Orange-box Doll bed

This was supposed to be a Christmas gift for one of the tots who has a much-beloved dolly. I finished it yesterday… She’s still going to get it — she’s too young to care that it was late!

I’m far from the first person to do this, but something doesn’t have to be original to be worth doing!Take one clementine box. Sand it down thoroughly, prime it, and paint it. I chose a glossy white in part because it’s clean and scrub-able, but also because that’s what I had left over from painting the kitchen cupboards a year or two ago. It took three coats of paint (in addition to the primer!) to entirely cover the logos stamped into the wood.

After several attempts over a couple of days, I determined I was never going to make the bottom of the box sufficiently splinter-free, so I opted to coat it with bright blue duct tape. It goes nicely with the white, no?

Add a mattress, a pillow, and some bedding, all made with stuff I had on hand…

and you get a pretty cute dolly bed!

The kitty-cat print was originally a flannelette sheet, purchased a good ten years ago or more. It’s been many things since then, and there’s not much left, but it worked nicely for this!

The pillow and mattress are made of yellow broadcloth and stuffed with … well, stuffing. The stuff you use to make dolls. You know, stuffing stuff. I made a pillowcase to cover the pillow and match the comforter, but the mattress is uncovered.

Though it looks cute, the flannelette didn’t drape the way I wanted it to, but sort of stuck out at stiff angles from the bed, so I backed it with a stretchy knit fabric. The knit has a really nice drape to it, and is heavy enough to give the flannelette a little drape that it lacked. The odd combination of fabrics may well mean that this thing can’t be machine washed, or will require cold wash on delicate. Not such a hardship!

Since I had everything lying around the house, this thing cost me precisely nothing. Except the time, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I’m very pleased, and I’m sure Grace will be, too.

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