doll stable/barn: how to

Miss C loves horses,

noting unusual for a girl her age,

she would love to ride horses and hang out at a stable,

it is financial impossible, but I think I made it possible for her

to do it by proxy, through her dolls!

They love horses too, we have a full horse and a quarter horse,

they have a ranch to run free,

well now the horses have a place to rest

and the dolls a place to hang out.

Here is Miss C.'s birthday present:

a doll stable/barn.

It all started with Ana White's plan for a horse stable,

I admired it for a while, even considering building, but it was quite large,

and decided against it last winter.

Ana White's stable

Well this summer, it is still as large as before,

but that did not stop me, I actually made it even bigger!

I figure it would be nice to not only have a place for the horses,

but also some space for the accessories and the girls.

I also felt it was too opened and needed some enclosure.

I was also inspired by this barn from Payne Street Doll Boutique

Barn from Payne street doll boutique

So I followed Ana's directions and built 3 trusses out of 1x2s,

well almost I do not have a good tool for pocket holes,

so I had to use some metallic L shape to attach the roof part to the wall parts.

After building these 3 trusses, I used a 36" x 19" piece of 1/4" plywood for the back.

I skipped step 2 from Ana's plan.

I also added some plywood to the back of one of the truss to make a solid wall.

While I was building it I also added a shelf to the wall.

I then attached the last wall to the back.

Here what the structure looked like, the horse space is 12", the doll about 22".

at that point, I stained the structure in Early American.

Then I followed the rest of the instructions: I attached the roof,

and built the gate (it is a little larger than the one is the plan).

I stained the roof in a garnet stain, and painted the inside of the gate

with black chalkboard paint.

I found a little metallic bucket in our fall decoration stash,

the bigger metallic container is from Michael's.

I sewed a couple hay bales from burlap,

following again another Ana White tutorial!

I also found a cool horse pic from an AG magazine,

just the right touch for a stable!

Now I need to take it outside for some better pictures,
it might be difficult, Miss C. really enjoys playing with it in her room,
even if there is no more place to move around!

Happy day!