Malibu Beach Dollhouse Kit

After several attempts at trying to build my own modern dollhouse (and failing!), I decided to splurge on the Malibu Beach Dollhouse Kit from The Dollhouse Emporium in the UK.  The reason for choosing this house, pretty simple, it was on sale and they would actually ship it to Australia.  There are several other houses which I found and really loved the design of, but actually being able to buy one and have it delivered was another story.  My dream home would still be the Brinca Dada Emerson Dollhouse, but unfortunately I could not find one anywhere.

The Malibu arrived from the UK within one week of ordering it, which was super impressive given the size and weight of the box.  After opening it, I was a little overwhelmed, I'm not going to lie, there were many, many pieces and a 20 something page instruction manual!

Take note, when the manual tells you to do a dry run first, as excited as you might be to put together your dream home, do the dry run first!!

My top tips for constructing this house:

1.  MOST IMPORTANT do the dry run first, leave all the sliding windows pinned to the frames as they don't all match.  Mark which windows fit which frames use any method that makes sense to you, but this is important to achieve a good end result.

2.  When you have the house sitting together (not glued) decide on a colour scheme for the facade.  I would have like to have kept some more of my facade with the natural wood showing (i.e.; the window frames).

3.  Note pieces that do not need to be painted, i.e. top and bottom edges that meet the floor or ceiling this will cut down the 3 or more coats of paint you are going to need.  

4.  I would recommend not painting the sliding window tracks or the windows themselves first off.  Once my house had its 3 coats of paint the sliding panels where not so 'slidey'!!!!

Next step.... paint, and sand, and paint and sand.... and continue painting and sanding until you are happy the walls are well finished.  You will be able to touch the walls up once it is constructed, but the majority of it will be easier to do while is is still in pieces.

As for paint, I had a lengthy discussion with the sales person at the paint desk at the local hardware store.  I was advised to use a semi-gloss, however it still has that chalky feeling and I am considering doing a final coat in a gloss finish.  Obviously if you plan to wallpaper every room the paint job will not matter as much, but I am after the crisp white wall effect.

Partial dry run of the build, windows and frames left unpainted- be sure to mark which window fits to which frame!

Progress shot with part of the facade taken removed.

Picture of how the exterior of the house currently looks.  I am still undecided as to how to finish the outside.  In trying to achieve a modern look, I wanted to paint the very inside of the window frames black.  I will add more photos of the house as the renovations continue.

Kmart Dollhouse Hack

How to make over the Australian Kmart Dollhouse for under $100

BEFORE                                             AFTER

The Budget :
Kmart Dollhouse $49
Wooden eBay kitchen $14.00
Sandpaper (180 grit) / cork block $5.70
White Knight Tester Paint Pot $7.25
Bedding Material $10.00
Box cutter/knife
or mini Stanley Handsaw $10.00
Spotlight Craft Glue $3.70

Total $99.65

The list above will give you everything you need assuming you have none of the above laying around the garage - you can always ask family members if they have some of the tools etc which you could borrow as this is a fairly small and simple project.  All the men in my family are metal workers and we still had most of this stuff laying around the house!

Firstly the best thing about the Kmart house is that it comes with furniture! and the wooden furniture is pretty indestructible for little hands.  I added the option of a full kitchen for my dollhouse, and made 2 small beds from balsa wood.

I brought my kitchen from Kidstuff at my local Westfield shopping centre (brand was called Saint Germaine) and was definitely a splurge item considering I sanded and repainted it anyway.  However you can buy a perfectly good wooden kitchen from Ebay.  I have brought the pink wooden kitchen from eBay and used both '9amfree' and 'aclmart' in China and they cost about $14 with free shipping.  The only other piece you may want to add is another bedroom/nursery set.

The other item you will need to decide on is wether you buy a handsaw or a box cutter.  A handsaw will easily chew through the wooden furniture if you are wanting to modify a few pieces.  I use my Stanley box cutter for everything!!  It is a great tool to use with balsa wood.  However the wooden furniture in this set may be a little too thick and strong for the box cutter and I don't want anyone chopping off a finger.

HOW TO RENOVATE THE FURNITURE

BEFORE

This is a flat lay of the furniture which comes with the house.  There is about 1 piece of furniture to each room so it does leave the house looking a little barren, which is why I decided to purchase a wooden kitchen.  I did made 2 small wooden beds as my daughter insisted there be a bed for her and her brother!




AFTER

Choose a colour scheme for the house and try to stick with it throughout, most commonly used colours in these renovations are white, grey, pink and black (try to stick to 3 colours if you are wanting the crisp Scandi look).  I kept my makeover simple by using white paint on the furniture as this tied in with the colours of the house as it is already mostly white.      





