Kitchen BJD

Heat and light are the two biggest factors in yellowing. Being exposed to varying levels of heat could damage the resin, and the constant exposure to light would definitely cause her colour to change over time (more than if you kept her in a dark area or in her box).

 

Not to mention all the oils that are in the air when you cook. Oil is especially bad for resin and will damage it permanently.

 

I would not put a doll in a kitchen. If you smoke inside the house and also keep cats, your best bet would be to place the doll inside a moderately airtight glass fronted or clear plastic cabinet somewhere out of direct light. Then tar and oils cannot coat it, and cats can't reach it, but it will be visible.

Edit: Just noticed other part of the question. My dolls are in a few places, but mostly in my art/office room on bookshelves. I put curtains in the room to keep sunlight off them. The tinies all reside in this little greenhouse plant shelf thing I got at IKEA and it's mounted on the wall. I have a dog, not cats, and the art room always has a babygate or a closed door keeping her out of it, not that she's shown any interest in my dolls. (just their leather shoes!)

Every household will have different hazards to avoid. For instance, I don't have kids yet, but I am sure when I do I'll have to move a lot of things to be out of reach!

 

Probably not what you want to hear, but tar from cigarette smoke will yellow a doll faster than just about anything I've seen. I've seen a doll get visibly yellower in just a month while staying with a heavy smoker with no precautions taken to keep it safe. Bright light, heat and oils will too, and I've heard that incense can too, due to the smoke and oils in it. I would not recommend keeping a doll in a kitchen. I'm not the greatest cook, but I've seen the oil build-up on appliances and the work it takes to scrub it off, and it isn't anything I want near my dolls! Intense heat can also cause eye putty to melt and ooze down into the doll's neck and onto the stringing. It may not get that hot in your kitchen, but I have seen it happen to a doll left in a car on a moderately warm day.

I agree with Rosslyn's recommendation of an airtight glass cabinet. I think that might be the best option to keep the doll safe and clean, but visible. In my house, the dolls stay displayed upstairs in an extra bedroom, on shelves. There's only one small window with a curtain that stays closed, and my dog is not allowed in the room (though she does occassionally sneak in with me, but never for more than a moment and never unsupervised). We don't have children, so that's not a concern. The door stays closed and is the furthest room in the house from the kitchen, and nothing ever gets burned in our house except dinner. XD Or maybe a candle or incense, but only in the bathroom with the door shut and nowhere near the doll room, since I don't want to risk harming dolls, but I do love those things!

 

Agreed on the cig tar statements... Plus second hand smoke isn't fun.

 

My mother keeps an extensive fine glass collection in her kitchen. Which brings up a problem you may not have thought about. When cooking oils from the food are carried by the steam into the air. This mixes with dust and produces a filmy sludge onto anything that is displayed in the kitchen. After spending two full days doing nothing but scrubbing my mother's collection, I promise you the kitchen is the last place you would want to store a bjd. Faceups and delicate resin will not hold up to the level of cleaning required to remove the oil and dust mixture, and the oils will damage the resin. Even a vegan kitchen will give your doll a huge coat of plastered on dust. if there is steam, there is dust sludge.

Honestly with children mantles, and making mom and dad's room off limits is your best bet.

My mother hates cooking and only cooks on major holidays, and there still was a huge buildup after only half a year. Kitchens are just not great display areas.

One awesome solution is to go to craft or art framing stores and get shadow boxes with sliding doors. Ask for "gallery quality wall display boxes". They can be mounted on the wall like picture frames. you can put a few bits of furniture in there and decorate the back and store a doll in there. It's very cute and tasteful. Plus some of them come with uv protective glass (helps with yellowing).

 

Awww yikes the kitchen is an absolute no no for dolls, trust me. The humidity and varying temperature in a kitchen will damage your doll, this also applys to standard fashion dolls such as Barbies and Sindy, they develop unsightly green patches that are unremovable. Resin dolls need to be kept at room temperature or else their face-ups will potentially peel off and of course the heat can tarnish the resin. It's the same reason why your dolls should never be stored in an attic. Your attic will often go from being very cold in the winter to going very warm/humid in the late spring summer months and this really isn't good for your dolls, be it resin or ABS plastic or vinyl. It can warp the plastic/resin and permanently discolour the dolls.