Monday 9 December 2019

DIY Dollhouse Makeover: IKEA Flisat hack

 IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.
I seem to have created a bit of a tradition with my daughters Christmas presents now, every year I've found myself working on an IKEA hack to give her as her 'big' present. Last year I upcycled her Duktig play kitchen, so I obviously had to pull out all the stops to top that this year. I actually bought the Flisat dolls house from IKEA - a complete bargain at just £25 - back in the summer, with the intention of working on it slowly over a few months, however in classic Sam style left it far too late and started it in November. But anyway I got there in the end, this is another really easy IKEA hack, which I literally cannot wait to give to her.

This did take quite some time to finish, however I didn't really have a good chunk of time to dedicate to it, so ended up doing little bits here and there spread out over about three weeks. I think if you had a full weekend free you could absolutely get this done in much less time. One thing I would definitely recommend though if you're short on time like me, is to leave the dollhouse somewhere really accessible like your kitchen. This meant that whenever I was waiting for dinner to cook, or faffing about I could do a little bit of painting here and there, which seems to be the only way I get anything done nowadays!

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

I've also put together a video tutorial for this which you can watch here, or keep scrolling for the step-by-step instructions...


You will need:

IKEA Flisat dolls house
Paint - I used lots of different coloured tester pots
Primer - The backing of the doll house is made from a plastic-coated mdf, so you'll need to prime these bits before painting
Tile stickers - I found the floor tiles and wall tiles on eBay for a few pound each, and were really handy for saving time
Faux wooden flooring - Again from eBay
Wooden furniture - I found this set on Amazon for just £25
Offcuts of different coloured felt and fabric - for the duvet cover, cushions & rugs
Lollipop sticks - For the wall panelling
Cotton wool - For the inside of the cushions
Wool - To create the mini wall-hanging
Wood glue
Cuttings from artificial plants
Wooden beads - To create the 'plant pots'
Mirrored cardboard - To create a 'mirror'

Total cost: Most of the bits I used for decorating and accessorising were things I had lying around the house, but I did spend £50 on the dollhouse and furniture.

The Flisat dolls house comes flat pack, so the first thing I did was put it together, leaving the roof off to make it easier to paint the walls and get access to the floor.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.
The doll house before (Image courtesy of IKEA) 

Walls

One of the most difficult things was choosing how I wanted to decorate each room! I decided to go for some traditional style 'panelling' on the bedroom wall, which was so easy to recreate. I simply stuck some lollipop sticks onto the wall using wood glue - don't forget to snip the rounded end off each stick first. This might be easier using small strips of wood or mdf from a hardware store, but I wanted to try and avoid buying anything new, so used these which I had laying around in my crafting drawer. Once I'd stuck the sticks on I primed and painted the walls using a tester pot of Moonstone Grey from Craig and Rose. I've actually totally fallen in love with this beautiful green colour now, and would love to get in in somewhere in my house. That might have to be a project for next year though...

The other rooms are painted using another tester pot - Cornforth White from Farrow & Ball.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

In the kitchen and bathroom I stuck some faux 'metro tiles' on the wall, again found on eBay - this comes in an A3 sheet, which was just enough for both rooms. 

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

Flooring

For the floors I originally wanted to use more lollipop sticks to create faux-parquet flooring, but had to give up on that idea once I realised just how much time it was going to take! Instead I found some printed card on eBay with a herringbone pattern on it, so used this to create a beautiful wooden-style floor in the downstairs room.

Tip: The card comes in a 30x40cm size, which wasn't quite enough for both downstairs rooms. However, to avoid buying a second piece, and having lots of waste I cut the kitchen floor out first, then managed to fashion the living room floor from two bits of off-cuts, lining up the patterns as neatly as I could. I don't think you can tell from a distance though can you?

For the bathroom floor I found some patterned stickers, again on eBay. The good thing about this was it came in one sheet rather than individual mini-tiles, meaning it was much easier to apply. I simply cut to size and stuck down.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

Furniture

I bought this classic set of dolls house furniture from Amazon for £25 - which I thought was a really good price considering the amount of bits you get. I painted the kitchen in some leftover paint from last year's IKEA play kitchen upcycle - I thought it would be cute if the two matched! - and left the rest of the bits unpainted.

To create some 'cushions' for the sofa and bed I folded a 7.5cm x 4.5cm piece of felt over, popped some cotton wool inside and hand stitched up.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

Accessories

I've added some 'rugs' using off-cuts of fabric - a bit of hessian in the living room, and a bit of faux fur in the bedroom. I couldn't resist adding some 'plants' about the place too, which are actually yet more off-cuts, this time stems from one of my artificial plants which I've glued into wooden beads.

Finally, my favourite bits are this mini wall-hanging and lampshade in the bedroom - both really easy to make too. For the wall hanging I cut a few lengths of wool, tied them to a bit of wooden dowel and hung up on the wall. I didn't want to use a nail or hook in case they weren't safe for a small child, so simply stuck it up with a bit of washi tape, which I then painted over to match the wall. The lampshade is made from a shampoo lid would you believe?! I wrapped some more hessian fabric around the lid and stuck down with a glue gun. I then poked a small hole through the plastic at the top and strung a piece of wool through to hang from.

Tip: To hang the shade I unscrewed the roof and poked the wool through the top piece of wood, so that I wouldn't have make any holes.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

I also printed out some kitchen-related images I found on Google to stick on the wall as some prints - if I'd of had some more time I'd of laminated them, which would definitely have looked better.

And that's it! A really fun project through which you can let your creativity run wild! You'll find yourself looking at household objects and bits of rubbish wondering 'what can I make out of that?!'

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

IKEA Flisat dolls house hack makeover. How to transform a budget dolls house into a stylish toy for your child with this simple easy ikea hack upcycle. Perfect for playrooms and a kids bedroom, I made this from things I had lying around the house and its made the perfect Christmas present.

What do you think? Is this the type of thing your little one would like to play with?

Thanks for reading,
Sam Xx
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7 comments

  1. Just found your post when searching for IKEA play house ideas! Yours turned out so well! I’m considering getting one for my daughter, but I would love to know what dolls your child uses with this house? I’m having a hard time figuring out what dolls go with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen a lot of people use the Calico Critters with furniture this size. Debating getting some for my daughter!

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  2. Do you have a link to the furniture?

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  3. This is absolutely gorgeous, I have been using the house as a book shelf but considering changing it to a dolls house because it's adorable!

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  4. Hi, this may be a silly question but do you glue all the furniture down so everything is fixed except the dolls? Thanks!

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  5. Hand Making dolls and crafts is the best thing that I can make for my granddaughters during these Covid tough times. This is very informative and helped me a lot thanks.
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