... is of course, to buy a kit, not make it out of paper maché.

I saw these on scamazon many years ago (actually, during the time I was making the paper maché monstrosity). And I decided that since I'm feeling kinda crap of late, I may as well get one to cheer myself up. Actually it's been pretty useful distracting me from the bazillion and one things that are causing anxiety these days.

So yeah, being me, I still managed to screw up quite a lot of it, but overall, it looks okay, no?

I didn't like the orange so much, so after a bit of deliberating, I decided to go for a dark wood effect, and repainted both the feature wall and the toilet lid in the bathroom. I wish I'd done the same for the kitchen island unit as well, but hey ho.

I also replaced the white lampshades with coloured ones, and the artwork and photos with others, because I didn't want anything with animate objects on them, and also, why would I want photos of some randos and their kids in MY home? It's my fantasy home, dagnabbit! 😀

I thought: PVA dries clear, right (does it always though?)? And if I mix in a bit of yellow acrylic, it'll look like a translucent lemon drink, right? No. It looks like a disgusting curdled hot mess. I'm such a donkusai yaccha.

Oh well. It was a learning experience, anyway.

I also stupidly did not RTM well enough, because I glued the oven picture onto the panel the wrong way, and then wondered why it did not fit when trying to assemble the kitchen units 😀 😀

Stupid is as stupid does.

It was a lot of fun, anyway, and certainly more useful than the black hole of time and money that was my paper maché restaurant.

I'm actually tempted to buy another one. I'm actually browsing through scamazon now...

But in any case, before you get the rest of the pictures, here's what you should know if you plan on buying one of these kits:

• Don't use silicone glue on anything except the plastic and metal parts.
• If you apply silicone glue to fabric or indeed anything else, that fabric will henceforth forever be non-stick. Not even super sticky glue dots or double-sided tape will stick to it after that. I have a loose sofa piece to prove it. Just use UHU Power glue
• Double sided tape works best on the fabric, silver paper and acetate sheets. Don't bother with any type of glue. Superglue might possibly work? I wouldn't know though, as I'm just as likely to stick myself to the wood as the sheets. If it's still too fiddly, silver paint works just as well. Or just use UHU Power glue.
• Assemble the front of the kitchen units first, then attach the sides to the front. Otherwise it's just an annoying balancing act that will waste your time. Use the same strategy for anything else that shape.Just use UHU Power glue
• Argh, it's so fiddly! You see those white side tables in the living room? They are seriously the most annoying part of this kit. They are so darn hard to get aligned and to stay in freaking place while the glue dries.Just use UHU Power glue
• Equip yourself with sandpaper. Some of the pieces aren't cut straight, so you'll need to sand them down. Plus sanding down the bases on the rounded pieces will make them stick better.
• Feel free to repaint the colours you don't like! Acrylic paint works fine! Also feel free to make your own lampshades.
• Don't glue the artwork to the walls until you have the furniture ready. I followed the instructions and now the bed is too close to the bathroom for my liking.
• Also, why do these kits all have glass walls and no doors to the bathroom? Why? WHY? I'm thinking of making a little curtain to hang there cos, you know, bathroom smells and privacy, dude.
• I feel like fabric glue is the only thing that will work on those cushions, cos as you can see, I gave up. I might just make new ones with my own fabric, and use the sewing machine to make them. I did use double-sided tape on the bedroom pillows well enough, but they also look a bit weird, so I don't know. Just use UHU Power glue

Here are your photos.

You can see here the base is uneven. It had to be sanded down in order to actually stay in place.

This is the contents of just one of the bags of pieces! Sooo many pieces!

Ground floor complete.

I stupidly used silicone glue to try to hold up the kitchen and living room lights and then they became non-stick. I had to sand down the ceiling in order to get a glue dot to hold the light in place. Even then, I had to use double-sided tape with the backing paper still on to keep the wires in place. Silicone glue is a strange beast. It worked so well on some things, but absolutely disastrously on others.

The kitchen viewed from the living area. Yes, I know the plant is tipping over.

These fruit pieces were very satisfying to cut, and also sooo super cute! I still have some of the pieces left, as I sliced them too thinly. I wonder what I could do with them? Oh they are so lovely! And yes, I'm aware that my cutting mat is a hot mess.

The customised bathroom. I think it looks much better than the original. The orange works nicely as highlights, but I wanted a more refined look here.

The bedroom, with front row seats for the bathroom. This is why I should have ignored the manual's instruction to paste the wall art in at the beginning. Because there is enough room for the bed to be moved more to the left. Right now it's way too close to the bathroom, plus also, privacy. I really think I need to add some sort of curtain there. Although the curtain will only be openable from the outside zomg what is this architect thinking?!

Also I'm surprised I managed to write the postcardy thing on the nightstand that small.

Here is the study. That chair was the second most annoying part of this kit. Stupid legs were hard to get to stay put, and also I couldn't get the legs the same size. So it's wonky.
(Edit: the chair was drying after the third attempt to glue the legs on when I took these photos, so it didn't make it into the pictures) and I basically replaced all the artwork in this photo.

Anyway, that's enough dollshouse. If you're wondering, it cost £19.56 from China on scamazon. There seems to be only one seller who stocks this particular design. I'm thinking of getting Blue Times next, if I can find it cheaper on eBay, although I will probably customise the heck out of it, because I am not keen on that wallpaper.