This $99 IKEA Furniture Essential Is the Secret to a Larger-Than-Life Dollhouse Your Kid Will Love
Is any Barbie collection really complete without a Dreamhouse? There’s nothing more fun than rearranging the furniture in each room, organizing the closet, and moving Barbie from room to room as she goes about her day — at least that’s how I felt when I was a kid.
Here’s the thing: Sometimes a Dreamhouse just doesn’t provide quite enough space to accommodate your child’s big imagination. That’s what Samantha Humphreys (@thehumphreysdreams) discovered after she shelled out for one last Christmas. So she came up with an ingenious alternative and posted a video about it on her Instagram.
To provide more space for play, Humphreys converted eight IKEA Kallax storage cubes into the custom Barbie play space of her daughter’s dreams. Since then, she’s extended the space upward as her daughter has grown and even added storage inserts on the top layer.
Samantha posted a full breakdown of everything she used to construct her custom Barbie house in another Instagram post.
Her supplies included:
- IKEA Kallax Shelves
- Carpet squares, cut down to size (this colorful pack from Amazon is fun)
- A pack of 10 laminate stick flooring pieces, cut down to size (like this option)
- Free wallpaper samples
- Pack of LED touch lights
IKEA’s Kallax shelves come in a ton of different sizes, with the option to buy individual cubes and stack them (although you’ll have to anchor them all together for safety), or larger preconstructed units.
This nine-unit shelf is a good place to start. It measures 43 7/8” wide x 13 3/8″ deep x 43 7/8” high and can support 29 pounds, which should be plenty for all your Barbie accessories. You can add basket inserts to the top or bottom shelves if you want to have space for storage. Don’t forget to attach your unit to the wall to prevent it from tipping over during play (it comes with a wall anchoring device).
If you want something a bit shorter, try this double-decker shelf unit, which comes with built-in storage drawers to keep Barbie’s outfits, pets, cars, and more neatly organized. It measures 57 5/8” wide x 15 3/8” deep x 30 1/8” high and also comes with an anchoring device.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily cheaper than buying an official Barbie Dreamhouse (which retails for around $140), but it’s definitely a lot more multifunctional. And the fun of building out the space and customizing the rooms is guaranteed to make the DIY process worth it.