I am honored to share with you a readers DIY Rainforest House that turned out amazing! She has provided pictures and details below and she has even made a few things that AGI hasn’t yet. Like the table and chairs, hammock, and several accessories. Feel free to leave comments and ask any questions you have or just tell her how fantastic hers turned out!

Pic 1 and Pic 2: Here is Lea Clark’s Rainforest house we built by following step-by-step instructions provided by American Girl Ideas. We had so much fun during the process and I had to say that the instructions were awesome; we had no difficulties in understanding anything. It was such a great feeling to gradually see the formation of our own work. 

Once we completed the house itself and the grill, we just knew that we also wanted to add on as many as we could figure out how to do, all the other details and accessories. As you can see in the pictures, we created a picture frame to replace the window, flower vase, hammock, table and chairs (yes, 2 chairs), 2 kabobs, a rice bowl, 2 drinks, a lantern, and a laptop. 

Pic 3 and Pic 4: I took a piece of 1/2″ MDF and just cut it to the shape I like for the table top. Since I did not have the real version to copy, I just went on internet to look around and did as best as I could. I eyeballed the size and the height of the table by comparing its proportion with the house. I used 3/4″ dowel rod for the table’s legs and cut it at a 20-degree angle on both ends.

For the chair, I used 1/2″ dowel rod for the legs and 1/4″ dowel rod for the slants on the back of the chair. I ended up with 2 chairs because I made the first one with 4 straight legs. The next day I came up with the idea of how to make slanted back legs to have a look similar to the originals. So I divided the back legs into 2 sections, they were both slanted at 20-degree, and then put them on so they angled the right way. I like this design better because the chair had better support than my first design. For the curve top around the top of the chair, I used a round electric wire. Just made sure I used hot glue to cover the end so it became smooth and had the look of bamboo. Then I paint the seat green and the rest of the chair the same color with the house.

Pic 5: Now Lea won’t have dinner alone. She has a chair to share with her friend.

Pic 6: I made kabobs using skewers and clay. I cut the skewers down to right size, then shape the clay whatever shapes I like, put them on when they were still wet, let them dry on the skewers, then paint.

Rice bowl was made out of clay too.

My daughter made the drinks all by herself. I am so proud of her because it was completely her idea. She just showed it to me when she was done. She used the clear plastic cap of a Hair Detangling Spray. She filled half way with clay, then filled up with glitter glue. She cut a drinking straw and put on then let the glue dried. She made 2, one for Lea and one for her friend.

Pic 7: The flower vase was made from a plastic injection syringe. I cut off the top half and just painted the bottom, then stole some flowers from around my house. I also painted the design to match the design on the grill.

Laptop was made from felt. 2 halves were connected by a drinking straw, so it can open and close. I printed out another set of Lea’s pictures and just glued on. The keyboard I googled on the internet and printed out, glued on.

Lantern was made from a glass jar I got at Michaels, a tea light candle. I drew flowers on the jar. Then tied a rope around the opening and hung up.

Pic 8: I used a 2-inch diameter loose leaf binder ring for the hammock’s rings. I took a piece of fabric, about 22-inch long and sew 2 pockets at 2 ends for the rings to go to. Used a rope and wrap the rope around half of the ring to keep the fabric from covering up the whole ring, then kept wrapping each end of the rope around one end of a dowel rod, then just tie 2 ends of the ropes to where you want on the beam of the roof.