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   Welcome to McKenna’s room and a new chapter for the dollhouse! I have started working on rooms for the Girl of the Year (GOTY) dolls and their collections. When I began creating doll rooms, I only planned on making displays for my historical collection and had no intentions of going beyond. As I started collecting the GOTYs and their accessories, I ran into the same issue as I did with my historical dolls… all these great pieces were sitting in storage or on a bookshelf. So I have decided to make rooms for each of these special characters and have started with McKenna.

McKenna Brooks was Girl of the Year in 2012. I read her two books (McKenna and McKenna, Ready to Fly) after scoring her Loft Bed Set locally for $80 and I really enjoyed her story. I decided to begin my GOTY rooms with this adorable girl, so let’s get started.

I use IKEA Pax closet frames as the base cabinets for all of my dollhouse rooms. I use different sizes, in different ways (some standing vertical, some laying horizontal). Since there are so many GOTYs (and always more coming), I need to keep many of their rooms on the smaller side to save space so everyone can fit in the doll room. 😉 McKenna’s room is 21” wide, 29″ tall and 22.5″ deep. McKenna’s loft bed, works great in a smaller room because there is still floor space under the bed for her accessories.

For the wall coverings I chose a green striped wrapping paper that matched McKenna’s bedding. The print was a bit too busy to completely cover the walls, so I added a dark purple vinyl to the bottom half. Hubs cut base and wide pine lattice as trim to separate the two wall colors. McKenna has several jackets in her collection so I added three hooks to hang and display her accessories.

McKenna’s story is set in Seattle, Washington where she lives with her parents and twins sisters, Maisey and Mara. McKenna loves gymnastics and hopes to compete in the Olympics one day. She is a very talented gymnast but struggles with her schoolwork. Josie, a fellow student that is in a wheelchair, tutors McKenna. When McKenna injures herself and is dependent on crutches, she comes to understand the needs of her handicapped friend.

I chose the art for McKenna’s room using details from in her books. I wanted everything to reflect her personality but also be as bright and colorful as her collection. I framed splatter-paint silhouettes of gymnasts to hang above the dresser and printed a colorful silhouette of Seattle to use as a poster for the opposite wall. In her story when working on homework, McKenna listens to Mozart so I added a print of him near her desk under the loft.

I painted a wooden craft box to use as a small dresser. (I also used these in Emma’s and Ella’s bedrooms.) The dresser stores several of McKenna’s clothing pieces. On top is the lamp that came with the loft bed, McKenna’s ID for gymnastics and a get-well card from Maisey and Mara.

McKenna’s desk is filled with pieces from her collection: her awards, book report, pens, water bottle, clock and trail mix. Under the desk is an oversized pillow for her dog Cooper. On the shelves are her books, hamster Polka Dot, a trophy, and journal. Polka Dot is so cute that he can sometimes be a distraction from McKenna getting her homework done. 😉

 

McKenna is happy to have her own space and I am happy to have her collection displayed. 😊 The next GOTY room I plan to tackle will be for Isabelle but until then I have many historical rooms to keep me busy. To see some of my finished rooms, visit these posts: Kit’s Attic Bedroom, Molly’s Bedroom, Julie’s Room, Maryellen’s Diner and Kit’s Kitchen. Happy collecting friends!