Your Comprehensive Guide to Best Barbie Dream Houses of All Time

Table Of Content

• View in Your Space
• Kristi Yamaguchi’s Barbie Celebrating 1992 Olympics Gold Medal Moment Even Includes Her ‘Big Hair’ (Exclusive)
• A Home for a ‘Glamorous, Sophisticated Woman’
• Barbie’s Bachelorette Pad
• Your Comprehensive Guide to Very Best Barbie Dream Houses of All Time
• Barbie Dreamhouse Dollhouse With 75+ Accessories & Wheelchair Accessible Elevator, Lights, Sounds, Music

“Having a match in terms of racial identification or gender or both,” she said, is important in creating effective role models for kids. Since then, the toy market has evolved somewhat with big companies like Mattel diversifying and independent entrepreneurs filling the void. Two Asian doll lines — Jilly Bing and Joeydolls — launched within the last year, one by an Asian American mother and the other by an Asian Canadian mother.

View in Your Space

Based on how many bells and whistles Barbie adds or deletes, her East Coast, 78-square-foot DreamHouse will cost anywhere between $19,500 and $50,700 to build. McGuirk just listed a 10,000-square-foot lot in a suburb of Boston for $250,000, which would accommodate a lot of Barbie DreamHouses. Either way, you can always trade in one of your vintage Barbies worth a fortune for a down payment. "I get a feeling of childhood nostalgia looking at that floral wallpaper and frilly furniture from those dreamhousedesigns," she muses. "It's almost like looking at an old photo where you can’t quite remember, but you know you’ve been in a similar house as kid with the same froufrou bedding." In honor of Yamaguchi’s new doll and in support of AAPI Heritage Month, Barbie will split a $25,000 Barbie Dream Gap donation between Yamaguchi’s Always Dream and ASPIRE (Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence).

Kristi Yamaguchi’s Barbie Celebrating 1992 Olympics Gold Medal Moment Even Includes Her ‘Big Hair’ (Exclusive)

La Casa De Barbie Dreamhouse on Sale - Atlanta Progressive News

La Casa De Barbie Dreamhouse on Sale.

Posted: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 11:12:11 GMT [source]

And of course it's the inspiration for a beyond-fun home reno show. Before those latest entries in Barbie Land, where pink reigns supreme and every corner is packed with unapologetic glamour, there was the original doll herself. With an array of career ambitions (and cute outfits to match!), the beach blonde has managed to remain an arbiter of taste since her birth in 1959. Then, in 1962, Mattel released the very first Barbie Dreamhouse, giving the doll a special place to call home.

A Home for a ‘Glamorous, Sophisticated Woman’

Plus, the top floor bonus room wows with a sleepover transformation that allows the Dreamhouse™ to sleep four dolls. With 75+ accessories and customizable spaces that double the fun, it makes an exceptional gift for kids ages 3 years old and up. In order to find the square footage, we multiplied the width (40 inches) of the DreamHouse by the depth (15.5 inches) and got 620 square inches. We then multiplied that by three (the number of stories) to obtain a total of 1,860 square inches.

Barbie’s Bachelorette Pad

We are no longer supporting IE (Internet Explorer) as we strive to provide site experiences for browsers that support new web standards and security practices. Organizers have not announced when the experience will arrive in L.A. Kilburn says information on future tour dates will be available online on theworldofbarbie.com.

Your Comprehensive Guide to Very Best Barbie Dream Houses of All Time

Next, we divided by 144 square inches (one square foot equals 144 square inches) to get the total square footage of 13 square feet. Since at 11.5 inches, Barbie measures about 1/6 the height of an average person, we multiplied 13 by 6 to arrive at 78 square feet as our final estimate as to the size of a real-life DreamHouse. Barbie’s body, careers, lifestyle and house — a hot pink monument of decadence and desire, now equipped with a swimming pool, slide and elevator — have all been qualities designed for children (and adults) to crave for themselves. Barbie has been the platonic ideal of what a young woman could and should be.

