If I had a theme song for today’s post it would be “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. In fact, here’s a link to the song on YouTube just in case you’d like to play it while you read.
There’s just something about little things that make me grin. It’s probably why the most satisfying projects I work on are for kids. Think about it – nearly everything, when made miniature sized, is just plain adorable. Ok…so maybe not everything (like probably not doggie poo or roadkill), but an awful lot anyway.
A few years back, we decided to do a little remodeling in our master bedroom, and as a result, reduced the number of dressers we needed. The chest of drawers remain, but the other piece retired to the basement. It currently houses a stereo, TV and some of the kids’ toys. One of the bottom drawers was broken so I replaced both with some storage boxes from Ikea I had previously used in our toy room. Don’t judge…it’s an unfinished basement!
The other drawer, which was in really great shape, has been hanging out with the piles of laundry near the washing machine for the past two years. And, no, it has not been the same pile of laundry for the past two years. Just the same drawer, in the same place, collecting dust. It was a great size and I knew someday I would come up with an excellent new purpose for it. And this week I did – the excellent new purpose – a doll house!
I must admit it is one of my FAVORITE projects to date. Why? Because it includes some teeny tiny little peg people, miniature furniture and tiny little accessories. Little, itty bitty morsels of happiness.
It was a pretty simple project. A little time consuming, but easily done in bits and pieces. I started by building the room dividers out of scrap plywood and 2x5s. After attaching the “walls” to the “second floor,” I ran a small bead of glue along each edge that would touch the drawer frame, and then tacked it with finishing nails from the outside. After filling all of the nail and screw holes, I painted the entire piece white.
To furnish the house, I raided our scrap wood bin again and pieced together anything that could resemble furniture, then pawed through a supply of scrapbooking paper I inherited from a friend of my mom’s. I hit the jackpot when I found a whole kit of coordinating paper that also included little embellishments that I could use for wall art and accessories in the house.
For the inhabitants of this home, I discovered wooden peg people while perusing Pinterest for some inspiration. I found the pegs at Hobby Lobby in the unfinished wood section. They also make smaller pegs to use for children, but I wasn’t sure I could tackle painting on something soooooo tiny. But man, they sure could be cute! Since they’re all the same size, either my peg family is a little unconventional…or the kids are really tall. But we’re using our imaginations here folks, so just go with it! I used Sharpie Paint (oil-based) markers to paint the people. The Sharpie Paints are MUCH easier to maneuver than a paint brush so it was fairly easy to get the lines straight and the details just right. Still a little sketchy, but I think they’re cute nevertheless.
I love them to pieces. It’s going to be hard to see this one go.
