Hearth & Hand Dollhouse
This farmhouse-style Hearth & Hand Dollhouse was love at first sight. I was thrilled when my friend Ashley at Moore House Interiors gave me the green light to upgrade one of these beauties for her daughter Emma's birthday. In this post, I'm mostly just providing photos of the finished product, but if you want to check out the process, you can watch my saved story on Instagram titled "Hearth & Hand Dollhouse."
The only thing Ashley specifically asked that I recreate was the bed and awning and Emma's room. For everything else in the house, I tried to stick to Ashley's modern farmhouse style with perfect vintage pieces thrown in. I always try to incorporate lots of personal touches in my dollhouses to really make the dollhouse feel like a dollhome.
EXTERIOR
Most of my dollhouses don't have an exterior so I really loved working on this one. I made "stone tiles" out of cork and spackling. Ashley's real front porch has a church pew and rocking chairs so I made sure to incorporate those elements. My favorite part of the exterior was the outdoor room. This space is so versatile and I chose to turn it into an outdoor dining room complete with a farmhouse dining table and black metal light fixture made from brass tubing and jewelry beads.
STUDY
This extra room off the side of the house is my other favorite because I was able to do something a little different than I normally do. Typically, my dollhouses include a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom so it was fun to work on a different room for this house. Emma has an awesome work area in their laundry room and a built-in reading nook in her bedroom so I combined those ideas to create a study. Ashley provided me with vintage dollhouse furniture her mom bought at a thrift store so I incorporated that throughout the house, including the desk and chair in this room. Ashley has a vintage toolbox made by her grandfather holding her children's art supplies so I recreated that piece complete with toothpick colored pencils. The bulletin board is a copy of one Emma has above her desk. The built-in reading nook uses the same color scheme seen throughout the house: buffalo check, pink, and maroon. The shelves hold books of Emma's various interests as well as Southern classics. Emma loves ballet so I used ballet shoe patent prints as artwork in the space. I planked the sloped ceiling and added wood beams to match the hardwood floors.
LIVING ROOM
Initially, this space presented a unique problem due to the original location of the stairs; I relocated the stairs to the side to open up the space. I created a stone fireplace from clay scored with an exacto knife similar to the one Ashley has in her home on the underside of the stairs and included a gallery wall of family photos on the stairwell to make it personal. I paired the gray chesterfield sofa with a rustic cowhide rug (originally a coaster). The wood coffee table displays a silver tray of candles (painted wood dowels) and a copy of Homebody, which seemed fitting in a dollhouse designed by Joanna Gaines. The white distressed side table is simply a wooden candle holder, and the chair is another piece of the vintage furniture. For another personal touch, I added a sign above the hooks (made with brass tubing and jewelry beads) with the family name and the year Ashley and her husband were married. Ashley has beautiful vintage pieces throughout her real home, including architectural salvage so I painted and distressed a large corbel for the mantle. Ashley has this same light fixture in her home, and the miniature version was made with a curtain grommet, wooden dowels, and jewelry chain all spray painted black.
KITCHEN
I especially love this modern farmhouse kitchen with dark gray cabinets made from a 2x4 (minus the rounded edges) and false cabinet and drawer fronts cut from thin pieces of wood. The hardware is made from aluminum tubes and jewelry beads spray painted black. The faucet is made from the same materials. The countertops were cut to fit and covered in marble contact paper. The cooktop was made by my friend Louise at My Miniature Emporium. The vent hood was cut from a block of wood, and I added decorative metal to give it more dimension. The floating shelves were stained the same color as the floor and the French country table and chairs. I made the light fixture with square wooden dowels and jewelry jump rings all super glued together and painted black. The space felt a bit sterile so I added a rug with maroon to tie in with the rest of the house.
BEDROOM
I created the bed and pink awning above the bed to match Emma's real room. I love the shiplap-look bed frame with the buffalo check. Both of Emma's parents went to Texas A&M so Emma has been leaning toward maroon more and more, which is why it's used throughout the house. My UT Longhorn heart had a really hard time using maroon, but I must say that it pairs really well with the pink. I made the pink awning out a block of wood (I had a hard time with the angles but eventually figured it out), scalloped trim, and thin pieces of wood for the rest of the trim. Emma has bedside lights made by her grandfather out of vintage ceiling tins and Mason jars so I recreated the look with embossed scrapbook paper that I painted and distressed to look like a ceiling tin and used a jewelry jar as the Mason jar. I created a rug with yarn hot glued to a piece of cardstock. That yummy green chair is part of the vintage furniture found by Ashley's mom, and I made the lamp out of a couple wooden pieces, a plastic paint cup, and textured cardstock. I always think it's fun to incorporate a mini dollhouse within a dollhouse (aka Dollhouse Inception) so I loved using a mini replica of this farmhouse that Target sold as Christmas ornaments. Emma loves Magic Treehouse books so I made one for the nightstand. For another personal touch, I also included the scripture read at Emma's dedication.
BATHROOM
Originally, the upstairs was one giant room so created a room divider out of a piece of MDF. On the bathroom side, I covered it with marble hex tile I designed and printed on glossy sticker paper to make it look more like real tile. I framed the bathroom mirror in wood stained the same color as the floor. I painted the vanity pink to match awning in the bedroom and made hardware that matches the hardware in the kitchen. I included a vintage chair and ladder to hold the towel.
Since this was a Joanna Gaines-designed dollhouse for her Hearth & Hand line at Target, I made sure to stage a Fixer Upper-style reveal complete with before and after pictures, which you can check out on Instagram.
