When I was doing the research for this article I came across lots of blog posts that listed the ‘best dollhouse kits’. They all had one thing in common… the people writing them didn’t seem to have bought or made any dollhouse kits themselves. The posts are just round-ups of other people’s reviews or product descriptions taken from Amazon. They list the specifications and the pros and cons but there’s no real insight into what it’s like to buy, build and enjoy the dollhouses.
So this ‘best of’ post is going to be different: I’ve made dollhouse kits myself and I’ve interviewed lots of fellow enthusiasts to give you the complete and honest guide to which dollhouse kits are really the best.
Key takeaways
Best DIY room kit for beginners
Building dollhouse kits is fun, mindful and educational, but can also be very frustrating, especially if you’re new to the hobby. What you don’t want to do as a newbie is pick a really tricky kit, get stuck with it and then never make another tiny thing every again!
I spoke to my friend of 20 years Fiona, who has an incurable obsession with building room kits, about what she’d recommend to someone new to the hobby.
I would recommend a Rolife kit for anyone new to the hobby. I started with Sam’s Study which is a library and is pretty easy. However, it does have a lot of books which can get fiddly, so Lisa’s Tailor is a good alternative as it has very little wire work and nothing especially complex.
Fiona – champion miniturist
I’ve also completed Sam’s Study and making the books does get tedious. However, the furniture is super simple to put together and I didn’t make all the books in the end, I just filled the shelves with cute accessories like tiny tea cups and vases instead.
The best room kit for beginners – Lisa’s Tailor. This kit is a reasonable price, isn’t too complex and has everything you need to get started with your build so it’s an excellent introduction to dollhouse kits. The kit is available from Amazon here.
The best dollhouse kits for beginners
The best dollhouse kit for beginners is the Greenleaf Buttercup Dollhouse kit. This is a simple, two-room, 1:12 inch scale dollhouse kit which is a great starting point if you’re new to the world of dollhouse kits. It’s very reasonably priced at $44.95 on Amazon.
If you want to build a larger house for your first project, then try the Ashburton Dolls House kit from Streets Ahead, it’s the same one that I have! It’s big and sturdy and the rooms are easy to access. It’s made of 3mm plywood so is lighter than MDF but still sturdy enough for children to play with it once constructed.
You can buy the Ashburton Dolls House kit from Streets Ahead suppliers Bromley Craft Products.
Everything you need to know about dollhouse and room kits
When claiming anything is ‘the best’ so much of it is down to personal preference and dollhouse kits are no exception. The space you have to craft and display your kit, the time you have, your skill level, and the styles you prefer will all play a part in choosing your perfect dollhouse kit.
That’s why I wanted to write this in-depth post to give you all the information you need to make the right decision for you when buying a dollhouse kit.
What is a dollhouse kit?
A dollhouse kit is a wooden kit which is bought flat-packed to be assembled at home. These are full-size dollhouses when built and are usually in a 1:12 scale. They don’t usually come with any accessories or furniture, or any tools or materials to help with the construction. It’s literally just the shell of a dollhouse which will need putting together with glue and/or nails.
There are two main types of dollhouse kits:
‘Tab and slot’ kits
These feature pieces of 1/8″ plywood with the parts of the house die-cut into them. You simply pop out the pieces of house and slot them together.
Features of tab and slot kits include:
- Intricate and ornate finishes such as decorative gingerbread trims – they are more intricate than MDF dollhouses
- Pieces that can be glued together rather than needing to be nailed
- Easier to modify (also known as ‘kit bashing’) as plywood is thin and easy to work with
- Reasonably priced, with many kits costing less than $100
One of the best known tab and slot dollhouse manufacturers is Greenleaf. Below is the Greenleaf Orchid Dollhouse Kit – 1 Inch Scale, which is available from Amazon, you can see from this example how ornate Greenleaf dollhouses are.
‘Glue and nail’ kits
These kits tend to be made of MDF or thicker plywood and the pieces come flat-packed and pre-cut, so unlike the tab and slot kits, these aren’t die-cut.
