Journey Girls Bedroom Set Review

I bought the Journey Girls Classic 18 inch Doll Bedroom Set  at the Toys R' Us in Greece, NY near where I work. I've been looking for a decent bed set for a few of my Ball Jointed Dolls for a while now, and this is one of the cheaper ones out there- and it comes with a lot of accessories for the price. I've seen several comments on the review page noting that this bed was purchased for an American Girl Doll...not suprising considering the only loft bed  that AG makes is $225, and doesn't come with enough accessories to be that expensive!

This is the front of the box that the set comes in. It gives you a decent idea of what you are purchasing. The set comes with a television, a laptop, a chair, a desk, a rug, a beanbag chair, a bookshelf/entertainment center, various stickers, a ladder, bed, and bedding. You get two pillows, a blanket, and a matress all for around $50 to $60.

The Pieces

The bed needs assembled after you open the box, so you will need a phillips head screwdriver. A hand screwdriver seems to work better than a motorized one for this. These are all the pieces, minus the bottom of the bed, that need to be assembled. I have the bottom of the bed resting on my bed for the sake of work space, since I am working on the floor of my bedroom.

These are the directions, the bottom board of the bed, and all of the pieces that come pre-assembled. While you have everything laid out you should check all the pieces for cracks, just in case. All of the pieces have letter stickers on them, so the directions are really simple to follow.

This is the bottom board of the bed. It's the thinnest piece in the box, also the most likely to crack, so be careful when you are handling it.

 

 

The rest of the pieces are much thicker. This is the standard thickness of most the pieces in the box.

Assembly

This is the chair when it is put together. It consists of two pieces of board, two screws, and four screw in leg posts. It's at this point that you might need to grab a partner to help put things together, especially if you have small or unsteady hands. Luckily I have huge hands, and my feet are dexterious.

 

Step two involves putting small dowels into the pre-drilled holes. If you have all the parts the kit came with and are satisfied with the state that the bed is in pre-assembly you might want to grab some wood glue, to give the bed an extra layer of stability. Some of the dowels are a little loose in their holes, while others fit rather snuggly.

 

 



 This is step three, and when you start actually putting the loft bed together. The brown line following my hand is where the support plank for the bed will be going.

 

 

For the next step I found it easier to lay the bed on its side so that I could better manuver the dowels and screw holes so that they matched up on the next piece of board.

 

 

 Once you get everything tightened up it looks like this. At this stage the sideboards for the bed are a bit wobbly, so you might want to be careful that you do not knock them the wrong way.

 

 

Next you slide the bottom bed support plank in place and then put the large leg piece on the bed to lock it in place. Note that you should do this carefully, because as I mentioned the bottom board is thin and kind of flimsy.

 

 

I treated the bottom board like it was made of glass but still managed to crack it while putting it in place. It's not to big of a crack, and I sealed it with wood glue as a preventative measure...but still. It would be horrible to get this far in and end up breaking the board.

 

 

This is the completed bedset. The board is in place on the top of the bed, and the desk has been put together. Like the Chair, the desk is just two pieces of wood. It hooks to the bed via wooden dowels, instead of being screwed in like the other parts.

 

The Accessories

The set boasts a modest set of accessories to make it seem more realistic. While it does not offer a wide range, the few things it does have seem pretty durable.

 

This is the television (left) and laptop (right) that the set comes with. They're both made out of wood, and the laptop has hinges that let it open and close. Featured side by side you can tell that the laptop scream is actually taller than the television screen, even if the television is wider.

 

 

These are all the vinyl stickers that the set comes with. They pull on and off the set easily and cleanly, and are very bright.

These are the books that you see on the shelves in the package picture. The sides fold back and then you nestle then into the shelves. The centers tend to curve outwards though, giving the boods a warped look when on the shelf. See the top two? There actually is only two shelves in the entertainment center/bookshelf that they have the television resting on- the others are just part of these silouhettes.

 

 

This is the entertainment center/bookshelf with the cardboard books put in place.

