DIY dollhouse - made of cardboard, plywood and boxes. Manufacturing master class with photos, drawings and dimensions

Completely unnecessary secrecy

Having obtained step-by-step instructions for creating a dollhouse, parents who are passionate about this idea often try to hide the processes from their child

• Design;
• Manufacturing of components;
• Assemblies;
• Dollhouse coloring;
• Basic and final finishing.

It should be noted that there is absolutely no need for this conspiracy. In fact, the girl and her sisters will get great pleasure from participating in every stage of creating a fairy-tale or completely realistic building.

Involving the child in drawing up drawings, transferring them to plywood, cutting out blanks

• Will give a powerful impetus to children's imagination;
• Will contribute to the development of fine manual motor skills, and with it imaginative thinking;
• Will lay the foundations for the professional guidance of her daughters and her friends;
• It will take relationships with parents and other family members to a new level.

Variety of materials

A wide variety of materials are used to make the house: cardboard, boards, plywood, chipboard, USB boards, etc. Let's look at the most common of them.

Plywood

It is one of the most common materials for making dollhouses. It has good strength and is easy to process with conventional tools.

Plywood parts can be connected to each other using glue, nails and self-tapping screws.

In addition, plywood has a beautiful wooden appearance.

But, in order to avoid material hazardous to health from entering your home, you should choose plywood according to the markings on the sheets! Plywood sheets are marked depending on their formaldehyde content per 100 g of product:

• E0 – less than 6 mg;
• E1 – from 7 to 9 mg;
• E2 – from 10 to 20 mg.

Drywall

This material is convenient to use in cases where there are quite a lot of scraps left after repairs. You will have to assemble the parts using special tin corners and self-tapping screws.

From an aesthetic point of view, this is not very beautiful, because... they will stick out from the back and will have to be decorated somehow.

Oriented Strand Boards

A very worthy material with good strength and moisture resistance. In processing and assembly, the properties are similar to plywood.

But the main difference from plywood is that it is made from wood chips. Here, of course, you will need additional processing of the house (painting, wallpapering, etc.)

Cardboard

This is probably the most inexpensive material. Often, equipment or shoe boxes are used to quickly make toy houses.

But cardboard does not hold loads well, which makes such a house short-lived. Connect cardboard parts using glue, staples, and tape.

To give strength to such a house, its frame is made of wooden planks.

Chipboard (chipboard)

Plates made from regular chipboard and laminated chipboard (chipboard) are quite thick and heavy material for making a house. It is suitable for large structures.

It will be convenient to order sawing from a company specializing in the production of cabinet furniture. After that, all that remains is to assemble the finished parts using self-tapping screws or furniture fittings.

Just like with plywood, you need to pay attention to the formaldehyde content. When choosing chipboard (chipboard), give preference to material with emission class E0-E1.

Furniture panels

Furniture panels are made by gluing wooden planks together using wood glue.

The use of this material for the manufacture of a dollhouse ensures the strength of the future structure, ease of processing, and most importantly, ensures environmental safety.

A wooden house will not just be a toy, it will become a real decoration for a child’s room. However, you can't call it cheap.

The true meaning of building a house

It has long been noted that the happy child is not the one who has a lot of toys, but the one who is constantly surrounded by parental attention and love. That's why the idea of ​​how to build a dollhouse with your own hands with the participation of your daughter or granddaughter can ultimately

• increase psychological comfort;
• to form in the girl an understanding of the importance of her role in the family;
• immerse her in an atmosphere of friendliness, warmth, sympathy and well-being.

It is a gift that you put together with your own hands, and not just a beautiful factory item bought in a store, that will best let a young girl know that she is respected, loved and appreciated.

Interior design - toy furniture and decor

Interior design is a real holiday for a girl, so it’s worth inviting her to help with interior design and furniture making. The latter can also be very diverse. The most affordable option is cardboard.

Everything that is in the house will be used for finishing:

• wallpaper remnants;
• pieces of fabric;
• beads;
• artificial flowers;
• toothpicks;
• cardboard boxes and so on.

Everything depends only on the imagination of the manufacturer. You can make beautiful curtains, bedspreads, tablecloths, even pictures for the walls yourself. This will not take much time, but it will be fun and will help to attract the girl to housework and sewing.

