Doll Houses?

Is it a full house with different rooms or is it just a bedroom?
My dolls have a kind of two-mini-room apartment on a shelf I bought for that purpose. They're SD scale so only one of them (my first) has an actual bed - I consider the bedroom "hers", even though it's certainly not off-limits to the others. The "living room" is on top of it, and that's where most of them usually are - the ones I'm sewing for are in the bedroom, because it's right next to my desk and it's super duper convenient to plonk a doll in there, in a "safe environment" so to speak (with a chest of drawers to lean to, or lay them down on the carpet with no fear of anything scratching them).

Handmade or bought/custom-made for you?
It's a mix of self-made, improvised and flea market stuff. The bed in the bedroom was made with the help of a tutorial on here and is my first doll's box covered in fabric with added bedclothes. The chest of drawers is Ikea's "Moppe". The carpet is scrap carpet in the bedroom, bamboo place mats for the living room. One of the sofas is self-made, the other one and the bookcase are flea market finds ... you get the idea.

Is it for all of your dolls, regardless of size or do you reserve it for your smaller dolls?
I only own SDs, but if I had other sizes as well, they'd have different living arrangements. E.g. I considered getting a RealPuki, and that one would have gotten an itty bitty fairy house.

Does it take up a lot of space? Do you put it away when you're not playing with your dolls to save space?
Oh you bet it does ... it's a shelf so I can't put it away, it's more like a permanent (and forever-WIP) setup. I do occasionally take dolls out of it and sit them somewhere else so I can take pics of the remaining ones, but that shelf is their territory.

Any tips for us that have space issues?
For permanent setups? Storage furniture. Seriously. Except for two (tiny!) toolboxes, all my doll stuff is stored in their "apartment". The self-made sofa's core element is a shoebox (holding their fancy and period dresses). The self-made table was a coffee tin (holding spare shoes). The bedside table holds spare hands, and all their clothes go in the chest of drawers ... no clothes boxes and things to clutter up more space, it's all right there hidden in plain sight.
Someone in the Sewing&Crafting subforum is building a foldable dollhouse, which I think is a work of genius!


Sooo, here it is. I did mention it's an ongoing project, didn't I?

 

Oooh... I'd like to see a picture thread for doll houses... I think there might have been some discussion threads about doll rooms before, and people have individually posted series of rooms... but not so many with houses...

For those with dollhouses:
Is it a full house with different rooms or is it just a bedroom?
I only have a house for my micro-tinies, around RealPuki size (9cm or so), because bigger scales need a LOT of room and material.

For the larger dolls, I have furniture, but no place that is set aside for them, sadly.

Handmade or bought/custom-made for you?
Bought a custom house. I really love dollhouses, but the space issue kept me from even thinking of building one (and time and effort--I'm too lazy!). I saw a just amazing Fairy House for sale on The Resin Cafe. A person in Germany made it, complete with furnishing and props and dried flowers around it... It was expensive, but not for what it was--but I feared it would not take shipping all the way to the US without it all going to pieces, and I hated to think I would cause such a lovely creation to be ruined. But the artist seemed to think it would travel, and the postage for such a huge thing (even for a tiny-tiny, a dollhouse isn't small or light!), wasn't going to kill such a deal. I was in love and just had to have it! I don't think I could ever create and put together anything half as good... so it was that house or nothing!

Is it for all of your dolls, regardless of size or do you reserve it for your smaller dolls?
My bigger dolls won't fit, so it's just for my smaller dolls. (although I guess they could try and play with it, but I hadn't really thought about doing that)

Does it take up a lot of space? Do you put it away when you're not playing with your dolls to save space?
It is several feet wide and several feet high, and maybe a bit under a foot wide, so it's not small. I currently don't have a good place for it, but I hope to have a nice table or very wide shelf for it some day. It's not really "put away" anywhere, since storage would take up space, too. I have it on the floor upstairs at the moment, but will need to move it to a temporary table soon.

Any tips for us that have space issues?
I wish! I'm thinking a really good, customizable shelving system would be great for dollhouses and dolls and doll rooms... I'm hoping to have one some day...

For those without:
Do you want one (just a bedroom or a full house)? Why or why not?
For my bigger dolls (Large, Mini), I'm not sure if I'd want a fixed room, but I would like more space to display them. I like to move around the furniture to be used as props in photos, so having a fixed room could be too much dedicated space that I'd like for plain display. A house would be out of the question for the bigger dolls. Just too cumbersome and huge!

Would you want one for all of your dolls or just the smaller ones?
Smaller only. Unless I was a billionaire with a huge staff at my beck and call...! Then I'd have a huge dedicated space and make stage-like rooms so I could move things around easily and take photos. But that's totally a pipe-dream!

Do you just consider your room to be their room as well?
No.

