A couple of years ago for Anya’s birthday, Richard and I thought that she would love a dolls house so we decided to make one as that is so much more personal than buying one. Richard painstakingly made the dolls house out of some wood he bought, we ordered wallpaper samples to line the walls and we even made teeny tiny furniture from bits of wood and small toy blocks. We had my mum-in-law knit mini blankets and we made little cushions and pillows from foam and fabric scraps. Because it was going to be a surprise for Anya, we did most of the creating at night, often staying up till the early hours to get it finished on time. Lots of love, effort and time went in to this handmade DIY dolls house. On her birthday with much excitement and anticipation we gave it to her.
Anya’s initial reaction was one of joy and we felt happy she had a dolls house as we knew that every little kids loves a dolls house, right? Wrong. After playing with it for about half an hour, the dolls house was never looked at again. Ever. It’s now been given to charity and I am hoping some other little kid is enjoying it. That’s the thing about kids though – you never know what they will like! We will not be making any more dolls houses ever again (we are scarred for life : ) but if you want to try and make one here are some fabulous ideas to get you inspired and I really hope you have better luck then me:
A DIY cardboard dolls house is an inexpensive option and you can be very creative with it like these two examples show. The first cardboard dolls house is a simple construction from cardboard boxes. I love the colourful windows and doors but you don’t have to stop there – you can add as much colour as you like. Maybe paint the whole house white and then add the colours around the windows. In the second dolls house, each room is made out of a basic box and if you tire of one room you can just get another box and make a new one. Also there’s no limit to the number of rooms you can add.
This is such a simple and cute idea. Really easy to make, these DIY house shelf dolls houses can be decorated with wallpaper samples or paint and you can even have different floors on the larger shelves. I love the idea of hanging these on the wall so they are at the perfect level for play and they look great too.
Using an old bookshelf is another way to make a fabulous dolls house. But like the picture above you can easily turn an old bookshelf in to a fire station or police station too. I love how the roof is painted on the wall so you don’t need to create a roof from additional wood and the bigger the book case, the more rooms you can have.
This is a fantastic Ikea hack. This is a basic Ikea bedside table that’s been turned in to a modern and fun DIY dolls house. The furniture too is from Ikea but you could always make your own.
Last is this really clever DIY suitcase dolls house. It’s as fun as any of the others and it’s so easy to store away too. The front of the house can be decorated with chalkboard paint and chalk like this one or you could create windows and doors with washi tape and add lots of colour too.
There you have some of really fun ideas to get creating your very own DIY dolls house. Even though I won’t be making anymore dolls houses anytime soon, I’m still loving these ideas. My favourite is the house shelf – I think it looks so adorable and doubles up as really cute decor too. What’s your favourite?
