...creative DIY & design
Hey there! Thanks for coming. I have a ton of work in this, it's nice to know someone is interested! Below are a bunch of pics of the doll house I made for my daughter a while back. I'll share how I made several things, as well as how and what I repurposed later. For now, enjoy these pics. I hope you like this project, my daughter sure does!
You might be wondering how much money I have in a project like this. The expense went mostly into buying some plastic Barbie furniture (off ebay), some wood dowels, trim, hardware, scrapbook paper, odds and ends at the dollar store and Hobby Lobby, and 1/4 yards of fabric to use here and there. This house and everything in it, cost me around fifty bucks. (I even resold two extra Barbie kitchens that came in a lot to pay for some of the things I bought.) I didn't need to buy wood for the house itself.
A while back, my husband and I bought a lot of preschool furniture, (for the cost of one item we got several pallets worth....which was awesome!). It was all a little beat up but aside from using a bunch of things around the house, I felt like I could turn two shelves into this doll house by reconstructing one and placing it on top of the other. I'll break that down more later. As you can see, it's spacious and accessible. I cut in windows, added two walkways/hallways (from scraps of the shelf I cut down) that made it so I didn't have to cut doorways in (very dense plywood) leaving the bottom shelf still usable as a shelf later (< that will, likely, never happen because I have another 8 month old that will grow into it as my older daughter loses interest). I even added an elevator so that Barbie wouldn't need stairs (I didn't want to build stairs or take up valuable square inches of floor space).............can you tell I've thought about this a little? haha.
Anyways, I enjoy the challenge of a designing and building things. The craziness keeps me sane :) Spending my spare time (not that I have a lot) in front of the tv would be draining to me. I'd rather have a multipurpose hobby like creating things that give my kids great memories.
There's a description of the beds I made in this video. I throw out another idea for an elevator in another video. And I go over how I did the living room and made the couch and lamp here on YouTube. Sorry these aren't real demonstrative tutorials, but I hope it helps!
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Update: Here is a simple diagram of the house I made. This plan is figured using 1/2" plywood (thinner material could be used but would be much more difficult to work with). A thin (1/4") piece of masonite (cut to fit) would work for the back. I forgot to add the roof angle, it's about 100 degrees at the peak. Notice (from the side) that it appears to be in two parts, that is so that it can be moved in parts (after placing the top section on we braced it together from the back). My doll house is constructed of 5/8" plywood and is excessively heavy, using 1/2" material will lighten the load, though you may want to rely on extra metal bracing at joints for added support. I also left out the elevator and stairs, those would need to be determined by your preference and capabilities, (though feel free to write me if you'd still want those marked out on this plan.)
