Welcome to Ella’s bedroom! Last summer my husband and I started a five-room doll house for the Truly Me dolls of my collection. I feel like it has taken forever to finish the top floor of the modern doll house but at last it’s done! In my post American Girl Place Chicago I introduced you to Ella and Emma, the two Truly Me 61’s that I dress as twins. The modern doll house is Ella and Emma’s home and has two floors. The top floor consists of three rooms: Emma’s Bedroom, Ella’s Bedroom and a shared Walk-In Closet.
As I started designing the twin’s bedrooms, I wanted them to have different themes and personalities as people do. I chose to create a personality for Emma’s room that is simple, clean and trendy. Ella’s room is more girly with color and whimsy but still classy and leans into her musical abilities. She plays the flute for band, violin for orchestra and is learning to play the banjo for fun!
I love the look of board-and-batten! The hubs has done this in a couple of rooms in our own home. I wanted the same look for Ella’s room. It wasn’t easy doing it in a pint-sized version but he did a great job. 😀 He started with cutting 1×6 primed pine to form the walls and then attached lattice to it as the strips. These painted pine walls were then nailed onto the walls of the Pax. The house shell is an IKEA Pax cabinet and is 93” tall but is laying on its side so we get a house that is nearly 8 feet long. (To see the completed house visit The Dollhouse Living Room.) Using two add-on shelves the hubs cut doorways and nailed them into place from the top and bottom. The doorway leads into the shared walk-in closet and continues on to Emma’s room. Ella’s room is 28” tall x 27” wide x 22 1/2” deep.
The flooring is a faux hardwood vinyl and the rug is a placemat. I used this Cricut vinyl gray paper for the wall covering to mimic gray paint. The gold dot paper on the back wall is a very thick wrapping paper. On the wall I hung a photo frame that looked like a shadow box and placed Ella’s violin and bow in it. I printed out sheet music for the background. The feathers are wooden cut-outs and just felt whimsical. I printed out the saying about music onto gold-embossed card stock and put it in a simple 4×6 photo frame. The opposite wall has a sunburst mirror and an E magnet hanging above the door. (Emma has one too.)
The chair is from AG Tenney’s Stage, I use it in multiple rooms so it comes and goes in the space. The bed is the American Girl Canopy Bed and I painted it navy blue (my favorite color 😉). I added Ella’s name to the foot board. The pink faux fur bedding is two placemats I bought on clearance after Christmas. Don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to place your plate of food on something this fuzzy but luckily for me they didn’t sell and were only 80 cents each!😁 I spread one out like a comforter and rolled the other up to act as a bolster pillow. All other pillows were made by me. I made a few spare pillows for the wall baskets in case friends come over to hang out.
The banjo stand is a small, clear plate stand from Hobby Lobby. The nightstand is a craft box I painted navy and added jewelry box pulls to. The working lamp is from the dollar store but I painted the ugly “shade” gold. The tray is a ring dish and on it are Ella’s personal items. I found the gold baskets in the office supply section and hung them on the wall as storage baskets.
I hope you have enjoyed Ella’s room! To see more rooms in the modern doll house, visit these posts: The Dollhouse Kitchen, The Dollhouse Living Room, The Dollhouse Bathroom and Laundry Room, Emma’s Bedroom and Emma & Ella’s Walk-In Closet. 💗
I have updated the photos since the original post in 2019. The doll room has much better lighting now and I have made a few changes to Ella’s room.😉 Below are the original photos.
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