Box Desk, Dresser, and More
Got some old matchboxes? Go get them and have some fun while you build quick and easy, functional furnishings for a dollhouse. Any little girl will love her new dollhouse stuff but you’ll have as much fun as she will! Making the little furniture, while creating the colors and themes you want, is pretty exciting, even if you don’t play with dolls.
One of the first pieces you should build is a chest of drawers because it’s just so simple and adorable. Stack and glue as many matchboxes as you want, to create the chest of drawers. Make a short arrangement to use as a night stand. Make a long but short arrangement to create a useful dresser. If you want, you can wrap the stack with a piece of scrapbook paper, and that gives it a theme, while hiding the tiny gaps between the boxes. Glue a piece of paper or fabric to one end of each box; that end will be the front of the drawer. Attach a tiny bead – or more than one – to create a tiny knob for each drawer, click here for more info.
Your little girl will love a new desk for her dolls and it’s easy to build with matchboxes. Make two stacks of matchboxes, to be as tall as you want for the desk, and glue the boxes in each stack to each other. Spread the stacks apart and decide what you want to use for the top. It can be a piece of cardboard – painted or otherwise decorated – or could be a thin piece of wood. Glue the top across the two stacks of matchboxes. Don’t need a desk? Make the same arrangement to create a vanity. Just hang a mirror over the arrangement and the desk becomes a place for Barbie or another doll to do her hair and makeup.
When you glue matchboxes to each other to create just one stack, it can be used in most any room of the dollhouse. Glue a bead to one end of each box, face them all the same way, and stand the arrangement in the bathroom to hold tiny wash cloths, hair brushes, and other things. Or, put one in the kitchen to hold small implements or fake foods.
Build a bookshelf by taking the little drawers out of several matchboxes. Glue them together, so that all of the openings face you, and set it against a wall. It can hold books, knickknacks, vases of flowers, and a lot more. Put one in the bedroom to hold shoes and small accessories. Hang one on the bathroom wall to hold a tiny soap, tiny shampoo bottles, and similar things.
A couch can be made by standing two matchboxes on their sides. Glue the two short ends together and you’ll have the back of the couch. Lay two more matchboxes in front of those, glue their ends together, and then glue the long sides of the two new boxes to the front, bottom, of the first two. The second two boxes form the seat of the couch.
Play around with gluing the boxes together, this way and that, to create a coffee table, end tables, and much more. You’ll have fun, your daughter will have a great time, and the dolls will think they’re in heaven!