 

 

The Bedding

One of the great things about this set is that it is cheap and comes with bedding. There are other sets for the same price that come with a bare bed frame, and nothing else. This set happens to come with a rug, a beanbag chair, two pillows, a blanket, and a mattress.

 

This is all the bedding, minus the rug. Unlike the picture on the box I got a pink beanbag chair not a purple one. The only problem at this point is all the tags. They don't fold over well, and are ugly.

 

 

If you plan on removing all the tags off of your set, you should do so with a pair of scissors. Do NOT pull them off with your hands, not unless you want to tear the seam on whatever piece of bedding you are working on. These things are on tight.

 

This thin piece of padding is the mattress. It is just as thin as the bottom board of the bed. If I had recieved this set as a young girl I would have cried to my grandmother to make my doll a proper bed- most little girls like putting their dolls to sleep in something they can imagine sleeping on themselves.

This is what the mattress looks like pressed taunt against a wall and corner of the bed frame. As you can see, there is a lot of space that the mat does not cover. The little girl in me is horrified. Luckily this is a quick and easy fix if you know how to sew. I intend to buy foam padding at Walmart, along with some fabric, and make a new thicker mattress.

This is the full set, with all the accessories in place and the bedding put together the same way it is in the picture on the box. As you can see, the bedding is not as impressive as the shot they staged. This, along with the size of the mattress, seem to be a common complaint not only to this set, but to several other sets as well (AG, Badger Basket, and Laurent Doll, to name a few), so I am not all that suprised.
he small flower vase came from the floral department at Walmart for 95 cents. I also picked up a small fish tank filled with tiny toy fish that swell if you had water from our local Tops, although it is not visible in this shot.

Functionality

This is my ball jointed doll Minechi sitting at the desk. She's around 17 inches tall. Her limbs are all jointed at the same place a person's limbs would be (wrists, elbows, knees, ankles, neck, thighs, torso) so her knees bend. Even taking that into account when sitting in the chair she doesn't fit under the desk. Her legs are covered by her dress in this shot, but they are resting sideways to get her this close. If you have the proper tools you could probably carve the center beam between the desk legs up a little bit to fix this issue. If you look at the picture on the box you can tell that even the doll this set was made for does not fit quiet right with the desk and chair. Sanding down the chair legs might help as well.

The ladder works well, as does the bean bag chair. The ladder can be placed anywhere on the three difrent sides of the bed.



Minechi fits well in the bed, there is plenty of room between her feet and the base. The same goes for her and the sides of the bed, though she is thinner than an American Girl or Journey Girl doll. Even taking that into consideration, this bed would fit either doll well.

This is an above view of the set, with Minechi in place. As you can see, the shees are not folded in half like in the box display picture- if you fold them like that there isn't enough covering for the doll. Ignore the discoloured ring on the carpet- it's the result of a scrapbooking project involving spray adhesive, and in serious need of a good scrub down.

Overall Review

The Journey Girls Bedset is, as a whole, a well put together collection for a girl's 18 inch doll. It has storage space for a doll's knick knacks, decent bedding, and enough details to make it feel realistic. Plus, with all the removable stickers it comes with it is customizable-which is always a plus. Being white, one could also repaint it, or add a mural if one is artistically inclined or has the stencils to do so. Everything in the set I purchased came well packaged and undamaged, even though the box was a little banged up. This was definately a good buy for the price, and makes me want to get the ski lounge set- even if it's just for the fireplace it provides. I wouldn't recommend this set for younger children, not unless they play gently, because parts of it seem fragile. I would also suggest that an adult move the set when needed so that nothing breaks. However, this set is good for children starting around six to eight, and great for older children, and collectors as well.

 

Pros

• Set comes with clear directions and is easy to assemble
• Set is well priced for something of its size
• Customizable, to a certain extent
• Bedding seems durable

Cons

• Base of the bed is flimsy, may break if a child accidently sets her doll down too hard
• Chair/Desk is oddly sized so that dolls cannot fit legs under desk/sit properly
• Matress is thin and small (common complaint for doll beds)