Addy’s house is DONE! It has taken me years to acquire Addy’s original Pleasant Company collection and I created this doll house because I wanted to display it prominently. The bedroom was one of the first rooms I began creating but because of lots of indecision I am just now revealing it!

This room has taken so long because I questioned everything I did, but now I love it and am glad I did! I had always planned to make Addy’s Bedroom and Mrs. Ford’s Dress Shop but had’t planned on creating the Golden’s Parlor. The Parlor became a necessity after trying to make the table and chairs set work in the bedroom and realizing it was just to large. Also, Addy and Momma would not have likely had furniture that nice. So the parlor was created.

Let’s start at the beginning. The house is a cabinet from the IKEA PAX closet system. The base cabinet is 78” tall and 39” wide and cost $90, I added on 2 adjustable shelves at $15 each to create three separate “rooms” stacked on top of each other. I have made this entire PAX all Addy rooms. Each “room” is 25” tall and 22.5” deep. Below the Bedroom is Mrs. Ford’s Dress Shop and below it is Addy’s Parlor.

In the beginning stages, I tried two beds in the space basing this choice on Addy’s Scenes and Settings book. The Bedroom Scene shows a bed on each side of the room (but the book states there is only one bed in the garret) so I used both the original Pleasant Company version and the new American Girl version. The two beds fit and it looked nice but I was still not pleased with the room. I re-read all the Addy books and afterwards decided that I wanted the room to be just as described in the books… “a room with one window and the only furniture was a bed and a small table with two chairs”. The book also says that Momma cooked on a coal-burning cast iron stove. So my layout became clear… one bed, one table and most definitely it had to have a “cast iron” stove!

Using pictures from the Pleasant Company Addy books and her Scenes and Settings, I chose my color scheme. I used cream, textured cardstock for the walls and the hubs added wooden trim and base that I painted mustard. We used faux hardwood peel-and-stick vinyl for the flooring. Hubs made a window frame out of trim and I painted it to match. I printed an 1800’s city scene to be Addy’s view from the garret and made simple curtains that I hung from a dowel rod.

Addy’s bed has been all over this room but finally ended in the right corner with her washstand beside it. I used a red and white woven place mat for a rug to keep Addy’s feet warm. Her little summer boots fit nicely at the foot of the bed. I hung Sunny’s bird cage from a hook that I placed in the ceiling.

The drop leaf table is not American Girl brand but is a nice size for the small garret. The books describe the table as a place where Momma cooked and Addy did her home work. Since Addy has so many cute little pieces in her collection, I wanted lots of shelves for display. Using lattice, hubs made four 10-inch shelves for storage. He drilled holes in two of the shelves, added cut-off dowel rods for pegs and I painted them dark green. Once I placed all of the collection pieces on them, I filled them in with other size-appropriate items.

Addy and Momma would have had almost no dishes or silverware. Addy’s Cookbook states that Momma used some of her wages to buy ceramic dishes and silverware at Mr. Delmonte’s Secondhand Shop. Since AG didn’t create these dishes, I bought a Dollar Tree toy set and spray painted them cream like ceramic or pottery.

One of the coolest things in this room is the small, real cast-iron pans. In my post The Real Ruthie, I introduced you to my 96 year old grandma, these are her toy pans from childhood.

I’ve had many ideas on what I wanted for the stove but none seemed to work out. I would find some toy-sized ones but they were too big or too small or too heavy. I finally decided to make it myself. Well that didn’t go much better! 😂 I made a great one out of wood that I loved but… it was completely dwarfed in the room and didn’t look right. Finally, I made the current one out of a plastic storage container. I cut “vents” and a “door” on one side and added orange, fall twinkle lights to the inside to create the glow of a fire. I glued wooden disks to the top and bottom and little candlestick holders as legs. The hubs used PVC pipe and an elbow for the stove pipe. Both the pipe and Sunny’s cage are in position to help camouflage the plastic PAX bracket covers. I spray painted everything black including some gravel that I placed in a tin bucket to be the coal for the stove. Addy’s stilts from her Stilting Outfit lean against the wall.

I hope you have enjoyed Addy and Momma’s little garret room. Until next time, good night Addy.

To see more historic rooms in my doll house, visit Kirsten’s Cabin, Maryellen’s 1950s Diner and Kit’s Kitchen.