Citadel Progress

It's always nice to make progress on a dollhouse that is in "rehab," especially since I have four that need all sorts of work, and I never feel like I pay any of them the right amount of attention. I noticed that I also started out the new year last year with a "rehab" post about two different houses in my collection, so perhaps this will become a tradition!

The Citadel dollhouse, known as "Lolly's Citadel" for the Chicago-area dollhouse store that created the kit in the 1980s, is a formidable structure. As you may know, I drove from New Jersey to Chicago in 2009 to pick up the house, which was decorated in a very traditional style. Over the past three-and-a-half years, I have been slowly renovating and redecorating the house; you can read all my Citadel-related posts here.

I have happily finished rehabbing one side of the house (not including the door), and wanted to share some views of the latest room, on the ground floor. The room was originally used as the kitchen, which is very odd to me, since the room is quite small and closed off from the rest of the main floor. Here is a picture of the house after I picked it up; I brought it to Lolly's to have them check it out:

The colors are so off-putting...hurts my eyes just looking at it again!!

I pulled the kitchen pieces off the wall and scrapped off as much of the wallpaper and flooring as I could.

I decided to make this room a guest bedroom, and kept within the brown, white, and creme palette with a lovely chocolate and silver flower-printed paper from the Paper Source on the back wall, and some cool vintage paper that I believe I purchased from UK eBay. It has a suede-like texture and a nice neutral tone and design. I only had two large scraps, so I measured and cut very carefully!

Here's some photos of the wallpapering-in-progress:

Back wallpaper done!

One side complete!

And the other!

The new wallpapers!

 What do you think? I set up a scene too:

The flooring is also from the Paper Source, but it is not glued. I wanted to leave it flexible.

I gave a piece of felt some fringe for a quick DIY coverlet!

I am happy with the results, especially since the whole side looks more integrated and like an actual home.

While the house is really starting to come together, I still have a ways to go. The main stairwell needs to be put back, and the front tower of windows needs to be repaired. Then there is the balcony on the side of the house, which fell off, and the ground floor on the other side of the house needs to be completely configured into a kitchen. That will take some serious space-planning and thinking!

UPDATE, 1/2/13: In response to Steinworks' comment about layout of this side of the house, it occurred to me that I should share pictures of the *other* side of the house. There's a lot of house here!!! When I mentioned the kitchen being on the main floor, I meant the ground floor in these photos:

(Sorry about the mess!!) So, I'd imagine that the kitchen and eat-in area would be on the main floor, and the upper left room would be another bedroom or study, and a bath on the right. I should also mention that all my houses are intentionally kept flexible...I often change rooms around and avoid committing to a certain plan.

UPDATE: 1/13/13: In response to Megan's request...a picture of the stairwell, when I originally picked up the house. Only the top part is there; there is a bottom set of stairs that broke off.

All of your comments and feedback really keep me going with this and other projects, so thank you! I look forward to sharing more on the house in the months to come!

Here's to a productive 2013!

Credits: Bed, side table, and chair are vintage German; globe lights and red pillow are minimodernistas; shelving unit is by Bruce Dawson; plant is Playmobil; low table is vintage Lundby; yellow bed sheet is fabric from Jo-Ann with felt from Michaels; flowered wallpaper and flooring is from the Paper Source, and side wallpaper is from UK eBay. Accessories are AG Minis, Nancy Tobey, Michaels, Hallmark, Annina, Re-ment, and random eBay finds.

The time it took me: 2 hours, including the scraping and re-wallpapering