TOTALLY. AWESOME.
My dad built me a kitchen set when I was 3, and I played with that thing for a long time. It was simple, and definitely facilitated using my imagination. He said my joy was worth the fact that he almost cut off his thumb and the ER had to sew it back together. Ew!
We still have it, somewhere - hopefully it will survive until I have kids. 
Love it, love it, love it!
Juniper is one lucky girl.
delurking to say that is 100% the awesomest thing ever.
Totally fantastic.
Love the dollhouse. I agree with you, leave it minimalist and let her use her imagination. When my twins were 6 or so, I build them a dollhouse which still resides in my mom's basement for other grandkids to enjoy. I'm still impressed I managed to built it without breaking anything.
Off topic---did you change the font on your page, or is my computer doing weird things? It's been really hard to read lately, and the font is strange.
Very well done.
The stairway to nowhere is a nice existentialist touch.
This is so cool. Sometimes I wish I could still play with dollhouses, and then I remember I own the Sims.
I think you might be the best dad ever. That is a work of art!
it looks like you definitely have been doing more than just watching bad movies!
Very well done. Plenty of space for her imagination.
I agree that this is 100% awesome. When I was a kid, my dad also built me a dollhouse replica of the one we lived in. I loved the shit out of that thing, and it's still in our basement waiting for the next lucky (yet-to-be-born) grand kid to play with.
And I also hear you about the giant hardware store intimidation factor. B was buying tiles at Home Despot once and when the very macho be-smocked clerk asked what he was going to be doing with them, B was barely able to squeeze out the truth: he was buying the tiles to put plants on in our windowsills. The guy just looked at him and walked away.
That looks really nice. I think you should flood the room and call it Orchard Lake.
Dutch! Absolutely beautiful!
Fantastic. I still remember the wallpaper in my dollhouse better than the wallpaper in my real house. Think of all the nostalgic confusion you'll spare her by making them the same...
Oh! The new all caps font? My eyes! My eyes! What gives?
Love your blog -- however, the new font: DO. NOT. LIKE. Please go back to "regular" upper/lower font. Thanks.
love it. this reminds me of the house and gas station my grandfather made his kids back in the 50's- very minamalist but 1000's of hours of use by at least 2 generations now.
i still have my old dollhouse upstairs that was lovingly made for me when i was little- i was wise enough to save all my furniture, and i can't wait til pnut is old enough to play with it. it was definitely one of my favorite things of all time as a kid.
i'm having no problem with your font, but i read on safari. looks exactly the same as always. have a great weekend!
minimalist? oh, friday.
So NOT craptastic! You need to get her some film canisters for garbage cans and she MUST have a slide view finder for a big screen TV. We used to have A Soda King that used C02 cartridges which meant lots of scuba diving adventures.. oh the mind whirls. I'll be right over Juney!
I LOVE IT. How would I translate that idea into our 1927 Tudor, though? Hmmm.....yet another benefit of living in a modern house!
that's awesome! i still have the dollhouse that my grandfather built and my mom decorated. i still remember how she turned the cap of toothpaste into a birthday cake. very smart.
(the font is really hard to read for me. maybe not others)
I said it before and I'll say it again...
"The building has to be at least... three times bigger than this! What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read... if they can't even fit inside the building?"
Still funny! Ok, once again, I'll be leaving now. Bye!
THAT IS FREAKING SWEET.
It's AWESOME. And has your stamp all over it.
But yeah, it does need a potty. You might continue with the minimalist theme and just make a circular hole in one of the floors (probably the first floor, for reasons of hygiene).
Dutch, that thing makes me feel all tingly down where my bathing suit goes. If you can build one big enough for a six-foot Jewboy and his family of four to inhabit, I'll buy it today. (But I'll require a potty.)
LOVE reading your blog, but HATING the new font. Having contact lenses that get dry and stick to my cornea is bad enough without feeling like I've got astigmatism too.
when i was 8 or 9 or commandeered my Raggedy Ann bookshelves, a lot of paint, and some carboard and created a 2-peice dollhouse for barbie. Barbie dollhouses at the time for some reason being too short for barbie to actually stand up in (WTF!?) without her head at a 90-degree angle. I spent all my time modelling and remodelling my bookshelf dollhouse and the only cost incurred was paint. I used scraps of carpet and wallpaper from decorating our own house. I don't ever remember playing with it: just decorating and arranging it over and over and over and over again. (Next time, buy an old bookshelf instead of starting from scratch, it's much easier! In the meantime, those stairs are kickass and the plexiglass walls georgeous brilliance!)
re: the font
I'm also on Safari and see no difference.
