Welcome to Maryellen’s house! In my opinion Maryellen has one of the neatest collections! As a person that loves to create doll rooms, her collection gives so many possibilities. Almost all of the historical dolls are given beds as a part of their collections but very few have a sofa (the only other is Rebecca) and no one else has a refrigerator! When I began this space for Maryellen I wanted to incorporate all of her pieces into one room and this is what I came up with!
Before beginning any historical room I always do two things, read the character’s books and build a Pinterest board of homes from the time period. After studying a lot of 1950s rooms, I noticed that pass-through windows between the kitchen and other rooms were quite the trend! American Girl even had a kitchen pass-through in their photo of Maryellen on Instagram, so I felt my room needed one too!😉 It was also the perfect way to create a little division between the two areas without making two separate rooms.
Maryellen’s House is 48″ wide x 28″ tall x 22″ deep. I started with an IKEA Pax closet frame laid it on its side and used the add-on shelves as wall supports dividing this room and Julie’s Room. I used a lightly colored faux wood flooring and covered the three main walls in Circuit removable vinyl using the color Whispering Blue. The partial wall has a cherry print wallpaper on the kitchen side and an atomic print on the living room side.
The partial wall started as removable shelf I had leftover from an IKEA Billy bookcase. If you are familiar with my doll room displays from Instagram you will know I have these bookcases everywhere, so extra shelves are a dime a dozen.😉 The wall is a just under 12″ deep. Hubs cut the length of the shelf down to fit the height of the room and we used Maryellen to judge where the window should be. In the beginning I covered the partial wall in the same color vinyl as the rest of the house but it blended in and just felt plain. I searched everywhere for a wallpaper that would work in the room and eventually decided to created my own. I found prints I liked online, printed them off on regular copy paper and used ModPodge to adhere it to the wall.
With this room being 4 feet wide, I often use it to set up my Scenes and Settings books or use it for modern doll photoshoots with large pieces. In the beginning I debated adding the partial wall because it would prohibit me from using the space for other scenes. Hubs had the brilliant idea to make the partial wall removeable!❤️ He cut the base on the back wall to accommodate the partial wall sliding in and out. When in place the base looks seamless and when removed, I adjust my furniture to cover the small gap in the base. Now I can easily remove the wall and use the room for other scenes like in the photos above.
For the kitchen side of the room I needed more than just Maryellen’s refrigerator. I already owned a Walmart brand kitchen island but it was too deep for the room so I had Hubs cut it in half. This created the stove and sink for the back wall and I still have the other half to use in future scenes. I bought the Seaside Diner Bakery Case from AG to get the side counter and I think it works perfectly in the kitchen. I filled the shelves with accessories from other AG sets. One of my favorite little décor pieces is the antique pink glass, Hen on Nest sitting inside the counter. I found this one and a blue one (Kit’s Kitchen ) at a yard sale for 50 cents years ago. Maryellen’s Airstream has so many great kitchen items! I am using the kettle, canisters, breadbox and measuring cups from that set. The Airstream also inspired the cherry décor in this room, it too has cherry print curtains and potholder.
I didn’t have to get super creative on the living room side of the house because almost everything on this side is from Maryellen’s collection! When AG had a sale, I ordered an extra Living Room Set to get a second lamp and sold the other pieces. Unfortunately all three sets in the living room are now retired. If you aren’t familiar with them, the sofa converts to a bed, the lamps really work and the television can play TV shows! The side door on the television opens so you can slide in an iPad to play shows created for Maryellen on an app. Very cool!🤗
For the wall art I chose a painting that was very popular in the 1950s and since Maryellen lives in Florida I felt the beach painting was very appropriate. The sunburst mirror works just perfectly and is from Target, there is a matching one in Ella’s Bedroom. For the kitchen, I googled vintage cherries and found a couple of prints that I re-sized and place in white frames.
I hope you enjoyed this newest addition to the dollhouse. Maryellen seems to be quite relaxed! Happy Collecting! To see more rooms in the dollhouse visit Maryellen’s 1950s Diner, Felicity’s Bedroom, Molly’s Bedroom, Addy’s Bedroom and Kit’s Attic Bedroom.
Leave a Reply