All About DIY / IKEA Hack Dollhouses
Ikea hack dollhouses: How-to | examples | DIY dollhouse
With just a little bit of effort you can make a fabulous Ikea hack dollhouse!
Reasons why you might want to go this route include:
- COST: $80-$250 for a factory produced dollhouse with generic illustrations and bright colors seems like a lot
- SPACE: a full size dollhouse will take a lot of precious play space
- VERSATILITY: you want your child's room to grow with them
- YOU'RE A BIG KID: you collect dolls such as Blythe, Pullip, or ball jointed dolls and you want a fun, beautiful and affordable way to display your collection
- YOU LOVE DESIGN: you love interior design and want a truly special look for your dollhouse
I have rounded up some examples of dollhouses custom-hacked from Ikea products. You can see more on my Pinterest board, here.
A little bit of creativity / ingenuity goes a long way. Get some pretty paper from the craft store, cut out some window panes from construction paper, put it up with removable 3M tape...BAM!
^cherishing.life.love.and.laughter's photos on Flickr
Ikea products that are popular as dollhouse hacks include Kallax and Expedit. There are also a gazillion me-too cubby storage copy brands. You can find a comparison of the many, many existing cubby storage brands, their sizes and costs, here (coming soon!).
When my daughter was a tween, she was still playing with her dolls, mostly Monster High and Liv. I looked into somehow updating her very toddler-like dollhouse...and a seed of an idea began to take root.
First I thought about using decals to transform the interiors of our Ikea Kallax 4x4 cubby storage into a cool dollhouse...tried it: way too annoying to install. The decals were just about impossible to line up to the straight edges. Argh.
Take two: I have a friend who is a printer of real estate signs, banners, and large format items. I found some interesting substrates (the sheets you print on) at his workplace and he let me experiment.
BINGO! myDoll.house was born!