It's huge! It's as big as she is! When she grows out of wanting a dollhouse it can be used as a book case or a place to store toys, and she can prop pictures on the steps. Awesome.
P.S. Another vote that the font and all caps is not working for me.
I love it! I'm going to show it to my husband. He's handy with the saw but nowhere near as creative as you! I re-ititerate what everybody else has said: Juniper is one lucky girl (I suspect Wood is lucky as well).
RE: Font
I'm on Explorer and the new font hurts my eyes and is hard to read. Perhaps if it was not centered...that might help break up the lines. Just a thought. Love the site and the dollhouse is pretty sweet. I'm impressed with the woodworking skills. Maybe you can make a little cardboard potty for it?
Dutch, I love your parenting theories and the tools you give Juniper for exploration and expression. Fantastic!!
Thinking of you
Nice house.
I 'made' Girl Friday a Shop. It consists of one bookcase on its side and her imagination.
I don't think it gets much better than that!
Love this. I'm 36 and I want one.
I really like the Momoll kitchen and houses but dang, they are not cheap!
Huh. The font, in firefox, is the same it's always been, but when I view sweet-juniper.com on the same computer, using IE, it turns into the all-cappped, centered font others seem to be seeing.
I am jealous. Will you come be my dad, Dutch? I always wanted a doll house and never had one, and now I've got a boy with a dad who is obsessed with "we live in a small space, that is too big!". Plus the floating stairs are amazing. You could make money off that thing.
Beautiful dollhouse! I love how light and open it seems. And with all that acrylic, it must get great light.
I'll keep my eye open for "those chairs" and other mini modernist furniture when I'm in Japan, or at least some doll sized sushi...
Font's fine and normal in Camino.
Dollhouse kicks major ass.
In the same vein of thrift, minimalist taste, and parental unhandiness, I bought a Plan Toys all-wood modern dollhouse off Craigslist today for $25.
Not nearly as cool, but I still have my fingers (which I would NOT if I started messing about with screw guns and hammers.)
awesome dollhouse but another voice against the current font (in I.E.)
LOVE the dollhouse. Some of my very best memories from my childhood revolve around decorating/re-decorating/re-modeling my dollhouse. By the time I was 8, my father broke down and we designed and built a new one together from scratch. I credit any success I've had in my life to the things I learned that summer.
I have a book that should really belong to you. I found it at a yard sale; it's a book from the 70's all about making miniature modern furniture. They talk about molding lucite and if I remember correctly they also create a mini Wassily chair. It's pretty rad. I could scan some pages for you, as long as I can find it in the bookshelf...
I've been at the beach all day--- any font change is unintentional; I'll try to work at it, but if any HTML knowitalls want to look at my source code and help me figure out what's wrong in IE, I'd be much obliged.
I second slouching mom. I can't think of a better way to spend a week or two of naps.
My Grampa Joe made me a dollhouse complete with working electric lights (don't ask me how he did that.. he was an engineer). That was cool. But then my Grandma Joe added the cherries, so to speak - she searched magazines for food ads, and stocked the kitchen with teeny-tiny boxes of cereal, and cans of soup. And teeny tiny books and magazines, too. She made them all herself, along with soft dolls made to look like a tiny Kate, her tiny mom and tiny dad, and her tiny and incredibly annoying older brother Andrew (who mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again).
My Grandma Joe rode her bike everywhere and dressed up as a witch every halloween to cackle at and scare all the local kids. She could do no wrong, and her dollhouse accessories topped it all.
Think you could make a tiny wendell?
Dutch - the finishing touch - eBay Item number: 130127751330
we used toothpaste caps as garbage cans in the bedrooms. wonder if you could use an eggcup as a potty? or would that be too big?
i used to love found objects as furniture and accessories. sskate- my mom used to crochet little teeny table and bed linens for my dollhouse. oh the hours i spent with that thing! juney is going to love it!
Were those miniature Eames walnut stools in the bulk bin too? I might have to take the 4 hour drive to your area to check out Herman Miller.
