Dandridge House Dolls

   Welcome to Courtney’s bedroom! When Courtney was released in fall of 2020 I was slightly horrified that my childhood and a historical doll shared the same decade. 😂  How can that be? After the initial shock, I became really excited to see what American Girl would release for Courtney’s collection. Well, she has it all… Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Pac Man, Lisa Frank and bright, bold geometric patterns. With all the nostalgia and bright colors, this room was so very fun to design! Let’s get to it!

When Courtney was released the hubs (all on his own 😉) started buying me every piece of her collection for Christmas and birthdays so she quickly needed her own space. I started setting up her room in an IKEA Pax cabinet but didn’t get it completed. When we moved in 2022, that Pax fell and busted. It took months before the new doll room could be set up and by that time I decided to start over. The completed room for Courtney is 25” tall, 22.5” deep and 39” wide. It is the top “floor” in an IKEA Pax frame.

I love the pattern that American Girl chose for the back wall of the bunk bed. After searching for quite some time for a wallpaper to compliment it and not finding anything I liked, I made my own. Before wallpapering, I started with a teal vinyl as the back wall and half of each side wall to keep it from getting too busy. I found a printed pattern that I liked and copied it onto copy paper and used ModPodge to adhere it to the walls. To cover the seams I made a border. If you lived in the eighties and nineties you know you have to have border. 😉 Every room in my childhood home had a border, remember the white geese with blue bows? 😂

Next I laid the faux oak floor and the hubs cut pieces of trim for base and crown molding. I wanted a lot of shelving in the room because Courtney has so many great toys! In the book Courtney mentions how her and Tina (her stepsister that she shares the room with) used to play My Little Pony together when they were younger. I thought it would be neat if they had their collection displayed. Hubs made a small multi-tiered shelf using scraps to display the My Little Pony figures. The ponies with hair are from the Worlds Smallest Series and the solid ones are from my childhood and were called My Little Pony Mummy Charms. They are like Charmkins and use the same mold as the Charmkins pony, I wonder if anyone remembers those.😊

Hubs made three 10 inch shelves for the other walls of Courtney’s room. They are filled with items I’ve found and items from Courtney’s collection like her tapes, pencil case, notebook, bracelets and jump rope. Items that I added are the Simon Says game (a candy tin), Glo Worm (an identical mini version to the one I had😊) and a mini working Lite Brite. Most of the items are also from the Worlds Smallest collection including the vintage mini Care Bears (oh my goodness how cute are they). ❤️ Since I love historical accuracy I only chose items and toys for the room that would have existed in 1986 or before including the posters above Courtney’s top bunk; one of vintage Care Bears that was an actual poster, the movie poster for Annie and a vintage My Little Pony one.

The built-in bed shelves hold Courtney’s boombox, cassette tapes, faux plant, books and diary. The book states that Courtney and Tina share a dresser and Tina has her scrunchies nicely displayed in rainbow color, so the room needed a dresser and a scrunchie stand. Hubs made the dresser using two craft boxes and trim (identical to the one he made for Samantha’s Bedroom ), I painted it white to help break up all of the vibrant colors in the room. I added jewelry box hardware for the pulls.

For the nightstand I used a secondhand one from Molly’s collection that I found for cheap and painted over the red accents with pink. (Check out Molly’s Bedroom) I added more pieces from Courtney’s collection to the top and a Barbie wish list booklet I made. Remember whenever you got a new toy there was a pamphlet that showed you all of the things you still needed? 😂 I made a mini version of the one I had as a child. I also loved Popples and had a lot of their coloring books and toys, so of course I had to make Courtney a Popples binder. (I have the little stuffed ones left from my childhood that will go perfectly in the room but I haven’t been able to locate them since the move.)

The book mentions that ever since Tina’s mom passed away, she has kept a photo of her on the wall by the bed. Next to Tina’s pillow I taped a tiny picture of a dark haired woman from the late seventies to be Tina’s mother. Tina also complains a lot about Parsley, Courtney’s Guinea pig in the book but by the end she decides it’s okay if he shares their room as long as Courtney keeps his litter changed frequently.

One of the coolest things that happened in 1986 was Pleasant Rowland founded Pleasant Company known as American Girl! One of the best things about Courtney’s collection is the mini Molly doll in the original burgundy box and the mini 1986 PC catalog. The items Courtney is dreaming of are circled in red. I remember so well spending my childhood drooling over the catalogs.

Under the bed I store Courtney’s Care Bear and Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bags, Molly’s doll box and all of Courtney’s shoes. As a child, I stored my doll boxes for Samantha and Felicity under my bed and still have them today.😊

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Courtney’s room! She and Tina plan on having a lot of fun in here! To see more of my dollhouse check out these posts  Kit’s Attic Bedroom, Isabelle’s Studio, Julie’s Room and Addy’s Parlor. Until next time, Happy Collecting friends!