Dollhouse Miniatures 1:12 Scale,1:24 Scale OR Others – Some Insights

While using dollhouse miniatures 1:12 scale is most common in the miniature world and most interesting for collectors, there are all kinds of sizes and scales. Before you decide which scale of dollhouse miniatures you are going to buy or build, you should determine what skills you want to apply or what your collection is going to be about.

UPDATE Feb 2023: By the way, I have now a scale conversion tool on the homepage of my website, but also below.

This will help you figure out the measurements from one scale to any other scale, in cms, but also inches! Handy no?

But let’s dive into the topic of the difference between dollhouse miniatures 1:12 scale and 1:24 scale and others.

 

1:6 dollhouse scale.

This scale is used for children’s dollhouses and figures and furniture to play with, like Barbie or Action figures. Meaning that 1 inch is equivalent to 6 inches in full size. An adult male doll would be 12 inches tall and doorways 15 inches. There are some miniaturists that use this scale, but I haven’t seen any yet, have you?

Re-Ment, a Japanese company that produces plastic toys, also uses this scale for its miniatures toys.

 

1:12 dollhouse scale.

As I said before, this is the most used and bought scale in the miniature world as hobby crafting or collecting. That means that it is the most available on the market to purchase. And if you buy dollhouses magazines, watch dollhouse TV, or YouTube clips about making dollhouses or miniatures, it will mostly be on this scale.

I have done some research on how this happened in history and it seems it got accepted as the standard scale because Queen Mary’s dollhouse was built on this scale.

By the way: WOW, have a look at her house, there are over a thousand miniature objects in it! (watch the video below):

On a 1:12 scale, doorways will be 6 to 7 1/2 inches tall or larger, and the adult dolls between 5 inches and 6 inches tall.

This scale is not popular though for collectors of miniature trains or cars etc, so those are kind of hard to find in that niche. Some more details of Queen Mary’s dollhouse, you can read in my blog post about the most famous and/or expensive dollhouses in the world.

 

1:16 dollhouse scale- also known ass 3:4 scale.

An adult male doll would be 4 1/2 inches tall and a doorway would be 5 3/4 inches to 6 1/2 inches high.

One inch on this scale equals 16 inches on a real item.

This was a very common scale in the mid -1930s to the 1950s.

The only places that I found these miniatures are these companies: Petite Princess, Marx, Tri-ing, and Brinca Dada toy company.

 

1:18 dollhouse scale -also known ass 2:3 scale.

These are not very different from the 1:16 scale. Swedish Lundby dollhouses are all in this size (they have been around for almost 70 years ! ). They are often furnished with 1:16 scale furniture.

I have written about Lundby in other articles. In this one, I describe what exactly the Lundby dollhouses are (I love them by the way) and in this blog post, I am showing you where to get these if you are interested in collecting them.

 

1:24 dollhouse scale.

The male dolls on this scale would measure between 2 1/2 inches to 3 inches, while doorways are between 3 to 4 inches.

In the play world, this scale is used for Playmobil houses and furniture and accessories. It is also available for die-cast car collectibles, so street scenes are easier to make with this scale than on the 1:12 scale.

1:24 scale is in the artisan miniature world not so widely made or available, it is kind of a niche, although it is getting more and more popular. As I have seen on AliExpress and Amazon with some wonderful dollhouses kits. Little ‘room boxes’.

UPDATE: In the meantime, I made a few dollhouse miniature kits myself on a scale of 1:24, read about it here.

The big advantage there is that they don’t take as much room either as the dollhouse kits on a 1:12 scale. This would be ideal for when you live in a small house or apartment. Then you wouldn’t need a craft table saw either because the walls and such are already made.

1:48 dollhouse scale, also known as ass Quarter scale miniatures.

This scale is getting popular also for dollhouses in the UK and some parts of the United States.

Railroad building parts made for railroad buildings are being used for quarter-scale houses. It is also called the ‘O’ scale.

It is a scale that is used by gamers as well and their figurines or gaming buildings.

 

1:144 dollhouse scale.

Talk about tiny! I once had a gift from ‘Dollhouses Nederland’ magazine: a tiny house that I could put as a 1:12 scale dollhouse IN my 1:12 dollhouse. So you can definitely use those microscale houses in for example a children’s bedroom. Isn’t it cute?

 

Other scales.

• 1:148 scale: British ‘N’ scale railway
• and 1:160 scale: North American. A popular use for Christmas scenes.
• In the picture below, you can see the different scales for model railway trains and maquettes, there are a lot of different ones

 

Final Conclusion.

This is just my opinion: I think that, whatever scale you choose, you should definitely keep in mind that not every scale is available for collectors or artisans miniaturists. Although some professionals aim for expertise in a particular scale or niche.

Which one do you prefer? I love the 1:24 scale for miniature kits ( I could NOT make the parts myself, it would be way too tiny to cut out with the craft table saw ).

To make them myself from scratch, I really prefer the most common dollhouse miniatures 1:12 scale, because then I can still buy ornaments that I can’t make myself, to really put my dollhouse FULL of stuff. It is so much fun to just look at everything and fantasize about the ‘people’ living in it 🙂

Do you have any questions or comments? You are very welcome to post them under this article!

Also, if you prefer to discuss this with me, or others, you are free to join my Facebook group or Youtube channel! Feel free to share this article with your friends!

I wish you happy crafting!

Best regards,

Lizzy