Note: Again, this is a very detailed and long-winded review of the progress. Click on the picture previews to see larger versions.

In this update regarding the progress of decorating my 1/6 scale dollhouse, I'm showing you the living room. ^o^ Last time it was the kids room and today we're moving on to the floor below it. This is where the kitchen used to be but they switched places. It's the same size as the kids room – width is 66 cm (26 inches), height is 40 cm (almost 16 inches) and depth is 30 cm (almost 12 inches).

The wallpapers were added almost a year ago because the color combination was something I really liked early on, however it was the furniture that took much longer to obtain. Like with the kids room, it needed quite a bit of repainting to suit the color scheme. Under the cut I'll explain how I worked on each piece. They're all from different sets, either Barbie, Licca or from other doll lines from the 60's/70's.

First, the wallpapers. Again I wanted each wall to have a different color and I chose the retro yellow-orange one for the main one (represents the sun) and then one-color sheets with no patterns for the floor and two smaller side walls. The floor is green like the grass. The left side of the room is in blue, like the sky, with a bit of brown "earth" at the bottom where flowers grow... Well, before the little sheep eat them, anyway. *laugh* The brown is just brown wallpaper I cut out and glued on top of the blue one. The flat, wooden sheep and plastic flowers I got at the local art & hobby store for the little animal scene. They're so cute and very easy to use on cards and other paper projects!

Pic left: Left side of the room. Here you can see the blue wallpaper with the little flowers at the bottom. The wooden chest of drawers is one of the things I brought home from an Italy visit. It's already so wonderfully done and decorated that it didn't need any repainting. The colors are fantastic and hip, indeed girly enough for Liccas to fight over the chest like little kids! ^^ On top of the drawer is a nice flower, a ladybug, a magazine and a very cute rabbit figurine with shopping bags. It's one of the Japanese 'Modern Pets' mascots. There are several of these in the room.

The little red thingie on the floor is a miniature 'Wanroom' sofa, which also comes from a series of Japanese miniatures/gashapon that you get from capsule machines. Wanroom gashapon all resemble dog faces. There are sofas, tables, cactus, cups, slippers, lamps and other objects one would find in a room, hence the name Wanroom (In Japanese, 'wan' is the sound of a dog barking). Wan wan! :D There are different series of these miniatures, some come as keychains, others as figures for display, etc, and in different sizes. Wanroom plushies, stationery, stickers and other merchandise also exist! All sorts of things.

For the pic on the left I put away the drawer to show the animal scene better. The framed photo on the wall is a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci, "Head of a Young Woman with Tousled Hair" or "Female Head (La Scapigliata)". I lifted the picture off the Net, resized it and printed it out on quality photo paper. Luckily I found a frame small enough to look nice in a dollroom.

Gaaah, the wallpaper has air bubbles here and there, after a year it's starting to peel off, I guess, so I have to re-glue it for a better fit. I remember it was a pain in the butt to put it on in the first place. ^^;

With such wallpapers in eye-popping colors adorning the room again, of course colorful furniture was the first thing that came to mind but at the time I put the wallpapers up I had no suitable pieces that would match. I didn't have any that would belong into a living room/room for relaxing. Shelves and a closet were a priority – shelves for all the little miniature bits and toys the dolls own and an all-purpose closet for other things, basically something you'd really miss in a living room if it wasn't there. Slowly I got this and that piece and months flew by.

Pics below: My fave is the beautiful, wooden red & white piece with the circular mirror and drawers. Used, with a bit of damage at one side of the mirror, but perfect for a room like this. It was made in Germany in the 60's or 70's. The drawers can open. I have the bed from this set, as well, and there's other bits you can get, like a closet and bed combo. Suitable for any 1/6 doll.

The pic above shows all the little bits that I love to collect for my dollrooms. More gashapon/capsule toys from Japan, such as the white rabbit Miffy in the top row, next to little Re-ment miniature tea cups and saucers, a clock I repainted red (originally ugly Barbie pink) and the blue bottle Tuxedo Sam (it's a penguin!).

The little green basket holds two more gashapon figurines and on the table area below is a Woodmate pink lamp that says 'Switch on!'. Inside it is a removable tiny bulb, also with a cute smiley face on it, awww. ^^ Woodmate, similar to Wanroom, is a series of figures in shape of house objects, except that they're all wooden and bigger. There's a stow, oven, microwave, tv, video recorder, sofa, etc etc. Very fun to collect even if you don't have a dollhouse. Some of the Woodmates just happen to be in the right scale for 1/6 dolls. The sofa obviously isn't big enough for dolls like Licca, Blythe, Barbie, Momoko, etc. I chose the lamp because I thought it would look lovely on a table like this, not to mention its color matches the furniture and other companion miniatures placed on the table.

Next to the lamp are more Re-ment sets like a pink sewing box (its lid is on the floor) with tiny scissors, thread, fabric knife and needles. You can position them as you like! Some other Re-ment items are from the Office Lady Life series, so you get different colored pens, stamp and ink pad, files, snacks, scissors again (I love Re-ment scissors, dolls can actually mimic cutting things with them!) and much more.

Pic below: More toys, like a sitting jelly dog, cup, school items for kiddies, 2 stationery sheets I resized again and printed out (San-X characters), and inside the drawer is a miniature Kewpie, the popular naked baby character. Another one is seated elsewhere in the room. And the pic on the right is a close-up of the Woodmate lamp.

Pic below: Licca sitting in the room.

On the left side of this red & white table with mirror is a previously turquoise "dresser" thingy from the Barbie line, which I spraypainted orange. The original color was great but was in too "cool" a shade to fit the warm tones of the room. It looks red on the pics here but it's really a deep orange. Looks like one of the better styles Mattel has produced! Lovely shape. It offers plenty of space for displaying items.