If you've been browsing like myself, what are some cool ones or neat ideas that you've seen?
I like the rooms on shelves that some people have.

Do you think it would be worth the extra expense (buying furniture, getting wallpapers/carpets, keeping it clean, etc)? Why or why not?
So far, no. Too much work, space, time, effort, expense...! (unless I was incredibly rich and had trustworthy people cleaning and helping)

Fairy House made by doremi on The Resin Cafe--
13-03-Fairyhouse-532a by aprilllee, on Flickr

 

Most of my dolls are huge so there's no way I could have a house for them. T_T It's a shame. My wife has bought me a 70cm couples' bed and a motorcycle, and I have yet to even build the bed, 2 or 3 years later, because I have nowhere I could possibly display it. She did "build" a cute room for her 1/4s, though, by using a TV shelf as a bedroom for them. It's really cute!

 

HEY
I happen to be giving away a FREE BIG dollhouse at the moment
but it is so big it must be picked up in person in SJ CA

the info thread
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/s...hic-DOLL-HOUSE-PICK-UP-ONLY-in-downtown-SJ-CA


PM me if you want it anybody

its 7ft tall by 30in square,weighs about 140lbs not too heavy cuz it is empty space inside
It will fit in Uhaul Van or pickup truck,I've moved it before,both in backyard and apartment

 

Do you want one (just a bedroom or a full house)? Why or why not?

Someday, I would LOVE to have a full house for the tiniest of tinies... More immediately, I'd like to have proper rooms for my bigger guys-- single room set-ups for pairs/families.

Would you want one for all of your dolls or just the smaller ones?

When I have the space, it would be really great if everyone could have a room of their own. Though Vince doesn't really need anything except some space on the coffee table in my room...

Do you just consider your room to be their room as well?

For the time being. Vince certainly doesn't need a room with walls of his own-- since his character is a doll with a personality, it makes sense for him to just have a little bed/couch near mine.

If you've been browsing like myself, what are some cool ones or neat ideas that you've seen?

I don't have links to any, but there are a lot of great things going on in the photo request thread on doll rooms.

Do you think it would be worth the extra expense (buying furniture, getting wallpapers/carpets, keeping it clean, etc)? Why or why not?

At the moment it isn't, because at the moment I don't have the extra cash/room to put one together. But if I did, I would consider it worthwhile. I've always loved dollhouses-- back when I was a kid, I didn't like dolls themselves, but I loved miniatures and tiny houses. So building little environments for my dolls would be rewarding to me.

 

I am not planning something like a complete dollhouse, but two interchangeable and non-permanent dioramas (I have clearly watched too much FroggyStuff on YouTube). As both will be for my entire Avengers crew, you can imagine they will be biiig. After all, as 7 SD+ dolls plus one YOSD have to look good in there. One will be a living room with fireplace (I have the armchairs and sofas already), the other Tony's laboratory/workspace). I have started to collect decorative items for both already. And I will put one one really unique decoration for the fireplace room: The real SD-armour I made will be set up on a armour stand and be presented as Tony's first attempt at armour-making (I think this is very suiting, as this thing was indeed made for the SID body). And it is not too unlikely for the character. Another element will be a kind of "emergency kit" for Loki (in my story, Loki has somewhat changed his life-more or less. But of course you never know.) It will contain his muzzle and the shackles nicely decorated in a glase case with a big fireaxe. These I will have to make myself. Yeah, and other stuff of that kind. The laboratory is much less elaborated at the moment. For this, I have just one strange tool which was a bottle opener. But I am collecting "strange stuff" from packaging etc. This will be spray-painted and lying around on the worktable so that looks like as Tony or other people are working on something.

 

Do you want one (just a bedroom or a full house)? Why or why not?
I think that a house to scale with the dolls I collect would be WAAAAAY too massive to be practical, but I'd really love to have a room or two. It'd be neat for photos.

Would you want one for all of your dolls or just the smaller ones?
I'd love a room or two for all my dolls [as I collect them] but it might be too much...I dunno. Having one or two rooms that would be easy to interchange with different wallpaper and furniture depending on the setting would be neat but I'm not sure how that would work.

Do you just consider your room to be their room as well?
Yes and no. It IS, but I'd also like for them to have their own space that isn't filled with MY clutter.

Do you think it would be worth the extra expense (buying furniture, getting wallpapers/carpets, keeping it clean, etc)? Why or why not?
Well, if I made my own furniture it might help with some of the expense but I don't know for sure. I want one though, so I feel like that makes the cost worth it regardless.