Features of glue and nail kits include:
- Thicker wood which makes them sturdier so ideal if you’re building a kit for children
- Heavy so can be tricky to move around
- Can be assembled with glue and nails, as the name suggests
- More expensive than tab and slot kits, with many kits costing $200 or more
One of the best known glue and nail dollhouse manufacturers is Real Good Toys. Below is an example of a dollhouse kit from Real Good Toys, this is the Miniature Painted Lady Dollhouse Kit, which is available from Amazon.
Most dollhouse kits, regardless of the material or manufacturer, will contain all the wood, shingles, trims and widows needed to make the house.
TOP TIP: Wood glue doesn’t dry clear, so if you’re gluing a part of your dollhouse which won’t be painted or covered in some way, then use PVA glue instead.
Examples of tab and slot, and glue and nail kits
Which type of kit you choose really does come down to personal preference. I spoke to two kit experts, for their take on how dollhouse kits differ.
My main requirement is that they are wood not MDF. I have built one MDF kit from Real Good Toys and never will do it again. I prefer all wood. They are less chunky, more to scale and the designs are so much more detailed.
Terry Cline Burrows, expert kit builder and miniaturist from This Old Dollhouse and Simple Shack Miniatures
Terry transformed the Greenleaf Laser Cut Half Scale Rosedale Dollhouse Kit into her beautiful ‘Sticks and Stones Manor’.
Bobie Hall, who runs the blog mini-shack.blogspot.com and YouTube channel Mini Shack, shared her thoughts on dollhouse kit materials.
The plywood homes are way more flexible for “kit bashing” than the MDF houses. All the Real Good Toy homes are MDF, and all the RGT kits include pre-milled walls and prebuilt stairs, windows and doors so they do most of the work for you, whereas the other kits you build everything yourself (RGT is good for beginners).
Bobie Hall, dollhouse kit enthusiast and owner of mini-shack.blogspot.com
Below are images of her take on the vintage Real Good Toys kit Petite Dreams Victorian, a stunning Charleston-style house in pretty pastel shades.
What is a room kit?
A room kit (often called a dollhouse room kit or box room kit, just to make things more confusing!), comes with all the materials to make and furnish one or two rooms, or sometimes a room and a small outside area.
These are usually in a 1:24 scale and come with everything you need in the kit, including basic tools such as tweezers and glue. All the pieces come in bags and it’s a good idea to empty all the bags before you start, and sort the pieces out so that the parts needed to make each item in the room kit are in the same bag.
There is a big trend for customising these kits (again, this is known as ‘kit bashing’) so although they do come with everything you need, you may find you don’t want to use it all, or want to make and use your own materials and accessories instead.
Below is a modified version I made of Sam’s Study Rolife box room kit – I used different wallpaper, made my own miniature books (you can find out how to make your own here), and added my kids’ tiny artwork to the walls.
Seasoned room kit builder Fiona transformed the Rolfe Locus Sitting Room into a cosy Halloween-themed getaway, by modifying the original kit by painting the furniture and adding some super cute accessories. You can purchase the original kit here.
Materials needed for dollhouse kits
The tools you’ll need to make a dollhouse kit are:
- Wood glue (if making a slot and tab house)
- Wood glue, hammer and nails, or a nail gun (if making a glue and nails house)
You’ll also need paint at the construction stage too, because if you’re painting your house, then it’s a good idea to paint the individual pieces before assembling them as it’ll be much easier. Just be sure to avoid painting any edges that’ll be glued together.
If you’re wallpapering your dollhouse, hard to reach areas are best being papered before assembly, such as slanted roofs or stairways.
If you buy a room kit, you won’t need to worry about buying materials to build it as most are included, though it’s handy to have some pliers for any wire work.
Most popular dollhouse kit manufacturers
Now you know the basics, let’s talk about the type of dollhouse kits available and which companies manufacture them.
Room kit manufacturers
Rolife kits
These tiny kits are 1:24 scale, which means every inch in the kit would be 24 inches in real life (this is also known as 1/4 scale and is half the size of 1:12 kits, which is the most common dollhouse scale).
The range of rooms available is incredible, with a library, coffee shop, sewing room, greenhouse, teashop and apartments being just a handful of the kits you can build. Rolife offer a monthly subscription service where you receive a mystery box each month.
