5 Apr 2016

Little Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Plans

Today is the official start of the Dollhouse Therapy challenge that I'm hosting with my friends: Cassie from Primitive and Proper, Alice from Thoughts from Alice and Emy from Semigloss Design.  Have you decided to join us?  This month we are all trying to tackle one-two rooms in our dollhouses and we will be revealing the end result on the last Tuesday of this month.  There will be a link party for you to share your rooms too or you can join in on Instagram using the hashtag #DollhouseTherapy.

This month I've decided to tackle the kitchen, but before I get into my design ideas and progress so far. I thought I'd share a little peak inside my dollhouse.

Taking my old dollhouse completely apart and changing it to a front-opening house was A LOT more work than I could have ever imagined.  I'm still finishing off a few things on the inside like baseboards, painting doors and installing the staircase.  I was able to finish the window trims, painting and installing the floors since the last update I shared.  The floors are white-washed wide planks that I cut out of balsa wood.  I actually tried staining them a light wood colour that I didn't end up liking and I had to sand them all down before white-washing.  It was another "Aaaah! what did I get myself into?!" moment.  

The boys have been excited to help me out with the dollhouse.  I wasn't really expecting them to be too interested, but they seem to be happy to help me build.  My oldest loved laying the tile in the bathroom (you can see a little glimpse of the gingham patterned floors we made in the second photo above).  Little brother is really waiting on the staircase to be installed.  It's the most important part I'm told.  I better get working on that!

So let's talk about the kitchen aka the room I'm tackling this month for the Dollhouse Therapy challenge.
Mr. & Mrs. Squirrel have been really busy building kitchen cabinets and figuring out a layout. ;)

  The kitchen is going to have a modern farmhouse style to go with its farmhouse exterior.  The cabinets  I chose are individual kits that I customized to look like flat panel drawers and shaker-style doors (I'm sharing the how to below).  The range and fridge are vintage pieces that I already owned.  I think I'm liking the layout that the squirrel family has come up with so far.  I'm debating as to whether I will add an island with a sink or not.  The staircase will be to against the left wall of the room and I'll have to see how much space there is left for the island.  As for colour, I think I'm going to leave the cabinets natural wood and paint out the appliances.  I also think a classic marble countertop would be lovely along with a lovely tile backsplash. Oh, the possibilities are endless in a dollhouse kitchen! ;)  I have lots to do before the reveal at the end of this month!

Customized Dollhouse Cabinets:

Here is a picture of what the cabinets I purchased are supposed to look like once assembled.  They  had  raised panel style doors that really weren't what I was looking for for my little modern farmhouse.  What I did like about these cabinets was that they came in various widths to mimic standard cabinet sizes (e.g., 3" = 36", 1.5" =18", etc.) and I had the option of getting cabinets with drawers or doors.  It was kind of like planning a real kitchen.  I took a bit of a gamble when ordering the cabinets hoping that since they were DIY kits that I would be able to make them into flat panels using the backsides.  Once I received the kits and started looking at how to assemble them there was a little more work needed to see my vision through.  I thought that I'd share what I did below in case anyone else is as crazy as I am to modify dollhouse cabinets!

Modifying the doors:
I wasn't able to make the doors into flat panels since there was additional moulding around the door that had to be glued on.  However, when I put this moulding on the flat side of the door I was able to get a shaker style door which still worked for my modern farmhouse look.  The one thing that I wasn't anticipating having to do was to sand off pretty much all of the raised portion of the doors.  I had to do this because the panel was preventing the doors from closing flush to the cabinets.  

The picture above shows the drawers before and after sanding.  Again, in order for the drawer to slide all the way into the cabinets I had to sand off the raised panels.  I then slid the drawers in backwards so that the back became the front and I ended up with some lovely simple flat panel drawer fronts.

I'm really excited about how this little kitchen is coming together already and I can't wait to see what you are all up to with your dollhouses too!  Feel free to comment below or find me on Instagram so that I can follow along with your dollhouse renovations!  Also, if you are participating we'd love for you to join our Facebook group.

Sources:

Cabinets:  kindly supplied by Miniatures.com
Black Vent Hood:  The Little Dollhouse Company
Appliances: Vintage




11 comments:

  1. i love those cabinet plans! i think they have a more modern feel that suits you.

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    1. Thanks Cassie! I was a little nervous about how they would turn out when modified, but I'm really happy with them.

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  2. Way to go customizing those cabinets! It's going to look amazing!

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    1. Thanks Emy! It's really been a lot of fun even if it is time consuming! :)

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  3. I love your little squirrel family! And your dollhouse in general....if I were the size of a dollhouse squirrel, I could afford marble countertops all over the place ;)

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    1. Haha! I'm sure there'll be some "marble" in a room or two. ;)

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  4. If I had kids this is the kind of thing I know my partner would make for them and then I'd go crazy decorating! Love this :)

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    1. I think I may be building this dollhouse more for me than my two boys! They do seem to enjoy helping me build and driving their cars through it. ;)

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  5. Love what you've done so far! I've joined in on the fun on IG (@thetinyfixer) and am loving everything you have shared so far already <3

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    1. Yay! I'm so glad to hear that you're joining us. It's been such a fun project so far.

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  6. Just love it so much! Adorable and I wish my daughter would still play with those critters. They were my favorite toy

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