Gothenburg renovation: A labor of love

Take a Lundby dollhouse that has seen better days, add a crafty and creative woman bursting with enthusiasm and determination, and what do you get? Read on to find out more!

Back in the early 1990s, Mary’s daughter received a brand new Lundby Gothenburg dollhouse. Sadly, the younger cousins later trashed it. Here’s what it looked like when Mary recently dug it up:

More wreckage!

Shocked but inspired, Mary decided to renovate the dollhouse—much to the delight of her daughter, now in her twenties.

Mary says her biggest challenge was the missing roof trim. She searched and searched, until she found the perfect replacement: vinyl molding from a home improvement store.

She mixed white paint with a little glue to patch the tiny gap where the molding pieces meet at the roof peak.

Then she moved on to the windows, replacing the damaged panes with transparent plastic.

Mary printed out Gothenburg brick paper to cover the chimney (which the naughty cousins had stripped bare). She also used it to patch a water-damaged section of the house exterior.

She added modern Lundby bulbs, hung curtains, and arranged what remained of the original furniture plus some newly acquired pieces. Voilà, the finished product!

She made the cute little chalkboard and easel in one of the bedrooms.

Mary also made two rugs, one by copying a Lundby rug and printing the image on fabric printer paper, ironing it to another piece of fabric, and adding trim. (The white bureau in the top floor bedroom was Mary’s when she was little.)

She made another rug from an image downloaded off the Internet. Don’t you love how well it coordinates with the décor in Dad’s den?

Mary cleverly repaired the red check corner couch by gluing on pieces from a miniature picket fence she found at a craft store.

She even made a stand for the dollhouse so it could sit above her daughter’s storage chest.

When Mary's daughter first lay eyes on her renovated childhood dollhouse, she was amazed--everything was back together! She hugged her parents, then settled down in front of the dollhouse to explore. 

Mary's labor of love had just the effect she had hoped for!