Video tutorial on creating furniture from plywood:

Video tutorial on creating foam furniture:

Significant money savings

In addition to the above arguments in favor of the implementation of such a plan, the following theses can be cited:

• Due to the fact that doll houses made in toy factories sometimes cost almost as much as real country houses, self-building will save the family budget from serious damage, credit and ruin;
• There is no need to spend a long time shopping around for houses that can fit into a cramped children's small apartment;
• There is an opportunity to decorate and furnish rooms with toy furniture at your own discretion;
• If the girl wishes, instead of a typical modern cottage, you can build a medieval castle, a palace of an oriental beauty, a cozy rural hut, a luxurious “gingerbread” mansion with carvings on the window frames, shutters and facade, as well as a futuristic spacious tower from a science fiction book or film.

Increasing the functionality of the house

It wouldn’t hurt to approach making a house from a practical point of view. To do this, you just need to provide a section for storing things in the lower tier. Cut the sides of the drawers (practice on a piece of cardboard) to the appropriate sizes, glue them together and screw on the handle.

Insert the finished box into the department. If desired, you can make several such boxes. This will allow you to compactly store small toys and doll accessories.

Important Additional Benefits

It should be noted that every minute spent on mastering the master class for beginners will bring enormous benefits to the creators of the structure chosen by my daughter.

After all, they will have to learn the basics

• Architecture;
• Theories of strength;
• Materials Science;
• Calculation of engineering systems;
• Installation of structural blocks, their soldering and gluing.

All these skills will subsequently completely deprive parents with a humanitarian education of the traditional fear of

• Plumbing repair;
• Laying tiles and other decor;
• Redevelopment of housing or office;
• Assembly of furniture sets;
• Construction and arrangement.

A dollhouse assembled with your own hands will give the father of the family, for example, the idea of ​​constructing a country fence on his own. Accordingly, he will save a lot of money on wages for the construction crew.

Dollhouses for children: we make them ourselves

The uniqueness of do-it-yourself dollhouses lies not only in their originality, but also in the opportunity to become closer with your child. It is better to make such a structure together with the baby: ask for her opinion, draw a house plan together, choose furniture, arrange the home like a real one. According to the general opinion of psychologists, such joint activity will benefit both parents and child.

Making a house for a doll is not difficult, and the child will be impressed for the whole year. You can show off a doll house made by your parents to your friends, and it’s also much more interesting to play with.

A classic dollhouse does not have a front wall to make it more convenient for a child to play with the dolls located in it. A homemade house can be different: without a wall, with a curtain simulating a wall, or with a real opening wall.

The choice of one option or another depends on the size of the house and the room in which the toy will be located, the age of the baby and the design features of the structure itself. Wooden or cardboard houses can be equipped with a spectacular closing wall, but a fabric house is traditionally made open.

The dimensions of the future doll house also depend on a number of factors. You should take into account the age of the baby who will play with dolls: small children find it difficult to use bulky products, while older children love large toys with a lot of parts.

Be sure to consider the size of the children's room or the room in which the toy will be placed. A massive house may turn out to be too bulky, it will get in the way and eventually end up on the balcony.

Little dollhouse in a box

A compact toy is an ideal option that is not too troublesome or time-consuming to make, it does not take up much space, and playing with such a doll house is no less interesting.

Big doll house

Houses for dolls made of different materials

Doll houses are made from everything from wood to cardboard folders. The breadth of possibilities gives parents the chance to create a unique, original product for their baby that will take into account the interests and preferences of a particular child.

Compact soft houses made of fabric are more suitable for kids, light cardboard houses for children 3-6 years old, and solid buildings made of plywood or old furniture for younger schoolchildren.

But it’s not enough to make a beautiful house - you also need to furnish it: decorate the walls and floor, arrange furniture, add accessories, house dolls. A self-made doll house is a constant creativity: searching for new solutions, adding original details and settling in new residents who need new rooms and additional furniture.

Psychologists advise using the creation and arrangement of such a doll house as an ideal means of communication with a child, because during the game you can find common ground and better understand each other.

From cardboard boxes

Houses made of plywood, laminate, wood

There are many requirements for a dollhouse: the child needs a bright and interesting product, mom cares about the environmental friendliness of the toy, and dad cares about the strength of the structure. It is unreliability that is the main problem of purchased doll houses, which do not always withstand the active play of active children.

Dollhouse made of wood

Making a house for dolls from laminate or plywood means getting an original, creative and durable housing option for all the baby’s dolls.

Designer house made of plywood

ADVICE. A house made with high quality according to plans found on the Internet with neat finishing will look no worse than a purchased one. And its uniqueness and unusual details will make such a toy a reason for pride.

Toy house house made of laminate

To make a durable and beautiful house for dolls, laminate or plywood (at least 7 mm thick) is cut according to pre-prepared patterns and securely fastened with inconspicuous corners and small nails, then glued with wood glue to ensure the strength of the entire structure.

