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How Do I Make Doll House Stairs?
There are a variety of ways to make different types of doll house stairs. To make outdoor stairs, you might use foam board and clay to create a stone look. If you would like to make interior doll house stairs, you might use balsa wood or heavy cardboard and triangular molding to create your staircase. You might also purchase doll house stair kits that include pre-cut pieces for your doll house stairs. This allows you to assemble your stairs without having to cut pieces for the staircase.
If you choose to use foam board and clay to create outdoor stairs, it is easiest to create a semicircular staircase. After determining the scale of your doll house stairs, you should figure the rise and run of your stairs. The rise is how tall each step is, and the run is how long each step is. For most doll houses, one of the various sizes of foam board should be sufficient.
Using a compass or a round template, cut your semicircular shapes in decreasing sizes, making sure that your bottom step is the biggest and your top step is the smallest. Also make sure that the back of each step is flat and joins perfectly with the backs of the other steps. After your pieces are cut out, glue them together to form your staircase. After the glue has dried, you might cover the stairs in clay that air dries and then paint them to look like stone.
When making interior doll house stairs, balsa wood or strong cardboard and triangular moldings usually work best. You should first measure the length and width of your staircase and then cut your balsa wood or cardboard to this length and width. Triangular molding allows you to have the same rise and run for each stair, so you need only to cut the molding the width of your staircase. Glue each stair to the base, and allow the glue to dry completely before attaching any other pieces. Although it is not necessary, you can use additional pieces of wood to create treads for the stairs.
After the steps and base have dried, cut and glue the stringers to the stairs. These are pieces that line the sides of the stairs from the floor to the top, so they should be only as wide as your stairs are high. After these pieces are dry, you can attach your newel post, spindles and banister. These same principles are employed when using a doll house stair kit.
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Discussion Comments
@w00dhcuck41 - I've tried using random things around the house, but I needed to make furniture like stairs -- and those are really hard to make out of recycled stuff. Chairs and tables, sure – but stairs are more complicated than that.
I followed this article as a sort of guide and the stairs came out really great. I can see how little lids and tins can make good furniture though.
Of course, I'm making furniture for older kids. I bet that younger kids wouldn't care either way as long as you said it was furniture. I just prefer to make everything from scratch -- it matches the set better.
@minthybear19 - I make doll house furniture out of all kinds of things. I've used plastic lids for garbage cans, match boxes for beds and playing card for pictures. It doesn't have to be made from scratch to be special.
I use whatever I think would make a piece of furniture -- I just customize it. I took a basket with wire edges, turned it over and put a table cloth on it -- taa daa, a table.
I have even made doll house dolls out of things. Just use your imagination. Kids are creative minded -- the furniture doesn't have to be perfect.
@Almita - Balsa wood is amazing for making doll house miniatures. I modified a plain wooden doll house I bought into a Victorian style doll house. I also made a whole house worth of doll house furnishings to match it.
I gave the complete doll house set to my niece as a birthday present. She loved it. Anything handmade becomes a keepsake and the quality is so much nicer than the plastic stuff you buy at the store. Making doll house furniture isn't hard to learn, so why buy furniture from the store?
What I did to make my daughter a doll house furniture was make origami boxes out of card stock. It's a very thick paper and you can get it in a ton of colors. I just make boxes that gradually get smaller and glue them together.
I made her a set of wooden ones too after reading this article. I always figured using wood and balsa wood was hard, but it really wasn't. I made her a bunch of other doll house accessories too -- like a bed and a dining room chair set.
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