theme.

The intention is to renovate to sell, because there’s absolutely no way I have enough room in my own room to keep it. Also, despite having plans for a story featuring my dollhouses, miniatures and dolls (which I don’t have a lot of currently), I have no need for this dollhouse personally because I’m not there yet.

The working title for this project is Haunted Manor. I might change it later, but I think Haunted Manor works best. It’ll be great for a Halloween enthusiast or child who loves haunted houses, and sold locally because I can’t imagine the trials and tribulations of shipping such a thing. By locally, I mean most anyone within the DFW area, provided travel accommodations can be properly settled.

Work needed

  • New back panel
  • New windows
  • Lots of paint
  • Flooring & wallpaper
  • Roof
  • Theme customizations
  • Possibly more nails in some places?

I’ll be blogging about my process and keeping track of:

  • money spent, to determine profit @ sale
  • each room & major accessory
  • floors & walls
  • general process

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That’s so cool! Coincidentally, I’ve always wanted to get into building dollhouses. But I had a vision that I would create a space in my home where I could work on them. I’m truly looking forward to seeing your progress and outcome!

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What a neat project! I’d love to do something like this… I’m not very creative though. I love the idea of a haunted house them for it though!

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