Children and adults alike enjoy creating doll houses from wood. The miniatures industry nets millions annually, providing scaled reproductions of furniture, flatware, tableware, lighting, wall, floor and window coverings, landscaping and yard decorations. Wooden doll houses range in complexity from detailed post-Victorian reproductions, complete with electric chandeliers, Aubusson carpets, and Wedgwood china, to simple, open sided doll houses with four or eight rooms divided by thin wood or metal walls, with an occasional door or window opening.
Instructions
1. Decide what type wooden doll house you wish to make. Victorian, modern, rustic and Medieval are all popular choices. Medieval doll houses are made to look like castles or crofts. Rustic doll houses can be log cabins, clapboard salt boxes or stucco mission homes. Decide how many rooms your wood doll house will have, and how they will be arranged.
Most Victorians are two-story townhouses, with the kitchen, living room, dining room and laundry or pantry downstairs, three bedrooms and a bath upstairs, with a possible garret under the eaves. Every room has its own fireplace, complete with an ornate mantel. Victorians also have front and rear staircases, which allow the servants to perform their duties without interfering with the family and their guests.
Modern homes usually contain a living room/dining area, a pass-through kitchen, two bathrooms, and two or more bedrooms. They have low-pitched, nearly flat roofs and cantilevered balconies overlooking outdoor patios or breezeways.
Rustic homes, with the exception of castles, typically have one big room, or a room divided by canvas or cloth walls. The log cabins often had a single loft upstairs, and at least one fireplace.
2. Cut the walls for your chosen doll house. Use 1/4-inch thick Masonite or plywood. Lay out door and window holes with a marker and cut them with a jig saw. Sand all walls smooth. Glue quarter-round cove molding across the inside of each side wall of the doll house, with the horizontal side facing the roof, at room height for each story of the house, to support the floors between each level. According to doll house maker Jennifer Brooks, this is the most effective way to support the upper floors. Assemble doll house walls using a tack hammer and half inch long finishing nails. Do not drive side wall nails all the way in until after the floors have been placed across the cove molding supports. Frame all doorways and windows. Apply clear silicone adhesive to horizontal surfaces of cove molding supports. Tap or slide the floors into place between the side walls. Wipe away any excess silicone adhesive.
3. Paint or wallpaper all walls. Paint any needed wall effects, such as sponging, stenciling, marbling or stone patterns. Create crown molding, baseboards, wainscoting and chair rails as needed. Many hardware and craft stores carry these products in miniature, already manufactured.
4. Add details such as light fixtures, wiring, plumbing fixtures, furniture and household goods. Find dolls the right scale for your house. Create period and style-appropriate window coverings. Connect any needed wiring and plumbing, building soffits where needed to hide utilities. (Soffits are the enclosed area above wall-mounted cabinets and are used to run electric lines, computer cables, phone lines and plumbing while keeping them out of the way and out of sight.) Place all items to their best effect.
5. Paint and finish the exterior of the wood doll house in whatever aesthetically pleasing way fits the era of the home. Add window boxes, flowers, trees and shrubs around the base of the doll house.
Tags: doll house, doll houses, cove molding, complete with, cove molding supports, door window, living room