Tea with Lena: A Rainbow High Doll House Renovation

Lena and Ian's house is finally done!  Or it's done enough...for now.  These projects have a way of stretching on and on, because there's always some cool new accessory or decoration that can be added.  For example, not only did we squeeze in a record player from the last review, but Lena will be sifting through some Mini Brands Masterpieces artwork today to see if any of it can be used as a last-minute finishing touch.

So this review will have two purposes: the first is to show off the house and talk about all of the products I used, and the second is a mini review of the Masterpieces surprise balls.  But Lena's going to be in charge for the most part, so I'd better turn things over to her:

Lena in her renovated Rainbow High house.

Hi everyone.  Welcome to my house!  Finally.

I'm not quite ready for the tour because things are a little messy, and I still have to add some art.

Ian, do you mind tidying up while I do a quick review?

Ian'll make sure everything looks good.  We should head over to the studio because I have a surprise ball that I want to show you.

You're going to make everyone wait to see the house?  That's a little cruel.

Calm down, Emily.  This will build suspense.  Plus, I really do need a few more decorations.

The surprise balls that I want to show you are from Mini Brands.

And each ball is supposed to have a bunch of paintings inside.  Like the Mona Lisa!

I'm pretty excited to get this thing open, actually.  Can you imagine if I had the Mona Lisa hanging in my house??

All right, this is ridiculous. There's so much wrapping!

Ooh!  But look how much stuff is inside when it's finally open!  It's packed.

There are five paper bags, instructions, and a collector's sheet.

Zuru likes to do five of everything.

Two of the bags are really small, though.  I don't think there's any art in there.

I'm going to open these first to get them out of the way.

What could this be?

Oh!  Cute!  It's a little paint palette!

Wow, I love this!  The detail is so good.

Now I can paint my own masterpieces!

Here's an even closer look if you want to see all of the mixed colors.

That's really nice, Lena!  I like it, too.

All right, now I'm excited about the other small bag.

What is this thing...

It's a magnifying glass.  That's strange.

Maybe so that you can look at the details in the art?

Maybe.  It works, which is good!

And there are a lot of instructions for how not to catch things on fire with it.

That's just going to make people want to catch things on fire with it.

I'm certainly not going to risk setting my new house on fire.

Shall I open up the bigger bags?

Go for it.

One of these is a lot bulkier than the others, so I'll do that one first.

Whatever this is, it's pretty big! 

Oh my goodness!  I didn't expect this.

It's a naked man statue.

That's a copy of the Discobolus.  It's really old and Greek, I think.  The original was sculpted by Myron.

This is some really good art.

Here's a closer look:

He has nice abs.

And delts.

It's hard to imagine any of the art being better than that!

But I should see what's in the last two bags.  I need some paintings.

This one is very flat.

Let's see here...

It's a painting!  Finally!

It comes in three separate pieces, so we're going to have to put it together.

There's a frame, a canvas, and another plastic rectangle thing.

Look how cute the painting is!  There's a little dolphin.

Emily, can you look up the instructions for how to do this?

Absolutely.

It looks like the canvas sticks to the rectangle piece, and then everything slots into the frame.

Oh, I see.  There's plastic to peel off that exposes sticky areas on the canvas.

Then the canvas folds around and sticks to the inside edge of the plastic.

Kind of like stretching a real canvas!

And then it fits right into the frame!  I love it.

That's very satisfying.  And I love the look of the real canvas.

I actually think the blue in this picture could work in the kitchen.

Here's a closer look.  You can even see the texture of the canvas.

This is familiar.  Is it based on a famous painting?

Yes, it is.  The dolphin isn't part of the original picture, though, which is funny.  

The original is Japanese, and is called The Great Wave of Kanagawa.  It looks like this:

The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai.

I bet the collector's sheet has more information, so I should look at that.

Okay, but wait until I open the last bag.

This feels like another painting.

Yes!  It's another painting!

