Home sweet home

The beauty of this cool doll’s house is that all of the furniture can be kept inside and the house neatly stored away under a bed or on top of a cupboard. Then your little homemaker can set up and play whenever and wherever they like!

You will need

• Old cardboard suitcase
• Resene SpaceCote Flat paint in your favourite colours – we used: Resene Aqua (outside), Resene Deep Blush (top floor), Resene Moonbeam (middle floor), Resene Morning Glory (bottom floor)
• Resene Lustacryl in your favourite colour – we used Resene Sweet Corn for the handle of the suitcase
• Resene Quick Dry undercoat
• Resene testpot in Resene White (ceiling)
• Thick, stiff cardboard – large enough to make three floors in your suitcase house
• Scrapbook paper for flooring – ours came in a pack from Spotlight
• Craft knife
• Glue stick
• PVA glue
• Ribbon
• Foam tape (the tape used to seal around windows and doors to keep drafts out)
• Chalk or chalk pen

Step-by-step instructions

1. Gently wash your suitcase and remove any old stickers, scrubbing off any sticky residue; leave to dry.

2. Use PVA glue to stick down any bits of paper lining that may be coming away on the inside of the suitcase, leave to dry.

3. Paint suitcase inside and out in a coat of the Resene Quick Dry undercoat, leave to dry.

4. Paint two coats of Resene SpaceCote Flat on the outside of the suitcase, and two coats of Resene Lustacryl on the handle, leaving to dry between coats.

5. Inside the suitcase (the case part and lid) divide your space into three, marking with a pencil. Paint two coats of each colour on the walls of each storey, leaving to dry between coats. Do two coats of white testpot paint on one end of the suitcase – this will be the ceiling of the top floor.

6. Glue scrapbook paper to the floors, add furniture and your little home is ready to move in to.

Testpot Tips

1. Let your imagination go when it comes to choosing the colours. This is one time the colours don’t need to match the rest of your home! Get your child involved – simply show them the Resene KidzColour chart (in-store or online) and let them point out the colours they’d like.

2. If you want the option to be able to create a different doll’s house exterior at some stage, draw the windows and doors on with ordinary chalk so that it can be easily wiped off. If you prefer to create the home’s exterior look once and don’t want it to change, then use a chalk pen as that will be more permanent.

3. For the interior, you could choose to use Resene testpots and paint on any extra features you want on the walls and floor, rather than using Resene SpaceCote and chalk.

4. You can create extra decorative effects on the interior walls, using a potato print (just cut a potato into the shape you want, then dip into a testpot and dab the wall). Or you could paint the walls in your base colour and then add stripes in a second colour. Generally vertical stripes are easier to create and it’s best to do this before you put the floor in, as the floor will help to hide the end of the brushmark.

5. Look around your home for things to decorate the doll’s house – old egg cartons and small lego® can be turned into furniture with a little imagination.

6. If the outside of the doll’s house will be on show in your child’s room, consider adding some touches of glow in the dark paint with Resene FX Nightlight. The glow will slowly fade the longer the lights are out.

7. Consider other ideas – instead of a house you could create a multi-level space station, a factory or another type of building.

Kid's Bedroom Decorating Ideas
View more decorating ideas for kids from Little Treasures magazine in the Resene kid's bedroom inspiration gallery.

More ideas