Ready to get your groove on? Julie and Ivy now have their own far out space in the dollhouse! I hope you dig this 70’s room! 😉
Normally when talking about a doll or collection, I tell you how she’s my favorite and how much I love the collection…. not this time. 😂 I was an adult with children when Julie was released in 2007 and her collection didn’t appeal to me at all. At that time, a doll so close in age to me wasn’t intriguing. Her collection looked like things still lurking in my parents basement and I was not impressed. I did find the Julie doll attractive and thought Ivy was adorable so I purchased them for my collection. A couple of years ago, I found Julie’s bed locally for $20 (can’t pass that up) and decided to read her books. Well, that did it! I really liked her personality and I slowly began buying her pieces. Unlike the original six Pleasant Company dolls, I won’t buy Julie’s entire collection. I’ve decided to stick with pieces that can fit in this room and her Volkswagen Beetle (one of my favorite parts of her collection).
Like most of my dollhouse rooms, I began with a PAX cabinet from IKEA. This particular one is 93” tall and 29” wide. The PAX is laying on its side, giving us a house that is nearly 8 feet long. Using two add-on shelves placed back-to-back for strength and support, Julie’s room is divided from the other portion of the PAX. Julie’s room is 28” tall x 40″ wide x 22 1/2” deep.
In the beginning, I had a really hard time decorating this room. I was torn between making it cute and authentic. 😂 Once I chose the main pieces, I had so much fun. It’s so bright and colorful! For Julie’s wall color I chose an adhesive Cricut vinyl in mustard. This color choice completely clashed with the orange in her bed so I figured it was perfect. 😂 For the floor, I chose a dark, faux hard wood vinyl. Hubs was rooting for shag carpet but the vinyl is much easier for the dolls to stand and pose on. Also, I routinely dust all of the dollhouse rooms and I didn’t want to have to vacuum this one since it’s over 5 feet in the air. (Currently Julie’s Room sits on top of Emma and Ella’s rooms/house.)
In the Julie book series, her parents get divorced and she moves across town to an apartment with her mom and sister. The book states that she put up posters in her new room, a Smiley Face one and a Peanuts Lucy poster. I Googled 1970’s images of both and printed off the ones that worked the best for the room and using Mod Podge, attached them to the walls.
I wanted a macrame plant holder to hang in the room because what is more 70’s than macrame? The ones I found for sale were either too large or too small, so I made one and added a mini dollar store plant.
Hubs made the two 10 inch shelves that hang on the back wall out of unfinished pine. I painted them white to complement the white wooden bed frame. Julie’s Barbie Beauty Center is my favorite piece on the shelves. I placed its replica box under the side table where it’s visible because it’s the coolest part of the set. Ah memories. Other pieces of Julie’s collection filling the shelves are her tape recorder, an extra record, a flower headband, body powder and tissues. I found the owl salt shaker at the dollar store last fall. When I found these real-working, miniature Rock Em Sock Em Robots I thought they fit the room perfectly. The original people-size version is one of the items lurking at my parents house. 😂
Julie’s window is a simple picture frame with an outdoor picture of San Francisco in the 1970’s. For the curtains, I used purple fabric with large scale flowers. The purple curtains help balance the bedspread on Julie’s canopy bed. They are hung on a simple dowel rod.
The shelving unit is a child’s jewelry box I found for $2 and it had designs painted all over. I thought they made it look too much like a jewelry box so I sanded it down and painted over the design. It had three drawers but I chose to keep two as open shelves. The drawer already had the large flower handles and I left them because they kinda have that 70’s vibe. On the shelves I placed Julie’s basketball, tennis shoes, lunch box with thermos and her tie-dyed bag from the BeForever accessories set.
Now for my very favorite thing! The TV. It’s mentioned in Julie’s book series, how she reads the Little House on the Prairie books and how she went on her own covered wagon adventure. I somehow wanted to incorporate Little House into Julie’s room. I was completely thrilled and inspired when I found this little, very 70’s looking TV at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas decor section last December. It had a winter scene inside that rotates with music but I wanted to cover the glass and make it look like a real television. Since the Little House on the Prairie movie pilot aired in 1974, what could be more perfect! I Googled the image of the opening scene, formatted it to the size I needed and printed it off. I took the TV apart and attached the picture to the inside so the image is behind the glass like a real television.
If you’re new to the blog you can find more on my addiction to all things Little House in these posts: Laura Ingalls Wilder Home, Laura Meets Nellie Oleson, Lunch With Almanzo Wilder, Meet Laura Ingalls and Meet Almanzo Wilder.
So there’s the skinny on Julie’s new far out pad. I’ll catch you on the flip side. 😉
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