How to Make a Little Dolls House for Your Kids

Little girls do love their dolls. The dolls themselves can be quite expensive to begin with and then come the clothes and accessories. Ask any little girl what they would like in their bedroom and the answer will undoubtedly be a dolls house.

little miss ladybug

But, my word, they can be expensive. They often run into hundreds of pounds for a basic model and can reach thousands of pounds. This puts them out of reach for many people, and it does seem a little unfair. There is an alternative, however. it’s not perfect, but it will keep you and your little girl occupied for many hours. Build your own. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, and you can work together creating a masterpiece that just keeps improving over time.

Here’s how to make your own dolls house from everyday materials.

For this project you are going to need:

• Cardboard (mixture of thicknesses and sizes + corrugated)
• Scissors
• Craft Knife
• Glue gun
• Paint
• Felt pens
• Base board (3mm hardboard sheet, available from DIY shops

1/ Begin by cutting out the side and back walls of the house from corrugated cardboard. Keep the corrugations running vertical. Use a hot glue gun, such as those available from Glue Guns Direct and other high quality retailers to ‘weld’ them together by holding them in place and running a bead of glue along the inside corners.

2/ Cut cardboard for the internal walls on the ground floor. Remember to leave tabs on each side of these, that can be folded over and used to glue them in place. Cut out doorways before gluing the walls in. Keep the downstairs rooms fairly small, so there are more walls supporting the upstairs.

3/ Glue the downstairs walls in place.

4/ Cut the upstairs floor out of corrugated card and glue it in place by ‘welding’ to the outside walls and gluing to the tabs of the downstairs walls.

5/ The internal walls for the upstairs can be created and fitted in the same way. They will hold up the loft floor.

6/ Use strong, corrugated card for the roof. Two layers may be needed if the roof begins to sag.

7/ Cut holes in the outside walls for windows. The window frames themselves are cut from better quality card and applied to the outside of the holes later.

8/ Using lining paper and wallpaper adhesive, cover the outside of the house. This will add strength and give a good base to paint.

9/ Cut a piece of corrugated card for the front of the house. It is a good idea to make it double thickness with the corrugations at 90 degrees to each other in the layers. Apply lining paper. The front of the house will be removable for play and simply stands in place when the house is not busy.

10/ Apply the window frames that you made earlier. Also apply a few hundred individual roof tiles cut from card. It doesn’t take as long as you think once you get going.

flattop341

That is the main structure complete. Now, armed with paintbrushes, your little ones can set to work decorating. If you are able to line the internal walls with paper, it will make this job easier. Dolls house wallpaper is available online at a reasonable price per sheet and does look good when applied, as the pattern is to scale.

Why stop there? Armed with cardboard, paper, and pva glue, there is a world of furniture waiting to be made.

If a mom or dad is ever looking for a way to interact with, and occupy their child, the dolls house is the answer. It is great fun and, when the kids are all grown up; they will always look back fondly at the time when you built a house together. They will probably do the same for their own children. No, wait, that’s your job Granny, you’re the expert, get to work!