While I certainly had some flashbacks from childhood, it was pretty special to watch my daughter live out her current dream. Next, we moved into a room with a big Barbie camper and watching the joy on my little girl's face certainly brought out all the feels. She made herself right at home — as she should since we play Barbie hours upon hours every week. She relaxed on a hammock, pretended to drive the vehicle and honked the horn. McGuirk enlightened us on what it would cost to build Barbie’s DreamHouse in New England, imagining an East Coast move for the 61-year-old icon. In her experience, local builders charge from $250 up to high-end at $650 per square foot, shares McGuirk.

Obstacles remain as women seek more leadership roles …

On this particular Wednesday, the crowd was diverse — much like Barbie nowadays. There were several moms with their kids, some groups spanning four generations. (Some even had professional photographers trailing them around the space.) There were several people, women and men, dressed as Barbie themselves.

The house has served as a subliminal, maybe even subversive, blueprint for children, especially girls. Barbie’s Dreamhouse was all her own — Ken was not on the deed. Anna Kodé reported from Mattel’s headquarters in Los Angeles, where she and Times visual journalists spent over 18 hours arranging Barbies in Dreamhouses. Take a stop-motion journey with the young, single homeowner of the Dreamhouse. Nostalgia was certainly a big theme as I talked to various people visiting World of Barbie. "I think people are loving it because you capture that feeling of childhood. That's why some people are here," a staff member in charge of the area told me. "Barbie is nostalgic."

"It could get pretty small when packed, kind of a throwback to the very first homes that had a definite pack and play vibe," Sklar shares. As the world waits with bated breath for the premiere of Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie, the design community has thrusted the spotlight on the dreamhouse. But unlike Barbie's original Dreamhouse—which is essentially one big room—this version offers guidance how to make the most of limited square feet. Sections for dining, living, and sleeping give Barbie a full-functioning home, while small touches like a Murphy bed and swivel provides plenty of small space savviness. Toward the end of the 20th century—more specifically, the '80s and '90s—Mattel began to produce dream houses that resemble the plastic pads we know and love today. (And, in true Barbie fashion, her digs boasted a range of pink hues.) While Shure says these decades were not known for their design, she finds herself drawn to this Dreamhouse era.

The median age women were getting married was trending upward, women’s labor force participation increased and the “girl power” movement, popularized by the Spice Girls, was taking off. Barbie’s A-frame house had window planters overflowing with plastic flora — her plants were no longer just 2D. Houseplants saw a bloom during the environmental movement of the 1970s when people filled their homes with macramé plant hangers and terrariums. Mirroring the growing popularity of prefabricated construction, Barbie’s A-frame house was modular — children could deconstruct it by pulling the sections apart. Though feminism was now mainstream, some efforts to advance women’s rights were stalling.

Both could not find dolls that looked like their daughters. So, it’s surreal for the decorated Olympian figure skater to now be a Barbie girl herself. Society has held up “this promise of homeownership as part and parcel of the American dream,” for centuries, said Ms. Castro.

Yamaguchi’s Barbie wears a figure skating dress reminiscent of the one she wore when she won her gold medal at the ‘92 Olympic Games in Albertville, France. She even holds a large bouquet, just like she did after she skated more than 30 years ago. Mattel has mostly garnered praise for its diversity efforts but it’s had some missteps along the way.

Lift and lower Barbie® doll and her friends in the working elevator, fill the pool with water to make a splash, soak up some sun on the third-floor balcony and rooftop deck, and host a pet playdate with a puppy pool and slide. -- feature realistic touches and textures that bring any Barbie® story to life. With cool customizations and so many storytelling opportunities, kids ages 3 years old and up will move right into the Barbie® Dreamhouse® and make it their own! When young imaginations move into the Barbie® Dreamhouse™, they turn this amazing dollhouse into a dream home! Plug-and-play design helps keep pieces in place as small hands move around (and make clean up easy for adult hands!).

From the beginning, much of Barbie’s existence — her unrealistic physical proportions, the lack of racially diverse dolls, the toy’s reinforcing of gender roles — has been debated in jest and in seriousness. But her home, which has not been as publicly parsed or praised like the doll, has been a mirror for the various social, political and economic changes the rest of the country was experiencing. It has followed housing patterns and trends, from chic, compact urban living to suburban sprawl to pure excess. At times, it has been out of step, ignoring the country’s ills (Barbie’s never been broke; she has never lost her house to foreclosure).