Then, in 1962, Mattel released the very first Barbie Dreamhouse, giving the doll a special place to call home. Several decades and many iterations later, Barbie's dreamhouse remains one of the most famous landmarks in fictional architecture—and continues to serve as inspiration for interior designers. "The Barbie dreamhouse was the first time I encountered the idea of home as an extension of a fashionable, charismatic, dynamic woman," shares San Francisco-based designer Emilie Munroe. "It inspired the notion of domestic life emulating personal energy and style, which is a mantra I support to this day." 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.
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"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." One woman in her mid-50s brought her father to the exhibit. The two laughed and held hands as they walked around the space. 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.
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However, when you look a little closer, you'll notice this property is decked out with amenities that speak to what the modern-day homeowner wants. 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.
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But her wheelchair didn’t fit in the Dreamhouse elevator, and Barbie couldn’t go to the upper floors of her own home, just like versions of a doll that accompanied her and the Dreamhouse more than two decades earlier. The space featured Barbie dolls and accessories from the past six decades, which also served as a reminder that the brand really has come a long way. When you enter, the first place you walk through is Barbie's living room. The explosion of pink and bright colors sets a fun tone for the visit.
And, the median home price exceeded $400,000 for the first time. Mattel later redesigned the Dreamhouse elevator to accommodate the wheelchair. “The size of the average American house rose from about 1,500 square feet in 1970 to more than 2,300 square feet in 2001, with a particularly big growth spurt” in the late 1990s, The Times reported. While the toy’s debut could have been an act of feminist revolt, it was also about making money — perhaps primarily so. The year the house came out, Elliot Handler, Mattel’s president and husband of Barbie inventor Ms. Handler, told Time magazine how the company manufactured accessories that were part of the Barbie ecosystem in order to boost sales.
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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. Aspects of the Dreamhouses are meant to appear “architecturally implausible” to keep things toylike, said Ms. Spencer. The four Dreamhouses had no walls, and there were also no toilets, no shadows, no color white. They used cheap fake grass — the higher quality fake grass appeared too realistic.
Arrange the pieces for a classic display or fold the walls to neatly store the furnishings and create a portable carry case for on-the-go fun. 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. “Every little girl needed a doll through which to project herself into her dream of her future,” Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie, told The New York Times in 1977. She named the doll after her own daughter (Ken was named after Ms. Handler’s son). When the fashion icon turned the big 6-0, her dream team decided she needed new digs to mark the milestone.
My daughter left wanting to be an astronaut, musician and scientist. The experience is a result of a partnership between Kilburn Live and Mattel, the toy company behind Barbie. Barbie’s Dreamhouse will have different intricately designed rooms with plenty of photo ops. The experience will feature various interactive rooms inspired by Barbie’s many careers and play sets.
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The experience will first launch in Toronto, Canada then visit multiple cities across the U.S., including New York, Chicago, Houston and L.A., according to Kilburn. From midcentury modern to a Gen-Z collab house, Barbie has kept up with design trends. This isn’t the first time Barbie’s Malibu Dreamhouse has popped up on Airbnb. In October 2019, the residence was briefly available to rent for $60 a night. Airbnb users will soon have the opportunity to live in a Barbie world.
Her reinvented DreamHouse, which retails for $179, has three stories, eight rooms, an outdoor area, a rooftop pool and slide, a working elevator, and a garage. The first floor features a dining room and a kitchen with modern appliances; the second floor includes a bathroom and a living room, while the third floor showcases a master bedroom with a dream closet and a den that transforms into an office. Other highlights include a patio, fire pit, and garden.
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. Cities were shrinking in size and wealth, as white flight followed desegregation efforts and more areas adopted the model of Levittown, a Long Island community of roughly 17,000 homes that look startlingly alike.
"I’m a huge fan of its louvered windows, lattice front doors, and cheery yellow accents," she shares. With angular furniture and a boxy television, the inaugural Dreamhouse feels like a 1962 time capsule. (Who doesn't love the collegiate pennants and dreamy photo of Ken?) Barbie's first home might've been on the smaller side, but Tara McCauley points out that big dreams are seldom restrained by square footage. But you can still view a catalog of products and be directed to purchase at retail. Promo codes and gift cards are applied during checkout. In 2019, Mattel introduced a new Barbie in a wheelchair.
Speaking of small spaces, Mattel thought beyond the typical four walls with this foldable, portable alternative. Though Barbie's dream houses typically become larger and more grandiose as time goes by, the Folding Pretty House feels uncharacteristically small and simple. "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. 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.
After beginning modestly in cardboard, the Dreamhouses became plastic, pastel, palatial and electrified, often all at once. They acquired elevators, sun decks, modern European furniture, recycling bins and multiple bedrooms — though Barbie remained perennially single and holding the lease (or mortgage). 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. By the end of my visit, I saw every age, gender and race represented in the crowd.
Take a stop-motion journey with the young, single homeowner of the Dreamhouse. "I think we're all here because we appreciate Barbie's legacy. She's timeless," he told us. "But her legacy exists because she's evolved through the years. Like they just released a Barbie with Down syndrome. That's awesome." "All races, genders, non-genders, ages — I think it really just goes to show why so many people love the brand. People can see themselves in practically any Barbie now." Nostalgia was certainly a big theme as I talked to various people visiting World of Barbie.
Spend a day with Barbie in a replica of her original 1962 Dream House. In honor of Mattel’s 75th anniversary, this vintage reproduction is identical to the original, right down to the mid-century modern décor, self-assembled slim-line furniture and decorative accessories. Barbie doll is included too, and for the very first time, this reproduction includes replicas of vintage fashions and accessories that take Barbie® doll from a day on the town to a dinner party and finally to a relaxing night in.
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