New Project: Transforming a KidKraft Chelsea Dollhouse Into a Fairy House

I’m excited to share a new project I’ve been working on: Turning a KidKraft Chelsea dollhouse into a fairy house!

The KidKraft Chelsea dollhouse is smaller than most of the other KidKraft Dollhouses that are in 1:6 scale. My daughters had a regular size KidKraft dollhouse for many years and that thing was HUGE.

As I already have a couple of other dollhouse projects I’m working on {Like my Beachside Bungalow dollhouse kit by Real Good Toys} – I definitely didn’t want a 1:6 scale size anything!

Fortunately, I was browsing the Facebook marketplace when a local listing for the KidKraft Chelsea Cottage Dollhouse popped up on my screen.

The dollhouse was definitely a little “rough for wear” by kids with crayon marks and stickers peeling off, but that didn’t bother me since I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it: turn it into a fairy house!

Here’s what it looked like when I brought it home:

It fit nicely on my kitchen table, so I knew it wouldn’t take up *too* much space in my workspace craft area in the garage!

The house has 3 levels, and I plan on making the three levels a kitchen/fireplace area, a library/found things area, and the top floor will be the bedroom area.

The house also came with furniture and dolls, though I’ll probably end up making furniture that’s not quite so “blocky”.

One of the things I love about making a fairy house is I don’t have to necessarily build everything to look life-like. Fairies are known for using “found things” for making different things, so I can have tons of fun with the little trinkets and found things I’ve been saving to make furniture and accessories.

The other thing I’m excited about doing with the fairy house is using a lot of natural materials. We have several giant oak trees in our backyard that rained about a zillion acorns this past fall. {I’m not exaggerating – walking in our backyard is like walking on marbles!}

I also noticed while at the dollar store the other day they sell bags of potpourri. These bags have all kinds of awesome already dried flower petals and seed pods I can use – not to mention they smell great!

I’ve already started the transformation on the dollhouse, though I have to warn you these pictures will require a bit of your imagination before you see the masterpiece unfold!

I Made Fake Tree Bark With Paper Clay!

When you see this picture below you might think I’m crazy. But I think it’s going to turn out beautiful once I paint it.

To make the tree bark, I used the No Flour Paper Clay recipe from UltimatePaperMache.com. Jonni has so many great resources for paper mache! The paper clay turned out great!

Then I followed a tree bark tutorial by Where the Gnomes Live, one of my favorite YouTube channels for all things magical and enchanting in miniature.

I was able to do the paper clay on all the sides of the dollhouse, including the back.

Since it’s not painted yet, it probably doesn’t look too much like tree bark to you just yet. But I am pretty confident with my paint layering skills I can get it to look pretty realistic!

I’m currently waiting for layers of paint to dry and will add some pictures to this post of the finished tree bark sides once they are dry. It will probably take a day or two!

Here’s what it looks like so far!

I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Today I’m going to go outside and forage the yard to see what kinds of natural materials I can find. We have plenty of sticks on the ground from a recent storm and those acorns are still out there!

Anyways, I’m super excited by this little project and can’t wait for it to unfold. If you’d like to be notified when the final project is ready, be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter – you’ll also get instant access to all of our miniature printables and freebies on our site in the TinyCrafter resource library!