…and one curtain panel….

i found the curtain panel in the sale section at target. the brand is simply shabby chic in the color pink and the panel is 54″ wide x 84″ long.

the table top has definitely seen better days, so first up was covering it…

i removed the tabletop…

the underside of the tabletop is a light cream color. this worked out really well because i was worried the colorful side may show through the white felt….

i laid the white felt on the ground and placed the tabletop color side up…

then i trimmed one end of the felt….

much like when you would wrap a gift, i slowly made my way around the tabletop, adding just a touch of hot glue and folding the felt over…

i did the longer sides first…

then i folded up the shorter sides and glued the corners in place…

glue gun glue is VERY easy to remove, so this will in no way harm the tabletop. that means when we are ready for a train table again, all i need to do is carefully remove the felt.

after letting the glue dry for 10 minutes, i inverted the tabletop and placed it inside the table to make sure it worked and the felt wasn’t too bulky…

it worked! and look at that soft, smooth, clean surface!….

then i grabbed the curtain panel…

i laid it on the floor and folded it in half over on itself…

next, cut the inner folded side of the curtain so you end up with 2 equal halves…

then, i slowly went around the table tucking the cut side into the inside of the tabletop. you will want the clean-looking seam side touching the floor…like this…

half of the curtain fit perfectly around half of the table…

then i did the same thing with the other curtain half. i left the opening on the short side of the table for ease of loading items underneath…

here it was when it was done…

once i knew the curtain was going to work as planned, i removed both and ironed each piece to smooth the long lines/wrinkles.

then i placed the doll house back on the tabletop to get a look…

sooo much better than that loud train tabletop!

using the green felt, i cut a rectangle for grass and placed it in front of the house…

using the light blue felt, i cut 2 small pool/pond shapes – one for the front of the house and one for the back of the house…

our daughter received a couple new calico critter sets for her birthday last weekend. again, see how teeny tiny these pieces are…

that little yellow dot? – it’s a lemon!…

and these? …..i just refuse to remove from the packaging = way tiny!…

that’s my vacuum’s worst nightmare right there! but now all of those tiny pieces have a safe place to live…

i realize how tiny that container is. as you can see all of those pieces are super small, so this container is going to do the trick for a while. if and when we need a bigger bin, it will fit perfectly under the table and the curtains will keep all of that eye-clutter hidden away.

when she woke up from her nap today, she was thrilled to see this…

*sigh* ahhhh, to be a little girl again!…