Low Spend Dolls House

[Maykid]

I am making a dolls house for the grandchildren. It will be a Christmas house. Any free or cheap ideas to furnish and decorate it? And how to make rugs? I read somewhere about cutting up flannels! Ideas gratefully received.

You'd need to edge flannel or it will moult everywhere when you cut it. I had a few knitted rugs in mine as a kid. It had patterned workbook sticky plastic as wallpaper, but you could get some actual wallpaper samples to use.

What are you making the dolls house out of ?

I am making it out of a cardboard box.

Cut up egg boxes done as a patchwork on the outside paint up nicely to look like stone.
Handkerchiefs are fine enough to make great blouses and petticoats, and curtains.
Old bamboo table mats make nice flooring.
Cut up rigid plastic packaging for window glass.
Cereal packets, cut and painted, for roof tiles
Lots of cheap used stuff on eBay

Good ideas there thanks.

There are some free printable wallpapers/floor coverings on this page

Do you have any independent fabric shops near you? My local fabric shop has a big bin of very small offcuts and fabric samples which they sell off at a nominal price of 10p each but often a huge pile will be charged at only a few pence just to get rid. Most of the samples have pinked edges so won't fray, and I've had some really nice woollen & cotton samples perfect for dollshouse rugs, bedcovers, curtains and blankets.

We had this and it lasted for years. We loved it

Ours had wallpapers samples and some carpet samples. Fabric scraps is a great area too. We had net curtains which we thought were amazing!

If you want something more sturdy than a cardboard box you could get a cheap Billy bookcase from IKEA. The white three shelf one is what we used for a while.

For the furniture, you can get MDF blanks quite cheaply on ebay - eg 10 rectangles 4cmx8cm for less than £3 - they could make the base for tables, beds, sofas etc - Squares-and-rectangles-wooden-plaques-craft-boards-3mm-MDF

If you have an Aldi near you they're currently selling Disney fat squares, they'd be cool for curtains etc

If you only partially furnish it, your grandchildren may enjoy helping to make more - I know I would have done!