An American Girl Doll Bedroom

I took a little break from working on the kitchen and headed over to the bedroom.  At last view, it was 3 brown walls without a ceiling and a possible purple outer trim!


I painted the back wall a vibrant pink, the two side walls a very soft, near white pink, the floor midnight blue and I created "prison  beds" for the dolls.  One thing I didn't take into account is that 18" dolls can't sleep in a 20" space with a 24" bed...  Originally, I hoped to use the double bunk that you have likely seen online.  Mom purchased the set and sent it out to us.  I missed the measurement boat on that one and had to build 19" long beds.  The girls don't mind because their dolls can sleep in their room and will visit their house during the day.

Making the beds-
I created the beds by cutting in half one of the original shelves for the entertainment center and I installed 4 pieces of 1x2x7 to serve as a rack for the halved shelf.  I painted the beds red.  The same color as the front door on the house.

I think Molly likes having the lower bed and has decided that since she is the much older American Girl Doll in the bedroom that Julie should get the top bunk that sleeps like a submarine sleeping quarters... let's just hope that Julie doesn't stir to easily in the night and hop out of bed too quickly or I'll be crocheting hats to cover the goose eggs.

Molly checking out her new crib... well prison bed

As you can see in the picture above, I bought a pine dresser from Hobby Lobby.  I think I got it on sale for $5 or so.  I painted it red with pink door fronts.  I also decided that a little light was needed.  Here is the bedroom freshly painted!

The stick on lights were fast and quick!

Molly seems to like it in her new space!

The colors were a hit with Avery and Mallory... they say its get greater and greater every day!

Now, I have the colors, the beds, the dresser... it is time to dress it up a bit.... I decided to get a little "pinterest" happy and try out some of the things I have seen on a much much smaller scale.   I decided to add a window above the dresser.  The room is so small - imagine if you had no window... granted they have a huge opening in the front of the room.... still natural light makes it cozy.  So I added a window and couldn't decide on a valence.  I decided on the ribbon valance as seen on Pinterest. http://www.myscrapbookingblog.com/2012/01/26/are-these-curtains-cute-or-what/

Curtains ...on a smaller scale... 

I cut up 5 different pieces in 5-6" strips and double knotted them over the smallest dowel I could find.   The dowel served as a curtain rod and I used eyebolts as the brackets.  The Colors in the ribbon highlight the colors in the wall and will match the bedding that I made without being to cutsie..

Have you seen the knotted ribbon valance?  

 Here is what it looks like for an 18" person!

The bedding!

Purchasing pre-made bedding from the AG store or on Etsy wasn't an option... unfortunately, they haven't made a Prison Charlie doll yet so everyone is sleeping in 3/4 beds with 6 additional inches of spaces above the head and toes.... Not our Julie and Molly.  They only have a 19"x7" platform.  I used the blog http://piecesforreese.blogspot.com and the awesome bedding she has created as a guide for these.  The first step was creating the mattress.... well technically the first step was hem and hawing over what fabric, prints, texture, colors, etc... the second step was creating the mattress.  Essentially, I serged two pieces of matching fabric together on 3 edges.  I turned it right side out, put a little stuffing in it.  Evened out the stuffing to avoid massive lumpies and sewed up the top by hand.  After that, I went back and stitched notches to avoid having the stuffing move around.  It took about 20 minutes total to create a mattress.

The first mattress is finished.  It measures right at 19"x7"x.75

After the mattresses were done, I took to creating two pillows.  I used the same material as the mattress.  I decided to have the outer side seam serged on the outside to add a little detailing and I added buttons to increase the cute factor.  In this pic you can also see some artwork on the wall.  I bought some American Girl scrapbooking stickers from Michael's.  I cut them in half and placed a "picture" of Julie and Molly inside two painted decoupage frames that cost .50 cents or so.

Artwork for walls can easily be created by small finds in the scrapbook & $1 section

I created a top blanket out of fleece and valentine print that was on sale.  The various hues of pink and red were an awesome match to the room without being traditional Americana.  I found a "laugh" sign in the woodworking section of JoAnn's and painted it a light blue to throw another color in the mix.  I also had plans for a rug.  I decided to make the base of the rug the same light blue as the "laugh" sign.

 Check out the woodworking section for items to use!    

After adding the rug and the Laugh sign to the room, it still felt like something was missing.  The light blue matched and were part of the color pallet but didn't tie in right.  I took a Stampin' Up pad and used the age old rubbed ink method on the wood "laugh" sign. It made the wording stand out and brought the midnight blue upward.  I also took a few minutes to free hand a strange little design on the rug.

The end result was an awesome American Girl Doll bedroom.