Advice for DIY Wooden Miniature Doll House Building - Tips from a Mum

Building a wooden miniature doll house from scratch for your child is a great project. Yet it is also quite a challenge! To help you prepare and decide whether or not to dive in to a DIY, what better than tips and advice straight from a mother? Read all about Natalie's own experience in creating the dream doll house for her girls. 

If you choose to go for a ready-made miniature doll house or to hire an expert to create yours, read our list of doll house vendors here.

Could you please briefly present yourself and your sweet family?

Hey, I’m Natalie, a jazz singer living in London and a mother of two little girls : Rose and Lily. You can learn more about our family in the Hello Magazine article here or by following us on Instagram @natalierushdie.

What led you to create your own doll house?

I have always adored traditional dollhouses, growing up my neighbour had the most beautiful Georgian dolls house with the full electrics. Whilst we weren’t allowed to play with it, I adored going over to look at it and admire it for hours. 

When Rose, my first daughter, was born, my husband's family kindly gave us the family antique rocking horse : Dobin which is just beautiful. However when we began preparing for the birth of our 2nd daughter, I asked Rose if the rocking horse should go in Lily’s room. Being a 3 year old with a mind of her own, she said “no, I love Dobin”! This prompted me to come up with something equally as fabulous. That’s how my dollhouse mission began.

Which model did you follow? 

I used the classical Doll’s House 1:12 scale kit, a traditional residence with 3 floors and six rooms from The Dolls House Emporium. They have a great variety of choices and styles.

How would you describe the process?

To be entirely honest, the process was a nightmare and a big mess. We live in London so we don't have the space to make a doll’s house which requires building, sanding, filing, sawing and a lot of glueing. It took over our whole kitchen for 3 weeks. Was it worth it though? Completely!

Once we began, there was no going back, I had to create something fabulous and beautiful to complete the nursery. I am proud of the result and learnt a lot along the way.

What advice would you give to a mum hesitating on whether or not to start a doll house project?

Don’t underestimate how long it will take nor the amount of space needed. Be prepared to invest a lot of time and energy, gather all the patience you can. 

Plan sufficient space, ideally a whole room to turn into a proper workshop. Doing it in a city home is doable but makes it much more challenging. This article is great on how to organise your workspace for doll house creation.

If you can get a friend to help, I would recommend this for mental support as well help holding bits of wood together.

Last but not least, you also need more super glue than you think.

Can you share some of the must-have tools you used the most?

Super glue, spray paint, professional sander and a drink are absolute essential for your doll house project.

Can you share some of the "don't", the things to avoid? What would you have done differently if you had to start again?

There aren’t any don’ts as such but make sure you give yourself the time and to persevere : it is definitely worth it in the end.

Do you have an encouraging word to give to mums?

You’ve got this. Being a mum is hard work, make sure you take time for yourself : take that little break to go get a good coffee, see a friend, have your nails done, just reset the system once in a while! You deserve it.

A couple of other useful resources for doll house building : 

Most common mistakes to avoid when building a dollhouse : Great practical tips

Building Tricks and Tips : Tutorials on precise techniques for doll house making such as glue removal, painting ect…

Children's Doll House suggestions : List of place to buy beautiful miniature doll houses.