Awesome. I like how it looks rickety, but is solid. Nice and big, too. Congratulations.
Sweet! When can I have a playdate with Juniper? I mean, when can my DAUGHTER have a playdate with Juniper. That's totally what I meant.
Dutch will you please please make one for me? My dad is still working on the one that he gave me when I was 7. (I am 31 now, and kind of thinking he will never finish it.) Besides Juniper's is so cool!! I think someone already mentioned that you could make money off of these things, but seriously I would pay you for one!!
Do I recognize the red and yellow chair?
It looks great. And I suggest you find a toilet asap... my girls play with their potty and dolls more than any other toy they own. Squished raisins are perfect terds too. If you secretly put the poop under her doll when she's not looking, she will think there's some terd fairy in her dollhouse, making it an even more special place to play.
right up there with the song books, the alphabet books and the original onesies.
amazing. not the result, the effort.
i am in love with you, dutch.
Are those little tiny Eames stools? Unbelievably cool.
i'm stalking you (i'm not really) and i asked my husband if your home looked familiar to him, he use to work for a company called art pack and he said he has delivered art to that building before.
small world. nice doll house!
That's really freaking cool to give her a gift like that.
My great-uncle made a doll house for me when I was five and I still have it.
Great memories.
http://TastesLikeCrazy.blogspot.com
Awesome job! I agree that the minimalism works to inspire imagination. Will you make me one too?
Amazing staircase! I'm sure she will have a blast playing.
Ikea sells inexpensive dollhouse potties. Don't know if that would tamper with the spirit of the project.
Miles has the playmobil modern bathroom. He likes having every animal, figure, and toy car we have use it. But it is plastic.
http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-...83303515&sr=8-
1
dutch, where do you find the time?
god.
you make me feel like such a loser.
dude, that is awesome, congratulations.
I wonder if there are aarnio puppies that size?
what'd you use on the edges of the acrylic? It looks like gaffer's tape.
That's about the epitome of style and resourcefulness. Let her be and show us what she does with it now and then.
That is so cool! I love how big you made it. It looked much smaller in the picture until I saw the one with Juniper next to it.
I think you did a great job. But I also thought the cardboard train was pretty good, so I must be fairly easy to impress.
I think this is wonderful. My grandfather built my sister a miniature horse barn when she was a little girl. After she grew out of it, my dad turned it into a beautiful doll house. Having both my grandfather and father create this doll house/horse barn for us made it all the more special and cherished. I'm sure Juniper will feel the same way too.
THAT is the coolest dollhouse ever. I love it. Totally your style, from what I can tell - one thing she does need is a miniature green dog. Best of luck with that ,
That's great you made this with your dad. I also like that you're teaching the J. the lesson that home-made beats store-bought hands down.
You are simply terrific! Lucky Juniper.
Awesome job! I was going to say it definitely needs an Eames lounge, but $36 is a little much. (And that might be hard to make with the upholstery and everything...) The stools rock though.
Until today, the book "Reproducing Furniture in Miniature" that has been sitting on our bookshelf for years, has only served as a tool for mockery. I laugh at my partner for being ridiculous; why would anyone need this book? And now I know. One day a little one of ours may say, "Dad, can you make me an Edwardian foot stool?" And he'll know right where to look to find out!
Your love for your child is amazing. I wish all kids were able to be loved in the same way.
I almost didn't leave a comment because I saw that there were 69 comments and seemed a shame to ruin that. My inner 9-yr-old-boy giggles whenever I see 69. Anyhoo, that dollhouse is so f-ing fabulous I can barely stand it!!! What a lucky girl to have such a great dad!
shit! this rocks!
my husband is a finish carpenter, designer, home builder in stone, brick, wood, mud and straw.
and you know the old saying...'the cobblers kids have holes in their shoes'? well the builders kid ain't got no good mid-century modern dollhouse.
mb
This is exactly the doll house I wanted my dad to help me make when I was little. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to use the power tools until high school. It's really amazing.
Very cool dollhouse. My daughter, now 21, has the fondest memories for a washing-machine-box house her dad made for her. He painted it and cut windows and a door. It was remarkably sturdy and sat in the corner of our dining room for many months. When she made a pictures at preschool, she'd bring them home at put them up on the walls inside.
Wow, that is so cool. I guess I need to have another child--a girl for whom I can copy this dollhouse!
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