How to Build a Doll House for Your Little Princess
Every little girl imagines a huge doll house to play with her dolls in. Each room filled with elegant doll sized furniture and tiny little pictures hanging on the walls. With a little bathtub in the bathroom and little bitty towels on the racks.
It’s really simple to make a doll house if you have the right tools. You will need some thin 1/4 inch thick ply wood, tape measure, larger sized tack nails, small screws, wood glue, a hammer, tack paper, hack saw, jack knife, 15 small hinges, small lock of your choice easy enough for a child to use and paint.
First, you want the to cut the front of the house in the same dimensions as the back of the house. This will be your choice as to how big you want to make the doll house. For this example we will use square dimensions and each side will be 22″ long. Then you will want to cut the sides of your house, each being 22″ in side, and 11″ in width, which is half of the length. The point, that your roof will lay on, will be 8″ on each side. See diagram A for an example. After the side pieces are cut, you will want to cut them one more time directly down the middle vertically. When you are done cutting the sides, put one side back together with your 4 small hinges, screws and some wood glue (for extra protection). This is how the doll house will open up. Again, we are still using these measurements as an example, you can choose how big or small it will be.
After cutting your walls, you will need to cut the boards for the roof. With any roof, you will notice that they all hang over the walls, so make sure that you cut the boards at least three inches longer than the length of your walls. Two 25″ long by 14″ wide boards would be a good sized roof for this example. With any doll house, you will also need to make a floor. The dimensions will be 22′ X 11″ You will want to cut this piece in half so you can open the doll house. On the 11″ side, measure up 5.5″ and cut across.
Next, you will want to cut out your doors and windows. This will be a personal preference. However many doors or windows you want will be up to you. You will want to measure and draw your doors and windows on the walls before you cut them out. Using the jack knife, cut the doors and windows and try to salvage what you cut out because you will use them to make real doors that open and close with the leftover hinges. You can go ahead and put your doors and windows back on by using the hinges on the inside of the walls. See Diagram B for an example.
After you are all done with the windows and doors, you will want to put your house together. I, personally, will use wood glue to glue each edge together before nailing them together. See Diagram C for an example. Excluding the side wall that you cut and left cut. This piece you will want to put your lock on. Make sure that you do not glue or nail the top of the roof together. By doing so, you will be unable to open the house. Towards the middle of the side wall that you left uncut, install a small lock that is simple enough for a child to use. This will allow you to open up your doll house.
When the glue is dry and the walls, floor, and roof are nailed in place, open up the doll house. You will want to make four rooms, each the same size if you wish. On this particular house, we are making them the same size. Each room will be 11″ long and 5.5″ wide and 11″ tall. The top two rooms will have vaulted ceilings due to the roof. You can insert the middle board first, which will be 21 3/4″ long and 5 1/4″ wide (because the ply wood is 1/4″ thick). Note, we are only working on one side of the house at a time. Glue the shorter sides and put the board in place, exactly 11″ off the floor. Do the same for the other side. Then you will want to put walls up in between your 4 rooms. You will need 4 walls all together. These walls will be 10 3/4″ wide and 5 1/4″ long. Glue these in the same way you did the others, on both sides vertically down the middle. When all of your rooms are dry, use your tack nails to tack the walls together.
With your scrap ply wood, get creative. You can make shutters, shingles, a chimney, or even some stairs. Use your imagination to decorate the doll house. Paint the outside as desired and use some tack paper to decorate the inside walls and floor. You can also purchase inexpensive doll house furniture and dolls on the Internet. Just use your favorite search engine to find them.
You will have fun building this doll house for your little angel and she will appreciate it and cherrish it for years to come. In many cases, she may even hand it down to her own daughter.
