Welcome to the Seaside Diner! Maryellen is rockin her poodle skirt dancing to the jukebox. I had a blast making this doll house room and it’s the largest room I’ve done so far. Let’s check it out!

The diner shell is an IKEA Pax cabinet, this particular one is 93” tall, but it is laying on its side. I bought an add-on shelf to act as a wall to divide the diner from the space that will eventually be for Melody. The “wall” is nailed into place since the normal brackets aren’t made to hold it in this position. The diner is 54” wide, 28”tall and 22 1/2” deep.

I started with the floor. In all of my other rooms I used real flooring but I couldn’t find what I wanted and was forced to change my plan on this one. I ended up using a roll of vinyl adhesive paper and I love it! It was so much easier to work with than real flooring. It came it long sheets and I cut it into 4”x4” squares.

I chose the color scheme based on American Girl’s Seaside Diner. I was able to find Cricut vinyl paper that was almost an exact match to the diner walls. I was really indecisive on choosing the color for the bottom half, but eventually went with black. I’m really glad I did because I think any other color would have made it to busy. I separated the two colors with a piece of wood I painted metallic silver. I didn’t like the hinged wall on the AG diner, so I popped it off and placed it on the opposite side.

I love Maryellen’s Jukebox! It lights up, the buttons work and it plays six songs but I’ve always felt it was a little short. Using scrap wood the hubs built a platform for it to sit on. I cut 2”x2” squares out of the vinyl and covered the wood. I really like the height now, it seems to fit the diner a little better.

As you can see, very little construction was required for this room. Once everything was in place, I started working on the details. I figure every diner needs a gumball machine, so I made one using a Christmas ornament. The stand is a dowel rod in between two wooden wheels. I found the wheels in the unfinished wood section at Hobby Lobby. Once I put the stand together, I painted it black and glued the ornament in place.

In historic photos of 50’s diners, there seems to always be a photo wall of famous patrons, so the  Seaside Diner needed one too! I printed out black and white photos of famous singers and actors from the 1950’s and framed them in simple black frames from the Dollar Tree.

Maryellen’s TV Console comes with 3 double-sided records. The songs listed on those records are the songs that play on her jukebox. I ordered two sets of records as replacement pieces from AG. I hung them on the wall above the jukebox showing all six songs.

The kitchen area seemed a little sparse, so I made a utility shelf. Again, using unfinished wood pieces from Hobby Lobby, I glued three flat plaques to spindles and painted it silver. Now there is a place to set items in the kitchen. All of the stickers on the walls came with the diner from American Girl.

I hope you enjoy the diner as much as Maryellen and her friends do! 😊 To see the Diner decked out for Christmas visit: Christmas in Maryellen’s Diner. To visit more of my historical doll house rooms check these out: Kirsten’s Cabin, Addy in Mrs. Ford’s Dress Shop, Kit’s Kitchen and Addy’s Parlor.