doll bed

I received an American Girl catalog a couple days ago, it is full of nice looking stuff for girls and their dolls

....but oh so expensive!

The cheapest bed is around $50, and a pretty one is over $80!

While I am sure they are well made and all, it is not in my budget!

So I would like to share the bed I worked on.

It all started with a IKEA doll bed ($20)

here is the link: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10101664

It is the right size and while the bedding is not fancy, most dolls (and girls) would be happy with it.

It is just a plain pine bed.

So I build it, primed it and painted white. Already it looked much prettier and similar to my daughter's bed.

At the craft store, I bought some rub-ons and a huge sticker. The rub-ons have a painted look, just a lot faster.

At the time I thought I would buy some molding and do some fancy work, but I ran out of time!

I remove the bedding that did not look good to me (there is nothing wrong with it, just not my kind of pretty!)

And I made my own with some flannel from the fabric store. I used about 1inch foam to make the mattress, cut to size and recovered with the flannel. The pillow is just a stuffed rectangle.

For the blanket, I used some leftover minkie (just so soft!)

And voila, for under $30 a well made, pretty and sturdy bed.

I am sure that one could made a bed from wood for less, but at the time it was a good as it gets!

The same bed could be stained instead of painted, I was going for a mini version!

It has been now over a year that I have made it, and I am happy to report that it has survived very nicely!

It has also been used as a table to some restaurant game, and little girls have sat on it (probably a bad idea!)

The only damage came from one of our dogs during the 4th of July firework...for some reason, he found the need to chew the side! But left the rest of the toys alone! I did not take it as a criticism on his part!

Miss C. still enjoys very much the bed, even with its indentation.

And Dolly too!

Have fun playing doll, I mean sewing!