One of my favorite things to do is go treasure hunting, aka thrift shopping. My main goal is to find a dollhouse or dollhouse accessories, but it hardly ever happens. I finally found a pretty good score at my local Goodwill store, a Lundby Gothenburg model. I saw it the moment I walked in the store, and made a beeline to the toy section in the back corner. Once I had it in my cart I browsed real quick then went to the register. I mentioned that I was a dollhouse builder to the clerk, and she was relieved. She said she was afraid a child was going to buy this and destroy it, and she could tell it was a collectors item.
The house included quite a few accessories, and it's in really good shape. The electric wiring still works, and there were several light fixtures included as well. I couldn't resist for $9.99 and I was so excited to get home and check it all out. Over time I have accumulated a few Lundby pieces in furniture lots I've bought, plus I bought several pieces from the Michaels Store dollhouse collection which are the same scale, so I knew I could end up furnishing the entire thing.
I decided it was time to finally give this house some attention, and do what I call - a quick redo. By that I mean I didn't do as much as I could potentially do. I wanted to re-cover all the floors and walls, yet try to keep as many of the original pieces that came with the house. Here's a few before and after photos:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
It wasn't a hard decision to make this a Mid Century Modern themed house. It's practically made for that. Since I have an Artply Highland MCM dollhouse in the wings waiting to be built, I had already been collecting things for MCM decor. I have several wallpaper packs in that theme, so I chose the ones I thought would best fit my vision for this house. I ended up keeping the wall color in the living room areas, they already blended well with my theme.
Kitchen photo: I replaced the wallpaper and flooring, and added the counter bar, barstools and tea cart. I was lucky to get the original Lundby kitchen set with the house. The light fixture is original as well.
Dining Area: I replaced the wallpaper and flooring, and kept the original corner hutch that came with the house. The light fixture is original as well. Lucky to get the staircase in good condition.
Bathroom: Lucky to get the entire original Lundby bathroom set with the original seashell wallpaper. There's a section of ripped wallpaper that I hid with the cabinet and plant. I replaced the flooring, and that's all I did in this room.
Bedroom: I replaced the flooring with white carpet and the wallpaper with a lime green MCM pattern. The fireplace in the corner came with the house, and the light fixture is original too.
Sitting Room: I covered the floor with carpet in this area, but left the walls original. I made it a groovy music area. There's a record player with extra records on the table in the middle. The Lundby fish tank came with the house, but the Lundby bookshelf was already in my stash of furniture. I kept the original curtains in this room, and built the color theme around them.
Living Room: I kept the 3 wall hangings/pictures that came with the house, but that's the only thing original in this room. I covered the floors, and I made the MCM clock and accent wall. The Lundby fireplace was already in my stash.
More photos of the inside of the house:
I enjoyed this quick redo, and in the future I'm sure I'll be updating it. You know what they say..."is a dollhouse ever really done?" I'm in several Lundby groups on Facebook, and there's a few pieces I've had my eyes on. The first thing I would like to replace is the dining room set - I would love to find the orange and white tulip table and chairs set to put in this house. But for now, I have a shelf specifically for the house to sit on, high above all the others in my dollhouse display room.
Thank you for visiting!
~ Mini Shack
