How to make a cabinet for dolls?

The arrangement of the doll room is a fascinating activity for both the child and parents. Of course, miniature tables, cribs and an armchair can also be bought at the toy store, but they sometimes cost more than the doll itself. But in order to create an environment with their own hands, no investments will be required, and the interior can turn out even more interesting than the one offered by professional toy designers. How to make a cabinet for dolls? Some options will be discussed in our article.

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What could be a closet?

Dolls are like people, and their furniture is the most diverse. For example, depending on the size of the doll and the materials at hand, you can make different pieces of furniture for storing things and clothes:

• Wardrobe. Chiffonier is a wardrobe for dresses, coats and other items of doll wardrobe. It has a rectangular shape, it has doors and a crossbar inside. You can even make a wardrobe from several compartments - a large one with doors and smaller ones with drawers, and glue a “mirror” on the inside or outside of the door.
• Chest of drawers. The chest of drawers consists of a countertop surrounded by many drawers - they can be from below, from the side, or even from above.
• Hanger. The simplest clothes hanger is a few crossbars, but you can also make it differently - in the form of a panel on which miniature hooks are attached.
• Cupboard for dishes. The wardrobe for dolls for dishes is similar to a wardrobe, but inside it has not a crossbeam, but shelves.

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What do you need?

It’s not difficult to make a cabinet for dolls with your own hands, but first you need to see what materials and tools you have. You will find it useful:

• cardboard boxes - from under shoes, juice or milk;
• plain cardboard;
• corrugated cardboard;
• pieces of plywood;
• pieces of self-adhesive film;
• colored paper;
• acrylics or gouache;
• varnish;
• beads;
• small buttons;
• coat hooks;
• miniature door hinges;
• scissors;
• jigsaw;
• hacksaw;
• ruler;
• boot knife;
• PVA glue;
• glue "Moment".

In a word, you probably have a lot - these are the objects that constantly accumulate in the apartment, and the housewives usually do not know where to put them.

Important! The only exception is the door hinges are very small in size, they are used in few places. But such can be found in the craft goods store.

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Cabinet Dimensions

They entirely depend on the size of the doll:

• For Barbie, it’s best to make a cabinet about 30 cm high or slightly smaller.
• But for Anabel, such a storage for clothes will not be enough, she needs a cabinet about 45 cm high, and better - a little more.
• For miniature dolls, boxes of juice, baby food, corn flakes, etc., will suffice.
• If your daughter has Anabel or Baby Bon - look for a box from under boots or some household appliances.
• For large dolls, furniture can also be made of plywood.

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DIY plywood doll wardrobe

This is the most durable option, although some carpentry skills are needed. It is very good if there is a ready-made plywood box - for example, from under the cubes that have long been taken aback.

If there is no such box, you can quickly make it to get a cabinet for dolls with your own hands:

1. Define the dimensions - width, height and depth.
2. Draw a large rectangle on a piece of plywood with sides equal to the height and width of the cabinet.
3. Draw 2 rectangles, the sides of which are equal in height and depth, for the sidewalls.
4. Draw “floor” and “ceiling” - their parameters are equal to the width and depth, plus allowances - on the sides adjacent to the sidewalls, they make twice the thickness of plywood, and on the longer - just the thickness of plywood.
5. Saw the workpieces with a jigsaw or small hacksaw.
6. Sanding the saw cuts.
7. On the sidewalls, designate places for holes for the crossbar - they should be located strictly symmetrical.
8. Drill holes, but so as not to perforate the sidewalls.
9. Make a crossbar - coat a sheet of cardboard with glue and twist a tube out of it, the length of which is slightly more than the width of the cabinet (it should go into the holes).
10. Glue the crossbar - this is best done right away, while everything else has not yet been assembled.
11. Glue the sides, top and bottom panels to the back board.

Important! The wardrobe can also be on screws or studs.

We make out doors

A doll’s locker can have only one door - the easiest way to do it:

1. Saw a board the size of a back.
2. Strip it with sandpaper so that there are no rough edges, and put it on a pair of miniature door hinges.

Important! For two doors, of course, you will need two plywood rectangles, which are 2 times smaller in width than the backdrop.

What to make pens from?

Sometimes small door handles can be found in sewing stores. But they are not always sold, so you have to get out of the situation differently.

Look at what you have in the box with different little things. Fit for you:

• suitable size wooden beads;
• pawns from an incomplete set of small chess - however, other pieces will also fit, if only they were the same;
• if the cabinet for a large doll - barrels of lotto;
• board game chips;
• wooden buttons with “ears”.

