It’s been a long time coming but we are starting to turn one of our downstairs rooms into a doll and bear room. It is also going to be used for the occasional guest but they will have to get used to looking at the collections. The teddies will probably be using the bed when there are no guests.

Most of my dolls been packed in boxes since I got here but recently after moving a few things around Naomi said that it would be good if I unpacked them because the boxes take up more room than the dolls and she has worked out more or less how she wants to arrange the room to fit a bed in it.

One corner will be a play area. We have a table where we can set up our fashion dolls to be photographed and shelves to hold their clothes and props. As we both have a lot of dolls this area is going to take up a bit of space and most of the dolls will be stored in crates or baskets when we are not using them. We also want room for chairs for ourselves as well. The lighting is not great at present but we’ll get a floor lamp and possibly later get an electrician to put in a new ceiling light fitting.

I apologise for the quality of some of these photos. I didn’t want to use my flash too much today because I can’t find my battery charger and although I have one more spare battery if I run it out I won’t be able to take photos when we go out later in the week except with my phone which I hate. I have edited them a little bit to improve the quality but I will take better ones later.

One of my wooden cabinets which once used to be in my dining room displaying ornaments and storing various items and later became a home for the two big dolls houses has now become home to our paper doll collection and will be used for doll display. At present I have the celluloid dolls on top with the bigger Pedigree and Ideal dolls and the middle shelf is vinyl British and Australian Pedigree dolls mostly. The bottom shelf is miscellaneous at the moment as it can only house smaller dolls.

I don’t have as much shelf space as before. The built in shelves on another wall are wider but they vary in height. I am not sure yet which dolls will fit onto them. As it turns out, even the 14 inch dolls won’t fit on the shelves standing so I’m going to have to get my old shelves put up somewhere or there won’t be enough room for all the dolls. We have put another old piece of furniture in front of it for larger dolls to sit on.

I have my costume dolls in my bedroom but it occurred to me that if I move them to the shelves that won’t fit larger dolls I could bring some of those upstairs. But what? Perhaps the Netta and Metti dolls and others that are a similar size and don’t fit downstairs. I haven’t decided yet.

The Sindy’s were the first fashion dolls unpacked as they have all been out already. I have them on two shelves but am not entirely happy with the set up yet.

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This room is also going to have to house my sewing machine and craft materials although several plastic crates of fabric are out in the garage where they will probably stay. I think that at some point I will have to decide how much craft stuff I really need and anything I’m not likely to use will have to go. Better than having to get rid of dolls.

Here are a few of the dolls I have unpacked. Nearly everyone needs to have their hair done, or their dresses ironed. I want to make a few clothing swaps because some are wearing things that don’t fit them very well.

I like to put dolls in groups by maker and/or age so over here we have Roddy’s, Evergreen’s, Rattis and a couple of Canadian dolls. Most likely all the dolls will get moved a few times before I am happy with the set up.

Later:

I figured out a way to put most of the dolls out but the small Nettas and Metti dolls are still waiting for a spot as are the cloth dolls and porcelain dolls. Naomi’s dolls are not even here yet! We will have to find a spot for them too.

So now the work is paused as I need more shelves and more doll stands. I still need to put out my modern fashion dolls and our clone dolls. They might get a spot in the Tammy house when I have stands for them. I thought I had enough stands but it appears that I don’t. Or maybe I bought more dolls than I thought in the last two years.

Everyone is a bit camera shy at present as there are a lot of bad hair days and a few newer arrivals are naked but over time I’ll get them all sorted out.

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