Doll House

[Jim Young]

Anyone here build a doll house? I would like to see some pics. My little one is pressuring me into building a house for her. Of course I have to do it. She already conned her family members into giving her the furniture. She already has a complete kitchen and living room suite.

[John Hart]

Jim,

I built one a number of years ago...don't have any pics...sorry. But I can tell you that it was one of the most rewarding projects I ever did. It was for my niece when she was 7 or 8. She's in college now and still has it. Good luck to you.

[Dan Stuewe]

See my thread in the "Similar Threads" list below. Its simple plan, but allows for lots of imagination.

[Don Frambach]

My daughter and I built a dollhouse together from a kit that I think cost about $100. There were numerous well fitting parts that she was able to glue together. I did a little construction but mostly was her helper. We could only work on it for a few minutes at a time (so the glue-ups could dry) which fit well with her attention span. Over the course of about three weeks working for a few minutes two or three times a day we built a very respectable dollhouse. Not exactly woodwooking but one of the experiences that my daughter and I will look back fondly upon for the rest of our lives. We bought our kit from a local "dollhouse store" but many kits are available on-line.

[Carl Eyman]

I could have sworn I posted a picture here of one I built, but I can't find it. Searching my memory (a futile exercise) it might have been on Badger Pond. If anyone knows how to search their archives it may be there

It was sort of unique. I'll try to describe it. Having built a cheap kit model and observing how hard it was for the kids to play with it when the only access to the interior was from the back I copied a commercial one I found at a nursery school. It has no sides to it. Essentially it is two sheets of plywood one held above the other by the interior walls with the whole covered by a roof. More than one kid can play with it at a time since all sides are open. The exterior of the structure seems to be of no interest to kids, but getting to the inside is very important. Three different kids have played with this and all seem to have enjoyed many hours of playtime.

Here's a couple of tips. Since you have some furniture, calculate the approximate scale and make the rooms a compatable size. The overall size of the house is less important than the size of the rooms. I bought a lazy susan turntable from Rockler so the house could be rotated easily. The turntable sat on top of a plastic milk crate and the doll house ontop of that. I used baltic birch 1/2", I think, and finished it with polyeurethane. It held up fine, no paint to chip. The kids could even pain murals with watercolors.

Wish I could locate pictures, but can't.

[Jim Young]

Well, I decided today that we should take a little trip to the local doll house store. I realized after seeing a few models how detailed they are. i figured that it would take me forever to actually complete the model. Soooooo, we ordered a kit that looked similar to our house. In theory all we have to do is assemble and paint it, we'll see about that. My wife even got into it, she already bought a bunch of accessories for it.

[Don Frambach]

Jim, I hope that you, your daughter, and your wife had as much fun as we had. I was amazed at the quality of the parts in our kit!

[Jim Marshall]

Here is a picture of a doll house I built from a kit. It was time consuming for sure but it was fun.