Saturday, June 4, 2016

Doll Room Do-Over

A doll room do-over has been long overdue since my collection more than doubled last year. The before pictures can be viewed in this post from January 2015. My spring cleaning just so happened to coincide with Shasha’s helpful posts on collection storage, display, and organization. 

Let's have a look at the changes, shall we?

On this wall, I expanded the shelving unit that houses the permanent dios for Tastries bakery and Lena's patio (center). The shelves on the left side are all part of Thomas and Camille's town home, and the shelves on the right side are all part of Chandra's town home. I hope to add the missing walls and other details this summer.


On the opposite wall, I added a table for staging temporary dios and recently added the cool storage combo from IKEA that you see underneath. Now I can keep furniture items within reach.


Pull out bins with easy to remove lids hold lots of furniture items.

Spy any new residents? More on that later ;)

On this wall is my daughters' massive Kidkraft dollhouse and a few plastic storage bins holding dolls. The book case provides storage for Jamal's office, the salon staff, and Chandra's boutique inventory.


I bought a couple of these for storing food and beverages.

Here is a shot of the wall opposite the dollhouse and facing the door. You'll see my bridal dolls on display, the tea room diorama (under construction), and a nightstand used for display and storage. The empty doll stands are awaiting the arrival of some recent purchases. My little ones continue to be displayed on the night stand shelf, and clothing for my guys is stored in the nightstand drawer. There is a closet to the right. We'll take a peek inside in just a moment.


This IKEA cabinet was purchased to display my gorgeous brides.

 

One suggestion I loved was to store ladies upright in a shoe organizer. I modified the shoe pockets so my ladies are nice and snug and do not fall out when I open and close the closet door. Look closely and you'll see two staples in each pocket. This particular shoe organizer was purchased for $14.99 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and included the hooks for hanging over the door. I was reminded that it’s best to store dolls nude so they don’t get stains from the dye in their clothing.




Married or soon-to-be-married couples are displayed on top of this chest of drawers. The only couples not on display here are Thomas & Camille and Jamal & Lena, since they have permanent dios elsewhere in the room.The drawers hold all of the fashions for my girls, now sorted by size. The top drawer has model muse fashions, the second drawer is for Fashionistas, and a third drawer holds fashions for my curvy gals.


Inside of top drawer

I finally found a container deep enough to store my guys upright. It's actually a file box for scrap book paper that I found at Michael's. The best part is the storage compartment on top that can be used for small accessories like shoes and belts.


More dolls, accessories, and dio items stored in the closet

The item below is one of my favorite storage purchases of 2016. Earlier this year, the W Club offered a doll storage case to its members. If memory serves me correctly, the case was plastic, came unassembled, could hold a maximum of 3 dolls, and was priced at $48 plus S/H. Pfft...
I found this craft tote at Michael's priced at $89.99 and on sale for 50% off. In the picture below, I have TWENTY dolls plus a whole bag of clothing and accessories inside. It has wheels and a telescoping handle, making it perfect for taking to all my doll club meetings. Beat that Integrity!


That about wraps up the tour. So, did any of you spy the five new dolls who haven't received formal introductions? Feel free to post in the comments below.

See y'all soon with another photo story!

21 comments:

  1. First I gotta say that you have a very neat and clean doll room! You are very well organized my dear! As far as identifying the 5 unintroduced dolls, I would have to go back through your older posts to figure it out and even then I am not sure that I could! Heck, I have to go back to my own old posts to figure out who I have introduced and who I haven't! I think I have OTD (Old Timer's Disease)!

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    1. Thanks, Phyllis! LOL @ Old Timer's Disease...I probably should have given a few hints. Most of the newbies are hanging out in the bar dio. And I have a new married couple, too.

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  2. I love how organized you are - looking at your photos is inspiring me to go and clean out my doll room!

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    1. Thanks, jSarie! I'm hoping I can inspire myself to tackle the girls' play room this week- lol

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  3. Your room looks awesome! I "wish" mine was this organized!!

    I saw a few dolls that I think are new. One is the AA that reminds me of Josephine Baker...I am too lazy to go check for formal name (lol), the AA Basic Black model, and an IT doll that came with wigs.

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    1. Oh, and tall red head Fashionista.

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    2. Okay, this is my last one. The AA Lammilly doll. I looked at your pictures in details and those are the ones that I think are new residents.

      P.S. I love your bridal display case! All are lovely!

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    3. Now you know you've got my dream doll room, or should I say rooms! Great eye spotting the tall Fashionista. Nice work on all of the ones you found. There are two more hanging out in the bar dio and one new couple on display. The only doll not pictured is the AA Lammily doll, but she'll be here this week- lol

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  4. All this organization makes me want to twirl! It looks so spacious.

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    1. LOL I'm amazed at how spacious the room feels now that most everything is put away some place. When my girls asked me to play dolls with them the other day, we actually had room to play. It was nice.

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  5. The room looks enormous. So well organized. Great job. If you want to organize some more, come on over. Lol.

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    1. Thanks, Vanessa. Girl, you have so many treasures over there I'd be too distracted to organize. I would want to play with everything I saw! lol

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  6. I can't help but echo previous comments: I am jealous of how organized you are! I mean, part of me suspects that perhaps 3 hours after photos it's all a mess again, but even if it's temporary, it's still an impressive set up! :)

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    1. Lol- Thanks, acloththeworld. The downstairs play room is the one that is usually undone within an hour or two of cleaning and organizing. In fact, my three-year-old seems to mark her territory by leaving a toy or dress-up item in every room she enters. The doll room, which is upstairs, tends to stay tidy much longer...thank goodness.

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  7. I wish my room could be so organized. Where are the other dolls hidden under the bed so we can't see them :-) I was thinking the 5 hidden dolls were the ones in that beautiful suitcase you have pictured.

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    1. Ha ha, simsgrl! I'm not to the point of hiding any under the bed just yet, but I have hidden the mass of shipping boxes. I can't seem to get them broken down and into recycling fast enough.

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    1. Thanks, so much Meow. It's one of my favorite rooms in the house right now :)

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  9. Oh my gosh, Jewell!!! How neat your doll room is! I love that you have applied some of the tips our dolly friends suggested in that storage post! It was a massive article but I am so happy that there was so much treasure in it <3

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    1. It was a lucky thing for me that the timing of the series lined up with my spring cleaning schedule. As you can see, I was very grateful for the tips and tricks I learned and best of all to be able to put them to use right away.

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    2. Truly! I still can't believe right now how lucky we are to be in such a generous dolly community <3

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