There's something special about miniature versions of life-size buildings. Doll houses have the power to bring the imaginations of little girls and even adults to life. Making a dollhouse is a project that you can keep decorating for years. See Step 1 below for instructions on making a beautiful house for your doll.
Step
Method 1 of 4: Use Traditional Meterial
This is a traditional doll house. This guide can easily be used to make dollhouses of any size and only basic skills and tools are needed to make this house.
Step 1. Prepare the ingredients
Hard materials such as wood are the best materials.
Step 2. Cut two pieces of wood of the same size
This wood will be the side of your house.
Step 3. Measure the width of the dollhouse base
Keep the two pre-cut pieces in until you get the size you want.
Step 4. Bring the main sides together
Attach the base and top and both sides with nails to each other. Do this on both sides so you have a square shape with no face and back.
Step 5. Cut the face
Lay the box open face down on one sheet of plywood. Trace the lines and cut out the resulting shape and nail it in place. You can install L brackets to make the house stronger.
Step 6. Cut the shelves for the interior
Place the shelf in the center of the box. Make sure there is a hole in this shelf to place the ladder, so the doll can go up and down the stairs. Reinforce the shelf using a supporting wall underneath, a wooden support "beam," or some L brackets.
Step 7. Decorate the walls
Install sticker paper in the house as wallpaper. You may also be able to use kitchen tiles more as flooring if they are thin enough.
Step 8. Add lights if desired
If you need additional light, drill a hole in the back of the box with a drill. Buy a Christmas tree light and insert the light through the hole. You may need additional cables for this.
Step 9. Please enjoy
Start putting your doll furniture in the house and play with the dolls in their beautiful house!
Method 2 of 4: Using Shoebox
This method is the easiest and can be made by children themselves. This type of dollhouse is best for playing with very small dolls, and shorter than 17.5cm.
Step 1. Prepare several large shoe boxes
Get at least two or three shoe boxes. If all the boxes were the same size that would be great.
Step 2. Navigate the shoe boxes
Cut or remove the shoe cap and build a shoebox with the long side at the base. The large panel that used to be the base of the shoe box is now the back wall of the room, and the long side panel is the floor.
Step 3. Decorate or paint the room
Decorate or paint the inside of the box to make it look like the inside of a room. You can use thin wood or carpet for the floor. Your child's paper, paint or painting can be used as wallpaper. Ribbons can be room trim. Just follow your imagination!
Step 4. Glue the rooms together
After the parts in the room are finished, glue the sides together to form the house. The house can have more than one floor or it can be flat, and it can be as big as a box you can find.
Step 5. Make the roof
You can make a flat roof, for which you don't have to do anything else, or you can create an additional roof by forming a cardboard box into a triangular roof and gluing it in place.
Step 6. Decorate the exterior
Once all the boxes are together, you can decorate the outside of the doll's house to make it look more like a house. You can paint them, make windows or doors or even add shutters!
Step 7. Enjoy your dollhouse
When you're satisfied with how it looks, you're done! Enjoy!
Method 3 of 4: Using Wood
This house style is great for 30cm tall dolls like Barbies. The end product is four rooms on one floor where dolls can relax.
Step 1. Go to a hardware store
You'll need a few pieces of wood and some basic tools and supplies for this dollhouse (Barbie size, but can be easily adjusted). The tools are common ones you may already have, but a hardware store may want to rent them out. Just ask! The equipment you will need are:
- 4 pieces of 1x8 wood (at least 60 cm long), or a 240 cm long board if you buy one long board
- 4 pieces of 30 x 30 cm medium board or similar material (you may need to go to a craft supply store for these)
- Drill with bit 0.625 cm
- Tool for making basic shape cuts on wood.
- 0.625 cm wooden nails (one long stick or 8 pieces)
- sandpaper
- Wood glue
- Paints and other materials to create a neat look
Step 2. Cut the wooden planks
There are four boards to start with, the last two will be divided and cut again. For now, cut the four into 60cm long each.
