Think again, there are still 1001 dollhouses and miniatures to be admired out there, in all kinds of styles , sizes and scales.
My laptop is actually filled with links to websites/Pinterest ideas/Facebook groups, etc, so much that it would take me 2 lives to talk about everything haha!
In this blog post, I will talk about 13 dollhouse decorating ideas kind of “at random”, to partly get my laptop “cleaned up” as well.
Now that sounds negative, right? But yes, it can be chaos at Lizzy’s place ;-).
Anyway, let’s dive straight into things.
Dollhouse decorating idea 1.Dee – Daw Designs By Julie Jackson.
Let’s start with just one word on Julie Jackson from Dee-Daw Designs: WOW!
Miniaturists from the UK really have the “it” factor and Julie is one of them for sure.
She has a shop where she sells all kinds of her handmade miniatures and a book, you can get her advice, but most of all she made 3 quite large and famous miniature projects.
Featherstone Hall Hotel :
This is a very large dollhouse originally in the Georgian style, which she converted into a country house from around the Edwardian era.
She takes you an a tour of the house in her book, but also on her page. You can check out her gorgeous pictures there! (copyrighted helas)
This is not a picture of Julie Jackson, but an example of a Georgian-style dollhouse.
A “Theatre Royal“
Again, I would really advise you to check out her page on the construction of the theatre, as no pictures or YouTube channel is available for bloggers to post about.
And last, but not least: her work for the BFG movie!
In 2015, she was contacted by a movie company to produce dressed furniture ( a bedroom suit) for Steven Spielberg’s version of the movie BFG. Go check it out as well!
Dollhouse room idea 2.Charles Matton, A French Miniature Artist.
On our tour around the world, we couldn’t skip this intriguing mini-artist.
Charles Matton, who sadly passed away in 2008, created projects in many media. He was an illustrator for the Esquire, but also a designer for movie sets, a painter, and a photographer.
But what we want to talk about today are his amazing “boîtes”, small room boxes.
These room boxes are miniature replicas of real spaces, like studios of other artists or from the library of New York. He made 72 boxes in total during his lifetime.
His work was quite fascinating. Klick on (one of) the picture(s) below to see a small video.
DIY dollhouse decorating idea3. Make A Little Wonder With Cardboard.
A blogger called Gülsen from Turkey made this cute little Mediterranean house from cardboard.
It measures 20×14 cm and has amazing and refined details. Based on this idea, you can create very different sceneries and hang them on your wall or use them as lighting, for example.
The cardboard structure
You can hang these on your wall!
4. Dawn Morehead Book Diorama’s
Dawn Morehead is on Instagram, where she shows her books that are transformed into book art, so-called book dioramas.
Go check her out, she creates fantastic pieces of miniature paper art, combined with little houses, furniture, and even mini books!
And I can tell you: the work of Dan Ohlmann is impressive! All I need to do to prove this you is tell you to watch the video below and be amazed 🙂
6.William R. Robertson
On top of the list of professional miniaturists and breathtaking miniatures is William Robertson.
He has an Instagram page, a website, and a Facebook page, so you can see all his glorious miniatures.
By profession, he is a museum designer, but also an antique tool collector, mechanic, tool historian, and rose engine enthusiast, and of course a maker of fine-scale miniatures.
I would definitely go check out his work on any of the pages mentioned before!
7. Work With Willow Twigs
You can make fantastic miniatures by just using willow twigs.
Myself, I use them frequently for my fairy garden or my treehouse (not finished yet, the twigs are at the bottom under the floor), and so do lots of people.
For my treehouse, I am planning on using them a lot as well for my dollhouse furniture.
Because it is easy to do this DIY Ã nd actually quite affordable. Have you tried it?
In the same category, you can just cut pieces of thicker twigs (with a tablesaw), and you can make all kinds of mini furniture with that, using your fantasy!
Or even build a complete “fairy house”! ( There are other ways in building fairy houses, check out my personal work )
8. Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s dollhouses.
In this video below, you can see how a former sex therapist of about 90 years (?) old now, still played with dollhouses and collected them during her lifetime: Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
Look at how she even has books that she wrote before in miniature versions, so cute!
She had a very turbulent and actually quite heartbreaking life, and the dollhouses helped her process everything. ( I read and hear that a lot!).
It started when she was 10 years old in Germany when the nazi’s started WW2.
To hear more about her story and which pieces of the dollhouse and dolls refer to her tragic history, please take a look at the video mentioned above, it is quite intriguing!
9. You Can Use Lots Of Things As A Roombox!
Expect the unexpected when it comes to using things as a miniature room box.
The list is long and it can vary from guitars, in a jar, in bottles from laundry detergent, lanterns, old suitcases, book dioramas, a breadbox, an old TV, the framework of a painting, a box where you can put a hat in, or you can even glue miniatures to a cutting board or in a sardine can, why not?
10. Make A Dollhouse From A Real Life House: Ham House.
Another one of the many dollhouse decorating ideas can be that you want to make a replica of your own house or an existing house of someone else.
I have thought about doing that myself one day, but I don’t think I will ever have enough time in my life to get even started haha.
A beautiful example of a replica dollhouse is “Ham House”, by Mulvany & Rogers from the UK.
The original Ham House lies on the banks of the Thames, about 10 miles from London and it was built in 1610 by Sir Thomas Vavasour.
It originally consisted of nine bays and three stories high.
Husband and wife worked 2 years on this dollhouse of the replica of the real house!
Have a look at this fantastic video below:
11. Make Miniatures From Cardboard, Popsickle Sticks And/Or Skewer Sticks.
Here is where I insert a few of my own creations so far. There are a lot of DIY miniature tutorials out there on how to craft stuff by using affordable materials or things that you can recycle/upcycle, etc.
