Dollhouse furniture review: Educo Hape

I have to say that I was most excited about this bedroom set and also the most disappointed. A bedroom wasn't needed because we already had a couple of beds. But I thought it would be nice for Mama and Papa Panda to have a room of their own. This is from the regular Educo Hape dollhouse line. There is also a very contemporary bamboo line that I love the looks of but it's more expensive. This bedroom is going for about $14.00 on Amazon. Not bad. Like with the Le Toy Van set, I used my Swagbucks to buy Amazon giftcards.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Le Toy Van and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a little big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: This is where the disappointment comes in. The construction is just shoddy. The plexiglass on the doors of the wardrobe and shelves of the bed is scuffed and the pieces are not square. The dresser is okay but the bed is very crooked. The paint is fine but where glue seeped from the seams, it was not cleaned up very well. There is one cut of the wood that is very rough. So basically, these items just lack the attention to detail in craftsmanship that all of the other companies have.

Overall: I bought this set because of the beanbag. I liked the colors and I liked the modern styling -- especially the striped comforter. All of the fabric on the other sets was yucky and floral. So I have no complaints there. I love the little lamps and those will work well in other parts of the house. And the beanbag is fabulous. While this set doesn't have details in the paint like the Le Toy Van, there are cool details elsewhere -- the drawers pull out and there are tiny hangers in the wardrobe. Cute.

So I do recommend these. The lower price point and modern styling make up for the lack of quality on some of the pieces.

If you would like to read the rest of my dollhouse reviews, click here.

New curtains on the way

I'm hoping to take advantage of this 3 - 4 day weekend by sewing up some new curtains for the bedroom. I got these off-white curtains with the grommets at Gabe's a couple of weeks ago for $7.99 each. They are the right shade for the room. The fabric is almost like a cotton duck so it should be thick enough to keep out the light. Mr. Lemon and I like our sleeping room like a cave. In fact, I keep my alarm clock in a drawer next to the bed because the light keeps me up.

This blue stuff is a set of two panels that I will use to sew at the bottom of the curtains to cover up that unsightly 1988 forest green (see above). I'm also going to fold over the grommet section at the top of the curtain because large curtain rods are like a million dollars and I really don't think the look works with our mid-century melange of styles. This color is perfect. It's my favorite shade of teal/dark robin's egg blue. It's almost variegated so that the lighter color is the same as what's in the bedroom and the darker shade calms it down in a much needed way.

As for the bed: We want this Mandal bed from Ikea because it is made of actual wood and not a composite but I don't like the unfinished birch look for our room. I think it will completely clash with the Broyhill Brasilia hutch that I'm stuck on. I'm all about mixing styles but that's a bit much. I'd paint it but I don't really want to spend $350 on something that I have to refinish. I'd have to do the drawers too. The drawers are actually the best part about the bed. Since our house is about 900 sq. ft. we need all the storage we can get. Does anyone know of a good bed that will meet our needs?

Project: Time for some room redecorating

This is our room. I'm thinking it's time for a change. We got the chest of drawers at the Salvation Army and painted the front of the drawers and the top my favorite color and changed the knobs. That's just a cheap mirror I got at Big Lots. I painted the frame of it silver.

My friend Sara gave us this bed and I love it. The problem is that it's a Full and we desperately need a Queen. Actually we desperately need a new mattress. Mr. Lemon slept on a futon in Jersey for a week and was on his feet all day every day while he was gone and his back didn't hurt at all (it usually does). Bookend that week with two very long rides in the car and now that he's back home, it's time to head to the chiropractor again. I think it's the mattress.

This gorgeous piece of work is a hutch by Broyhill from their Brasilia line. I will not tell you what I paid for it as you will freak out. It's worth way more, I've recently learned. The top of the buffet was scuffed so I covered it with silver contact paper stuff from Target. We changed out the knobs but had the foresight to keep the old ones because they were cool (just didn't match the brushed nickel look we prefer). I also painted the shelves the same color as the dresser drawers.

So I really don't want to buy a new bed and I don't think we even have room for a Queen. The room is about 10' X 12' with a small closet. I have some fabric that I was going to cut to hang inside the hutch to hide my clothes. But since I have been downsizing my wardrobe, I was able to make room for some books that I plan to read and I think that looks nice. I like the orange and the light teal/aqua and I love the two colors together. I also love our floors and the wall color. I just need to get rid of those curtains. Yuck.

Give me some suggestions. And no, we won't be selling our hutch. One thing that I have on the bed now that it's so much hotter out is a gorgeous Otomoi embroidered tablecloth that my mom bought for me in Mexico right after Aaron and I got married. I'll have to take a picture. It's an off-white linen with orange animals.