Pic below: The cardboard in the back of this now orange dresser was replaced with a new one that I printed out on glossy paper. It's a simple view of the sky with two clouds at the top and the grass below. The sky for the upper shelf and the grass for the lower one. ^^ The original cardboard "backdrop" was far too busy, in light orange with a distracting blue swirl design and pictures of food, cups, menus, etc., because the furniture was actually part of a cafe. I didn't need the cafe-centric cardboard, so I ditched it for this simple one that doesn't distract from the items positioned before it. It's supposed to match the nature theme of the room.

Pics below: Closer look at the dresser. I painted the handles white. On the top shelf is another Modern Pets character, the pink elephant. The photo frame was another Barbie piece in typical hot pink and was spraypainted red. The original pic was replaced by one of my own photos I shot of Licca-chan. :) I just measured the pic and then printed out a new one in the same size. Licca is happy to have her photo displayed in the room!
Next is a Re-ment box that holds little Licca jewelry. On top is a yellow kiddie cap, also by Re-ment. I love the Re-ment retro record player and the Halloween Gloomy bear gashapon. In front of Gloomy is a little Re-ment jar with bonbons.

Pics below: In the middle of the room is a Barbie table I spraypainted orange, it was turquoise like the dresser. On it is a Barbie notebook computer I also spraypainted, this time red, because the original color was hot pink. >_> The Windows "screen" pic was removed and I glued on one of my own, it's actually a snapshot of my Windows XP. One of the cooler Barbie items, though nowhere near Re-ment quality and detail! The other items on the table are all Re-ments like a coffee cup, extra milk, sugar stick, box of Pocky with Pocky sticking out (OMG!! Love!), fork and spoon and a pink kiddie Obento lunchbox with a Japanese meal inside. On the bottom shelf are two doujinshi comics I made, one is of Lord of the Rings and the other is Howl's Moving Castle. My dolls read comics just like me! ^_^
Next to the table is a wooden red chair that goes with the red & white table and mirror piece from before. You can see Licca sitting on it. A chihuahua is hiding under it (he's always hiding, he's a very sensitive little creature *laugh*).

On the other side of the table is a low couch in shape of an 'L'. It's from the Licca series released in the 80's. Originally in light blue/mint color, it's now red to go with the chair. Yeah, I sure have been spraypainting a lot!
Best seen on the very first pic shown on this page.

And now to the last two furniture pieces. To the left of the orange dresser is a yellow Ikea doll closet. It's a bit heavier and sturdier than Barbie plastic furniture and has that simplistic look I thought would fit the room's style. Lucky for me I got the yellow one because Ikea made several sets in different colors (green, red, white, etc) and meant for different rooms (there's a white kitchen, for instance). The yellow one fits the main yellow-orange wallpaper perfectly. Ikea's doll furniture is smaller than Barbie's and more in the scale of Licca-sized dolls (23 cm/9 inches).

Pics below: I customized the Ikea closet in 3 easy steps; glued on its doors were a scented, squishy jelly flower (just stick it on a flat surface and voila!), two smaller white flowers on each side and below a cute nature scene with bears and trees. I cut it in the middle just where the the door ends touch, so when you close them the scene "completes" itself and you see the third bear in the middle (he's cut in half if doors are open *lol*). ^^ I thought since the closet is so bland and doesn't have any shelves inside (just two large compartments from top to bottom), it should at least look interesting. My Liccas like the girly style! The duck was a cute find from an art & hobby store.

On top of the closet is a Licca photo in a blue wooden frame decorated with two female bugs and a flower. It was so cute I just had to have it when I was on a visit in Italy. The photo is of Licca of Southern Island and was taken from a Japanese dolly magazine, I just printed it out and scaled it down. She was the first Licca I ever bought (hence me framing it) and on the pic she's wearing a great punk outfit and heavy punk boots. It just begged to be framed! Guh.

Next to the photo is another Modern Pets character - a cat with a hat. The other two much smaller figurines are also Modern Pets, just 2 cm (0.8 inch) tall!

Pic on the right: And last but not least, the wooden furniture piece in brown and white is in smaller scale than Barbie's again and goes well with the Ikea closet. Its back was orange from the start and needed no switching. It's nice how some furniture is just RIGHT for a dollroom from the start... And it has shelves, shelves, shelves again, thus even more space for miniatures! SCORE!
I was surprised to learn this is actually Barbie furniture because it's smaller than your usual Barbie stuff, but then again, it's from the 70's... They didn't make doll furniture quite so big in the past.

On the shelves are a flower pot, white cups (I put a tiny Modern Pet into one), more gashapon like Hello Kitty and Kewpie, Re-ment retro radio with removable cassette, Re-ment sewing machine (!!), Re-ment cups and a Barbie tv that I spraypainted red (originally hot pink) and removed the original "tv screen" picture with a resized, printed out screen from Madonna's video "Don't Tell Me" as shown on MTV.

Pic below: Another shot to show the scale. The red couch on the right may seem a little small and low but is actually more suitable for Licca than the red chair on the left, since Licca's feet don't touch the ground if sitting in the chair, but they do if she's on the sofa. The sofa is in perfect size since it's from the Licca line. Licca sofas aren't nearly as big as Barbie's. I like the smaller scale because the furniture doesn't take as much space.

Well, that's it! ^^ I hope you like the room! I still need to finish the cafe, small bathroom and a kitchen. The kitchen is almost done, actually, it just needs details like food miniatures. The kids room is by far the "busiest" of all the rooms. The ones left are much simpler.

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