Building a Dollhouse!

by  Deborah Piotrowski & Lisa Lawrence
dpiotrow@MtHolyoke.edu

Debbie is a biologist by profession and a crafter in her spare time.  Her first collection love is Turtles!  She has all kinds of Turtle collectibles as well as 2 live Tortoises as pets.  In 1998, Debbie bought her first Gene®, Daughter of the Nile. While Gene started it all for Debbie, including Madra®, and Trent®, Debbie has branched out to Alex®, Tyler®, and, despite Debbie's best efforts to resist her, Sydney®.  She also has some historic/fantasy costumed Barbies®, Silkstones®, and Veronique®.  She loves making her own doll accessories, doll furniture and other doll props.

Debbie finds her supplies all over. "A good source for lovely working table lamps is from Jo in Boston at www.josieirene.com"  Debbie states, "I furnished my Gene's brownstone with Jo's lamps. Woven placemats from TJ Maxx can often work quite well as area rugs. Some accessories from traditional dollhouse vendors can also work, but one needs to check the scale carefully. Hunting around at various places to find that perfect piece for the house is a fun task. You never know when a jewelry box, or little chair at a tag sale, will be the perfect find." Debbie is available at her email address above to answer all questions about constructing a dollhouse for 16" gals.  She also takes commissions on constructing certain accent pieces if necessary.

When I first contacted Joanna King about having her doll collection shown in High Maintenance, she told me that Debbie was making a dollhouse for her and asked if we could delay showing her collection until her dollhouse was finished.  Because Debbie had just started on it, I wrote and asked her to chronicle building Joanna's Doll House for this article!  The results are below.

Here are pictures of Debbie's personal dollhouse:

Top floor of house---This is the most changeable room.
Here Trent has the area as his "bachelor pad".

Picture shows a suede chair from Boyd's Bears. Debbie made the footrest to match.

Bottom floor---living room
Pillar candle holders (from JoAnn's Fabrics) make nice end tables.

Living room in a romantic light...
Placemat (TJ Maxx) makes a nice floor carpet over vinyl "wood parquet" flooring.
Couch also from TJ Maxx.

Bedroom (middle level of house) and living room.

More living room---the window curtains are sheer tiebacks from Deb's own
windows (she always shares with Gene!)

Bedroom close-up.

The Bed is a makeover from a Target trunk. Gene's mirrored bureau is from AD.
The chair is from TJ Maxx and is metal.
Deb upholstered it to soften it and make it match the decor. 
The white floral chest of drawers was a clearance item from Hallmark.

Another angle of the bedroom with the painting of "The Kiss" over the bed.

Another picture of the top floor---now changed into a "dining room" where
the ladies are having a "charity social". Deb made the dining room table,
chairs, and sideboard from miscellaneous materials discarded from her lab
as well as from some new materials. The chairs were the basic small unfinished wood
chairs from AC Moore (on sale of course!). Wood finials and upholstery
makes them just right for Deb's gals.

Here's another social scene in the living room.

Early construction days---sponged "brick" on the outside
walls---covers the seams, as Deb needed to join pieces of foam board to fit
the space allotted by the cart frame.

Debbie's Craft Studio in its early days.
Here is the initial construction of Deb's gals' house---note the taped
walls and the absence of a top floor.

Closeups of Debbie's Cart

Making Joanna's Dollhouse:

Basic Materials Used:

Mobile steel audio/visual cart as the frame 
Foam board for walls
X-acto knives
Craft wood
Small molding from lumberyard
Wallpaper
Wrapping paper
Memory paper (scrapbook paper sheets)
Self-stick floor tiles (Home Depot)
Acetate fronts from doll outfit packages
Craft paint
White duct tape
Double stick mounting tape.

Starting Components

This picture shows the initial stages of construction. 
The frame was spray painted white and the back walls have the windows cut out.
Joanna's cart had adjustable shelves that slid on chrome polls.  Because she wanted
the outside to be white, Debbie spray painted the entire cars white, including the poles
and undersides of the shelves - which would be the ceilings of the lower floors.
Debbie adjusted the shelves to that each room is 20" high.  By doing this, she was left
with only 6" of pole to use as side supports for the top floor.

Back walls have window cut outs. Side walls are trimmed and ready to paper

Making Window Panes - On the floor is the back wall with craft wood 
(from AC Moore) cut into the window panes
and glued to the window opening. 
Frame the window along the inside edges, then add the cross bars.
Glue in place.

The windows with panes are now ready to paint.

The side walls get papered. Scrapbook paper was used for the living room
 as it was possible to get a tiny green stripe that Joanna wanted.
The lowest level received wrapping paper on the walls
 as a very classic in scale design was found.
The bedroom walls received a tiny floral wallpaper

Paint the wood molding trim before you glue it to the walls.
Have clamps and weights on hand to hold down the glued molding
as the papered walls tend to curl.  You can also prepare the "glass" for the windows at
this point.  Cut a piece of clear acetate from an old doll outfit box to cover
the entire window.  Using duct tape, tape the edges of the acetate
over the window frame on the outside wall.  From the inside, it will look like glass!

Wood trim weighted down while glue dries
Painted wood molding was glued around the windows and as baseboard.

Attaching the walls and hardwood floors

 Peel & stick vinyl floor tiles in a wood parquet pattern were set on the floors of each level.
The walls were set in place using heavy duty mounting tape affixed to the shelves of the cart.

2 rooms done

A fireplace was constructed using Alex's Santa Baby set as a model.
Debbie had a professional carpenter cut the wood for her.

Working on the top floor, the bedroom
Deb uses green plastic Xacto clamps along with a sliced geode to hold
the wallpaper in place while it dries.

Ready to transport to Joanna's House

The top level (the bedroom) walls received ceiling molding
and needed to be assembled at Joanna's house.

The small amount of uprights left for anchoring required the walls to be notched
in such a way to make a smooth seam at the end of assembly.

The walls were initially attached to the frame using double sided tape. 
Then, white duct tape was used to tape the corners together and
to secure the walls to the cart pole uprights.  

The rounded windows are 2 prefab units purchased from AC Moore.
They had window boxes attached which  Deb removed
and replaced with a molding piece.

Viola! It comes together!
And the white duct tape assures that it stays nicely together!
Joanna puts some furniture inside to try it  out.

Joanna's gals can't wait to get inside.
Now the fun begins to find all  the accessories to make a house a home!

bottom floor

See more pictures of Joanna's dollhouse in her Private Collection photographs.