The glue will also help eliminate any crevices that may look unattractive and become a place for small toy parts to get lost. After the body of the house is assembled, you can begin finishing: the ideal option for walls, floors and ceilings is self-adhesive film.

Plywood doll houses

Dozens of available colors and textures make it possible to create a dream house in any style. Such a house is very durable, so it can withstand not only light cardboard or plastic furniture, but also more reliable wooden parts.

Houses made of boxes or cardboard

An ideal option for joint creativity is to create a dollhouse from cardboard boxes. It can be any size: tiny figures will feel comfortable in a shoebox, larger dolls will need a vacuum cleaner box, and if you want a doll mansion, look for a washing machine or refrigerator box.

House for dolls made from boxes

ADVICE. A large house can be made not from one, but from several small boxes carefully fastened together. Such a structure can have several floors and rooms, a spacious attic and even a basement.

Cardboard dollhouse

Work with the box begins with removing one of the walls, as well as installing partitions between the rooms. The hollow box becomes a blank for the future home: the walls, floor and ceiling are decorated with paper, and plastic furniture that the house can support can be placed in the rooms.

Such a home for dolls is attractive due to its light weight, so moving it to another room or taking it outside in the summer is not difficult at all.

In addition, it is easy to renovate such a dollhouse: just purchase a few sheets of designer paper and a new interior is ready. Usually such construction is so exciting that adults and children begin making furniture and decor for dolls without stopping.

You can make a house not only from ready-made boxes, but also from sheet cardboard: you will need patterns, glue, scissors and colored paper, as well as imagination and the desire to turn boring brown cardboard into a real fairy-tale castle.

DIY dollhouses made from cardboard boxes

Plasterboard houses

It’s easiest to make a doll house when the apartment is undergoing renovation. A huge amount of building materials allows you to build quite an attractive home for dolls of any size without much expense.

At the same time, the doll house will resemble a smaller copy of the apartment, because to decorate it you can use the remains of real wallpaper, laminate, linoleum and even tiles.

To make a full-fledged house from plasterboard you will need a diagram of the parts and the material itself. Carefully cut drywall is connected with small corners, and then the walls are puttied and painted (or wallpapered). Such a house looks like a real one, especially if you follow the layout of the rooms, as in a real home.

Houses made from old furniture

You can make an excellent dollhouse for your child from old furniture that has been collecting dust in the garage or on the balcony for a long time. An old chest of drawers, a part of a kitchen unit or part of a bookcase after simple transformations can turn into an attractive and interesting house for dolls.

ADVICE. A significant advantage of such a house is its size, which makes it possible to use large toys, as well as the presence of doors: all the dolls will sit in the closet, and the room will be in perfect order.

To turn an old cabinet into a stylish toy, you will need the help of your dad or grandfather, because you will need to cut out windows with a jigsaw, rearrange shelves, or change the configuration of the contents of the cabinet by adding partitions. For maximum comfort for a playing child, all surfaces are covered with a thin layer of putty, which also allows the house to look more attractive.

The final finishing of the finished house is entrusted to the mother, who, together with the baby, chooses wallpaper for all rooms, floor coverings, furniture and decor. The walls of the house can be simply painted, or covered with wallpaper, colored or wrapping paper.

In the interior of such a doll house, ready-made or self-made furniture looks great: cabinets made from boxes, sofas made from juice bags, shelving made from cardboard and a bathtub made from a soap dish.

Photo: playhouse in a suitcase

Houses made of fabric or stationery folders

Fabric dollhouses are a great option for kids 2-5 years old. At this age, a child needs educational and safe toys, and a home for fabric dolls is absolutely safe. A fabric house can be of two types: a hanging version with folding shelves or a handbag house that folds out into a full-fledged home. Both options look decent and deserve attention.

Fabric houses

The fabric house is mounted on the wall and does not take up space when folded, so it is chosen for small children's rooms or small apartments.

Playhouse made from a paper folder

Even a beginner can sew such a house:

• you need to make a dense back wall with a thematic pattern,
• provide space for future shelf rooms,
• sew the “floor of the room” and place cardboard inside,
• sew the improvised floor with one edge to the base and secure it with ribbons or ribbons in a horizontal position,
• pick up light furniture, soft dolls and populate the house.

Sewing a house for dolls in the shape of a handbag is a little more difficult: for this you will need a diagram of the parts, multi-colored fabric, filler for the walls, decor for decoration and the ability to work with a sewing machine or a hand needle.

