As my daughters slowly, tragically transition from Dollhouse Phase One (turning anything and everything into a miniature world, then spending hours and hours inside that world) to Dollhouse Phase Two (watching Wes Anderson movies, naturally), I'm so glad I have this blog. Seriously. How else would I be able to justify obsessing over pretend kitchens like the one you see above? I've been a fan of Lundby, the Swedish dollhouse company, ever since 1982, when I inherited a box of mismatched furniture from my best friend, Courtney, and as soon as the girls were old enough to clutch a doll in their fingers, I was hunting down whichever mid-century, retro-y Lundby pieces I could find for them. (Hmmmm. Who was it who said having kids is just an excuse to recreate your own childhood?) But I could only ever find things on eBay, picking up a TV console or double bed here and there, and gradually I stopped googling. Until last week, when we walked by a toy store in the city and saw THIS in the front window:
It's a dollhouse from Smaland, a Lundby line I'd never heard of or seen before. (Have you guys?) I mean, come on! You don't have to be a kid to appreciate how awesome it is. Do you not want to spend hours in that kitchen? Or reclined in the blue suede reading chair? How about the wallpaper?! The clawfoot bathtub?! The drum light pendant in the dining room that I've been trying to track down in real life? Within seconds of spying this thing, I did a quick mental scan of all the younger kids I knew who might want it for a birthday or holiday gift. I came up blank, so I'm handing it over to you guys. FWIW: My birthday is in two weeks.
The Kitchen Accessories Kit. What else does one need in life?
Related: Though 11-year-old Abby is not yet old enough to see many of Wes Anderson's films, she has been poring over The Wes Anderson Collection. Just to give you an idea how fun the book is for fans, pictured above are the endpapers, showing illustrated versions of all the characters from his films. She spent hours on this spread alone.