Below is the Sam’s Study kit from Rolife, which is available from Amazon for $39.99.
Cutebee kits
These kits are very similar to Rolife kits in that they’re also 1:24 scale and come with everything you need to build and furnish the kit. The main difference is that Cutebee kits tend to feature more than one room or are entire miniature houses. Cutebee kits tend to be more intricate and fiddlier than Rolife kits.
This Cutebee room kit below is called Sweet World and is more like a mini dollhouse as it features four rooms! It’s available from Amazon for $32.99.
Dollhouse kit manufacturers
Real Good Toys
This company manufactures dollhouse kits in the US but ship overseas. Real Good Toys kits are hand-made from 3/8” and 1/4” thick material which is mainly MDF. The pieces are cut with grooves and bevels to help you find and fit the different parts and some kits come complete with a jig (a woodworking device that holds materials in place, a bit like a vice).
The company manufactures 1:12 and 1:24 scale kits, though the majority of their kits are 1:12. These kits require strong wood glue and nails when building them. The styles are ‘boxier’ and have more square shaped rooms than the more ornate Greenleaf houses. The kits are heavier due to them being made out of MDF, so will be tricky to move around once built.
Below is an example of a vintage 1990s Real Good Toys kit, Ponderosa Log House, customised beautifully by Terry Cline Burrows.
This one is decorated with furniture from the 80s and 90s as well…with the exception of the kitchen (it’s newer). I wanted it to have that 80s/90s country decor vibe. The rooms are so spacious in this house and its layout is divine.
Terry Cline Burrows
Greenleaf
Greenleaf is another US based manufacturer, though they do ship to over 60 countries. The kits are made from plywood and the majority are manufactured to a 1:12 scale. The kits are laser cut which means the parts are pre-cut but need to be ‘popped out’ of the sheets of wood before they are assembled. You might find that the points where the parts were attached to the wood will need a little sanding down before glueing together.
The houses are very ornate, with common features including gable windows, porches, balconies and turrets. You can just use wood glue to assemble a Greenleaf house.
Below is the Chantilly kit by Greenleaf, built and customised by Terry Cline Burrows. Terry has named this kit “Neglected Perfected” and it’s inspired by the old Irish cottages in the 1952 movie The Quiet Man.
Streets Ahead
Streets Ahead is a UK manufacturer which makes dollhouses under the Streets Ahead and Dolls House Emporium brands. The company makes a huge range of dollhouse kits in every style imaginable – from Georgian mansions to cosy cottages, all of which are in the 1:12 scale. The manufacturer sell a mix of MDF and plywood houses, which are pre-cut. Some of the kits come complete with screws to assemble the parts.
Streets Ahead don’t sell directly to the public, so you would need to buy from suppliers such as Minimum World or Bromley Craft Products.
Below is a built, but unfinished, Dollhouse Emporium house from Streets Ahead, it’s made of MDF and comes pre-cut.
Other dollhouse kit manufacturers
The above isn’t an exhaustive list of dollhouse kit manufacturers, below is an overview of other manufacturers you might want to check out.
Dolls House Direct – This UK company manufactures over 20 different styles of dollhouse which can be bought pre-made or as kits.
Laser Dollhouse Designs Inc – Based in the US, this company specialises in laser cut dollhouse kits. They’re one of the more expensive manufacturers but their kits are absolutely stunning and have lots of intricate details.
Majestic Mansions – Another US manufacturer, this company produces 1:12 and 1:12 scale dollhouse kits, manny of which feature iconic Victorian architecture. They also manufacture a huge range of dollhouse parts and furniture.
There are also a number of dollhouse kit manufacturers which have unfortunately gone out of business. If you’re lucky though, you may find a vintage kit online or at a yard sale. Bobie Hall from Mini Shack built this fantastic vintage Ashley dollhouse by Dura Craft, a manufacturer no longer in business.
And finally, this epic dollhouse is from a 1978 kit by Dollhouse Inc Jarrell Enterprises, built and customised to perfection by Terry Cline Burrows, don’t forget to check out her work at This Old Dollhouse on Facebook.
