Build Your Own Barbie Dollhouse – We made this play kitchen for Nova’s big present last year, and honestly, it’s the only present they’ve played with every day all year.
I also learned how meaningful (to me!) it is to spend months planning and working on a special project to give the kids for Christmas.
Build Your Own Barbie Dollhouse
Kick and Nova love the scene in the movie where they clean up every moment. About a month ago I asked her if she wanted mommy to make her a dollhouse and she said, “Yes, but it has to have doors.” Haha
Barbie Dreamhouse Playset
The first step was to design the basic structure of the house. It took me a long time to find the various kits that you can buy online, but I finally decided that it would be the most fun to make them from scratch.
My friend Mandi gave us some advice. I decided to build a simple 4ft house with two doors, six rooms and a bonus room hidden under the roof.
The windows outside the house are decorated with window boxes. The windows of the doors originally had only four holes.
My assistant Colin did an incredible job building the house based on the original sketches I made. He added many of his own details, such as the chimney. I’ll now turn it over to Colin to walk you through the DIY steps of building the house!
Custom Doll House Dollhouse Kit With 3 Floors Wooden Doll
First, you need to cut all the plywood pieces for the sides, back, and bottom of the dollhouse. Overall dimensions are 30″ wide, 4″ high x 12″ deep.
The easiest way to cut plywood is to lay it on a table or workbench and secure it with wooden clamps. Have a speed square to guide the circular saw to make sure you get a perfectly straight cut.
If you are making a 12-inch or smaller cut when slicing plywood lengthwise, attach a piece of wood to the top of the board to guide the saw (as shown in the photo above). This will ensure you get a clean cut.
Pro tip! Place a piece of masking tape on your plywood over the cut to prevent unwanted chipping and chipping.
Barbie Dollhouse With 2 Levels Hcd47
Cut the bottom of the dollhouse to measure 29″ x 11″. The last two pieces measure 40 by 14.5 inches. The sides will be 4′ x 12′ with a 45° angle at the top of each piece as shown above.
Assemble all parts with wood glue and attach a nail gun to the sides and back of the bottom as shown above.
I cut the top of the back pieces and added a piece of scrap wood to hold it together, but it wasn’t completely necessary (I found out later), but you can add it if you want.
The next task is to cut out the windows. I made a template out of foam board (cardboard would also work) to speed up the process.
How To Build A Diy Dollhouse
You can make any size window, but ours are 2.5″ x 2.5″ with 1/2 inch between each square. Find 6 sets of windows, 3 on each side of the dollhouse.
In order not to confuse the lines, it is useful to fill in the cut part of the window with a pencil. Drill pilot holes the same width as the saw blade in opposite corners of each window and cut out the windows.
Take some scrap pieces of plywood and cut some short 1″ strips to support the second and third “floors” and attach them to the walls with wood glue and a nail gun as shown above.
Cut two more 29″ x 11.5″ boards (the same size as the bottom piece) and place them on top of the support plates and secure with wood glue and a nail gun.
Get Wooden Dollhouses From The Doll House Co.
For the roof, cut two sheets of plywood 32″ x 10″ at a 45° angle so that when you put them together they will meet in the middle as shown above.
To make long 45° cuts, simply use the same method I described earlier, but set the circular saw at a 45° angle when cutting.
Place the two roof elements on top of the dollhouse and place a clear elastic band on top.
You may be wondering why the band bends and not the hinge. Well, if I use hinges, they will be very visible and stick out from the top of the ceiling, and I really didn’t want that. I wanted it to appear as the roof didn’t open at all so it was a super fun surprise when it did!
Insanely Pretty Diy Dollhouse Plans [free]
Glue and nail the rear roof piece to the doll house, leaving the front part free to open and close.
For the base of the fireplace, take the 3-by-3-by-3-inch board and cut a 5-inch piece at a 45-degree angle on one side. Next, cut one of the 1/4″ x 2″ x 2″ boards into four 3″ pieces at a 45° angle on each side as shown above at the top of the chimney.
Attach the short 3″ pieces to the top of the chimney base, then glue and nail the chimney to the back of the dollhouse anywhere.
Next for the roof (shingles) take the six 1/4″ x 4″ x 2″ boards and cut them to the length of the roof (32″) and attach them to the roof starting from the bottom up.
Free Dollhouse Plans That You Can Diy Today
On the back side you will need to cut the pieces to fit around the chimney. To do this, hold the 1/4″ x 4″ x 2″ pieces toward the chimney and mark where to cut.
Use the same cutting method as I explained, cut out the windows, drill the guide holes in the corners, and seal the pieces.
Take your 1/4″ x 2″ x 2″ boards and use a miter saw to cut a bunch of 6″ pieces at a 45° angle to decorate your windows. Glue and attach all the decorations to all 6 windows.
Then cut some 10″ pieces with a 45º cut on one end for the roof trim as above.
Vintage Barbie House Farmhouse Makeover
Pro tip! You can get some 400 grit sandpaper and tape it to a piece of wood to sand the inside of the windows.
For the doors, cut and press two sheets of plywood to 40″ x 15″ and cut 6 windows and hinges as before. You can decorate these windows, but we decided to leave them plain.
Cut 3 pieces of 12″ x 13 1/4″ plywood as room dividers and use a glue and nail gun in the center of each floor to create 6 separate rooms.
Next, cut another 29″ x 11.5″ floor piece, but this time a 45° cut on one side to match the angle of the top floor and the “hidden room”.
Barbie Dreamhouse: 60 Years Beyond The Plastic
Finally, take the 1/4″ x 2″ x 2″ boards and cut pieces 2 1/4″ long and 6 1/2″ long to make little window boxes on the sides of each window. Dollhouse.
You can also buy a dollhouse kit or an epic finished product. I love that this is a collapsible set!
Links: 3D Puzzle Dollhouse / Attic Dollhouse / Kitchen Dollhouse / Modern Dollhouse / Victorian Dollhouse / Greenhouse Dollhouse So the beginning of this project is “I’m not going to do much…just spray paint some plastic furniture. It doesn’t look fancy. you’re the cutest Not the cutest dollhouse you’ve ever seen…” and ended up spending two weeks adding boards, walls, making little baskets and chandeliers. It’s been a spiral into madness, but it’s been a lot of fun! (Remember, I started this when we were first ordered to stay home due to the pandemic, so it was very therapeutic. I highly recommend making one. It’s cheaper than therapy and gives your mind something good to do. Crazy things are happening now .) Note: When I made this, I didn’t think it would get the love and attention it does, so I took a lot of steps. Not listed. I made the video for my Instagram stories (thank god) so posting this I was able to screenshot them to get some pictures. If you’re wondering why any of these have poor photo quality, here’s why. I’m sorry about the incident!
Here’s the full dollhouse for you to check out! You can watch the IGTV video tour on my Instagram @hartley_home
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When I made mine I had a lot of stuff because we couldn’t go to the store safely. But it also forced me to be really creative, which was a lot of fun. We also saved some furniture from the Barbie dream house (which the girls never