How to Build a Dollhouse From a Cabinet
Dollhouses have been popular for centuries as a toy for children and as a curiosity for adults. Cabinets of all shapes and sizes can be adapted to become dollhouses and with slight modifications your old kitchen cabinet can be transformed into a delightful dollhouse for hours of amusement. As cabinets already have the basic shape for a house, you're only missing a roof, internal floors and some staircases to complete your very own dollhouse project.
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Instructions
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Cut a door and window shapes out of the opening cabinet front. A good amount is four upstairs windows, two downstairs windows and one door. If your cabinet has one door, all of these openings can be cut into it. If your cabinet has two opening doors, two upstairs windows can be cut into each and one door will have two downstairs windows while the other will have one downstairs window and a door.
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Cut a floor the same length, width and depth as the inside of the cabinet.
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Cut two slots into the center of what will be the front side of this floor in order to create a space for a stairwell. The slots will become joints for the internal walls and must reach halfway back in the floor and be the same depth as your chosen pieces of wood.
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Make two internal walls by cutting pieces of wood the same height and depth as your cabinet.
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Create a slot in each of these at the same height as your first floor. Again the slots must reach halfway across your wall and be the same width as your chosen pieces of wood.
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Place the slots on the two walls against the slots on the floor and push into place to create a freestanding structure that includes two rooms on each floor and a smaller staircase space.
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Make two staircases by gluing thin rectangles of wood together to form stair shapes until they are the same height as each of the floors in your house.
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Measure the width of these staircases and cut holes on the rear edge of each floor in the stairwell that are the same width. The length of these holes is a matter of choice depending on your finished design.
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Cut a similar hole in the top of the cabinet to provide access to the new attic room.
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Push the internal wall and floor structure into your house, so that it is a snug fit and doesn't need to be glued.
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Glue the staircases underneath each staircase opening.
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Cut two rectangles and two triangles to make the roof. The base of the triangles will be the same size as the side of the house, while the base of the rectangles will be the same size as the front and back of the house.
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Glue the back and two sides of the house together to form a partial roof shape.
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Attach a piano hinge to the remaining roof piece and then screw this on to the other pieces to finish the roof.
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Glue the roof in place with the hinged panel at the front.
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Tips & Warnings
It's easier to remove the cabinet doors to cut the window openings.
The cut-out door shape can be reused as a door for the front of your house.
Extras such as window frames, internal door openings, roof tiles, window boxes, window shutters and a chimney can be added to decorate your cabinet dollhouse.
For a more basic house structure, omit the staircases and stairwell holes. This will give you an extra room on each floor.
If your cabinet dollhouse is to be fitted to the wall, take its new weight into account when choosing suitable wall fixings.
References
- Photo Credit house image by dinostock from Fotolia.com
