Cardboard dolls house DIY
I love using my recycling in a creative way, especially cardboard boxes as they make brilliant toys. I’ve posted several ways how I reuse delivery boxes over on my Instagram and those post proven rather popular so I thought I’ll come up with a few more!
Besides den building, drum kit making and climbing in and over, the card board box is perfect for turning into a dolls house. If you are anything like me and most of your shopping gets delivered to your house you can build a whole village in no time :D
To make the dolls house you will need:
Cardboard box, the bigger the bigger your house will be
Super glue, I used a Gorilla one
Gaffer or heavy duty tape, I used a white one.
Black sharpie and white out liquid for decorating
Scissors
Craft knife
Pencil
Cutting mat
Start by folding open your cardboard box, you are going to use 3 sides so cut one side away. The middle panel will be the front of your house, you can cut into a normal point or give it some detail like I did here so it resembles a Dutch canal house. Measure the middle of your panel, draw out your roof shape and cut it out.
Draw your windows and doors onto the middle panel and cut the shapes out with your craft knife. Remember to keep one side of your door attached so it can swing open. I use a small cutting mat to protect my table from the craft blade but you could use a spare piece of cardboard too.
With all your windows and door cut out it’s time to give them a trim. Cut your white tape in half and wrap around around the window and door frames. In the video (at the bottom of this post) you can see in detail how I did mine. Make sure the inside of your house looks as nice as the outside. I gave the roof a little trim too.
You also need floors, measure the width of your middle panel and cut a piece of cardboard to this size plus 2 cm on either side to make tabs for glueing your floor in place. Score the tabs so they fold over easily and use your super glue to stick them in place. I used a couple of bulldog clips to keep the floor in place while the glue dries, the glue dries super quick so they don’t need to stay on long!
If you want your floors to carry a lot of furniture also make a tab on the front of your floor making the whole build a little sturdier.
My canal house doesn’t have a roof but has 3 floors and fun window details. I simple cut small strips of white tape and stick them to the window on the front and back creating a cross shape.
The smaller house I made does have a roof, its just a rectangle folded in half and glued to the top of the house with super glue.
With your house almost done it’s time to add some details. You can draw with your black sharpie on the building giving it a doorbell, more interesting window frames or even draw on the garden. On some spare pieces of cardboard I drew on some large potted plants that I then glued to the front of the building. I also gave it some small steps.
No house is complete without furniture! I gave my house a few comfy arm chairs, rugs, lights, a dining table, bed kitchen and of course a little dog as no home decor is complete without dog hair :D
For the arm chair cut a rectangle which you fold on 1/3. Cut the two sides, a square with a little piece cut out to make the leg shape and glue the sides to the rectangle with your super glue.
For the rug just draw on your design on a rectangle. The light has a folded tab on his base so it can stand up.
Trace the roll of tape on your cardboard to make the table top. The base are two squares slotted together, have a look at my video to see how. The chairs are very easy to make from a H-shaped pieces of cardboard and one similar sized piece which you can fold into the seat piece. Once again have a look at the video to see how easy it is to make.
I also made a kitchen, bed, tall chair, house plant and lots more!
Keep drawing and cutting out pieces to make into furniture, fill up your house, give it some occupants and it’s ready to be played with!
To help you make your own dolls house have a look at my tutorial video
How super cute are these dolls houses! Made with a minimal amount of craft supplies, and the best thing is once it gets trashed from playing you just put it in your recycling bin and make a new one!
Little Kiki is a little small to fully enjoy the dolls house but even she loved getting the bits of furniture in and out of the house, slightly bigger children can use there imagination playing with the dolls house and even bigger kids can help you make all the furniture. Hours of fun with a cardboard box!
