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LinemansLife

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Hello world,

I recently joined the forum and wanted to say Howdy and introduce myself. My name is Karl, I joined this forum as I am new to the doll's house world and know little to nothing about building a dolls house. So here is my goal. I have a 5 year old daughter who loves dolls of all shapes and sizes she has a dolls house right now and its her favorite thing to play with. I would love to build her one from scratch and have her play with something i made. So i looked on the internet and drew her up a design. Now its time for for to go out and buy the wood in order to make it. But where do i start? How do i size up a dolls house. What wood do i use? how do i figure out the electrics?

Please help!!!!

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Welcome.  "Linemans life".  Not gonna even try to tell you about electricity.   Lol.  You might help us.  I have not built from scratch, but I might suggest a wool less than an inch.  Some folks like MDF, some don't.  I have found that home depot has 1/2" and 1/4 " wood in smaller sheets.  Some 2×2 ft, some 4x2ft.  I use them a lot.  Thicker kits are at hobby lobby.  Less detail on them, but studied  for a 5 yr old.  Greenleaf kits use thinner wood but have awesome detail wood

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Welcome to the little family, Karl.  The hubs & I built our then-six year old granddaughter's first dollhouse using this book from Dover Publications:  http://store.doverpublications.com/0486234932.html  We used 3/8" plywood and installed a Houseworks door and left off the windows.  Our only criticism of the book was that the second floor plan was printed reversed.

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 I know you said you had found a design but there are many individual dollhouse plans, perhaps you could cruise the net and look at some of them. you may find one  that appeals to you and is similar to the house you designed then it would have all the details in it re type of wood  measurements  etc. It may take some of the mystery out of it for you.Look on youtube for electrifying a doll house and you will see a demonstration. Once you get an idea of what you are doing you can ask tons of questions, there is always someone who can answer. You may want to check out the companies that make kits too. Even if you don't buy a kit reading about them and looking at pictures will give you some more info. I would consider a kit as well as building from a sheet of wood ie scratch, there are all shapes and sizes and again you may find one that is like the one you have thought of. If you look on Amazon you will find many books that show you how to build from scratch too even if you have decided what to build they would be helpful.   Hope this helps a bit

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Um, before you build a 10" ceiling, make sure you account for the thickness of the second and third floors. The standard thickness of wood for dollhouse building is 3/8" and I believe Lowe's (if you have one) carries that thickness. So what you want to do is make your ceiling 9 5/8" high, because with the 3/8" thickness of the wood, that equals 10".

I say that because if you get a standard staircase, it will be for a 10" ceiling, but what they mean is that the top step of the staircase usually rests against the top of the next floor. If you make your ceilings 10", then the staircase has to reach that 10" plus the 3/8" of the floor. Trying to find a staircase that will fit to that height is a...well, it's difficult. Ask me how I found this out. LOL

In fact, the whole time you're drawing out plans, you need to account for that 3/8" thickness. So if you want two rooms on the first floor that are 16" deep by 12" wide, your base would have to be 16" x 24 3/8" (that 3/8" is the width of your interior divider wall). Your sides need to be 16" x (however high), but your front has to be (12 + 12 + 3/8 + 3/8 + 3/8) x however high. Two 12s for each of the rooms, one 3/8 to account for the center divider in the middle of the floor, and the other two 3/8s are the sides that the front will cover, as the sides will come up behind the front if that's how you plan it.

You could just build in whatever length and width you want and then just stick the dividers in wherever, too, to make it easy on yourself. But I personally like my rooms to be a specific size without worrying about the 3/8" divider wall when I want to put furniture into them. For instance, if I have a kitchen and my stove is 3" and the sink is 3" and the counters are going to be 3" in the middle and 3" on the end, I know I can put all that in against one 12" wall and have it fit. But that's just me.

A good size for a dollhouse is usually 32" wide from eave to eave on the roof and 16" deep from back to eave on the front. Porches are about 4" to 6" wide. I wouldn't recommend making a house 2 rooms deep for a child unless you're willing to hinge a door on the side for access to the front room. Most kids like the standard 4 room house, with two rooms on each floor and two more under the roof (or that could be an attic).

Standard window openings are 2 1/2" w x 5" h - double windows are 5" x 5". Interior doorway openings are 3" x 7". Buy your front door before you cut the opening size - they can vary, as do French doors. Doors and windows can add up - for your standard Colonial house, you can get by with 5 windows for the front and 1 front door and it will be so much easier on your wallet.

Once you have your house built, you will want to prime it inside and out, and only after that do you need to worry about starting the electrification. Once the house is electrified, you can then wallpaper or paint the inside and side the outside. If you decide to get a kit, you may end up with one that has the outside siding milled into it. That's a real time saver and can save you money. However, you will still have to buy shingles and do the roof.

Good luck!

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4 hours ago, rodentraiser said:

...you need to account for that 3/8" thickness. So if you want two rooms on the first floor that are 16" deep by 12" wide, your base would have to be 16" x 24 3/8" (that 3/8" is the width of your interior divider wall). Your sides need to be 16" x (however high), but your front has to be (12 + 12 + 3/8 + 3/8 + 3/8) x however high. Two 12s for each of the rooms, one 3/8 to account for the center divider in the middle of the floor, and the other two 3/8s are the sides that the front will cover, as the sides will come up behind the front if that's how you plan it...you will want to prime it inside and out...

You will also want to account for whether your house will sit on the base, or be part of it with the first floor within the exterior walls.  And you will NOT want to prime parts of the house you will want to stain; you can paint over stain, but I have never successfully gotten stain to look right over paint.  I also mask off the places I ant to glue together before I prime.  One of the steps I religiously follow, whether building the dollhouse or making furniture to go in it, is to dry fit; I first put it together using masking or painters' tape to see how it looks.  If the house begins to talk to me I listen to it and build and finish it the way it wants.

If your little one is careful with her toys you might get away with working windows & doors, but if rougher siblings, relatives or friends come to play you might want to leave off the doors, windows & electricity until she is older.  I remember seeing what her cousins did to the aforementioned granddaughter's San Franciscan dollhouse I built for her as my first solo kit build.

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I think it's really sweet that you want to build your daughter a dollhouse. I see beautiful plans on eBay.  If you check and see if you have a dollhouse shop in your area that would be a great resource too. And they're really fun to shop in :) 

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There is ultra light plywood sold at Lowes, also known as quatro plywood. It almost resembles baltic plywood. It would make a beautiful dollhouse.

Maybe purchase a dollhouse 'How to Book'......https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Dollhouses-Dollhouse-Miniatures/dp/0517391694/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=K5RAE370QRGKWR7HPFCA

There are so many good used books on Amazon about the subject. It might answer some of your general questions.

Also, welcome to the forum:clap: I applaud your sweet gift for your daughter. You might be making a family heirloom.

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miniatures.com has everything you’ll ever need to build a scratch house; Doors, windows, lighting, trim wood...., Just make sure the door and window depths are the same as your wood’s thickness.

micromark.com has every tool you could possibly need.

I second the birch plywood from Lowe’s or HD. Just make sure it is not warped.  Michael’s also carries beautiful birch plywood but in smaller widths.

 

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