This Adorable Dollhouse Makes Us Want to Redecorate Immediately
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At Country Living, we have long had a soft spot for small spaces of all sorts. Whether it's a grain silo guesthouse, a tiny converted NYC tugboat, or an adorably outfitted chicken coop, we love any space that manages to maximize its charm per square foot. (For the record, we were championing the cottagecore aesthetic far before it took over TikTok.)
We've even embraced dollhouse makeovers a time or two, but the latest dollhouse transformation out of Houston, Texas, by shop owner and textile designer Courtney Barton, may just be the greatest dollhouse project of all time—especially if you have a soft spot for color, pattern, weathered antiques, and whimsical details.
The tiny house—nicknamed Tiny Tassel Castle—is so richly layered and life-like that we're still doing double takes and studying every detail. The antique-style cooker! The tiny Delft tiles! The collection of hanging baskets! The project, which is part of a fundraiser for Family Houston, was "truly a labor of love," says Courtney, one of eight designers/creatives tapped to turn bare-bones plywood shells into mini showhouses that will later be sold at auction. (More on that below.)
Despite the structure's diminutive scale, it was an overwhelming undertaking for the shop owner and mother of two boys. "I've never done anything like this," says Courtney, who says she wasn't especially into dollhouses growing up. "When the structure got dropped off, I did an ugly cry on what I had gotten myself into," says Courtney, who was intimidated by both the amount of rooms (12!) and the two-month timeline that overlapped with the popular Round Top Antiques Show. (Courtney owns a retail shop in Round Top in addition to her store in Houston.)
After taking a breath and rolling up her sleeves, she rose to the occasion by trusting her well-honed eye for "elevated whimsy," obsessing over scale (see: adding ball feet when dressers needed just a smidge more height), and enlisting the help of businesses and creatives around the globe, including Andrew Martin, designer Beata Heuman, artist by Rebecca Rebouché, and ceramist Pearce Williams. She also reached out to Coley Home to help tackle the upholstery. "I couldn't believe they said yes!," says Courtney. "And I love that it's a young female-owned company."
She also admits that she got really, really into it. "As a shop owner, my whole gig is rooted in the thrill of the hunt—finding unique objects made by artisans—and this house features items from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Germany, France, Mexico.... I found myself deep into the world of dollhouse objects." Case in point: The rolling library ladder came from a man in Canada. The bathroom lighting is by an artisan in the United Kingdom who specializes in tiny swan chandeliers. (Talk about finding your niche.) The burlwood grand piano was sourced closer to home—it was a lucky find from a local estate sale.
Some items are sentimental. For example, the bamboo bed—the first item Courtney purchased for the house—is an ode to the first item she carried in her retail store. (It pairs well with a scaled-down version of this whimsical wallcovering.) Other decorative details required roll-up-the-sleeves resourcefulness. When tiny baskets didn't feel quite old enough, they were stained with coffee to look more weathered and antique.
When asked to name her favorite of the 12 rooms, Courtney says it's always changing. "We asked ourselves this question on a weekly basis in the office." She does admit that the basket-filled garden room ranks high on the list. "Yellow is one of my favorite colors, and I've wanted to use that Antoinette Poisson wallpaper forever." The ballet room is a close second. "We had a mirror custom fit for a wall, installed a ballet bar, and trimmed the room in velvet. It all feels so sweet."
The biggest challenge, says Courtney, was perfecting the tiny trim work. "In the garden room alone, there's over 17 hours' worth of trim!" she says. "We had a mini table saw the size of an index card that we used to miter everything. Eventually, I wound up finding a pair of scissors called miter shears—that's proven to be our dream tool."
The house, alongside seven other miniature marvels, will be auctioned off at La Petite Maison Gala on December 4th. (Bidding starts at $2,500, and you can stake your claim remotely.) You can go read more about the other designers here, but we'll still be obsessing over every delightful detail of Courtney's construction, including the pan on the kitchen island with chopped mushrooms and onions, the teensy touch of mud on the garden room wellies, the hand-beaded kitchen chairs, the game room wallcovering featuring a motif of tiny card suites (clubs, aces, hearts...). It's clear no detail was overlooked. Well, except one. "There are no toilets," says Courtney. "They're just ugly."
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