 

I'm sort of in the middle of rigging a doll house

For those with dollhouses:
Is it a full house with different rooms or is it just a bedroom?
so far, its just a room
Handmade or bought/custom-made for you?
I'm still making the walls, but most of it will be handmade by/for me (my boyfriend is helping with furniture)
Is it for all of your dolls, regardless of size or do you reserve it for your smaller dolls?
Its for most of my dolls, since they all belong in the same storyline
Does it take up a lot of space? Do you put it away when you're not playing with your dolls to save space?
Its actually the top of a dresser and sits out all the time, most of my dolls will move between it and the shelves i'm building. they're too thin to build further rooms out of
Any tips for us that have space issues?
thick bookshelves, they save a ton of space on the floor since you can stack rooms on top of storage areas for props and clothes and spare parts

 

For those without:

Do you want one (just a bedroom or a full house)? Why or why not?
No, I don't want a dollhouse. It's hard to find realistic looking props and I have dolls of several sizes from MSD to tiny that would make it hard to decide for the right size of the house and props.
Plus I like dioramas much better
Would you want one for all of your dolls or just the smaller ones?
I would like a diorama for all my dolls together, I think it looks great to have dolls of different sizes all displayed together.

Do you just consider your room to be their room as well?
Well, yes. The apartment was used as a shared apartment when I moved in so all my stuff was in a single room. Now I live in the apartment with my boyfriend and said room is now used as our bedroom. Still all my stuff is in here, hundreds of ponies and all my dolls. They dominate the whole room

If you've been browsing like myself, what are some cool ones or neat ideas that you've seen?
Homes for tinies can be built into nearly everything if you are a little creative which is amazing!
Do you think it would be worth the extra expense (buying furniture, getting wallpapers/carpets, keeping it clean, etc)? Why or why not?
No matter if you want a dollhouse or diorama, if you want it done properly it will cost something but I think it is definitely worth it!

 

Added a pic!

Uenna, the cats aren't allowed in the bedrooms (I live in a shared apartment), so my dolls are safe from them. But yeah, knowing my little one, she'd be wreaking all kinds of havoc in the doll shelf if she ever were to get in >.<
Dad just gave me yet another idea for the troublesome back wall which might just work, we'll see once I get around to stopping by a hardware store.

 

I have a 3 story house for the 1/6 scale and tiny dolls. I was lucky to find it outside of a thrift store but have discovered it's one of the larger Kid Craft kind. The footprint in a good 15 x 30 inches so it takes up a sizable piece of ground but nothing more than a shelf would. It's the bigger dolls I don't have room to spoil. If I did the MSD family would have one with a Halloween theme.

 

My Real Puki currently has a four room house to herself!


Its not finished yet, but I built it from a Greenleaf kit.
I'd like to have at leas a couple of rooms for my mature tinies, but don't have the space. So only dolls who fit in 1/12 scale dollhouses can have a house for the forseable future. I currently have two more kit built dollhouses awaiting inhabitants.

 

I'm working on designing and building a wall hanging shadow box type display house for my dolls. That way when I finally get a place of my own they'll have a special space just for them. I already have some basic designs in mind. I like free standing doll houses but they really are a lot of work.

 

For those without:
Do you want one (just a bedroom or a full house)? Why or why not?
I want only one room, maybe small living room with a window and big windowsill, where my dolls will sit. Why? Because I don't need more. So far, it'll be room for yo-sd/msd with one-two furnitures

Would you want one for all of your dolls or just the smaller ones?
Smaller ones for all my dolls xd so far I have only one so... :P

Do you just consider your room to be their room as well?
So far my room is also for my baby till I get room for herself

If you've been browsing like myself, what are some cool ones or neat ideas that you've seen?
Nothing fancy, but I want something like this:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rKUw6ZqE9...AEM/R0BHYIURW4Y/s1600/Breakfront+Topper+1.JPG

Do you think it would be worth the extra expense (buying furniture, getting wallpapers/carpets, keeping it clean, etc)? Why or why not?
Of Course it does That's the most fun part with owning doll's room - painting it, decorating and so on

 

For those without:
Do you want one (just a bedroom or a full house)? Why or why not?
I would probably just go with a bedroom because I plan on only owning larger dolls. I wouldn't have enough room in my place for a full house.

Would you want one for all of your dolls or just the smaller ones?
I don't plan on owning smaller dolls. I don't think that I would want a house because of limited space.

Do you just consider your room to be their room as well?
I think my room is their room. I plan on using quite a bit of my room to photograph my dolls.

If you've been browsing like myself, what are some cool ones or neat ideas that you've seen?
I have seen some on really cool ones on youtube. I really like the bookshelf as a house idea but I wouldn't be able to do that (too much manga on the shelves).

Do you think it would be worth the extra expense (buying furniture, getting wallpapers/carpets, keeping it clean, etc)? Why or why not?
This would be totally worth it. If I had the time and space, I would make a super tall doll house for my big boy.