Skipper's Dream Room

What's really been an obsession of mine lately, are the vintage diorama, cardboard fold-up dream houses and rooms that Mattel made for Barbie and Skipper back in the early 1960s.  I would have flipped for one of these as a child, but alas, my mother hid all the advertisements for such "expensive" toys.  

As you know, I bought the reproduction Barbie Dream House a couple of years ago, and I've loved it ever since I assembled it and set it up.  Barbie and Ken have enjoyed every holiday in that Dream

House, and they've even traveled to Hawaii, dressing up for friends when they returned home.

Last month, or earlier?, I discovered that Skipper had a Dream Room.  A seller on Ebay had listed the Dream Room and Barbie's Kitchen Dinette.  Guiltily, I could only afford one of them, and have since been kicking myself in the fanny for not buying BOTH.  For some reason she'd added reasonable shipping to Skipper's Dream Room, but a walloping $75 for the Kitchen Dinette.  Still...I should have bought both.  Found a way.

I've always been of mind that vintage and antique are not in my purchasing category as I detest dirty old things.  Things that have yellowed or cracked with age. Items with yellowed tape, stains, holes, ratty hair, etc., but this is what you get unless you get really lucky with these cardboard homes.

As I set up this charming little room, I'd begun to do a lot of research on it, and realized that many pieces were missing.  That's another reality of vintage toys.  But, I did a little fixing up of what was there and kept an eye out for missing bits and pieces to include later.

What's usually missing from sets like this are things like pillows and cardboard toys and paper items that got lost or destroyed with time.  Even pieces of furniture.  If you don't know what to look for, how are you to know the set is complete?

Well, lo and behold, another auction came up for Skipper's Dream Room a couple of weeks later, and it had items like the curtains, the paper rug, the cardboard rag dolly, and an unused set of fabric for the pillows. It even had the foam pieces for between the pillows and lots of the sticky tape that little girls would use to assemble all of this. 

So I did my best to win it, and did.  There went my allowance for the month!  Of course, a little girl would play with these toys.  And, she'd put things together as she pleased.  So one of the chairs in my first set had a pillow glued to the back of a chair.  I did my earnest best to remove the pillow and clean off the stickiness.  Then I colored in the damaged paper.  That chair now sits next to the desk.  The second set also had the books for the shelves in the desk!  You can see them next to the repaired chair.  

I began adding little accessories from my Skipper collection, like the mini Queen of Prom game that came in a Barbie repro gift set.  And, for the tiny Barbie New Dream House, I added one of her tiny Barbies.  Later I found a tiny Ken that must have come with one of the reproduction gift sets.  I might just make a few pieces of tiny cardboard furniture for this petite play house.  It is the one thing that made the decision for me when considering either Skipper's Dream Room or the Kitchen Dinette.

Skipper's Dream Room came with two heart backed chairs, and one curved back, comfort chair.  Seeing as how this room was large enough for all six chairs, in the other three went.  The first set only came with one of the settees.  And, it was missing the brace or leg.  So I made a cardboard support to hold it up.  

I used one of the half tables that holds the bird cage as an end table to hold the second lamp.  If you're wondering about the other pieces and the folding structure of the second set I bought, it was a mess.  

Rotten, torn, bending...you name it.  A lot of the legs for the tables in these sets are hopelessly damaged.  They're not worth saving.  

One of the great things about the second set, was that the pink flooring that sits in the game room with the curtains was in perfect condition.  The flooring in the first set I bought was badly damaged and had patches of yellowed tape.  It was more than worth the cost to buy the second set for all it added to the first.  If you want something nice, you have to invest.

Sadly, there is no perfect and pristine when it comes to these vintage finds.  I'm just delighted to have one in the condition I've made it into.

Another item I used from the second set was the bed spread.  There are these little double-sided blue buttons that go through stitch holes to pinch the ends together.  One of them was missing from the first set.  This bed spread is much nicer.  A little of this, a little of that.  

I know there are a lot of people who feel you   

shouldn't clean or fix antiques, as they'll lose their value.  Well, when it comes to printed cardboard, I think there has to be an allowance.  Its no good to anyone damaged.  And, I want the best for my dolls.

I loved Barbie as a child, but Skipper was my doll.  She was the pretty little girl I wanted to be.  She had it all.  Vintage Skipper collecting is not new to me.  Just the Dream Room.  Several years ago I went on a Skipper bender and bought every single outfit she had in the early 60s and each had to be

complete and in mint condition.  Later I would do the same for a Twist n Turn Mod Skipper.  One doll each for these collections.  Maybe Mod Skipper had a vinyl house, or room, carry case.  One thing at a time.

I am not reliving my childhood.  Mine did not include these marvelous toys.  This is an adult's appreciation of something truly marvelous from long ago.

I hope you'll enjoy these photographs.  I also just made a fabulous book purchase.  Marl B. Davidson wrote a compendium called Barbie Structures and Furniture, that describes all of these extraordinary toys.  Color photos, complete descriptions.  Its now out of print, and such a lucky find.  I need it!!!

Love, Melissa

photo courtesy of Ebay

photo courtesy of Ebay