Rowhouse kitchen ideas

One of the problems I run into with a new dollhouse is that I often get hung up in a chicken-and-egg loop where I think “Well, I can’t do this until I do that, but I can’t do that until I do this other thing…” and then I end up not doing anything. This house is no exception. I dove in on the siding and foundation because they’re self-contained, without relying on other parts of the house being finished. But I haven’t entirely decided what I want to do with the front trim, and electricity is going to require starting on some of the wallpaper (to make sure the get wires are covered up in the right order), and I have to bash some staircases but I can’t do that until the electricity and the wallpaper’s in…

In the midst of all this circular thinking, I started planning what the kitchen will look like. Because hey, why not?! The kitchen will be a long room at the back of the house. I decided not to add the divider that came with it so I’d have more space. I bought SDK Miniatures’ modern kitchen kit. I’ve had my eye on this for a long time but haven’t yet had a house it would fit into. Here’s a picture of the finished kitchen that Susan from SDK Miniatures sent me.

Unlike the Bonnie Lavish kitchens I built for the Fairfield and the Rosedale, the cabinets in this kit are not modular so I’ll have to do some bashing. Besides the L-shaped cabinets shown above there is a second piece with a oven and microwave, a pantry, and a refrigerator (you can see that here). I pulled out a few pieces just to see how they’d fit. These are the countertops, and the trim piece that goes on the front of the oven/pantry/fridge unit.

The sink is perfectly centered under the window, which is kind of amazing. And there’s just enough room next to the counter to use an Acme refrigerator magnet (I’m not a big fan of the fridge that comes in this kit, it just doesn’t look like a fridge to me…) On the left, I plan to keep the oven unit and the pantry, which will just fit beside the door. The last part that buts into the doorway would have been the refrigerator. I’ll remove that and maybe I can use the pieces for something else (like to create a cabinet over the fridge magnet).

I was concerned about the back of the cabinets showing through the window. Here’s the height of the cabinet—it comes up a tiny bit above the bottom of the window.

From the outside, you can see the cabinet back through the hole. But once the window is on I think it won’t be noticeable.

Anyone who’s interested in this kit should check out Sharon’s bash at A Greenleaf Fairfied for Miss Lydia Pickett. She did an awesome job and after looking at her pictures, the (considerably smaller) bash I have in mind doesn’t seem as daunting!

I’m also going to add an island using the NAME Day butcher block kit I got at CHAMPS.

And I have some other ideas for a built-in corner cabinet to the left of the doorway, and a dining room table and chairs, and maybe some additional seating in the alcove… but all this is stuff to think about later. Before I can get started I still have to figure out electricity and wallpaper… sigh.