Unique Dollhouse Made Using Recycled & Upcycled Materials

My latest creative project:

A unique dollhouse made using recycled and upcycled items and materials.

You can watch the video HERE.

My daughter also worked on this project: she loves making things, especially for dolls!

We bought the vintage, probably mid-century dollhouse from a charity shop for £5. What a bargain! We also sourced a table with castors that fitted the dollhouse perfectly. A child can sit at the dollhouse, turn it around easily and store a stool or chair under it.

After cleaning it up and giving it a new lick of paint, we set about decorating the interior and making or renovating furniture and ornaments. We decided we wanted it to look like a quirky and colourful Mediterranean home.

The grandfather clock was bought from a vintage shop and we painted it and added a new clock face by printing one off from the internet. The elephant was bought from a charity shop.

A little peek into the kitchen from the veranda.

Another vintage shop find is this oak drop leaf table. On the table is a brass bell, a painted shell and a planter made out of a plastic thimble from a vintage Christmas cracker.

This veranda screen was made using salvaged copper wire from old electrical cable. Peeping through the screen is a very nosy duck standing on a garden table!

This house is full of animals and the rabbit is a house rabbit, bought from a charity shop.

The living room-come-dining room has an art wall made using card from Home Bargains. We just cut it out of a book of card and glued it to the wall using Pritt Stick. The dresser on the right was bought at a vintage centre and repainted to match. I used water based satinwood paint.

The round pedestal table needed to be repaired and repainted and we added some glitter by painting on some sparkly nail varnish around the edge. On the table is a broken brooch that makes a good centrepiece. 

My daughter made the three stools using vitamin tub lids covered in salvaged denim. The corner cabinet was repainted and now showcases a pot and another broken brooch.

The very Spanish looking pink kitchen is very traditional with no appliances or gadgets. Not even a sink at the moment...they have a river nearby! All the furniture was bought at an auction for next to nothing, repainted, stenciled, etc. The door handles were brightened up with nail varnish. The pink polka dot wallpaper was card from Home Bargains.

The little lidded pots, now holding pasta, flour and sugar, were bought from a summer fete in England. 

The table was stenciled using butterfly stamps we bought from the charity shop. 

Upstairs in the bedroom is a handmade bed made by me using some leftover plywood. It's finished off with some necklace beads for finials, a wool jumper scrap mattress and a pillow made using leftover fabric. 

Charity shop find doll trainers. Not too smelly!

The wallpaper was, again, card from Home Bargains. My daughter made the bedside table using a cotton reel topped off with an enormous plastic necklace bead. We always salvage parts from broken jewellery that I come across during my 'proper job' running Fab Fings vintage shop. 

The table lamp was made using beads and a part from a Christmas decoration bell with a wire threaded through the lot. The rubbish bin is a perfume bottle lid. 

The pussy cat doesn't live here but visits often as she likes to enjoy the view from the balcony.

The bench was broken when we bought it so we had to glue it back together again, strip it of it's musty fabric and paint it. 

Round the back to the very spacious bathroom with floral wallpaper, rolltop bath and high level toilet. The laundry bin was a magnesium tablet pot. 

There's no running water as yet but, as I pointed out before, there is a river nearby.

The bathroom suit was bought for next to nothing...as was everything in this dollhouse.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of the latest 

Handy Lady creative project!

Please visit my online vintage shop Fab Fings.

DIY Handmade Dollhouse withThriftstore Furnishings and Hand Painted Wallpaper

Handmade Dollhouse

This DIY handmade dollhouse has been furnished with mostly charity shop (thriftstore) furniture and accessories, has been decorated with hand painted wallpaper and was made, by me, from solid plywood.

I didn't follow any instructions or use a template but made it up as I went along, as I often do. I made the sides first, then the base, then the roof eves, then the floors, then the dividing walls (with archways), then I fitted the back. 

The windows were salvaged from another dollhouse that was heading for the bin. I trimmed the front of the floor shelves and the front of the dividing walls with semi-circular wooden beading. The floors were varnished with clear varnish, the walls and ceilings were painted with ivory satinwood and the back walls were lined with hand painted wallpaper.


