As my daughters slowly, tragically transition from Dollhouse Phase One (turning anything and everything into a miniature world, then spending hours and hours inside that world) to Dollhouse Phase Two (watching Wes Anderson movies, naturally), I’m so glad I have this blog. Seriously. How else would I be able to justify obsessing over pretend kitchens like the one you see above? I’ve been a fan of Lundby, the Swedish dollhouse company, ever since 1982, when I inherited a box of mismatched furniture from my best friend, Courtney, and as soon as the girls were old enough to clutch a doll in their fingers, I was hunting down whichever mid-century, retro-y Lundby pieces I could find for them. (Hmmmm. Who was it who said having kids is just an excuse to recreate your own childhood?) But I could only ever find things on eBay, picking up a TV console or double bed here and there, and gradually I stopped googling. Until last week, when we walked by a toy store in the city and saw THIS in the front window:
It’s a dollhouse from Smaland, a Lundby line I’d never heard of or seen before. (Have you guys?) I mean, come on! You don’t have to be a kid to appreciate how awesome it is. Do you not want to spend hours in that kitchen? Or reclined in the blue suede reading chair? How about the wallpaper?! The clawfoot bathtub?! The drum light pendant in the dining room that I’ve been trying to track down in real life? Within seconds of spying this thing, I did a quick mental scan of all the younger kids I knew who might want it for a birthday or holiday gift. I came up blank, so I’m handing it over to you guys. FWIW: My birthday is in two weeks.
The Kitchen Accessories Kit. What else does one need in life?
Related: Though 11-year-old Abby is not yet old enough to see many of Wes Anderson’s films, she has been poring over The Wes Anderson Collection. Just to give you an idea how fun the book is for fans, pictured above are the endpapers, showing illustrated versions of all the characters from his films. She spent hours on this spread alone.
Super super cute. I cant wait to have kids to play with things like these. Especially love that Wes Anderson book 🙂
I’d buy that dollhouse now for my future grandchildren. I’d have to play with it in the meantime, just to make sure it works and all.
Oh, it is painful when they grow out of beloved toys. At least they have moved on to something/one you can still all enjoy!
Aaahhh! I had this EXACT dollhouse as a kid — I remember walking my dolls up those stairs a million times! It was sadly abandoned in a hasty move and I mourned it for years. Maybe I need a replacement.
Question for the audience or moms of boys — do little guys enjoy dollhouses or playing pretend like girls do (or, I should say, like I did as a child)? I’m all for avoiding specific gender roles and think this dollhouse is so sweet, but what is your experience? My son is still little-little, but I’m curious. Does this sound terribly ignorant or insensitive? I hope not!
I have two boys, although they are now past this stage of play, and they both played with dollhouses. They loved the one at my niece’s house. We had a wooden Treehouse set which they also loved. That was a gift from grandparents and I think they chose it because it seemed more “boy”
My son was very into the world of trains (thomas the tank, to be specific). He had all kinds of imaginary villages and personalities going on with the zillions of trains we invested in/threw money at. He also enjoyed the worlds of Playmobil and Lego. At nearly 8, he’s outgrown a lot of that stuff, but if you put a pretend house/village in front of him, I’m sure he’d dive right in! (For some reason, even though we stayed neutral, he figured out by age 3 that dolls and pink stuff were for girls. We try to correct that on a regular basis).
@Jillian – Thanks for your comment, which I don’t find insensitive at all. I don’t have boys, obviously, though my answer is the same as it would be if someone asked that question about either boys or girls. I don’t know how little he is, but I doubt you will have to guess if he’s into pretend worlds and dollhouses — in my experience, the kids who are into that kind of thing will create worlds out of anything you put in front of them. You’ll know. However, if you’re not sure enough to invest in a full-on dollhouse, Playmobil makes so many mini environs from farms to zoos to castles to schools to hospitals. (I once wrote about them in a holiday gift guide: https://www.dinneralovestory.com/holiday-gift-guide-2013/) So that might be a good place to start testing the waters. Good luck! I’m so jealous!
I have a similar dollhouse that currently resides at my parents’ house for my daughter and her cousin to play with. I thought it was long gone–now I’ll have to check out the brand and look for some furniture for me, uh, I mean the girls, to play with!
Amazon has gotten a lot of business from me through you, I bought Dinner, the Playbook last week (awesome, by the way, the Hoisin burgers were a huge hit!) and I was unable to control my need for that Wes Anderson book just now…
Funny… I walked by that same Grand Central dollhouse display the other day too and it stopped me in my tracks and made me both pine for childhood AND my children’s dollhouse stage. Some of the things I remember MOST vividly from my own childhood dollhouse (which was already at least a generation old when I got it as a hand-me-down) were the tiny foods, including a plate of mashed potatoes with a perfectly square pat of butter on it.
Have you seen the mid century dollhouse construction going on over at Retro Renovation?
http://retrorenovation.com/tag/betsy-mccall-dollhouse/
I am in my 40s, and this almost makes me want build one. I was WAY into miniature worlds. So fun!
This is really cute! I thought that first picture was a real kitchen at first, haha! – Charlie
http://www.lemonbutterlove.com
Living in Sweden, Småland was my first dollhouse.
There’s a huuuuge market for miniatures, I make miniatures to make up dollshouses now as an adult. All in scale 1:12. Lundby’s are not that scale, but they are amazing in and of themselves. The fact that they come with electricity is a great advantage.
Seriously want for ME. I didn’t appreciate the classic dollhouse we three girls shared as a child. Made one of those huge dollhouse kits for my daughter ( actually the father of a great friend finished it) and it is STILL not decorated. I’m just sayin’