Cheap and Easy DIY Dollhouse

I’m not big on running errands (or even leaving my house), so I turn to Amazon for almost everything. While I always recycle I was starting to feel really guilty about the amount of boxes I was constantly getting from Amazon, so I decided to put them to good use.

My daughter had a few little dolls that needed a home so I got to ‘thinking outside the box’ and came up with a way to turn all of those Amazon boxes into a dollhouse.

• Medium Sized Cardboard Boxes
• Various Sized Small Cardboard Boxes
• Masking Tape
• Ikea or Other Furniture Magazine
• Clear Packing Tape
• Black Marker
• Hot Glue Gun
• Various Sized Plastic and Metal Lids

Grab one oversized box and cut the top flap off and the side flaps in half. This will be the house.

Do the same thing to the 4 medium sized boxes (example: shoe boxes), cut the top and side flaps off.

Stack the medium sized boxes on top of each other inside the bigger box to make the separate rooms.

Tape the boxes to the big box and to each other.

For the walls, very carefully tape straight lines of masking tape to the back and side walls until they are all covered with, what I call, tapelap.

If you opt for bricks or tile take your black marker and carefully draw bricks onto the walls or floor.

Start the furniture by collecting all the small boxes from the paper recycling bin. Old ring boxes, tampon boxes, vitamin boxes, and facial cleanser boxes work.

After collecting a number of small boxes start taping them. Take your masking tape and put two to three layers of carefully placed masking tape around the entire box so none of the original box is showing.

After all of the small boxes are taped go through a couple of furniture magazines and started cutting out rooms and furniture that you liked. Only cut out pictures that are shot from straight on. If it is a picture shot from an angle it will not work taped onto the boxes.

For most of the furniture you simply take a taped box, a picture of a piece of furniture or a room you like and then use clear packing tape to tape it on to the small box.

The bed is super easy.

Find a rectangular box, tape it with masking tape and then tape a square 'headboard' to it. Cut the headboard from of a piece of cardboard.

The blanket is a piece of an old towel and so are the pillows

For the tub, cut a hole in the top of a taped rectangular box and glue two beads on as the water knobs, then glue a curved bead on as the faucet.

For the sink, glue the lid of a pill bottle onto the top of a small box and glue two beads on as the water knobs and glue a curved bead on as the faucet.

For the toilet it takes a little more work. Take a small square box and tape a rectangular piece of cardboard to the back of it. Tape the entire toilet. Glue a pill bottle lid to the top of the box for the toilet lid and glue a small bead on to the back of the toilet for the flusher.

To make the kitchen table and chairs collect different sizes of plastic lids. The table pictured is a peanut butter lid hot glued to a medicine bottle and then taped with masking tape. The chairs are medicine bottle caps that have been taped.

To make the plates take metal lids (from a glass soda bottle or beer bottle) and paint them white. Then place small green beads and a larger flat brown bead in the lid. Fill the lid with Elmer's Glue and let dry.

The living room furniture was easy.

For the TV, tape a rectangular box and draw on a black screen and buttons.

For the coffee table, take a small box and glue a flat rectangular piece to it. Then tape the entire table to make it all the same color.