So far, I have three blog posts on creating mini’s from scratch or waist:
But I also made these videos on creating miniatures with the help of popsicle sticks and others:
My latest video is about crafting a miniature stool by just using cardboard and skewer sticks and so on:
Next is this one: a DIY easy Miniature Bench plus stuffed cushions, using popsickle sticks.
I also made a mini popsicle garden chair, check it out! (This way, you also help me to expand my YouTube channel 😉 ).
There are more videos on my channel and more coming up, but I will let you discover that yourself, if you would please subscribe to my channel, thanks!
12. Decorate/Make Dollhouse Decorations With Egg Cartons.
You can use egg cartons for 1001 things regarding dollhouse decoration and even dollhouse furniture.
Let’s show a few examples.
In the picture below you can see a rock porch made from egg cartons. I have shown you how to make these kinds of floors in this tutorial.
In the same category, you can make a regular miniature stone pavement.
Or a miniature stone wall!
Take a look at this beautiful stone chimney made with egg cartons!
And the last thing I’m showing (but there sure is lots more), is this mini kitchen made with yes: egg cartons!
I’m sure that you can find a lot more ideas on Pinterest!
13. Create Crime Scenes Miniatures: Frances Glessner Lee
Another great decorating idea for miniature dioramas is creating crime scenes.
An amazing miniaturist who specialized in this was Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962 ).
She created detailed miniature crime scenes, so that investigators investigating a homicide, could “convict” the guilty, clear the innocent and find the “truth”.
These dioramas in miniature size were created in the first half of the 20th century, but still are used in forensic training today! (although it is now more with computer images).
When will you create your first crime scene?
Here’s another video for you to see about her work!
Ok, this blog post on the best dollhouse decoration ideas might seem like a little bit of a mix of all kinds of ideas and miniature projects smashed together, but there seemed to be no other way of getting all of these ideas organized, sorry 😉
Anyway, I really hope that you enjoyed this article on dollhouse decorating ideas and if you have any more questions or would just like to chat then please leave a comment below or join me on one of my social media channels or on my Facebook group.
6 thoughts on “The 13 Best DIY Dollhouse Decorating Ideas.”
Hey Lizzy,
i m jus done with reading your post. You have a great article on dollhouse decoration. You got all the best 13 decorating ideas. I have really enjoyed going through your comments. Without your ideas like those we could have been in a big problem because we don’t have nay knowledge like you have.
You have shared the valuable information people around you. This makes way better easy. We are looking for more dollhouse decorating ideas so that we can built amazing decoration for our dollhouses. If people are searching for decorating ideas then I think this is the best of platform to lean from.
Hi Lizzy, this is a fascinating post on decorating ideas for dollhouses. It is amazing the detail that goes into some of these dollhouses, that one can really imagine it to be part of real life for dolls.
Do you think that the projects that you show to use egg cartons to make floors or a stone chimney, for instance, is a project that I could do with my 5-year old granddaughter? Or does she need to be older to get involved in DIY dollhouses? Thanks for sharing.
About your question: I think that regarding the egg cartons, you could give it a try with your granddaughter if she loves crafting. Just make sure to use non-toxic glue like Elmer’s glue for kids and that she doesn’t put little pieces in her mouth! And it is probably better to work with her together and try out some things first, before doing ‘the real thing’ 🙂
Hi Lizzy, I really enjoyed reading your article “13 Best Dollhouse Decorating Ideas”. I find it truly amazing that so many from all around the world have been building these marvelous miniatures for so many years, WOW ! I am intrigued by the variety of simple, easy to find, or inexpensive materials that one can use to create their own miniatures. What a great idea, to hang some on a wall like framed pictures or photographs.
You have done an amazing job of ordering the unorderable into a very readable, informative and enjoyable post, so I thank you.
Hey Lizzy,
i m jus done with reading your post. You have a great article on dollhouse decoration. You got all the best 13 decorating ideas. I have really enjoyed going through your comments. Without your ideas like those we could have been in a big problem because we don’t have nay knowledge like you have.
You have shared the valuable information people around you. This makes way better easy. We are looking for more dollhouse decorating ideas so that we can built amazing decoration for our dollhouses. If people are searching for decorating ideas then I think this is the best of platform to lean from.
Thank you very much for your positive comment!
I wish you happy crafting,
Lizzy
Hi Lizzy, this is a fascinating post on decorating ideas for dollhouses. It is amazing the detail that goes into some of these dollhouses, that one can really imagine it to be part of real life for dolls.
Do you think that the projects that you show to use egg cartons to make floors or a stone chimney, for instance, is a project that I could do with my 5-year old granddaughter? Or does she need to be older to get involved in DIY dollhouses? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Line!
Thank you for the compliments 🙂
About your question: I think that regarding the egg cartons, you could give it a try with your granddaughter if she loves crafting. Just make sure to use non-toxic glue like Elmer’s glue for kids and that she doesn’t put little pieces in her mouth! And it is probably better to work with her together and try out some things first, before doing ‘the real thing’ 🙂
I hope you have fun with your granddaughter
Hi Lizzy, I really enjoyed reading your article “13 Best Dollhouse Decorating Ideas”. I find it truly amazing that so many from all around the world have been building these marvelous miniatures for so many years, WOW ! I am intrigued by the variety of simple, easy to find, or inexpensive materials that one can use to create their own miniatures. What a great idea, to hang some on a wall like framed pictures or photographs.
You have done an amazing job of ordering the unorderable into a very readable, informative and enjoyable post, so I thank you.
Hi William!
It was for sure a chaotic job to get everything organized, so thank you for the compliments!
Have a good day and I wish you happy crafting!
Kind regards,
Lizzy