How to Build a Dollhouse Out of Milk Cartons

Recycle your milk cartons into a charming dollhouse.

Crafts that use recycled materials and green alternatives are growing in popularity among adults and children. Taking the time to work on a project incorporating recycled products with your child or student is a good way to turn a fun craft into a lifelong learning experience. By using recycled materials, children learn to reduce and reuse. It also helps them find rewards in their own handiwork. By using two or four milk cartons, you can build a charming dollhouse that can be decorated inexpensively and creatively.

Things You'll Need

• 2 or 4 milk cartons
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Cardboard
• Glue gun
• Glue sticks
• 8-10 8½-inch-by-11-inch sheets of construction paper
• Wrapping paper, tissue paper or wallpaper remnants
• Home catalog
• School glue
• 6 9-inch-by-12-inch felt rectangles

Instructions

1. Evenly cut off the tops of the milk cartons with scissors to create rectangle boxes. To make a single story, two-room dollhouse, you will need two cartons. For a four-room, two-story house, you will need four cartons.

2. 

   Cut the tops from the milk cartons.

   Place the cartons, on their sides, on a flat surface, with the open end of the cartons, facing you. Place two cartons side by side to form two "rooms." Use a glue gun to squirt glue on the two touching sides. Press these carton sides together. For a two-story house, follow Step 3, for a single-story house, proceed to Step 4.

3. Measure the length and width of the "roof" of the glued cartons. Cut a piece of cardboard to these measurements. With the glue gun, squirt glue on this cardboard "roof" and firmly press the cardboard onto the top of the cartons. This provides sturdier "flooring" between the house stories. Repeat Step 2. Glue the bottoms of those two affixed rooms to the top of the cardboard now glued to the top of the original two rooms. You now have two cartons stacked atop two cartons, forming four rooms.

4. 

   Cover the outside of the dollhouse with construction paper.

   Cover the outside of the dollhouse with construction paper by cutting the paper to fit the length and width of the sides. Adhere the paper by squirting glue from the glue gun over the four sides and back of the adjoined cartons. Allow the glue to dry.

5. Measure the inside walls of the carton rooms with the ruler and cut wrapping paper, tissue paper or wallpaper remnants to match these measurements. Affix the paper to the inside walls of the carton rooms with school glue. You may choose to leave the "ceiling" of each room paperless.

6. 

   Cut felt rectangles to use as carpet for the dollhouse rooms.

   Measure the "floor" of each carton room and cut the felt rectangles according to these measurements. Cover the floor of each room with school glue and firmly press the felt "carpet" onto the floors.

7. Use the home section of a catalog, such as Sears, to find photographs of windows with curtains or draperies, and cut them from the catalog with the scissors. Use school glue to glue the windows wherever you'd like inside of the rooms. Use the home improvement sections of catalogs to find photos of outside windows or doors and cut and glue those to the outside of the dollhouse.

Resources

• Disney Family Fun: Making Dollhouse Furniture
• All Crafts: Printable Miniatures for Dollhouses