You Can Make This Inexpensive, Miniature Doll House
Here's an easy to construct miniature doll house design that makes a great craft project. If you follow these simple instructions, you can end up with an inexpensive, light, and portable doll house that's just the size for loads of fun, yet small enough and light enough to be moved out of the way when not being used.
Your little girl will probably like to help build this miniature doll house. And I'm sure she'd love to play hours upon end with it when the construction is finished.
I added a drawer handle to the top of my prototype to show how portable the little gem is. I also added picture frame hooks on the back. My little doll house, completely furnished, hangs proudly on my craft room wall..
A Decorative Doll House Big Enough To Play With
Just Open It Up And Take A Look
From the closed front, this miniature doll house may look small. Yet even so it has the charm of a small cottage. A small latch keeps the doors closed when not in use. The enticing front windows invite you to peek inside.
Once the doors are opened, you find that this compact cottage houses several rooms of easy living for small dolls. You can even make the dolls to reside within this cottage by following instructions at Miniature Doll Project.
My version of the doll house, as you can see, is fully equipped with miniature craft furniture. You can find how to build all the miniature doll house furniture at Betchalikeit Crafts, and well as many other miniature furniture items.
Start With The Right Materials
Above you see a parts layout for the pieces used to construct the doll house cottage.
The parts are all cut from 3/16 inch thick sheets of foam board. I settled on plastic coated foam board as the best material for this doll house after having used the material on several other projects. Foam board is very light, very strong, and easily cut with a craft knife .
The prototype I made is 16 inches wide and 16 1/2 inches tall. The taper of the back panel starts at the height of 12 inches, and the final tapered width is 10 inches. My prototype is designed to be 6 inches deep.
I used 3/8 inch thick (square cross-section) balsa wood bracing strips glued along the back (see next section). You can see that the room dividers have a notch cut out to accommodate the supporting strips.
If you need more explicit details on the layout, check out Easy Doll House Project.
With The Parts Cut -- Begin Construction
The first step in construction, now that the parts are all cut, is to assemble the miniature doll house frame. Most any construction glue will do, but I like crafting "tacky" glue.Start by gluing the top and bottom pieces to the doll house back. All the frame pieces sit on directly on the back. The top and bottom dimensions should be chosen to span clear across the doll house back.
Notice the wood strips that run around the frame, glued both to the back and the top, bottom, and side pieces. These are 3/8 inch thick (square cross-section) balsa wood strips. They provide adequate support for the construction.
The doll house sides are dimensioned to fit along the left and right edges of the back, and sit between the top and bottom pieces.
Add The Second Floor And Wall Dividers
Here you see all the internal floor and wall dividers in place. Again note that you need to cut a notch out of the backs of the dividers to accommodate the balsa wood framing strip.Insert the horizontal piece first. It creates the second floor. It may need to be trimmed to fit snuggly between the doll house side panels.
Then add the internal wall dividers. Again, cut them so that they fit snuggly between the bottom and second floor, and second floor and top, respectively. You can space the internal wall dividers to make whatever room sizes you desire.
The last step in framing the doll house is to glue the roof top panel and the roof side panels to the back panel. This creates the roof and adds an additional attic room.
Add Doors And Windows
To complete the basic doll house construction, all you need to do is add the doors, and perhaps some decorative windows.At right you see the right side door for my prototype doll house. The window is simply a piece of blue construction paper with a matching sized piece of doily cut to fit. The window is then framed with thin cut strips of 1/8 inch thick balsa wood. I put one on each door, and similar type windows on the outside walls of my doll house.
I used small cabinet hinges to attach the cottage doors. The hinges are fastened to the inside of the cottage side panels and the back side of the doors. I added small squares of wood under the hinges to help support the doors. The small squares of wood are from a wood shapes assortment. These work better than balsa wood squares because the wood shapes are cut from harder wood.
I attached the hinges with both screws and glue.
I attached a supporting wood shape to the bottom side of the roof panel to help support the handle, then attached the handle to the top of the roof panel.
More detail on the construction of windows and window frames is available at Easy Doll House Project.
Come Into My Living Room
Step into my doll house living room for a tour.As you can see, you and your little girl can have a ball decorating and furnishing the rooms in your miniature doll house. And the decorating sets up even more craft projects for you to engage in.
The window is this room is made in a technique similar to that in the construction of the front door window. You can even take nice scenic photos from magazines to create picture windows for your doll house rooms.
In addition to the picture window, you can see some miniature doll house furniture adorning the quaint little room. The furniture is also hand made, and the furniture construction added to the fun of creating the doll house. You can see how to make these furniture pieces and many other miniature doll house furniture pieces at Miniature Doll House Furniture Projects.
How To Make A Miniature Gazebo And Other Crafts At Lulu
Crafting Books on Amazon
Crafting Cloth Dolls
Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 12/30/2009) 
Creating and Crafting Dolls
Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)
Creating & Crafting Dolls: Patterns, Techniques, and Inspiration for Making Cloth Dolls (Craft Kale Idoscope)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)
Doll Houses At Amazon
Plan Toy Doll House Doll Family
Amazon Price: $18.11 (as of 12/30/2009)
Melissa & Doug Deluxe Doll-House Kitchen Furniture
Amazon Price: $26.94 (as of 12/30/2009)
Melissa & Doug Deluxe Doll-House Furniture- Living Room Set
Amazon Price: $29.98 (as of 12/30/2009)
Melissa & Doug Deluxe Doll-House Nursery Furniture
Amazon Price: $22.54 (as of 12/30/2009)
Doll Stuff At Amazon
Little Mommy Baby Ah-Choo Doll
Amazon Price: $33.95 (as of 12/30/2009)
Corolle Les Cheries Doll Chloé Ballerina - 13" Doll
Amazon Price: $44.99 (as of 12/30/2009)
Corolle Les Cheries Doll Camille Ballerina - 13" Doll
Amazon Price: $45.00 (as of 12/30/2009)
Doll Houses on eBay
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