Recently, I built a dollhouse for my daughter. She loves it so much and always asks me if she can take it to grandma’s house. I say no because I know she will lose all the furniture, and the actual house is way too big to bring anywhere. While looking for dollhouse furniture on Etsy, I spotted this foldable dollhouse, and I was inspired. I wanted to make something similar so that my daughter can have a portable dollhouse. She could put some of her furniture from her other dollhouse and bring it to grandma’s easily. This is what I came up with:
Supplies needed to make your own portable DIY dollhouse:
- 1 Small rectangular cardboard box or shoe box (the box I used had a hard drive in it or some computer part for my husband)
- 3 rectangular pieces of cardboard the same size as the first cardboard box (I cut down a large box to size)
- Craft Knife
- Scrapbook Paper
- Glue Stick
- Packaging Tape
- Dollhouse Furniture
Cut three cardboard pieces to the same height and width of your cardboard box.
Tape each piece of cardboard together like you are making a book.
Tape the “book” onto the box.
Be sure to tape the ends of the cardboard to secure the book.
Use scrapbook paper or online printouts of wood for flooring and wallpaper.
Cut out the flooring. To get the correct size, you want to measure the width of the cardboard and draw out a square. Then add a couple of inches to one side so you have a tab to glue the floor onto the cardboard.
Glue the floor onto the cardboard and then glue the wallpaper. For the wallpaper, you want to leave extra paper on each side so you can fold over the paper to make neat corners.
Repeat wallpaper for all four sides. Wrap the cardboard box in wallpaper also.
Add your dollhouse furniture and now you have a portable dollhouse.
One thing to keep in mind is that the box that you use will take up space for the forth room of the house. So if you use a very deep box, there may only be 3 rooms to the house.
When your child is done playing everything stores nicely into the box.
This is adorable! Attaching the walls to the box is a wonderful idea. My granddaughters will love this Thank you.
Wow, I would have loved this so much when I was a kid. Every girl should have a cardboard dollhouse!:) Thanks for sharing! -Nienke
I’ve been wanting to make a boy version of this forever! Although I never would have thought of attaching it all to a box. Brilliant!
Such a cute idea! Thanks for sharing how you made it.
Great idea!!