The first thing you need to do if you want to change the colour of this furniture is sand it.  Im not going to lie, this is hands down the most time consuming, boring part of the job.  I used a fairly aggressive sand paper (180 grit) and try and use a cork block so as not to dig trenches in the wood.  I suggest you grab a glass of wine and watch the kids run around the backyard for this part... you will probably need to set aside 2 hours for sanding.  I did cheat as I hate sanding and didn't sand the back, bottom or inside of any of these pieces  (naughty!)  but in all honesty if you do not sand off the original paint, it will leech though and the new paint will also scratch off.

Once you have given the old furniture a decent sand you can paint it.  Bunnings sell small test pots of paint (near the spray paint section) for under $10.00.  Make sure you buy a water based paint so it is kid friendly and also go for a 'gloss' finish.  Matt finishes feel chalky, will scratch and mark very easily.  You will most likely need to coats of paint on the furniture, but there is so little to paint that a test pot will easily see you through this project.

BEFORE and AFTER of the Saint Germaine kitchen set.







This is an after photo of the pink wooden eBay kitchen which I used in one of my previous houses.  For $14 this is an easy addition to your dollhouse, and the pink isn't that bad (considering it is a girls dollhouse!).

This is the large red set of draws which came with the dollhouse.  I used my handsaw to cut just under the first draw.

I turned the bottom half up the other way and cut out the back of where the 'middle' draw would have been.  This made another 2 sets of draws which I found to be a better fit in the house.  I used one in the very top room where the roof is slanting and hard to fit furniture into.



Next is to make over your little bed and couch.
Spotlight will let you buy as little as a 10cm strip of fabric (assuming you get a nice shop assistant.... sometimes they get a bit annoyed....)  The other option is picking out some quilting squares or 'Flat Fats' which are only about $4 each (pre cut fabric which measures approx 50cm x 50cm).   The swan pattern on my bed above was one of these precut quilting squares.  Another option is to cut up an old pillow case or buy a Kmart pillow case for as little as $5.

I recovered the couch using a strip of fabric and a good quality craft glue.  Both Bunnings and Spotlight sell craft glue suitable for sticking fabric to wood.  The Bunnings glue is called Boyle craft glue and is found near the balsa wood/craft/paint section or the Spotlight Crafters Choice 60ml clear craft glue.

Fill the remainder of the rooms with bits and pieces, swabs of fabric cut to make floor rugs, $2 shop fake flower/succulent arrangements make great indoor plants.  Cut pictures from childrens books or magazines to make wall art or search google images for great wall art finds.  Use scrap booking paper (available from Kmart, Reject Store, Big W etc) to add more colour to floor and walls.  Ensure you use a good quality craft glue (like the 2 brands mentioned above) to fix wall paper and flooring.  Childrens paper glue will not hold wall paper to the dollhouse.

Make up compacts make great bathroom mirrors!

I removed the middle walls in the bottom 2 rooms to add more space.

How to make a modern miniature toilet

Seeing as my dollhouse is modern style, I wanted my toilet to be 'floating' or 'wall hung'.

For some reason I have got into carving balsa wood, probably because I have accumulated sooooo much of it doing all these dollhouse renovations and I'm getting sick of everything being square!

So tools needed for a modern toilet - a block of balsa wood, this one started at roughly 6cm x 3cm.  Remember balsa is very soft wood so it is easy to cut and sand and that makes it my preferred choice of wood to use as you don't need power tools.

Other tools needed are a box cutter, small hand saw, sand paper, pen.

Get out your ruler and briefly measure the area you want the toilet to be placed to get an idea of the overall size.  My toilet is going to be about 3cm x3cm square and about 2cm in height.

I googled modern toilets to get an idea of a shape I wanted to use.  I then briefly sketched a pattern onto the outside of the wood block.

Try and use a handsaw to cut off as much excess wood as possible.  Then with the box cutter start by cutting off the corners to make more of a curved corner.

I started with a 'back' on the toilet but went a bit crazy with the craft knife and accidentally cut if off.  I should have cut the back in with my hand saw....

Once you have cut most of the wood away you can use a corse sandpaper to even out all the bumps.  I find it easier to hold the sandpaper on the bench and rub the wood over the sandpaper.  If the sandpaper is flat on a bench it sands more evenly.  Course sandpaper can leave big scratches so be careful not to push too hard.  Once you are happy with the shape finish off with a finer sandpaper to give a nice smooth finish.

This is how I will mount it after I have painted it with some white paint.  I will add finished photos when the bathroom is complete.

How to make a modern miniature side board

You will need, a handsaw or a box cutter, sandpaper and wood glue.

