This is the second bed I ever dressed. Not too great, either, but at least it wasn't backwards like Mrs. Santa's bed. lol

My second dollhouse was the McKinley wallhanger house by Greenleaf. For many years, it hung on the living room wall next to my front door, and I enjoyed decorating it for the different seasons. Took it down two or three years ago when we repainted, and since I had gotten tired of having it in the living room, I asked my husband to hang it in the grandchildrens' playroom, where it has been rented out to a giant rabbit who plans to make it into a shop.

Anyway, when I first got the house I couldn't figure out what I wanted as a color scheme, although I had slavishly followed Susan Sirkis' instructions in a wonderful series that appeared from September through December 1984 in the old Nutshell News (now Dollhouse Miniatures) on constructing and decorating the McKinley. Susan commented that unlike a real house, one sees a dollhouse in its entirety, so the color scheme should be thought of as one whole. Use two or three basic colors, with a couple of other colors for accents, and vary these from room to room, she said.

Since I couldn't make up my mind on its colors, the finished house hung unfurnished on the wall for months. On a trip up the West Coast the following summer we stopped at a public phone to call home and while my husband was talking I wandered over to look in the windows of a Sprouse-Reitz dimestore. There was a wonderful piece of fabric which I fell in love with, and the entire color scheme for my McKinley was born in that moment. I bought it, of course, and could hardly wait to get back to El Paso to do things with it!

The material was reminiscent of pathwork, combining several design elements. I cut various pieces for different purposes, from the bedskirt to extra pillows on a hall bench to pieces glued to cardboard for a cornice.

I was fortunate enough to find reverses of the roses for the shams.

The pink predominated in the bedroom, with accents of yellow and green, but I picked up the yellow and blue for the kitchen, with accents in the other colors. Where one of the colors from this print dominated in one room, it became a small accent in another. It worked beautifully. I still think Susan's series is one of the best I have ever seen on how to plan and decorate a dollhouse, whether the wallhanger or a real one.

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