Important! In extreme cases, pens can be made of cardboard - it's just tubules.

How to attach?

You can just stick the pens. True, in this case you will have to repair your creation quite often. But nothing prevents drilling holes and gluing parts. So they will hold much better.

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Other door designs

Do-it-yourself wardrobe for doll clothes does not have to be closed with plywood doors. This is the furniture for the game, in which there should always be at least a little room for imagination. However, for real furniture, such methods are also suitable:

• fabric curtain;
• curtain of thick threads.

Option 1

It’s better to make a curtain from two panels, and take a fabric that you don’t have to overcast, such as tulle, tulle and anything else like that. You need:

• 2 flaps;
• thick stiff threads like “iris”;
• 2 cloves;
• hammer.

First you need to decide where the cord will be attached. Best of all - from the outside of the sidewalls:

1. Mark the points where to drive the cloves.
2. Drive in the cloves - you can instead screw in the screws that fasten the parts of a mechanical watch.
3. Cut 2 rectangles from fabric - it is better if they are wide enough to fit them with beautiful assemblies.
4. Sew the top edges with thick threads, a basting seam.
5. Make assemblies.
6. Tie the thread on both sides to the studs.
7. Cover the carnations with decorative overlays - for example, plywood flowers or elements of self-adhesive film.

Option 2

The curtain for a cabinet for dolls with your own hands can be made, for example, from synthetic twine:

1. Cut a long thread for the warp - it should be such that it can be pulled and tied.
2. Cut a lot of threads for the curtain itself - each should be two times longer than the curtain itself.
3. Tie short threads to the base.
4. Fasten the base to studs or screws.
5. Trim the edge.
6. Fasten with decorative trim.

Important! Such a curtain can be striped, if you take threads of different colors.

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We decorate the wardrobe

Decorating a plywood chiffonier is not necessary at all if the material has no visible flaws. You can simply varnish it. But nothing prevents to show their dormant design abilities.

You can decorate:

• painted;
• application;
• by burning out.

Painting

To paint the sides and doors, it is best to take acrylic paints. How to be with an ornament? You can find something suitable on the Internet, for example, elements of a floral pattern. Then we do this:

1. If you are not very confident in your artistic abilities, circle the elements of the ornament with a pencil.
2. Paint them evenly.
3. Apply additional lines with a thin brush - leaf veins, middle of flowers, antennae.
4. Let it dry and varnish.

Applique

It can be made of paper or a self-adhesive film. This is somewhat simpler than painting:

• It is better to take the simplest elements - circles or ovals, from which you can make an interesting floral pattern.
• Before gluing, experiment by arranging the elements in a different order.
• It is better to varnish the paper application from above.

Important! In the same way, you can arrange the cabinet door for dolls from cardboard.

Scorched Pattern

An old way to decorate wooden furniture is burning out. It is best to use a special device consisting of a needle and a unit with a temperature controller. The drawings can be very different, but for miniature furniture it is better to choose those where there are no complicated plots and very small details.

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How to make a cabinet for dolls out of the box?

For such a cabinet you will need any cardboard box In addition to the box itself, you need:

• wallpaper residues or colored paper;
• empty matchboxes;
• toothpick skewers for sandwiches;
• wooden beads or buttons with “ears”;
• wire;
• paper clips;
• foil if you want a wardrobe with a mirror.

Preparing the foundation

Before you make a cabinet for dolls from a box of juice or shoes, you need to prepare the box itself.

Option 1

At the shoe box, remove the lid, straighten and cut the folds - it is better to do this with a sharp knife to make the edges smooth. From the cover you can make:

• a partition;
• the door.

Important! If this is a partition, then for the rest of the details you will need several sheets of thick rigid cardboard - and vice versa, respectively.

Option 2

At the juice box, carefully cut the front wall. If the box has a round hole on the top, remove the plastic insert on which the lid is screwed. In fact, nothing more needs to be done and is not necessary - the thicker the load-bearing parts, the better.

From the cut out front, you can make a partition:

1. Fold the cut wall in half, aligning the long sides.
2. Bend the long edges outward by 1 cm.
3. Glue the part, but do not touch the allowances.
4. Hold the partition under the press for a while.
5. Glue the partition into the cabinet.

We make the inside

You can make a hanger in one half of the cabinet, and drawers in the other. Depending on the size of the chiffonier, for the crossbar are suitable:

• skewer;
• any round wooden stick;
• cocktail roll or paper roll.

It is best to stick it in the walls.

