Hello, I have a doll's house my grandad made me when I was a kid. He really loved doing woodwork and made us lots of amazing wooden chests and furniture and draws and stools etc etc. He even made me an amazing rocking horse and my brother a rocking motorbike.

I absolutely loved everything he made for us, but I have to say the thing I loved the most was this amazing doll's house, he made for me one Christmas. I think this one thing, to this day, is the reason I love Christmas so much and always have to go right over the top at Christmas time.

It is such a beautiful thing and there are actually little furniture pieces too, that are at the back of the loft somewhere, I hope. But the hours and hours I spent playing with my little family in this little house is staggering. It's kind of crazy to think about how children spend their time now-a-days.

So now I have my own daughter and she is of the right age. I would really like to get her imagination going the same way mine was inspired as a little child.

She knows about the doll's house, I have shown it to her once. And now we have moved to a bigger house and are decorating her room completely, I think now is a good time. My daughter is heavily involved in the decision making process for the decorating. And I wanted to make a space for the doll's house to live in her room, instead of in the loft, where it has now been for decades.

But I would also like to modernise it maybe, and I was wondering if I should paint it. She said she thought it would look nice painted and I have to agree now. I really want it to feel like hers and not like some sort of hand-me-down, used toy.

I know my grandfather really wouldn't have minded. He just wanted us to have fun and even if we broke something he had made, he didn't really mind. He was happy that we were happy.

So there really is no emotional reason not to paint it. But what do you think?

Should I paint my old doll's house for my daughter. Or clean and restore it, as is, for sentimental reasons?