1949 Keystone Put-a-Way Dollhouse

The Stone Family is very happy. They have just moved into their new home.

Mrs. Stone holds the baby, Sally, and the children, Dick and Jane, stand in front of their parents.

The family poses outside the front door for their official portrait.  Their new maid, Maddie, isn't sure that she was invited to be in the picture.


But she inches closer and smiles for the photographer.

This dollhouse is called a Put-a-Way because the right and left wings on the lower level can be put away inside the house. The wing on the right side of the house has a covered patio on the front and a garage with a metal door that slides up on the back. The roof of this wing is another patio.

It is a lovely outside space for the family.

The foldout wing on the right is the kitchen, and also has a roof patio.

The garage is quite narrow and the door is very small, so the family will have to buy a tiny car. Will it fit all 6 of them (if the maid goes too)?  There are lithographed tools, licence plates, and tires on the wall, so I guess it is good for storage, at least.

Now that the picture taking is over Father and Mother decide to relax with a drink. "Yikes," says Father, "We are out of Scotch. By the way, did you see that giant cat outside?"
"It must belong to the neighbours." says Mother. "I will go out and get some more scotch. Will you keep an eye on the children?"

Mother gets her purse and prepares to go to the store.  Father is reading the paper,
but looks up to comment, "That cat seems to have found a giant bottle of water."
"That's nice, dear." Mother says. She is preoccupied with trying to remember
 where the store is.
"By the way," says Father, "whose dog is this?"

While mother is out shopping we can take a tour of the house.

Upstairs, we find the girls are in the nursery, Jane's doll is almost as big as her baby sister.

Jane wishes her brother  would come play checkers with her.  If she could find some checkers - and her brother.

The bathroom is a bit small, but it has a built-in shower,  The shower curtain is original to the house.

The parents bedroom is cozy too.

The furniture is Strombecker

Maddie the maid seems to be asking the cat to jump into her arms. She should probably be getting the baby's bottle ready.

Wake up Maddie. There's work to do.

The dining room has with Strombecker furniture too. It suits the house well

Both the dining room and the living room have built-in shelving. The doors under the shelves in the dining room open.

Here is the built-in shelving in the living room. It has lithographed scones on each side

Here is the house from the back with the wings open

Another view of the bathroom. A previous owner of the plastic Renwal furniture has painted it biege.  I find it gives it a more realistic look.

Mother's finally home. She not only found the store, but she found Dick too. He had been out riding his tricycle.

Mother notices that the house looks smaller than it did when she left. What happened to the kitchen and the garage? And the patios are gone, too. She wonders if Father has noticed.

Here is the back of the house with the wings are folded in. It may be good for storing the house, but it's not good for the dolls who live in it.  I wonder how the chillden of 1949 dealt with it.

I was excited to find this house in such great condition. I had been wanting a Put-a-Way house for quite some time. I have a soft spot for Keystone and Rich Toy houses because they are such fun to play with. This one was first sold in 1949.
Thanks for visiting.

Playing with the dollhouse - reno time

I found this dollhouse at a thrift store a few years ago for only $5.00. It was the second dollhouse I bought and it started my dollhouse fever and this blog. At that time I went to the local dollhouse store and spent more than $145 on wallpaper and supplies. I had fun working on the inside and I blogged about the house here back in 2009.

This spring I felt like doing something creative so I brought the house in from the garage and repaired one corner of the roof. I painted the outside of the house and the roof.  I had three windows and a door that I had made from House of Miniature  kits.  I had a few pleasant evenings painting those and installing them in the house. They improved it immensely.

I found some fake flowers at the dollar store and discovered that I could unravel them from their wire stems to make perfect mini flowers. I filled the flower boxes and even made little floral trees for each side of the front door.

I added a decorative fence and, viola, and old beat-up dollhouse had new life.

I hand-painted the shutters and was quite pleased with the effect.

I had wallpapered the four main rooms of the house back in 2009, but the attic was bare. I put in a small dividing wall and made the attic into a nursery and a bathroom with new wallpaper.

The maid just took a pie out of the oven.

I added 1950s tin pieces (stove, sink, fridge and Hoosier cupboard) to the kitchen. The red table and chairs are also Strombecker.

I used the same Strombecker furniture in the living room, bedroom and dining room that I had in the house six years ago. I love the way this vintage furniture looks in the house and the scale is perfect.

The Schoenhut shower is so cute.

The wooden furniture in the nursery and bathroom was made by Schoenhut in the 1920s, but the chaise lounge is Wisconsin furniture.

 I made the leafy plants out of masking tape over floral wire and then painted the leaves. That was fun. I plan to make more.

I am very pleased with my upgraded house. I think it looks great now and I had such fun doing it!

Decorating Challenge

One house. Two Families. Who does it better.
A room by room comparison.
(My apologies for some repeated pictures)

Caco family master bedroom.

Biggar-Flagg family master bedroom.

Caco family children's bedroom

 

Biggar-Flagg family children's bedroom

Caco family dining room

Biggar-Flagg family dining room with sitting area

Caco family living room

 Biggar-Flagg family living room

Caco family kitchen. I haven't set up the kitchen for the Biggar-Flags yet, but as I imagine them living in the early 1960s I think it might be very much the same as this one.

The bathroom will also be the same for both houses unless I can locate some nicely coloured blue or pink sets, so typical of the 60s.

Yes, I have the same salt and pepper shaker washer and dryer as Florine in her post A New Home for the Ainsleys.  I like her bathroom fixtures much better than my newer ones. In fact Florine's look like the ones that were featured in the FAO Schwarz catalogue with the house. I believe all her furniture is original to the house.