Repainted Furniture for 10 - 12 Inch Dolls
The Curl Up & Dye Salon needs furniture. These inexpensive vanities and chairs were on Ebay -- so I bought them with fingers crossed that they might work. They are the correct size which is great. However, they did have issues.
Once the mirror is attached the vanity falls over backwards. I fixed that issue by adding hot glue on the underside of the table top on the opposite side of the mirror.
They came with butterfly buttons for the front of the table. I removed those and replaced them with small nail heads and painted them black. They are glued in place with the hot glue.
Before painting these I sanded the little sharp bumps left from their original molds, and I washed them with warm soapy water to remove the mold release agent. Then I sprayed them with Testors Dull Coat lacquer. You cannot paint these successfully without the Dull Coat - the paint slides off. In between coats of paint I used the Dull Coat again.
Painting the mirror requires some prep- I used a piece of paper that I placed over the mirror and creased it around the inside edge. I cut out that shape and used plain water to adhere the paper. This kept the Dull Coat from hitting the mirror when I sprayed it.
When you paint- paint everything- including the undersides. If you don't do that, the color will reflect when taking photos. You can paint them white - that way they won't reflect the loud pink.
I want a slightly Gothic look to the furniture for the salon- and since the dolls are colorful, I want things to be muted or at least closer to a gray scale. When I take photos it will look better that way.
Also, adding paint adds visual weight to the pieces. They seem more "there".
The little drum style table was made with a Tropicana orange juice bottle cap, the plastic spools from some little plastic bags and paper for the top (to cover the Tropicana name). Hot glued the legs on.
You can paint doll furniture and give it a totally different look. If you need ideas, just look online at places like West Elm and IKEA. You'll find patterns and colors galore to inspire you :)
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.
~PB Ray