Step 3. Drill the intersection
Align the four sheets and using a tape measure and pen mark holes at 7.5cm and 15cm from both ends along a line 0.625cm from the edge (only one side needs a hole). Make sure all the holes are aligned. Each piece of wood should now have four marks. Drill a hole in the center of each mark, using a 0.625 cmt eye.
Step 4. Cut two sheets
Leaving two sheets of board 60 cm long, use the remaining boards, divide in half, trimming 1 cm from the inner edge. You should now have two 60cm long boards and four 29cm long boards.
Step 5. Put the boards together
Use wood glue and dowels in each hole in the 60 cm board, one hole at a time. Let the glue harden and dry and then glue the holes in the shorter sheet one by one. Match the shorter boards to the larger pieces, so the trimmed edge is in the center of the larger one. This will result in two pieces of wood 2cm apart in the middle of one half of each plank and a total area of 35cm and 1.25cm. Sand the edges until smooth.
Step 6. Put the walls together
These two matching pieces of wood are spaced in the middle like a puzzle, the distances pointing up on one sheet and down on the other. When put together, they form the walls of four interconnected rooms. This means you can take it apart when you want to store it or take it with you when you travel.
Step 7. Add finishing details
Paint or paste wallpaper, cut the door, or use any other finish you want. Just remember to keep the walls straight and not paint or glue that could permanently hold the two boards together.
Step 8. Connecting chipboard (wood boards from wood chips)
The chipboard will be the floor of the dollhouse with each 30 x 30 cm square being one of the four spaces. Paint or use another finish for each piece, according to the room you want (Bathroom, kitchen bedroom, etc). When they are dry, arrange them the way you want them then turn them over and secure them with tape on one side only.
This type of house will allow you to fold and store the entire dollhouse
Step 9. Enjoy your dollhouse
Lay the walls on top of the chipboard floor and start filling the house with the furniture. Your child can organize the house and enjoy each space individually, and all can be unpacked and stored when it's time to clean up.
Method 4 of 4: Using the Bookshelf
This house is designed for dolls up to 45 cm tall like American Girl dolls. This dollhouse requires less carpentry than other methods and is easy to set up in just two or three hours.
Step 1. Buy a deep bookshelf
Find a deep wooden bookshelf. Shorter shelves, around 105cm or 120cm are more suitable. Larger shelves will need to be nailed to the wall for safe play.
Step 2. Adjust the shelves
Adjust the shelves to the correct height to create spaces that are approximately 50 cm high. If you have double bookshelves of the right height, you can have a doll house with 4 rooms.
If the shelf cannot be adjusted to the desired height, you can add additional holes or use an L bracket to the desired height
Step 3. Add windows if you want
Use a saw to cut windows from behind or side of shelves if you want windows. Sand the edges so they don't hurt your child.
Step 4. Add the roof
You can design a roof to sit on a bookshelf using the Pythagorean formula and cut two planks at a 45-degree angle from the edge to form a triangle.
Step 5. Decorate the floor
Use more tile or carpet, or any other material you want to make the floor of the room look the way you want.
Step 6. Decorate the walls
Add wallpaper, paint or ceramic tile to make the walls of each room match the floor and complete the look for the space. Get your kids along!
Step 7. Enjoy
Once everything is dry and ready to play, you can add furniture and enjoy your dollhouse!
Tips
- Colored or patterned paper can be used to make simple wallpapers. Glue it to the dollhouse wall, straightening the creases until they fit all the way to each edge of the wall.
- Don't make your own doll if you're a child; You could be in trouble with your parents plus you could hurt yourself.
- Maybe your grandparents or babysitter can make a dollhouse with you, but if you're making one with a babysitter, ask your parents first.
- Lastly, don't forget to make a furniture plan.
Warning
- Be careful using all the equipment in making a doll house.
- There should always be an adult watching.
