The girls watching yesterday’s activity in the den.

Yesterday was about assembling my purchase from IKEA. I did most of it myself, but Don helped out when two people were needed. It took longer than I thought. I chose a narrow Billy bookshelf unit that is about 19 inches wide. I also purchased a glass door for it. I had doubts about the door, knowing that the light from our big picture window would cause reflection on the glass, so I’d have to keep the door open when I was in here. But then I thought – what if we get a dog someday? Would they be safe? That’s why I got the door.

The Billy choice was inspired by another Blythe collector who has the narrow unit, plus a large unit. She has a much larger collection than I do and she obviously has more space! But I recognized the shelves immediately and knew they would be perfect.

Anyway. Almost impossible to photograph from my vantage point in the room. This is the best I can do at the moment, but I promise to get better photos in the future.

And from a lower angle, shooting up:

The unexpected problem we encountered? The back of the unit has a cut-out at the bottom to accommodate a baseboard. The unit fits over the baseboard and is flush with the wall. But not our baseboards. Our baseboards are about a ¼” higher, so the cut-out doesn’t fit over them. We considered removing the baseboard and made a few tentative attempts, but we knew that would ruin the drywall – such as it is. (Every day I notice more and more cheap tricks that were used in the flip of this house. That’s another story entirely.)

The unit comes with braces to attach it to the wall. But we couldn’t use them since it isn’t flush. They’re meant for the weight of books, and Blythe dolls aren’t books, so I think we’re okay. We had to shim the base because this house is 132 years old and the floors slant and no wall is perfectly straight. This is another reason why we didn’t use the door. The weight might have been too much.

I briefly wondered if I should have installed shelves like the ones we use in the den for books. But I really wanted a “cubicle” with walls to support the girls. Plus, I like the bright white in this little niche.

The bottom two shelves.

Middle shelves.

Top shelf.

There’s one additional shelf that I didn’t use but I will in the future.

We finished in the afternoon and the sun was streaming in and it was so bright in this corner! Don went on and on about how much he loves this change. I feel the same way. (We still have to move the music cabinet upstairs, but after a morning of being on my knees putting this thing together, that was impossible.) Right now, it’s right outside the entrance to the den.

I quickly arranged the dolls and all of this will change depending on my whims, but there’s a lot of potential here! I can decorate the cubes, or leave them the way they are. Temporary tweaks would be fun. Most every girl’s eyes are looking to the left because I did that to all of them so I could take the photo of them on the sofa. That will change soon.

The best thing is that the girls are no longer jammed together. Their hair, especially, needed some breathing room!

Today is mostly cloudy but in the next few days I’ll try to grab some shots when the sun is shining.

Now, all the big and little girls, as well as their pets, are in one place. And there is a wee bit of room for additions.

You can see a little video tour of the shelves on my IG Blythe account:  sophieandherpals.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.