Oh, I love the colors on this one.

It's a color block painting!  Like Yves Saint Laurent!  With a hamster!

Well, I think Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by Mondrian's work, but yes.  He made a dress like that.

Here's an example of a Piet Mondrian painting:

I think this is the same painting you got...but without the hamster.  It's called Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow.

That's not a very creative name.  But I want to get it put together...

Here it is.  I think it looks great in the black frame.

I love this one.  Especially with the hamster!

If only Mondrian had thought of that...

So, here's everything that I got in the ball.  How much did it all cost, Emily?

I got two balls for $15.99, so about $8 per ball.  Not bad.

I'm going to take the paintings back to the house.  Can you show everyone the collector's sheet and then meet me there?

Good plan.  See you in a minute.

The collector's sheet has a lot of different sections.  There are two "legendary" paintings: Vincent van Gough's Starry Night and Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan (which is just a real banana duct-taped to a wall).  There are also three possible statues: Lena's beloved Discobolus, Michelangelo's David, and Antioch's Venus de Milo:

There are also eight "luxury" paintings.  I won't name them all.  Four of them are faithful replicas of the originals, and the other four have silly details added:

There are silly details in the other sections, too.  I especially like the cat version of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring:

Here's the rare section:

The common group includes both of the paintings that Lena got:

I'm surprised that the collector's sheet doesn't have any information about the paintings.  It's such a missed educational opportunity.

In addition to the art, there are some accessories like an easel, a crate, and the palette and magnifying glass that Lena got:

I secretly opened a second ball after Lena left, and this is what I got:

There were three paintings this time, including a repeat of the hamster color block.  I also got an easel and another magnifying glass.

The two other paintings are Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt van Rijn:

And Monet's Impression, Sunrise, which I love:

Both come with very ornate frames, though, which probably won't go very well with Lena's decor.

I really like these balls, and I'm happy that Lena found some art that she can use!  I'm tempted to try and turn some of the paintings into refrigerator magnets.  I'd love to have a few of them on my fridge to look at every day.

Before we head back over to the house, I should offer a little background.  For anyone new to the blog, Lena lives in an older-style Rainbow High house that I bought in 2023 for $60.  The original retail price was $200.  Here's a promotional photo of that house:

One thing to note is that all of the rooms on the left side of the house have a big chunk cut out of the floor.  I'm not sure why.  This has been a source of frustration for me over the years, as it takes away from the usable space.

Also, there's an elevator running up and down the whole left side of the house, which leaves a lot of open doorways.  I've seen people use the elevator as a little balcony, which is very creative.

The Rainbow High house that's available now is much simpler and retails for about $120:

This house is not as nice.  There's nowhere near as much square footage, and it comes with less furniture.  Some notable examples are that there's no shower in the bathroom, there's no hot tub on the balcony, and the kitchen is missing the table and the island...two of the most important things for Lena and her guests!

I feel very lucky to have gotten the older house on sale when I did.  It's been a wonderful space for Lena. But because the decorations are all Rainbow High themed, the aesthetics have never quite suited her personality.

Now let's head back over and see if Lena's ready to show us around.

Welcome back!  Everything's tidied up and I even hung the art.

Before we go into the living room, Emily will show you some pictures of what it used to look like.

Oh--good idea, Lena.

Here's the original living room.  The only things I'd done at this point were to cover the window with an outdoor scene, and cover the elevator shaft with foam board:

Here's the other side of the room:

And here's how it looks now:

And of course I made a GIF of the before and after!

I covered the original floor with fiberboard so that it's a full rectangle shape, without that annoying section cut out of the left side.  On top of the fiberboard, I installed wooden strips (from Bitty House on Etsy):

The beautiful rug is from Tiny Home Goods (on Etsy).

Should we walk around and look at some of the details?

Definitely.

First of all, I chose the Miniverse record player!  I love how it looks.

