Dolls House - have you got one ?

My friend aged 70 has a beautifully furnished dolls house which she allows her GC to play with provided they are careful.

Ive just finishd watching that wonderful series on the dolls house. Its currently streaming on All 4. I was stunned by the skill of the makers.

It must be a wonderful experience to completely funnish a dolls house from scratch. Sadly I dont have the room for one. Some lovely examples on this thread.

I was on an auction site the other day in the USA and there were dozens of lots of miniature furniture and dolls of all sizes. The Americans LOVE dolls and dolls houses and collecting anything to do with dolls. There are entire sites which specialise in them. Not long ago I had some lovely silver filigree furniture - a table and chair. I also had a miniature set of dominoes and another of playing cards. They were all snapped up.

These stories have reminded me about a cloth dolls house I made for my niece. It was from a pink magazine ( can’t remember the name!). It was designed to hang on a door handle and folded flat when taken down. Furniture was made from matchboxes and those red pill boxes.

Vegansrock - I love your modernist beach house and Jbpl - your Advent box is a great idea - I have a lot of Playmobil so you've given me ideas.

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I had a small triang one, now my GDs.
I now have one made by DH, the grandchildren were only allowed to ‘look’ but not touch until they were old enough( about 5) to play carefully in it. GD used to say can we put young GS to bed so I can play in it?.
Made advent boxes for all four GC over the years.
They all love them.

I have a mid century modern dolls house. Built by my OH many years ago. With 6 GC ( oldest 17) it has been well played with over the years. The younger ones( 3 and 1) allowed to play with it under supervision, though I’ve got some Sylvanians to put in it when they come! It’s had several revamps and is now based on a 1960s modernist beach house ( can’t wait to move in!) The Lundby dolls houses are well worth a look on ebay - they were around in the 70s and had some very stylish scandinavian furniture.

Just wanted to add that there are sometimes specialist auctions for toys and games which can include "lots" of miniature furniture. You dont have to travel to auctions now - most people bid online on one of the several platforms.

And its always worth looking on Ebay and Etsy. There are many talented makers of miniature items.

I deal in antiques - mostly jewellery and costume accessories - and have always loved dolls houses. I had one til I was 15 then allowed my mother to give it away. I often thought I would buy an antique one and gradually furnish it but Ive never had the room. There are so many skills involved in furnishing and decorating one. I will look on 4 player for the program mentioned upthread.

I think that if you have the room and inclination then this is a lovely pastime.

Oddly enough I dislike large dolls and always find a stall full of them at an antiques fair to be creepy. Their eyes appear to follow you!

My father built me a wonderful doll's house. It was a model of our own house with copies of all our furniture. It was quite big so when we moved it was chopped up because there was no room for it. Such a shame because it would have been a lovely historical record now. A typical 1930s house with a mixture of pre war and 50s furniture.

Getting my of and offs mixed up there. It’s been a long day.

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Menopaws what a kind of offer. I expect many different kinds of crafters would bite your hand off. I know our local charity shop takes them and they fly out !

This is the dolls house I’d like but pigs will fly first. I saw it online today. Only about £850 more than I can afford

I believe mine is a Triang one - and it has little metal windows that open! I understand that it was a limited edition one.

I have a large bag of unwanted carpet sample squares that maybe ideal for dolls houses. I'm not into dolls houses but they may be ideal for someone.
Does anyone have any ideas? I don't want anything for them but it seems such a shame just to throw them out.
The samples are approx 6 in x 4 in.

I loved those Triang ones but they were an expensive purchase way back and are still highly priced second hand -unsurprisingly!
I think it’s quite sad when you see small children ( I hasten to add not all ) staring at iPads or handheld game consoles rather than having the joy of building imaginary worlds.
I think there’s something so magical about a dolls house. Something really innocent and unspoilt.

A few years ago, my g.daughter (whom I often looked after) was aged about 13 hears old and suddenly told me one day - "Grandma - it is not fair!!" Asking her which particular section of her comfortable life was not fair, it turned out that her Mum had insisted that she donated her children's dolls house to the local charity shop. Her moan was that her much younger cousins still had dolls houses and did not keep them neat and tidy.

I told her about adult dolls houses, showed her pictures of them and also stressed the cost of furnishings etc. She was fascinated, so I talked to my daughter and then for g.daughter's next birthday purchased her one. Her Dad, who did not live with them and was then very sick, then purchased and put in all the lighting, etc. into this house. Over the next few years we (g.daughter, daughter and me) attended some special 'fairs' and purchased different items of furniture and ornaments (including ginger cats - as they had two real, full-size ones at home). She learned how she had to budget and save for some items for this house. It is lovely.

She is at Uni now and obviously has left this at home. Dad died three years back - but that lighting is still a good memory of him for her. Will probably stay in her large bedroom until she gets her own home.

I love it and when I stay there always have to open it up and have a peek inside. Found it quite difficult finding and purchasing modern people for it - but they do exist if you hunt around.

Wow some beautiful dolls houses. It’s something I never had but seeing all your pictures makes me wish I had. Such lovely little details, the lights make them look so cosy.
I did have a wonderful Wendy house that my dad built for me. It’s wooden windows were from an old train, spent many happy hours in that.

I loved seeing the photos and all the wee details, like the globe, the food on the kitchen table and the Christmas tree. How pretty the house with electric lights.

My parents built - from scratch - a lovely doll's house for my sister and me when we were children. Dad built it from wood, Mom painted and decorated (including using small pieces of wallpaper as floor coverings!). We received it as a Christmas gift, along with a set of furniture that I think was by Calico Critters. Each of us also received a Calico Critters family - mine was a family of bears and my sister's was a family of raccoons. We played with the doll's house and the Calico Critters for years. Eventually the doll's house fell to pieces.

Casdon Its a bugger of a job getting up into the loft, as its the old fashioned type with a hole in the ceiling and you have to drag the ladders from the garage! I may have photos from Christmas 1993 (or whenever it was) but in one of those boxes full of photos you've been meaning to sort out for decades! I don't rate your chances!

I loved those Triang houses - a couple of my friends had them. Some had metal windows that opened.

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And here are a few pictures of house daughter made from kit when she was about 18. She kept adding more bits for a few years - basement, attic, conservatory. It weights a ton and is difficult to move, so still in our house.

Oh, send us a picture LadyStardust!
There were two Triang houses at that time, my friend Helen was an only, she had the smaller one. Maybe yours was this one Maybee? If the brittle plastic roof rings a bell it could well be.
I remember we had a mauve sofa and chairs, heavy plastic with metal legs, and a bath, sink and shower in the same ilk, presumably designed so they couldn’t be broken.

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Dil bought a lovely house second hand, complete with furniture and accessories. She and I had good fun arranging it all, but then had to put it away, as GC too young for it!

Oh that’s lovely. Now something is confusing me. I can remember most of my toys, and my books. I think I had a dolls house but can’t visualise it and certainly can’t visualise any furniture for one. So I probably didn’t have one. But there’s something about your dolls house that is in my memory, except a smaller house. This is going to really bother me and there’s no one I can ask.

Casdon! I have the very same one as your photo somewhere in the loft! Complete with furniture. I really should get it out and see if its all ok. My elder son, when he was very small, decided on Christmas Eve he would like Santa to bring him a dolls house! Mr Stardust was dispatched up into the loft after son's bedtime, to dig out the dolls house! I was up until about 2 in the morning making it look good. My son was over the moon, but only played with it for a few months until it was stored back up there, where it has been ever since, about 28 years!