The perfect Christmas gift: The new and improved Lundby Dollhouse

As parents, we categorize toys into four main groups:

1. novelty toys that are fun for a bit and then get abandoned within hours
2. toys that kids play with for days and then ditch before they have even been in the house a month
3. toys that don’t get played with every day but are still returned to month after month
4. and, finally, those special toys that are an essential part of play nearly every single day, year after year.

As you can imagine, there are lots and lots of toys that fall in those first two groups, and not so many that fit in the third group. As for that fourth group? It’s like a rare unicorn and you never know when, or where, you will find it. For us, the Lundby dollhouse is one of a handful of toys that squarely fit in that fourth group without ever wavering. From the moment the kids opened the Lundby dollhouse all those years ago, they were hooked. And then, with all the redecorating, DIYs, and crafting we have done on it throughout the years, the Lundby dollhouse just kept getting more and more beloved as we all added our personal touch to the house. So, when we got home from Boston and were greeted with a huge package from Lundby that contained a brand new Lundby dollhouse, the sideboard/TV set, and the awesome Lundby remote, it was declared as the best.day.ever. Ever since we saw a sneak peek of the newest Lundby items on social media and got wind of the remote, I was dying to try it out.

With the new Lundby remote, we can turn on and off each light independent of each other, turn on all the lights at once with the push of a button, or I can choose to keep it old school and bypass the remote module in favor of the on/off switch. My next favorite new item is the Lundby stereo Bluetooth sideboard with TV, which is a fun little piece perfect for underneath the TV or behind the sofa. But, the coolest part about the sideboard is that it’s wired for sound. Simply plug it in to the Lundby outlets throughout the Lundby house, pair it to your phone and then play music through the Lundby speaker while you play with your house and craft. As you can imagine, our Lundby sideboard has been playing Christmas music an absurd amount of the time these past few weeks as we’ve been enjoying the new house. The new house is not only wired and ready for their newest technology and add-ons, it also has a more updated open floor plan – just like the one everyone on HGTV is always raving about. You may remember how we made our own larger Lundby kitchen in our original dollhouse by moving the kitchen down to the extension floor. It worked well and had a more open feel to the house, but I still coveted the brand new Lundby dollhouse with its new wallpapers, its new technology, and, of course, the open floor concept. Admittedly, it was hard to even think of modifying the new Lundby house. It’s gorgeous on its own with its fun and updated wallpapers and really all you need to do is move in your dollhouse furniture. But, even though I was worried I was messing with perfection, I had to add a little DIY Lundby love. We added a “pressed tin” backsplash in the kitchen, which looks remarkably like our copper version in our own kitchen. We also made a little kitchen island to create a galley-like feel to it, which we painted, embellished with metal trim, and then got all ready for holiday entertaining. We re-wallpapered the extension floor {we don’t have the newest 2016 version, ours is the last model with the yellow room and the blue and pink striped room} to make it more suited for a living room and a child’s bedroom. We added artwork to the walls, including my Lundby silhouettes I created in photoshop. We also added fridge magnets, scrapbook canvases, and craft supplies to really make the art stand out. We even added frames around original Lundby art pieces to update them a bit and add some extra fun.

Finally, we made a little baby nursery off the sitting room upstairs. The kids originally had the baby in the downstairs room so that all the kids could room together, but the room got crowded with all the baby stuff and the accessories the kids wanted in the older kids’ room. So, we moved the baby upstairs to the par
ent’s room for a bit before we decided that baby Ruby just needed more space. Thus, the upstairs nursery ended up being created, and it’s the perfect solution to the problem of “too many Lundbys, not enough rooms”. Honestly, this little dollhouse has gotten more attention, decoration-wise and crafting-wise, than our actual house this holiday season. We’ve played around with different room configurations, redesigned entire floors of the house, decorated for holidays, made furniture for after the tree comes down, and spent a large chunk of three days wallpapering, gluing, painting, cutting, building, and designing. And, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Adding that DIY love is really what Lundby is all about. As much as I secretly wanted an all-original Lundby house, I know from experience that every time you modify and add to your dollhouse, you are breathing more life into it. In the end, the dollhouse becomes less like a toy and more like a family project that gets everyone involved. From the little dreamers who come up with the designs, the visionary who can see new things in what might otherwise be considered junk, the crafter that can make anything possible with a little yarn, glue, fabric and thread, to the doer who spray paints, solders and saws, we all have our specific job, and we take our jobs very seriously. And, apparently my kids have been talking non-stop about their Lundby dollhouse to anyone who will listen. I’ve had numerous people just this week tell me that their kids have had a dollhouse forever but now want to buy a Lundby dollhouse based on my kids’ excitement. Everyone wants to know what makes Lundby different, and my answer is always the same: our Lundby house is more than just a dollhouse. Our Lundby dollhouse is the result of our family working together to create something beautiful, something that speaks to us, and something that is representative of our family. I look in the rooms and I see the love and attention of my son who loves decorating the house with “treasures” from our adventures, and I see the crafts my daughter has created all on her own, which show the progression of her talents in the items she has created throughout the years, and I see the result of hard work on all of our parts to bring the dollhouse to life. For anyone on the fence about a Lundby doll house this year, I say go for it. Whether you go for an original Lundby piece that is move-in ready or you buy a house that could use a fresh coat of paper and some new floors, the resulting magic will be worth the investment. Want to see all the little details in the house? Check out our video tour of our Christmas decorated house here:

Ready to buy? You can find Lundby dolls, houses, and accessories at local toy shops as well as on Amazon.com