I don't know if I've mentioned it to you chickens before, but I collect dollhouses and dollhouse furniture. Yes, I'm a 7 year old in an adult's body. As with many other of my peculiarities, I blame this one on my grandmother. She started this obsession. I had no choice in the matter. But I couldn't be happier with the outcome.
You see, my grandmother collected dolls all her life. In fact, the entire second floor of her house was filled with them. But around the late '60s, she began branching out in a new direction as well. Dollhouses. Years later, upon my birth, she had three of them made for me. That's right, kids. Three.
Thus began my own love of dollhouses and minis. Thirteen (Yup. One, Three) dollhouses and hundreds of pieces of furniture later, I'm still at it!
Today I thought I'd share my favourite pieces of my dollhouse furniture collection with you. My Ideal Petite Princess/Princess Patti Fantasy Furniture from the mid '60s.
Ideal began first began making these furniture sets in 1964. I don't know what you would call the style really. It's a weird mixture of mid sixties glam, modern, art deco, and French Neo Classical. It's become my ideal (pun intended) and I've always just refered to it as 'Petite Princess' style.
From the original 1964 brochure: "You will find soft, plush chairs and sofas, gilt-edged mirrors, dressers and cabinets with drawers and doors that really open and close. Everything you can dream of."
The original Petite Princess line up was sold in 30 'sets' with each set containing either one or several pieces that were meant to decorate 4 different cardboard 'fantasy' rooms: bedroom, music room, living room and dining room.
Later, in 1965, the Ideal company began producing Princess Patti, basically the Petite Princess line with added kitchen and bathroom sets.
They continued to make and market the line through the rest of the decade. There was a house that was introduced through Sears that was a cardboard base covered in vinyl that had been printed with rooms on the inside and a colonial type mansion facade.
I mean to eventually collect the whole set...furniture, original rooms, vinyl house, and dolls (although quite frankly, I don't like the dolls that are part of the set. I think 'Dawn' would be more fitting!).
When I grow up, I want my house to be decorated like this!
