Dollhouse

Several months ago our son…. aka javajake.... asked me to build a dollhouse for his 3 daughters as their Christmas present. Since those 3 princesses of his are pretty special to this Papa, I knew I wanted to create something extra nice. I decided a 1:12 replica of our log home would be a good reminder for them of “Papa’s house”, since the miles between us keep them from visiting as often as we’d like.

For this project, I used White Pine cut from our property and left over from the build of our house. I did purchase birch plywood for the “tongue and groove” flooring. The grooves were made with a modified saw blade, which after stain was applied, gave a realistic look. The pine ceilings were grooved in this same way.

I gave my wife the responsibility of designing and cutting the roof shingles and the fireplace insert. The fireplace was drawn in Inkscape. The shingles were cut from heavy, textured card stock which I painted green before adhering to the roof. She used her Silhouette Cameo (plotter/cutter) for cutting the 600 plus 12 inch by 1 inch rows of shingles. For more on this you can take a look here.

As is often the case, the project took longer than I anticipated. I had originally planned to furnish the dollhouse with furniture and kitchen cabinets. However, it took a full 3 months to complete, and believe me… I spent some very long days (and nights) working on it. With my wife helping the last couple of days of gluing shingles on the roof, I finished the project at midnight the night before we had to leave to deliver it.

-- Rick