We squeezed it in next to the big bookcase.  Ian had to build a whole new table for it!

The beautiful wooden bookcases were built by Harold from Warhammer Studios (on Etsy).

This one perfectly conceals the old elevator shaft:

The bookcases have a ton of storage, too.  We fit lots of books, records, and pictures in there, with room to spare!

I especially like the miniature picture frames, which we found at Lingcrafts Co. (on Etsy).

I framed all of the windows in the house with wooden molding.  For this particular window, I built some blinds out of coffee stirrers sewn together with thread:

They're a little crooked, but I still like them.

The floor lamps are novelty lights from Amazon.  They're supposed to emit colorful light from the top, but I've covered that section with black tape.

The couch and chair are the showstoppers in this room:

I absolutely ADORE the love seat and chair!

Yes, me too!  They're extremely well-made.  Little works of art.  I found them at the aptly named Hand Made Mini Sofa (on Etsy).  I made the throw pillows.

And look at the cute little bird painting over the couch!  I picked this.  It matches everything.

Yes, I'd picked something much more boring for that space.  Lena had to step in and make it right.  The painting is from Art by Kelly Shannon (on Etsy).

The opposite side of the room has another bookcase, and this one acts as a partial wall between the living room and the bathroom:

Don't forget the beautiful Monstera plant!

Yes!  The big plants were also really helpful for defining the spaces.  The Monstera is from TS Miniatures (on Etsy).

We even had enough shelf space to start a game collection!

The board games are all from the World's Smallest brand.  I was so glad to discover that they're 1:6 scale!

Right next to the living room is the bathroom.

Here's a reminder of what the original bathroom looked like:

And here it is now:

With the obligatory GIF:

I had to cover the window on the back wall to make space for everything.  Lena wanted to have some storage for her cosmetics and cleaning supplies:

Of course I need storage for my cosmetics!

And we needed a bigger shower:

One of the heroes of this restoration project was Robin from Mini Max 3D Print Shop (on Etsy).  She made so many of the items in this house, including the shower, toilet, and vanity in this room.  I love all of her designs, and there are a ton of customization options, too, so Lena was able to pick all of the colors.

I love the blue shower, but I'm glad she opted for a white toilet:

Of course the toilet is white, Emily.  Don't be ridiculous.

As you might recall, the original shower was way too short for Lena to wash her hair:

I lived with that thing for four years.

The situation is much better now!

You drive me craa-zy, I just can't sleep...

Um, excuse me??  When did you take that picture??  Let's keep this tour moving along.

Upstairs, we turned the laundry room into a dining room.

This is what the laundry room looked like in 2023:

And this is the new dining room:

Here's the GIF!

I like the room best from this angle:

I made the shades in this room out of linen paper and thread.  The artwork is all printed from designs I found online, and the table and chairs are from the Mini Max 3D Print Shop (again).

There's a fiberboard subfloor upstairs, too, which conceals the cut-out section on the left.  The entire second floor has a paper floor covering that resembles Spanish tile.  I found it at Melvin's Miniatures (on Etsy):

This custom 3D printed shelf from 3D Playhouse covers the old elevator door almost perfectly:

And we got a fish!  Can you see the fish on the shelf?

It was a little hard to fill the shelves.  We're still working on that.

This table will be great for my Tea With Lena guests.  There's so much space!

These look yummy...

Hi Ian, we're here to look at the kitchen.

I was just finishing up with the groceries.

We need to be able to look around though, babe.

All right, I'll put these here for now then and make myself scarce.  C'mon Riker, let's go.

This is what the original kitchen looked like:

I taped some tree pictures into the window, but everything else came with the house:

This is the kitchen now:

Lena made a few adjustments after her Kitchen Littles review, so this room had a bit of an upgrade in 2024:

The fridge and oven are from Kitchen Littles, there's a new Kitchen Aid mixer, and the green chairs at the island are from Etsy.