Firstly cut your piece of wood to size.  In theory it would be a lot easier if you used a square block of wood, but I only had this long skinny piece so I cut 3 strips the same length.  I clamped and glued the 3 pieces of wood together to get the shape and size I wanted.

 Next step is to mark the wood using a ruler and a pen.  I just randomly drew a few lines in different directions.  Carry the pattern over to the top of the wood.

Next use a metal ruler and run a box cutter or a hand saw over the lines you have drawn.  Be careful to go slowly so that the saw does not 'jump' and mark the wood beside where you want to cut.  You want the cuts to stand out, so don't be shy- make a fairly deep cut.

Next I folded a piece of sandpaper (120 grit) in half and used this to deepen and even out the cuts in the wood.  (Photo below)
Once you have finished making the cuts, give the whole cabinet a final sand to remove any pen marks or scratches.

This photo shows how I have folded the sandpaper in half and used it to make the lines deep and even.

Make sure you keep refolding the sand paper regularly as it wears out quite quickly and won't give a nice clean straight line.

Finally add some legs.  I made two small rectangles and sanded one corner down to give it a different look.  But you can quite easily just cut a a rectangle slightly smaller that the base of the cabinet and just sit it on that.

How to make a miniature industrial style bookcase

You will need the following:
- Balsa wood
- Good quality balsa/craft glue
- box cutter
- BBQ skewers (optional)

I started by painting a strip of balsa with my brown stain (small dot of brown craft paint diluted in water).

I will use this piece for my shelves.

This bookcase is best suited for 1:12 scale.

When finished it measures 15cm high by 12cm wide.  Measure the space you want to pace the bookshelf first as you may want to make your bookshelf smaller or larger.

First cut 4 shelves.  Each shelf is 12cm long by 3cm wide.

Cut 4 sides.  I just sliced small sections from a a balsa board (see left side of picture above).  The sides measure .5cm by 15cm high.  

Use the side rails as an indication to 'notch' small holes in each corner of the selves. (as shown in the picture on the left).

I found the easiest way to put it together was to lay it down on my cutting board, use the grid on the cutting board to ensure the bookshelf is straight.

Lay the sides down first on the cutting board 12 cm apart (or as wide as you make your shelf).

Place a small spot of glue in each corner and using the cutting board grid to help you get the shelves straight start glueing the shelves to the sides.  I just spaced mine randomly but you have certain objects you wish to place on the shelves such as books or a TV then you can measure the distance between each shelf to ensure your decorative items fit in.  Once you have glued the shelves to the bottom two legs you can glue the front 2 legs on.  Check again with your cutting board that the shelves and sides are all straight and if the glue is tacky enough to hold the bookcase together stand it up.  This will ensure that it will stand firmly on the ground once dry ... and if it doesn't you can always glue it to the wall or use some blu-tac!!! 

For extra decoration and to make it look more industrial, I used 2 BBQ skewers crossed over on the back of the bookcase.  It also make it a little more sturdy.  Wait until it has completely dried before decorating the shelves or otherwise you run the risk of the shelves moving.

How to make a modern miniature shower head

 You will need: 

- 5mm round dowel
- square dowel or scraps of dowel
- box cutter
- bottle top


First of all I made the shower head.  I just cut two pieces of dowel into oblong shapes.

Glue the shower head together using a good quality balsa/craft glue.  Once dried I used sandpaper to sand all the sides down to make it look 'rounder'.

Next move onto the waterfall shower head.  I already had a precut round piece of balsa wood.  You could either trace around a bottle top and cut out a piece of balsa or you could use a plastic bottle top.

Cut some sections of round dowel to construct the shower rail as show in the picture below.

Modern Miniature Bathroom Sink

 You will need 
- Balsa wood
- Cardboard tube
- Craft glue
- Box cutter

Cut two sides out of balsa wood approx 4cm x 4cm
Cut top and bottom out of balsa wood approx 8cm x 4cm

On this cabinet I tried to mitre the edges to that it fits together seamlessly on the corners.  I just rubbed the corners across sandpaper to get an angle on the edge.  But the cabinet can be joined easily without changes the corners.

Cut a small section from your cardboard tube.  My cardboard tube is the inner from a roll of garbage bags.

Glue your cabinet together using a good quality balsa/craft glue and allow to dry.

Once dry you can paint the cabinet.  I like to stain the balsa wood light brown.  I use just a tiny spot of brown acrylic paint and mix it with about 50ml of water.

 

Its best to paint some test wood first to see what colour you like.  Once the stain dries you can do another coat if you want to make it darker.

Paint the cardboard tube white to make a basin and add a tap.  (Details to make a tap can be found here)