Handmade Dollhouse

Above is the attic, which is a music and dancing room, as well as a place to store typical loft items, such as a fishing rod, picnic hamper and tool box.

Everything above, apart from the Sylvanian family dolls, were bought from charity shops.


Handmade Dollhouse
This is a musical piano and it was bought new from Ebay, as was the cupboard and the piano stool.


Handmade Dollhouse
The little sofa was found in a charity shop as was the side table.

The drink and the cake on a plate were made by 'Crafty Lottie', my daughter.


Handmade Dollhouse
Down to the second floor and into the children's bedroom, which is packed with beds as there are so many Sylvanian families in this communal house! The furniture is mostly second hand apart from the bunk bed. The gold mattress is a gift bag with some bubble wrap inside.

The wallpaper was handmade by me. I'll make a post about how to make it soon.


Handmade Dollhouse
Still in the children's bedroom, you can see a tiny dice on the chest of drawers. This was a gift for my daughter from a man who knew she liked miniature things. Behind it is a packet of sweets, which were made by her using fimo and wrapped in cling film.

We have still got to make curtains for the house. We'll make another post and video when it's finished.


Handmade Dollhouse


Handmade Dollhouse
This is the adults' bedroom, although there isn't space for all of them!

All of the furniture is thrifted (bought at a charity shop) and painted by me.

My daughter also picked up several miniature make-up items, made a beaded necklace and made perfume bottles using large plastic beads and earrings.


Handmade Dollhouse
Here are two of the perfume bottles made by 'Crafty Lottie'. The blue one is made using a stud earring and a glass bead. The pink one is a large plastic cube shaped bead with two smaller plastic beads held in place using an earring wire with an end cap.


Handmade Dollhouse

Downstairs now and into the first floor bathroom with roll-top bath. Everything in the bathroom has either been picked up at a charity shop or made by hand.

The towel rack was made by me using pine plywood. The towels were made by me too by cutting up a cloth and stitching around the edges. Lottie made the bathmats, the perfume bottle and the dirty laundry basket, which is just part of a wooden curtain pole bracket painted gold. We're always looking at things we're about to throw away to see if we can make good use of them.


Handmade Dollhouse
The thrifted mirror was painted gold and stuck to the wall using Vaseline. The suction and surface tension keeps it up there and we can easily re-position it if we need to.


Handmade Dollhouse
The archway leads into the sitting room.


Handmade Dollhouse

A few of the men are lounging about in the sitting room, one here reading a magazine.


Handmade Dollhouse
Everything in the sitting room has been found in charity shops and flea markets.

The man on the sofa is on the phone not eating a carrot!


Handmade Dollhouse
The dog was just an ornament we owned that reminded us of a dog we had once had called Nessie, so she is now immortalised in our dollhouse. Her rug is a scrap of fluffy fabric.


Handmade Dollhouse
Down to the ground floor now and into the dining room. The dining table and chairs were thrifted and re-painted but the other furniture was bought off Ebay as was the green and white crockery in the dresser.


Handmade Dollhouse

There's a birthday party going on in the dining room and someone's been given a beautiful real pearl and blue glass necklace, made by Crafty Lottie!

Lottie also made the napkins and the napkin rings were thrifted beads from a charity shop necklace.


Handmade Dollhouse
Through the archway, you can see one of the mummies working hard in the kitchen while taking care of the baby in the pram and the toddler on the tricycle. Such a hard-working multi-tasker!


Handmade Dollhouse
Into the kitchen now, the last room in this handmade dollhouse.

One of the mummys (there's a few!) is doing yet more baking in her thrifted kitchen. She never stops!

The crockery was bought on Ebay as were the pans but most other things were thrifted or made by hand.


Handmade Dollhouse
On the dresser shelves there is a bowl of donuts, made with Fimo, a bowl of eggs, also made of Fimo and some freshly made bread and a bowl of grapes.

Just out of the oven is a plate of chocolate Fimo biscuits. Yummy!


Handmade Dollhouse

The three 'cans' on the right are the metal ends of pencils.

That's it for now from our handmade dollhouse...but we will keep working on it and will make another post when we feel it's finished. If you enjoyed our dollhouse tour, please share this post by clicking the share buttons at the bottom, or you can just share the video we made HERE.