Jake

If you wouldn't mind, would you be up for posting a few more photos of how you designed this hinged wall (visible right below the roofline) on this side? I'm designing my own colonial-style house for my daughters and am contemplating a couple of hinged panels on the front and I really like what I see in this image. Any more info would be helpful. How thick are these exterior walls? Thank you!

I'm designing my own dollhouse (patterned after the house we currently live in) for my daughters and have purchased a number of items from miniatures.com and ebay -- doors, windows, etc... The windows are all constructed for walls that are 1/2" thick...so I'll be constructing the exterior walls out of 1/2 baltic birch plywood. no problem there. But the interior doors are all designed/built for 3/8"-thick walls. So for interior walls, I'd like to use 3/8" material. The problem is I am having a hell of a time finding any good 3/8" thick panel material. The only thing I can find is sheathing-grade (rough, knotty, full of gaps and gouges) plywood; I cannot find any MDF, MDO, or sanded, cabinet-grade plywood anywhere. I'm in a big metro area, but have so far struck out. Any suggestions? Thank you!

3/8" birch ply is exactly what I was thinking of - thank you! I plan to use a router to cut a dado in the bottom floor panel and the second story floor (first floor ceiling) to receive the walls to help solidify everything...

Great ideas - thank you! The 1/4" birch plywood I see at the store seems so wavy and not very flat -- is it difficult to use or will it eventually stay flat? Also - in terms of the real thing -- the 1:12-scale version I plan to build -- I was thinking the base (and perhaps the second-floor floor surface) would be 1/2" plywood... for strength and durability. What type of wood and what thickness do people make the walls out of, generally? (I do a lot of woodworking -- furniture and other projects -- so I have lots of good tools; table saw, band saw, etc...)

Wow - thank you all for such fantastic input; I greatly appreciate it. I have indeed thought about just having the back closed so it could be against a wall, but given the shape, even with open sides, I fear that it would make it rather difficult and un-enjoyable to get to much of the back half, including the kitchen and bedrooms. The removable panels idea is indeed intriguing - and I like the magnets idea for them - thank you very much for that idea. And ditto on the "split the entire house in half" idea -- so it could be pulled apart for play. I've seen a couple like that and it isn't a bad idea. Given we live in Kansas, it'd probably simulate a tornado nicely. :) I may try a small MDF mockup (maybe 1:24 scale) to see how practical it all feels when it's together and so I could play around with all these options - hinged panels, removable panels, open walls, etc... Thank you all again - you've given me some great ideas to work with.

Good Afternoon, This is my first post to this forum, and I want to start by thanking anyone who is up for providing some input to me on this question. I am looking to build a detailed 1:12 dollhouse specifically modeled on the house we are raising our daughters in. I have the house mapped out and have included a rough sketch of the floorplan. It is a traditional 5 over 4 colonial and I'd like to construct the dollhouse with an identical floorplan. I realize most dollhouses are built being only one room "deep" so that all rooms can be accessed, and under such a design, only one exterior wall (usually the back or front) needs to be open to allow kids to play with it. But because this house plan is two rooms deep (or more) on both floors, it will not work for me to construct the dollhouse with only an open back or open front; both sides require access. But I don't want to build the entire thing with only the end (left / right) walls and no walls on the front or back at all, since those walls carry significant and identifiable exterior detail that I'd like to include in the final construction. So the question becomes: do I make hinged walls that open on the front and on the back -- hinged along the corners of the dollhouse and opening somewhere near the midline, or do I construct it with some other method of creating interior access? It will be approximately 44" wide by 28" deep, so if I hinge the front and back walls and have them open (like big french doors, basically), those exterior wall/doors will be approximately 22" wide by 20" high...pretty big overall, but is that doable? Or will that be a pain for my daughters to play in? If so, what are some other creative options on how to build this true-to-life house, but still have it be accessible for play by my daughters? I'm leaning toward leaving much of the BACK wall open -- not building a wall at all, and then making the front wall complete and detailed, but split down the middle, hinges on the corners, and have it open like french doors. Thoughts? Thank you again for any input you all may have. I really appreciate it.