In the second half there may be boxes:

• To do this, you need a few empty matchboxes.
• Their external parts are simply glued one on top of the other.
• To make the drawers convenient to open, semicircular cutouts are made on the sliding parts to the size of a child’s finger.

Important! There may be other design decisions. If the box is tall and narrow, the boxes can be positioned below. Worse if there are no matchboxes, but it doesn’t matter either - you can make shelves from cardboard squares glued in several layers.

Doing the door

Both doors are made the same way:

1. Cut 4-6 strips of cardboard with a length equal to the height of the cabinet and a width half that of the cabinet for doll clothes.
2. Glue the strips together in 2-3 layers - glue should be spread on the entire surface.
3. Hold the workpieces under the press until they are completely dry.
4. Glue handles - for example, small wooden buttons with “ears” or wooden beads.
5. Put the doors on miniature hinges, 2 on each side.

Legs

Doll furniture can be without legs. But if there are large beads, pawns from old small chess or just wooden blocks of a suitable shape - why not make a toy cabinet look like a real one? The main thing is that the legs are the same and are at equal distances from the corners.

Do-it-yourself cabinet for dolls made of cardboard is almost the same. From cardboard, you must first glue the box and attach the doors and other parts to it, that's all.

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How to make a doll case out of paper?

If there are no boxes or sheets of plywood at hand, you can make a doll wardrobe out of paper. Do not be surprised, even summer houses are made from newspapers and old wallpapers, and they have been standing for several years.

You will need:

• Templates
• wallpaper residues;
• Newspapers
• PVA glue;
• press;
• water-based paint;
• art paints;
• varnish;
• door hinges and handles;
• legs.

Cut cardboard patterns for the backdrop, doors, sidewalls, top and bottom panels:

1. According to the template, cut out 10-15 blanks for each part.
2. Glue each workpiece in layers.
3. Keep it all under the press until it dries - the workpiece should be straight and dense.
4. Assemble the doll cabinet in the same way as the one made from the box.
5. Paint it with water-based paint.
6. Paint with artistic paints - for example, under a tree, or make a painting.
7. Coat the top with varnish.
8. Attach the doors and legs.

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How to make a wardrobe for dolls from matchboxes?

From the boxes you can glue:

• Kitchen Cabinet;
• chest of drawers.

Option 1

For the kitchen cabinet you will need 5-10 empty matchboxes:

• Remove the “drawers” ​​from the “lids”.
• Stick a few “covers” on top of one another.
• Paste the sidewalls and the upper plane with a self-adhesive film - white, gray, cream and other “kitchen” colors.

Important! The same film can be used to paste over those parts of the “drawers” ​​that will be visible from the outside, but these details can also be painted with gouache.

• In the “drawers” ​​make cutouts for the finger.
• Insert the “drawers” ​​into the “covers”.
• Glue the legs.

Option 2

For a chest of drawers you need the number of boxes, which is divided by 3:

1. Glue 3 “covers” between the sides.
2. Glue the rest in three.
3. Glue the tiers.
4. The sides and top can be pasted over with a brown self-adhesive film.

Important! You can make a chest of drawers with a mirror. To do this, you need a piece of cardboard and a sheet of foil. From a cardboard cut out a blank of any shape, for example, semicircular, glue it with a film to match the color of the chest of drawers, and in the middle attach a “mirror” of foil.

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How to make a paper hanger for dolls?

Doll hangers, like human ones, can be of different types. For example, in the form of a crossbar lying on two supports. For this you need:

• paper (you can take old wallpaper).
• PVA glue;
• metal knitting needle (as a template, but you can do without it).

P hanger

How to make a paper doll hanger?

1. Lay a sheet of paper with the wrong side up.
2. Spread it well with glue.
3. Roll up the tube.
4. Do the same with two more sheets.
5. Determine which tube will be the crossbar and which will be the supports.
6. Glue the whole structure in the form of the letter P.

Important! If the edges are even, the hanger will stand like that. But you can make it more stable by drilling holes in two cubes and gluing the ends of the supports into them.

Hanger with hooks

The basis for it is done in the same way as for a paper cabinet, that is, several layers are cut according to the template for the main part. Layers stick together, keep under pressure. The process then goes like this:

1. Paste future hanger with colored paper or self-adhesive film.
2. Using universal glue, glue a few linen hooks on it.
3. Hook loops can be closed with miniature decorative elements (for example, beads or beads.

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Stock footage

Are you convinced that you can make a doll case and its filling very simply, from improvised materials? Now start your creativity, the process will surely be fascinating and interesting for you. And do not forget to bring your child to him - let him also bring a couple of his creative ideas.