Fun Furniture Finds

Another good place to look for doll-sized furniture and prop items is Goodwill. I was there on Saturday and found two fun new pieces - first there's this great jewelry box:





It's a little small for the 16" crowd, but works well with Tiny Kitty:





The other piece I found is a shelf in the shape of a staircase:



And it is the perfect scale for my 16" dolls!



I'm going to fix it up a bit to make it prettier, and free-standing so it doesn't have to be secured to the wall. Stay tuned for future updates! I also have plans to turn an old broken chair into a doll-sized four-poster bed...

Furniture Favorites

Wow, two months since I last posted! Sorry for the hiatus, but I had been working on my first real mass-production of shoes, for the "Over Ell's Rainbow" doll retreat next week. I'll share images of the special shoes I created for that event after it's over. But here's what 19 miniature shoe boxes looks like:



It was quite a fun project!

Now, on to the subject of this post. TONNERDirect asked Facebook this morning what types of furniture we like, and where we get our doll furniture. So I decided to dedicate a blog post to answering this question. One of my favorite pieces is a chaise lounge-shaped jewelry box, found at Walmart several years ago. I especially like it because my dolls can stand next to it, unsupported by a stand:



It's also good for sitting:



or lounging:



and it can hold multiple dolls:



(I use it a lot!)



I've also gotten several pieces of unfinished wooden doll-sized furniture at places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels, and I'm lucky enough to have a talented sister who carves, paints/stains, and varnishes them for me!

First there's this great bench that I bought many years ago (before I even collected Tonner dolls!) and had forgotten about:



(I made the cushion for it.) I decided I wanted it a darker, richer color. My sister stained and varnished it, and it's so handsome now:



Once again, more than one doll can sit on it:



The chest that Niobe is sitting on in the above picture is another example of my sister's work. This one she carved, as well:



I requested a dragonfly for the design, and she created the exact look I was hoping for! Here's a close-up of the carving:



Last but not least, she also carved the lotus flowers on the drawers, and stained and varnished this adorable dresser for me:



It is one of my very favorite pieces.  Isn't she talented?