My New Dollhouse

I just finished building my first dollhouse using scrap lumber.   This dollhouse was ALMOST completely free to build.  The only cost involved in building it was time, and a bottle of Elmer’s stainable wood glue.  Of course I used tools I already had on hand as well.

The tools I used were a hammer, jigsaw and sander.  Of course a hacksaw and regular sandpaper would have been sufficient as well for cutting and sanding the pieces.

I used pieces of 1/2-inch plywood for the bottom floor, middle floor, outside right and left walls and inside walls.  The top floor and back is made with 1/4-inch plywood.  The attic is made from a piece of Birchwood paneling.

All of the wood used in the dollhouse came from wood I either salvaged from the “wood” trash bin at the local dump, from construction sites where workers did not mind me grabbing pieces that were destined to be thrown away and as gifts from family and friends who know I salvage almost any piece of wood, furniture or metal I can get my hands on.

The nails used to hold the pieces in place were also salvaged from various sources.

All pieces were glued using Elmer’s wood glued, and then secured with nails (tack nails were used for the roof).

The dollhouse measures 35″ wide, is 11″ deep and the rooms are 10″ from floor to ceiling.  The attic is 17 1/2″ from floor to the top middle of the roof.

It took 2 days to build.  My dad (Kenneth Stidham) came to visit this past weekend and he and I worked on the dollhouse from 2pm till 9pm that night.  During this time we completed the bottom and middle floors, cut the doors out of the walls and nailed them in place.

Dad had to leave Sunday morning, so my 10-year-old son helped me finish it.  On Sunday we worked from 3pm to 6pm to complete the back and roof.  I did the cutting, and he did the nailing.   My son also completed the difficult task of securing the roof with glue and tack nails.  Once the glue dried I was AMAZED at how well he did, it’s VERY secure.

I intend to decorate this dollhouse using nothing but free or almost free materials.  My intentions for doing this is to show that ANYONE can afford a dollhouse, even someone who has nothing left in the budget for an expensive dollhouse and all of the furnishings, lighting, doors, windows….well you get the picture.

I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts illustrating how to decorate a dollhouse when on a budget, it’s going to be a lot of fun!

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