Since the walls of such a house must be solid, the role of the base is played by a plastic mesh or cardboard, which should be wrapped in soft material (cotton wool, thin foam rubber or sheet synthetic padding), and then covered with the selected fabric. The walls of the house can be decorated with ribbons, buttons, applique, embroidery - making the toy interesting for a child of any age.

A slightly easier way to create a fun home is to use stationery folders as the base of the home. Such a home for dolls resembles a book with bright pictures that can become a platform for active children's games.

It’s easy to make such a toy: cover the inside of the folder with beautiful paper that imitates wallpaper, stick furniture on top - and the room is ready. 3-4 vertically standing folders already look like a real house in which you can put dolls.

Any doll house that parents can make for their baby will be an original creation, suitable for the child’s play and development. Large or compact, durable or soft, fabulous or realistic, such a house is an excellent gift for your daughter or son for any occasion.

Fundamental rules of construction

Without exception, all doll houses are built according to the same canons. They should be constantly kept in mind in order to make a comfortable and aesthetically impeccable toy that can please the child with many pleasant emotions and give parents a reason to be proud.

One of these rules suggests abandoning the idea of ​​equipping the building with a permanent façade. Otherwise, children will have to place dolls and animals through windows and doors with two fingers, tweezers or laundry tongs.

In a number of cases, the facade wall can be equipped with latches or hinges, allowing it to be installed or removed if necessary.

An excellent replacement can be a light tulle curtain, which will effectively protect the house from room dust, drops of tea and cookie crumbs.

Pros of DIY

The advantages of making a dollhouse with your own hands from plywood include the following:

1. A product made according to an individual drawing involves the use of its own dimensions, design and functionality. The main advantage of such a toy is its uniqueness and the ability to take into account the child’s wishes when arranging and decorating rooms, choosing layout and furniture, accessories and decor.
2. The house can have the necessary and convenient size, which is selected taking into account the free space in the children's room and the wishes of the child. This can be a tabletop or floor-mounted design.
3. You can involve the child in decorating and arranging the interior space even at the stage of drawing development - joint work brings the child together, allows him to reveal the creative potential of the child, teaches him to make independent decisions and bear responsibility for them.
4. Working with plywood is a creative and fun process that the whole family can participate in.

If you make it yourself, you can give the house any appearance.

Taking into account the child's age

Another important rule is to select the size of the building in exact accordance with the girl’s age.

• Drawings of a dollhouse for a teenager are very different from similar diagrams developed for a kindergartener from the younger group.
• It will be difficult for a very young girl to handle large things, but at the same time she should not be allowed to play with small parts, as they will immediately be put into her mouth with the risk of swallowing.
• As for middle-aged schoolgirls, they prefer to play with large toys that closely replicate the real world.

What must be considered when creating a design?

When building a house for Barbie with your own hands, you need to take into account several important criteria. They include the following items:

Decide on the size and shape of the future structure. Experts first recommend preparing a detailed plan for creating a future doll house with your own hands.

Drawings allow you to navigate when preparing parts and have a clear idea of ​​the finished result. When choosing sizes, it is necessary to take into account the height of children's toys with which the child will play.

It is important to take care of the safety and stability of the doll's home. To do this, wide legs are made in the lower part, which will be able to support the entire structure and prevent trauma to the child’s body.

Experts recommend making the distance from floor to ceiling twice as large as the size of the doll. This way, the child will be able to freely visit different areas of the structure without making any effort.

The depth of the room should be at least 50 cm and the width up to 30 cm.

When choosing a form, it is necessary to take into account the number of floors and future rooms. For example, when creating a house for dolls with your own hands, it is best to choose a rectangle shape. It can accommodate three spacious floors and six rooms.

Most specialists prefer to work in special 3D designers. These programs help model consumables and templates for future parts.

Compliance with the dimensions of the nursery

It is also important to ensure that the height and width of the house exactly correspond to the area of ​​the room in which the child lives.

• It would also be useful to take into account how much space is left for games on the floor.
• Excessively bulky structures with turrets, balconies and flowerpots on the roof will be inconvenient for use in the cramped rooms of modern standard high-rise buildings, already filled with cat shelves, ironing boards and furniture.
• On the World Wide Web it is not difficult to find a number of original ideas on how to design a playhouse in cramped living conditions
• The material from which the house will be made must be chosen based on the age of the child. For a baby, a compact soft textile design will be quite enough.

Preschoolers or elementary school students will prefer to play with a cardboard house. A teenager will prefer a house made from veneer, plywood and thin boards.

