1. It has come to the attention of forum staff that Dollshe Craft has ceased communications with dealers and customers, has failed to provide promised refunds for the excessive waits, and now has wait times surpassing 5 years in some cases. Forum staff are also concerned as there are claims being put forth that Dollshe plans to close down their doll making company. Due to the instability of the company, the lack of communication, the lack of promised refunds, and the wait times now surpassing 5 years, we strongly urge members to research the current state of this company very carefully and thoroughly before deciding to place an order. For more information please see the Dollshe waiting room. Do not assume this cannot happen to you or that your order will be different.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Dollshe Craft and all dolls created by Dollshe, including any dolls created under his new or future companies, including Club Coco BJD are now banned from Den of Angels. Dollshe and the sculptor may not advertise his products on this forum. Sales may not be discussed, no news threads may be posted regarding new releases. This ban does not impact any dolls by Dollshe ordered by November 8, 2023. Any dolls ordered after November 8, 2023, regardless of the date the sculpt was released, are banned from this forum as are any dolls released under his new or future companies including but not limited to Club Coco BJD. This ban does not apply to other company dolls cast by Dollshe as part of a casting agreement between him and the actual sculpt or company and those dolls may still be discussed on the forum. Please come to Ask the Moderators if you have any questions.
    Dismiss Notice

Designing your doll work/storage room

Apr 21, 2005

    1. I think there was a topic on this long ago, but it's been lost in the void!

      This week I have been packing my things...Dear David and I are moving from our rented ranch home to a beautiful 100 year-old farmhouse in the country. (Our first home purchase!) :grin:
      My doll room here was a simple pale pink room with white trim, nothing fancy...At our new house, the doll room will be much larger but the previous ownders painted it purple and orange. Seriously. :?

      This is great, I get to design my doll room from scratch...and the walls are lovely plaster with wide baseboards and big windows! (The only things I love as much as BJDs are old houses!)
      I am just having trouble deciding how to decorate it. I am considering an Alice in Wonderland motif, complete with checked floors and white rabbits running across the top of the walls. Or maybe I will go with something more understated, like shades of dusty rose with framed vintage Valentines on the walls. Or maybe something modern...I don't know, I just can't decide!

      Does anyone here have a special room for their dolls, and how did you decide how to decorate it? Or if you COULD have a doll room, how would you go about picking the right "motif"?
       
    2. Ooh, this is fun, since I'm getting to build my own doll room eventually.

      I would definitely go with understated colors. After all, you want the dolls to be the focus, not the wall colors, though a theme of "Alice in Wonderland" would definitely be appropriate for a lot of dolls, as would be a Victorian theme, or an Anne Rice theme, etc. :grin: My main concerns in designing a doll room would be "how much sunlight is coming in?" and storage for all their goodies. I'm going to be putting in built-in shelves of various sizes, and cupboards at the bottom to store extra outfits, furniture, accessories, and so on.

      My doll room is probably going to be a hodge-podge of international themes and design schemes, since I am a diorama and doll-house junkie. I'm going to keep the wall color subtle, probably my beloved lavender, and go from there. And I am going to have a couple of comfy chairs and a table in there.

      Maybe you could take some pictures of the room and play with them on Photoshop, see what really works as far as colors and styles. Whatever you pick will be right for you! :daisy
       
    3. I LOVE purple and orange! :o
       
    4. Osaka, you are right about storage being important! I have those little plastic drawers on wheels and lots of shelf space. It's amazing how much you need in the way of supplies and accessories when you are in this hobby!

      Niomi, you would love this room...it's purple with orange trim. I guess it was a kid's room. I've never seen anything like it. When we talk about the bedrooms, we refer to them as the Blue Room, the Purple Room (this one is purple with white trim), and the Willie Wonka Room. :lol:
       
    5. My doll room, also doubles as my guest room

      I did the walls in just plain old white, as that is such a neautral backdrop for the dolls themselves. Then it is decorated in a Mardi Gras theme, with green, gold , purple and black accents and art. I have feathered masks on the walls, and on top of the desk and dresser are dolls and doll props organized into "scenes".

