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Original poster

Best dolls house for 3 year old?

15 replies

LynetteScavo · 07/07/2008 16:11

DM is about to buy DD the ELC dolls house. I said I'd buy the furnature & family. (just realised it will be another £100+ )

Is this really the best dolls house around for a 3yo?

Thanks

OP posts:

S1ur · 07/07/2008 16:14

Mine love it, we got ours complete with furniture and people off ebay, for about £60, (used)

Our one is an open plan job, is that one you mean? Thought they'd discontinued...

S1ur · 07/07/2008 16:16

Actually got it wrong just checked and ours was more like £30 including basement extension.

look

hana · 07/07/2008 16:16

ohhh will she play with it? and make sure she can access all rooms and levels easily to move the people and furniture around . the elc wooden one about 4 years ago (was an A frame) was quite difficult to actually 'play' with -
and dd1 actually didn't play with it as much as I had hoped!

I got rid of the actual dollhouse but saved the people and furniture, and now that we have 2 more girls have bought a PLAN one from TKmax that was ridiculously cheap. And takes up less space!

hana · 07/07/2008 16:25

slur, that's the one dd found tricky to actually play with! but £10 is a bargin.

Original poster

LynetteScavo · 07/07/2008 16:29

it's this one

OP posts:

PInkyminkyohnooo · 07/07/2008 16:31

ours is a pintoy one witht the basement and furniture- it's fab. Got it a village fair for 15squid. DS age 3 and DD age 21 months both love it.

hana · 07/07/2008 16:31

wait for a 20% off code - they are usually floating about

flamingtoaster · 07/07/2008 16:56

www.dollshouse.com - we bought my daughter one from there (DH built it from a kit) many years ago when she was 3. She played an awful lot with it until she was about 11 - I don't think she would have used an ELC one for that long. They are very expensive though.

quickerthistimeplease · 07/07/2008 17:22

A friend got a lovely one recently for her 3 year old from great little trading company. under £00 and included some lovely wooden furniture too. Was a bu**er to put together but her DD loves it

Heifer · 07/07/2008 18:03

we bought DD this one, and painted it etc very good value (Toysrus)

2babies2tired · 07/07/2008 18:17

We got DD a large playmobil one for her 3rd birthday and I wouldn't recommend it. Its big, fiddly and DD can pull it apart!

I wish I'd have got one from John Lewis instead. Unfortunately its not on their website but its a wooden chunky smallish house (around £50-60)and this furniture is compatible with it www.johnlewis.com/Toys/View+all+Toys+by+Type/Dolls+and+Dressing+Up/Doll+Houses+and+Furniture/1141/0/ 0/ProductType.aspx. Its very stylish looking and is solid.

TheFallenMadonna · 07/07/2008 18:21

DD has this one which is pretty fab. We have a mix of highly expensive furniture from the same website, cheaper furniture from Toysrus and some that we made ourselves.

It's currently inhabited by Little Red Riding Hood, Darth Vader, a red and a green power ranger and two giraffes...

RubyRioja · 07/07/2008 18:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PInkyminkyohnooo · 07/07/2008 20:05

lol fallenmadonna! DD has do dolls for her houuse yet either- she'll have to wait til her birthday, but so far she has a wind up monkey who likes brushing his teeth, a big plastic stag beetle in the bath and one of those schleisch tortioses in the bed!

I think if you can get a dolls house reasonably cheap, they are a good toy, but you can end up spedning loads on something that doesn't get played with much.

So far, ours is really popular. I think having the basement bit helps because it makes it a nice height for them to play at. But I'm glad we only paid 15 pounds for it.

MilaMae · 08/07/2008 11:16

We have exactly the same ELC dolls house that was on your link. Got it when dd was 3. Her bday is at Xmas so it was a combined Xmas & bday from several people. Wait until you get the 20% offer is on and think carefully about which room sets you want as you don't need all of them. You don't need the study really.

I did loads of research,went for that one as it seemed good for that age was fairly easy to reach into and I liked the detail in some of the room sets and the walls are quite plain. Also some of the dolls houses I saw wouldn't fit much furniture in even the sets supposed to come with it and didn't have stairs up to the loft-would bug my dd. Also it fitted into the space it lives in-very important!!!!!!

I'm convinced the ELC one is made by Le Toy Van as it's very similar in design, actually identical to some.

I debated long and hard as to whether we should have got her a nice tasteful grown up type one but went for the ELC type as thought 3 was optimum dolls house age so would get more use out of it. Who knows, I figured if she was into the older type later she could build her own. As it is she's quite a pink tomboy so flits back and forth to it, her brothers 4 nearly 5 like it a lot.

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