How to make a staircase for a house or castle?

The staircase in a doll's house is one of the most difficult elements, a real challenge for dad. The easiest way to make it is from cardboard or foam. The first one can simply be bent into the desired position, and then reinforced with intermediate parts using the same foam.

A wooden staircase can be made from two rulers and several blocks. On the rulers, you need to make small cuts at regular intervals, into which steps from small pieces of wood are inserted at an angle of about 45 degrees, which are attached with glue to one and immediately to the second ruler. Wide rulers can serve as railings.

A foam ladder can be cut from a piece if you have a large enough block. It is placed at an angle and the steps are sawn through with a hot knife. Real craftsmen can build a staircase from wooden blocks according to special drawings.

Examples of stairs in the photo:

Features of interior decoration

A plywood dollhouse will require finishing. There are several ways to decorate a product.

• It is not difficult to paint a house if you choose safe paint.
• It's easy to cover the walls with wallpaper. It is more convenient to do this before the main assembly.
• For gluing it is easy to use textiles or decorative film with an adhesive base.

It's easy to use the decoupage method.

Windows and doors need high-quality treatment after cutting through.

It’s easy to complement the interior decoration with lighting fixtures and furniture if desired.

Advantages of plywood

Any materials can be used to make a dollhouse yourself, but plywood is used more often, as it has a number of advantages:

1. A whole category of toys for children are made of wood, in particular plywood, due to its pleasant to the touch, warm surface.
2. The light weight of the material allows you to create large structures that even a child can move from place to place.
3. Plywood is a durable material, so structures made from it are reliable and durable.
4. The material is affordable, which allows you to make a toy no worse than the one sold in the store, but for much less money.
5. Working with plywood is easy, it is easy to process and does not require the use of special tools or professional skills.
6. After assembly, the house can be painted or left as is, covered with transparent varnish - the surface of the plywood is smooth, with a pleasant natural pattern and shade.

Plywood has an attractive appearance and natural shade

Note! E0 grade plywood is an environmentally friendly and safe material. This type of material is used in the manufacture of goods for children.

Roof installation

When thinking about assembling a plywood dollhouse with your own hands, special attention needs to be paid to the roof structure. It is important to decide in advance the type and method of joining the parts.

A roof with two slopes requires a partition to support the parts at the junction. This is the simplest installation method.

If you want to make a more complex roof configuration with the design of the attic space, it is important to think about all the fastenings at the planning stage. You will need rafters, which can be easily made from thin slats.

The curved roof is additionally fixed using flexible fasteners.

Do-it-yourself doll house made of cardboard: drawings

Cardboard is a convenient material for such products. Mothers can also make a house from it on their own; this will only require patience, perseverance and time.

Cardboard doll house

Material, tool:

• Cardboard or cardboard boxes
• Double-sided tape, glue
• Colored paper for decorating a house
• Scissors, pencil, ruler

Drawing of a cardboard house

Progress:

1. Using a ruler and pencil, draw the details of the house, as in the diagram on cardboard
2. Using scissors, cut out the resulting “pattern”
3. Immediately mark where you will have windows and doors and carefully cut them out
4. Glue the structure with tape
5. Before gluing the roof, do the interior decoration and cover the outer walls of the house with colored paper
6. Then just do the roof

Plywood growth house

This design can be used both outdoors and in the apartment. The house is easy to assemble, literally within 5 minutes it can also be easily disassembled into convenient fragments that can be stored in the pantry.

On a hot day, such a house on the site will provide comfortable conditions for playing outdoors. Play structure for the home

In essence, it is an enlarged copy of a dollhouse. Therefore, its production takes place using the same technology.

Table 2. Step-by-step instructions

Illustration	Description
Step 1	First, a drawing is made with details: determining the dimensions, shapes, number of parts, fixation points.
Step 2	Patterns of individual fragments are made on a scale of 1:1 and transferred to sheets of plywood. After this the material is cut out.
Step 3	The parts are polished.
Step 4	If necessary, parts are painted.
Step 5	The house is being assembled.

Particular attention should be paid to the interior decoration of the house. The design may provide for a bench and a folding table, or a shelf on the wall. Furniture can also be portable plastic or wooden.

When operating the house outdoors, it is necessary that the base be dry, so the structure is placed on a podium or dry grass

Plywood is often used in the furniture industry and for the manufacture of a large number of boxes of various sizes and other very beautiful and functional crafts. What plywood products can you make with your own hands? Read in the special article.

Inside the house, you can lay a soft mat or mattress on the floor, on which the child will feel comfortable.