      Keep in mind the dolls are a mixture of my current 4 BJD, a group of OOAK Barbies, and 4 Tonner/Tyler type dolls.

      Storage for doll OOAK gear is stored under the beds (flat boxes of fabric), in the drawers (trims, findings and other craft goodies). The dolls actual gear is in snap top bins. I have a couple for the mass quantities of LE Barbie fashions I have collected over the years. I have one for the tonner dolls. One with lots of drawers for my Mini BJD, and one larger bin divided inside with smaller bins for the big kidz.

      I still want to do some modifying (like sorting all the Barbie stuff and selling off a bunch of it), and some shelving for the small dolls, but other than that it's a very functional, organized and rather dramatic looking room.
       
    6. I really like my current doll area, which is part of my bedroom. Dolls take up one unfinished desk, one unfinished bookshelf and one postman's desk. The walls are painted two shades of yellow, so it's always bright, and the accents are violent pink and lime green so it's a very springy, cheerful room.

      Storage is definitely important. I have plenty of that. The problem is play/display space. I have my dolls so cramped in one corner that they look like they were posing for a group photo. :p

      --MW
       
    7. I would loooove to have a doll room! The main bedroom is out, Dan thinks it's bad enough that Nettle and Mina (my DD) are in there, but at least they're on my side of the room so he can't moan :P However, turning a corner of the bedroom into a doll room would *not* sit well :oops:

      The second bedroom is supposed to be a guest room, but because we haven't started on the smallest bedroom yet, the 2nd bedroom is full of... well, us! Two PCs, two desks, two chairs, a wardrobe, 4 bookcases, my sewing table... Funny to think it's only 10' x 10' :? Still, maybe once we've got the PCs and everything moved into the smaller room, Dan would let me (haha, as if he'd have a choice!) make an area up just for my dolls. They so don't have enough space of their own right now :(

      Every room in our house is or is going to be magnolia, it's such a great base colour, so I'd probably stick with that. I'd love to eventually have enough 'fantasy' props and things to make the ideal setting for my little royal elves, but I need *space*! You'd think after going from a 1-bed flat to a 3-bed house that I'd have more room for things ¬_¬

      I'd love to see photos of everyone's doll rooms! :D
       
    8. OOooo alice in wonderland that is such a cute idea. I'd paint the checkered floor all wonky like, not square lines. And paint false trim around the doors and windows to be wonky. Not have any lines that apear perfect 90% angles.

      What about making a frieze around the room with playing cards, use real cards laid at random angles and paint simple stick figure feet and arms coming out the sides.

      If you don't want to paint the floor you can make a vinyl 'rug' use a chep vinyl floor covering, the kind that is suppose to be glued down. Turn it over so you get the smooth side and paint that. It'll provide a bit of cushioning in case of accidents too
       
    9. My current Doll Room is quite simple. The walls are white, with white blinds on the windows and light lavender drapes. The room is waaaay too small, so you can't even see the walls, the are covered with shelves of dolls! LOL! But I'm moving in about a month. My new doll room is MUCH bigger. It's a finished walk-out basement, but I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I know I want to pick a fun wall color though, something pretty. :grin:
       
    10. *****n/a*****
       
    11. My doll room is also the room that has the computer and my art studio so it is way too crowded :grin: However, my BJD, Saraphina tends to take over where ever she is and that seems to be where ever I am :lol:
      I have dreams of a big room with light colored walls and big glass door cases deep enough to hold furniture and dolls---like mini-appartments. The windows would be covered with this new film that keeps out the bad sunlight rays, but keeps it light.
      This part of my dream is real because we just baught the film and the hardward home store and now we have to put in on the windows :grin:
      I really like the theme idea, Alice in WL is a great idea!
       
