Colorful Eclectic Dollhouse Reveal

I told myself that after I finished the guest room I was done with projects for the year…but a few weeks later, the DIY itch got me again and I fell down a Pinterest rabbit hole of DIY dollhouses. I figured I still had plenty of time and decided to just go for it. haha. If you’ve been here a while you may have noticed I have this problem- I tend to just dive into a project with tons of motivation but without a completely clear plan. I guess I just like to learn as I go? haha.

I drew up a plan in Sketch up and got to work. I wanted the house to be to scale for Barbie’s so each level had to be about 14” tall. I bought a sheet of 1/2” plywood from Home Depot for about $40. I was able to cut most of my pieces from that and a bit of scrap wood in the garage. I made the main level deeper than the other two stories so that there is more room to play.

I kept the decor decisions simple by just recreating mini versions of the rooms in our current house. Now I know you’re going to look at the pictures and think there is nothing “simple” about this – but I am who I am and trust me if I was making up a design from scratch I would have probably gone much more overboard with the details.

I learned a lot with this project and got more comfortable with using the skill saw. I’m so proud of it and I cannot wait to play doll with my little girls. Alright, here she is!

Starting with the main level I made a white sofa like ours and added a picture ledge. We mostly have family pictures in ours so I decided to put the art I have in our guest room since they are my current favorite pieces. Specifically “Olivia” – the figure painting in the middle and “Flora” the floral print on the right. They are both from Juniper print shop. I salvaged the fireplace from an old broken barbie house that someone gave us at the beginning of the pandemic. The rugs I made by cutting up a couple of cheap IKEA rugs we had sitting in the basement. And since it’s nearly Christmas I had to give them a little tree and stockings on the mantel.

The kitchen sink and cabinets were also salvaged from the old barbie house. I made the fridge from a chunk of wood and then added some tile and shelves. The tiny bottles I found at the dollar store.

My brother made the dining chairs on his 3D printer and I’m geeking out over how cute they are!

Here are our current living and dining room that inspired it.

I still had wallpaper left from our entryway makeover so I had to put a little strip by the door. I used picture hanging hooks to be barbie sized coat hooks and made a tiny bench to go below.

Here is our real entry.

Moving up the stairs is a tiny bathroom. I didn’t copy too much from our bathroom for the sake of my own sanity but I printed some subway tile and put up a round mirror. The mirror came from one of those handheld makeup mirrors and the bathroom fixtures my brother also printed on his 3D printer.

The downstairs bathroom that inspired it.

Next is the girls’ room. I love this room in real life and I am equally obsessed with the mini version of it! If I didn’t know better I’d think it was a real-life bedroom!

The real deal bedroom.

Up the next set of stairs is the Master bedroom. I’m a constant crafter so of course, I had a bit of velvet leftover from the headboard I made a couple of years ago to make a mini one. The nightstands were blocks of wood painted and then used toothpicks for the drawer pulls. The lamps were made from tiny cups that I covered in fabric and attached to a round dowel.

Using parts of the rugs I cut up I even made tiny fringed pillows like ours.

Here’s the most current photo of our bedroom.

The room next to the Masterbedroom was perfect for the nursery. I made the crib by following a youtube tutorial that called for round and square wood dowels. I recreated the wall hanging using toothpicks-the original one was made with skewer sticks.