Vintage Tin Dollhouse Repurpose

This is either a post about a vintage tin dollhouse, 1960's Marx variety. Or a super cool birdhouse. Or both.

But let's start at the beginning . . .

That green ladder is the one I showed you back in March in my Wooden Ladders As Garden Art post. The big debate back then was whether to leave it naked and natural or make it painted and perky.

Perky won.

Perky always wins.

 

Painted or not, I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do with that ladder.

I wanted to repurpose a vintage tin dollhouse into a birdhouse for my garden and put it smack dab on top of the ladder.

I didn't want to use a dollhouse that could be still used by a little girl. Or a big girl for that matter, because I know a lot of vintage collectors love using these in their home decor.

It had to be CUTE, but in bad enough shape that I didn't feel guilty about using it for our feathered friends.

So I patiently waited until I found the right house . . .

and waited . . .

and waited some more.

And about four months into the wait, just as I was getting ready to give up, I was out shopping and ran across this pink-doored beauty.

I was just walking along, looking at old tools and wooden crates in the man's tool section of the basement of a local antique mall and happened to glance up to the very top shelf and I swear the Heavens opened and light shown down on her.

She had no business being there. It didn't make sense. She was neither a man's tool nor belonged in the basement.

The poor thing was destined to live out the rest of her life surrounded by old tools, greasy sprockets and oil cans.

I very gently pulled her down from her perch and took a good look at her. She was dirty and grimy and rusty and oh, so pretty.

Now like I said, she's seen better days.

 

It's been quite a while since a little girl has arranged furniture in her living room.

She has quite a bit of rust on her roof . . .

she's a bit discolored and parts of her are broken or missing (there's an awning that should be hanging on this terrace).

And this is her backside which isn't looking as perky as it used to.

Can I get a high-five for backsides not looking perky anymore!

So she was a prime candidate for my project.

And really, what is more perfect than a ranch style dollhouse to go with my own ranch style home!

So right now she's setting in my garden on top of a green ladder surrounded by pretty flowers. Breathing a sigh of relief from being freed from her dark, dank basement existence.

BTW, the yellow flowers are black-eyed Susan vine. I normally plant this on a trellis, but thought I'd see how it goes growing it up the ladder this year. You can see my post all about growing these gorgeous vines at Black-eyed Susan Vines aka Heaven On Earth.

Hey, I didn't want this post to take all day to pull up on your phone or computer, so I put the tutorial on exactly how I made it on the second page (it's more than just plopping the dollhouse out there and calling it a day).

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