    12. I would custom build a book shelf with slots that will fit each of my dolls and
      decorate each slots like a room with lights and all. :oops:
      just my dream at this point.
      Need to collect more dolls. :vein
       
    13. I don't have a doll room, I'll probably take over the guest room in our house and make it one, though :D

      About a week after I ordered my DOD Too and Bee-A I came across this er..."glass house" thing...I think it is supposed to be like a decoration. My mom used to store candles in it, but lately it has just been sitting around. I measured it, and it is perfect for mini's to be able to stand up in! It's white with glass panels, and one part of the roof opens up (and the whole top comes off of the base)-I'm going to use some leftover carpeting from when we re-did my room to carpet this doll house, and order this sofa: http://www.domuya.net/detail.aspx?ID=1304 and the matching chair and put them in there, I'm so excited! I will have to photo graph this glass house for everybody to see, I was really excited when I came across it!

      Anyways, I hope this post is appropriate for this thread, it's not exactly a whole ROOM for my dolls, but its like a little house for them ^_^
       
    14. Wow, everyone has these little habitats where their dolls "live"- that is so cool! Even if it is just a corner of a room, it is still a special place! I am fortunate that I live only with Dear David and we have three bedrooms. That way we can have a guest room, and I still have one for myself.

      I would love to see photos if anyone has any!!!!
       
    15. For now my dolls and I share the same room, and I can't tell you there is a lot of people in there. For a doll room, I would go with with with walls, and a wooden floor, with carpets, furnitures an images on the walls, all the colour of the rainbow!
       
    16. My dolls have to get by in part of my bedroom for the time being, but when I have a place of my own, I'd like to have a "hobby" room -- somewhere to keep my action figures, sewing stuff, and all -- which would probably be given over in large part to dolls... maybe a large corner that could be set up as a changeable mini-room, kinda like a t.v. show set :daisy
       
    17. new house (my first) new county, new town, new space for my BJDs. I've seen posts on decorating a room and I posted once before on where we like to work in our homes, but I have a tiny 9x11 room with a walk-in closet (yay) I can set up to sew in, to store my dolls, and since I'm starting from scratch and actually OWN the space...oh, my god, give me a paper bag to breathe into....I wanted to pick your collective creative brains for suggestions.

      advice on how best to use wall space. the room doesn't have to be "house beautiful" but I hate visual clutter. the only non-doll item in the room will be a small roll-top desk. sewing machine goes on a small wooden table near the window.

      any hints on storage for patterns, doll accessories, etc? anyone use those office file slot thingies that hang on or paste to the wall to store patterns?

      oh, gosh...I close on the 15th of June! and, I'm not half packed up. *_*

      I'll be painting dolls and artwork in the kitchen and on the huge screened in porch. the light is not so good in the bedroom so I'll use a daylight type floor lamp near the sewing machine.

      my little troup of BJDs are mostly in boxes now. Le Comte looks like a vampire in his woodoen Dollshe box.

      any responses would be most welcome, and pix of your own workspace would be great!
       
    18. Well, with the doll accessories, you could arrange necklaces/bracelets on hooks in the walls. If you had little non-hangable things, you could find your dolls some smallish chests for clothes?

      As for the pattern storage, I think the office slot things sound like a good idea. I know we use stuff like that to store papers at my workplace, and those particular ones are very visually appealing and easy to get to.
       
    19. Shelves. God I love shelves. Something higher up, maybe, where you could display their furniture when they aren't using it? I'd love something like that, personally.
       
    20. oooh, hooks on walls. maybe use flat-sided baskets and have them hang to be used as is or removable to take to porch/kitchen, wherever I might need them. thanks, DraloreShimare

      Hi Lelio, yes, I love shelves too.I'm trying to imagine shelving my brother could make for me. sliding doors to reveal or hide dolls. good point; furniture and other "props" for photo shoots can be on the top shelves. have a lightweight step ladder to get them. (I'm only 5'3" - hence the petite in petiteballerine.) *giggle*
      :chibi