Darling DIY Dollhouses That Are Big on Personality

Anyone can drive to the nearest big box toy store or head to Amazon to buy a fancy new dollhouse for their child, but where’s the fun and originality in that? Just as every child is different, each miniature playhouse should be unique, magical, and match the dreams of its young landlord.

If you’re up for a bit of DIY, you can create a dollhouse that’s perfect for your little ones. Here are a few of the most charming, captivating, and creative DIY dollhouse designs to inspire you:

Miniature Dollhouses from Unlikely Materials

Some kiddos have an affinity for all things small; for them, the tinier, the better. Other children enjoy all that’s quirky and unexpected. If you browse Tora Verohovas Flickr stream, you will discover that her minuscule dolls and houses meet all of these requirements.

Verohova is a Russian artist who creates dolls, miniatures, and spaces to contain them using objects from nature – such as nut shells – as well as wood, fabric and other materials. While she does not provide instructions on how to replicate her tiny designs, you can certainly use them as inspiration for your own resourceful projects.

If you want to try your hand at a walnut shell home for a petite doll, be careful to crack the nuts along their natural seam. You can paint the interior to make it more house-like, and then add tiny bits of wood, fabric or even clay to make little accessories, such as beds, chairs and linens. Add a hinge, and you have the cutest little home for your kids to play with.

Houses for Your Living Dolls

There’s nothing tiny about the “dollhouses” shared in this post by Katie Shelton on the lovely lifestyle blog A Beautiful Mess. She created a village of playhouses for her daughter’s second birthday party. While you technically might not call them dollhouses, children could certainly pretend to be dolls in these just-their-size domiciles...or play with their largest stuffies.

However, you could take this idea a step further and create sprawling doll mansions out of large boxes. Cut doorways and windows, adding frames, curtains and cardboard doors as Katie did for her daughter. Completely remove the back panel of the box (leaving enough cardboard around the edges to hold up the roof and to keep the walls from collapsing) and use the extra cardboard to create additional floors within the house.

Complete the home by adding your little one’s existing doll furnishings or craft them from more empty boxes or other items you have on hand. Add contact paper to the walls or pull out your kiddos’ art supplies and let them have a decorating party.

Shoebox School

Not all dollhouses are actual houses. Your imaginative kiddo may want an entire (small) town of buildings in which their toys can live, work, play and learn. On the child and parent craft-focused blog, Molly Moo, mother and “self-confessed craftaholic” Michelle McInerney shares her construction of a cute, one-room schoolhouse made in half an hour from a cardboard shoebox.

Her simple process uses duct tape to cover the top, sides and interior of the box. With so many colors and patterns of the tape available, this is an inexpensive and easy way to customize the little building. Windows and doors are cut from the sides with a craft knife. The interior is spruced up with DIY posters on the walls and a chalkboard made from yet another slab of cardboard coated with chalkboard paint.

You could use this idea to create a post office, store, doctor’s office and so many other buildings for your child’s mini figures.

Hatbox Houses

Sometimes, a doll just needs a room of her (or his!) own. Vintage or replica hat boxes can be an adorable solution, such as this sweet doll bedroom idea from Erin at All Things Mini.

Many hat boxes have gorgeously lined interiors, making them perfect for a fashion doll’s bedroom. If you can find one with the right measurements, you may be able to insert a store-bought bed and insert it into the box, complete with pillows and linens. If not, you may have to get crafty and construct one from wood, cardboard, or other materials. Adorn the walls with tiny picture frames or posters; add a window and you are good to go. An additional benefit of this dollhouse DIY is that the lid makes it portable.

Making a dollhouse for your child can actually be rather simple and fun. The challenge is choosing the one your kiddo will love the most!

Plan on making a dollhouse for your little one? Share your fun DIY ideas with us!

Tags : arts and crafts   



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