Dollhouse?

[TOK]

Kind of OT, but also kind of right up the alley of this forum. 

My daughter is just turning 3, and my wife and I were thinking of getting her a dollhouse. All the nicer kits are too fragile, and the stuff at the other end of the spectrum is plastic Barbie junk. I thought about building something somewhere in the middle. Not to fancy and very sturdy using MDF and the same basic skills we use for building a MAME cab.

Probably a Cape Cod style house, perhaps 3' tall by 4' wide. Anyone built one, or seen any cool plans?

[BobA]

Here is a link to a larger bookcase style dollhouse.Link

To build scale (arch correct) 1/12 is used so this scale allows purchase of many expensive items.   The most popular play houses seem to be built for 11.5 inch dolls (Barbie).  Not sure exactly what scale this works out to be.  If Barbie was just under 6 ft I guess it would be close to 1/6 scale.

[patrickl]

Did you try google? I could see a ton of plans.

Some might cost some money, but I guess that will be saved back easily. For instance I don't think you'd want to build something like this U-BILD Victorian Doll House Plan without printed plans

[TOK]

Bob... Thanks, this looks pretty good, right along the lines I was going for. Scale isn't too important, since it will just house whatever doll she's playing with at the moment.

Patrick... The Victorians are available in kit from from a local hobby store. They are very nice, but tend to be more for looking at than playing with. Since she's just turning 3, my daughter wants to make them go up and down the steps, open and close every door 500 times, and most likely stand on the roof and jump off (before trying to fit herself inside).

She can have a nice kit when she is 7 or 8. Right now, I need a big, square appliance I can throw in the bonfire in about 3 years. 

[ScottS]

My Dad built a dollhouse for my sister that was similar to the plans BobA posted. It was very basic, but she had a great time with it for years. I think it each floor was about 18" high and there were three floors, plus a "deck" on the flat roof. This was tall enough that just about any doll or stuffed animal could fit inside, from Barbie to the Easter Bunny. Each floor was divided into two rooms by a partition that had a door hole jigsawed into the middle. I don't recall any actual doors, but that didn't seem to matter to my sister. There was also a hole in the roof so that the dolls could get onto the deck. Again, the lack of doors didn't seem to both my sister.

The crowning achievement, which I have to admit seemed pretty cool to me at the time, was an "elevator"! The right side of the house had door-sized openings cut in the outside wall. The "elevator" was a four-sided box attached to a string. The string ran through an eye hook in the roof. Pull the string and the elevator went up, let it go and the elevator went down. There were magnets at each floor that would latch onto bolts or steel dowels inserted into the elevator box and hold it in place; no need to tie-off the string. We didn't have rare earth magnets in those days, so the box was only big enough to hold one Barbie-sized doll.

I think construction was mostly done with 3/4" plywood, a circular saw, jigsaw, and a drill. The base was larger than the "house", to prevent it from tipping over. The back was screwed and glued to the sides. The roof was slightly larger than the house, it overhung the right side enough to support the "elevator". Floors were 3/4" plywood glued and screwed to the sides. Partition walls were inserted between the floors. They might just have been glued in place; I don't remember for sure. There were various windows jigsawed into the sides and back. Dad bought a few pints of latex paint in colors my sister picked out and then painted the inside and outside. Some plastic doll-sized chairs and kitchen appliances finished the project off. Despite the simple construction, the project was a huge hit with my sister...

[TOK]

Scott, this sounds VERY much like what I want to build. Very simple, sturdy, and a bit on the large size to accommodate all of my daughters different sized dolls. Hadn't even thought about an elevator, but that is a really cool idea and I'm sure she'd love to fiddle with something like that.

Kind of has me thinking about layouts and all, thanks.