DIY American Girl Dollhouse

Let's start out with supplies needed and round about cost of building. There is another link to decorating the house and the stable that was added to the right side. We will just focus on the actual house. Supplies needed to complete were:

-4 4x8' 3/4" plywood sheets
-2 4x8' 1/4" plywood sheets
-box of trim nails
-box of 1 1/2" screws

Total cost of supplies was about $60.

Tools needed to complete:
-circular saw
-tape measure
-chalk line
-hammer
-drill

I started by cutting two sheets of the 3/4" plywood in half then cutting the top two feet off of each of the four pieces. This gave me the four 2'x2' pieces for room dividers and the four 6'x2' wall pieces. Now cut the other two 3/4" sheets into eight 4'x2' for ceiling and floor pieces. The two 1/4" sheets will be nailed onto the back of the cabinets for strength.

In the picture below I have began assembling the two side walls and top ceiling and bottom floor. I predrilled pilot holes for screws to prevent cracking. I put two screws on each joint with a two nails just for kicks. I assembled the house in two sides. As you can see in the very first picture, there are two cabinets that are identical to make up both sides of the house.

 

Because I was assembling this alone. I used to wood clamp to help me out in making the walls and ceiling pieces square.

 

 
Now that the outer walls, lowest floor and top ceiling are put together. I then added the two remaining floor pieces with walls dividing both rooms. I held everything together with screw and a couple nails on the sides. The added nails of screw gave more strength for doll accessories and whatnots. the second from the bottom floor middle wall had to be attached with a touch of wood glue and two toenailed in screws for strength.

The house rooms are complete now flip over the cabinets and add the 1/4" sheet to back of each cabinet. This will give all needed strength for moving the house around.

Drive trim nails all around the edge of the sheet. I think I put 16 in each cabinet. I also put a screw in each corner for added support.

The construction is complete, onto paint. I used an electric paint sprayer, but anything to put the paint on will work.

We chose just a latex indoor white. The entire project took just a few hours to complete. Moving them up into the bonus daughter's room took just about as much time as it did building. The cabinets are 6x4x2'. Be sure to plan before building and moving.

Once they were in the assigned room. I attached them on the top with just a couple screw and a tie board.

As you can see from this photo I stole from the decorating post on this house. We added peal and stick flooring from any home improvement store. You can buy just a couple pieces for a dollar each tops. Just a tape measure, carton knife, and straight edge for this part. The flooring and decorating did add to the cost by at least double, but we managed to get most everything cheap. Click here to check out the decorating link.