We can compare that to a similar view of the new space:

That comparison makes a good GIF:

The new cabinetry is from the Mini Max 3D Print Shop (again):

All of the doors and drawers open:

Plenty of room for Ian to put the groceries away.

I really like having a sink on the island.  I can chat with people while I wash dishes!

These chairs are so much more comfortable than those old green ones, too.

And look at how well the dolphin picture fits over the oven!

That does look nice!  You got really lucky with your art.

Shall we head upstairs to see the bedroom?

I'm ready!

Oh, hi again Ian.  We need to look at the bedroom now.

I'm trying to stay out of the way.  I really am.

That's okay.  Come with me so Emily can get her after shot.

This is the original bedroom:

And here's the new space:

With a comparison GIF, of course!

This view shows the skylights a bit better:

All of the windows are illuminated from behind with cheap LED tracing pads.

The bed and shelves are from the Mini Max 3D Print Shop (again) with bedding made by me.  Lena specifically asked for the Barbie-themed throw pillows:

You did a great job with those, Emily.

The bed is really comfortable, too.

Ian was able to find room for his guitar:

And I have room for my doll collection!

I even found a perfect spot for the hamster painting.

This is my favorite picture, though.  What a great day.

I think the only thing I didn't mention is the rug.  It's gorgeous, and came all of the way from Latvia. I found it at the Bozanna Store (on Etsy).

We're almost done, but there's one more space!

That's right!  The old hot tub deck:

It never got used very much like this.

But now we've turned it into a whole new room!  And here's Ian again.

I can't find a place to hide.

There's not much in this room yet.  Just a wooden floor and another beautiful rug from Tiny Home Goods:

The ceiling in this room is really low, especially over here.

But I think it would make a nice studio for you, Lena!

That's really nice of you, Ian!  And you're right.  It would make a great studio.

But I think we're going to need it for something else.

I'm not sure what else it'd be good for, hon.  It's pretty small.

What if we make it the baby's room?

What? Stop it.  Lena!  Is that what I think it is?

I'm gonna be...a dad?  *sniff*

Let's just give him a minute.

Can you guys believe that I'm pregnant, though?  It doesn't feel real!

How're you doing there, tough guy?

Are you ready to be a daddy?

Aye, Lena.  I certainly am.  I love that wee baby already.

***

I have to add a little postscript here.  I had an inkling about this development, especially after Lena started eating everything in sight.  

So, I had some things on hand and was able to pull together a decent little nursery as a last-minute surprise:

The crib and dresser are from, you guessed it, the Mini Max 3D Print Shop (again).  And I separated out all of the children's books from Lena's Mini Brands book collection:

I found the book in front, Why Can't I Fly? on eBay.  I'm not sure what toy line it's from--maybe the Zuru My Mini Babies?  All of the pages have readable text, and it's an adorable little story about an ostrich wondering why he can't fly!  I'm obsessed with it:

I can't wait to read it to the baby.

I also got some cute stuffed bunnies to match the art on the wall:

Robin from the Min Max 3D Print Shop is responsible for a lot of the artwork (including the bunnies).  They were free gifts with several of my purchases.  She prints little frames that match the furniture and then includes art that's relevant to the color palette and theme.  It's amazing.

I found the adorable wooden rocking horse on Etsy at a place called DK Wooden Toys UA:

I'm not sure if the baby will be able to ride it, but it makes a wonderful decoration.

I'll close out the house tour with one last before-and-after GIF:

This was such a fun project, and I learned a lot along the way, too.  There are so many amazing 1:6 scale miniatures on the market, it was a wonderland of choices.  I almost wish I could go back and start over again, using what I learned to make new choices and explore different products.  But maybe I'll have the chance to expand the house someday in the future, especially now that Lena and Ian's family is beginning to grow.

All that's left to do now is show Lena and Ian their new nursery!

Oh my gosh, Emily!!

How did you do all of this?  NOW it's starting to feel real.

Happy Father's Day!