diy dollhouse

DIY Wooden Dollhouse with Stairs and Accessories – Easy Build

If you’ve been around a while, you might remember the original wooden dollhouse I built for my daughter in 2022 when she was almost 3. It was simple, neutral, and very Montessori-inspired because, at two years old, she was just starting to show interest in imaginative play (and wasn’t addicted to any TV characters, YET, lol). Back then, I was in a minor beige mom era and wanted a DIY dollhouse that worked for all kinds of toys. I really did think she would be cool playing with little wooden peg people for the rest of her childhood. 🤣

Fast-forward a few years, and now she’s five. We love Bluey, Disney princesses, How to train your Dragon, Gabby Gabby dollhouse, etc. Our house has every tiny TV inspired figurine and accessory imaginable I think. This Christmas, she had one big request—a bigger DIY dollhouse with some very specific features:

  • A third floor
  • A garage
  • An outdoor space with grass
  • And, most importantly, stairs

If you remember the original DIY dollhouse build, you might recall that when I revealed it to her, the very first thing she said was, “Where are the stairs, Mom?” So, naturally, this dollhouse needed stairs.

And, because I love a last-minute project, I decided to start this on December 23rd. Buckle up.

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Supplies List

Want to build your own DIY wooden dollhouse with stairs? Here’s what you’ll need:

Cut list

Here is the actual cut list for the 1×12 boards:

  • 8 @ 7.5″ – one of these I cut an arched entry into, the other two I also cut 3″ off off so you could walk around the wall.
  • 2 @ 5.5 with mitered ends (35 degrees on one and 15 degrees on the other is what I *think* I did)
  • 2 @ 36″ – one of these I cut a 3.5x 3.5″ hole for stairs, and I should have done more like 3.5×6″ for more head space going up the stairs, lol.
  • 1 @ 28″ – include another hole for the ladder!
  • Roof pieces:
    • 1 @ 11″ with a 45 degree miter at the end (I won’t lie, this isn’t perfect but it works!)
    • 1 @ 22″

I assembled this from the top down, starting with the roof! And never got around to using those kreg plugs you see pictured down in the build photo, lol.

The DIY Dollhouse Building Process

Designing the DIY Dollhouse

Here some photos of the design process. Emme and I sat down together more than a few times to talk about the design and make sure it would be what she wanted. She had some great ideas (she wanted an elevator at one point) and we compromised on a bit. I built this dollhouse using:

  • (2) 1×12 boards for the main structure
  • MDF sheet for the back
  • Wood screws and wood glue
This looks crazy because it is, and also I changed all these measurements when I started actually cutting so look at the image and paragraph below for the real cut list, haha! Also no, the slide idea did not pan out and I only did one arch because, well, time crunch.
These are the actual dimensions I ended up cutting written in pen! I always work from “living” drawings that change as I work, baha!

I originally planned to cover the MDF back with just contact paper—spoiler alert: contact paper does NOT stick well to MDF. Lesson learned, so part of the MDF was just painted.

When I was designing the layout, I debated whether to break up the cuts by floors or walls. I settled on smaller wall sections stacked on top of and below the long floor boards, but that led to a tiny oversight: once I screwed one wall into the floor, I couldn’t access the other side to attach the next wall.

Enter my Kreg Jig—which I hadn’t planned on using but ended up needing. You can see in the image below, I started working from the top down. I screwed the top floor walls into the roof, then the second floor flooring board into those walls, then the second story walls had to be kregged into the third floor flooring board.

Assembling the structure

I wish I had really cool sketchup designs for you, and if I did this probably would have been a lot smoother of a process but instead we have my rushed brain dump drawings with measurements that changed as I went, lol.

ANYWAYS, after assembling the structure, I traced the back for cutting, but—because nothing ever goes perfectly—I realized the board I bought wasn’t tall enough to cover the whole back. Oh well. The third floor still has a partial wall, so we’re calling it a win.

I also planned to trim out the windows to make them look super cute. Did I get around to that? Nope.

The Christmas Eve Rush: DIY dollhouse

Now, did I mention I started building on December 23rd? Because that meant all of the actual assembly, painting, and decorating happened on Christmas Eve.

At around 2 AM on Christmas morning, Santa I was:

  • Adding wallpaper
  • Painting the back panel
  • Creating faux wainscoting using this stuff from hobby lobby and some pink paint I mixed.
  • Building a fence with these and this green felt sheet from michaels.
  • Touching up some of the old furniture
  • Super Gluing things

This was a one-day project (mostly), so while I wanted it to still have that minimalist Montessori feel, I also wanted to level it up into a more “big kid” house and spend time doing these extra things. The back on the dollhouse was critical because her last one was open backed and stuff always fell behind and drive us both crazy.

Storage Win: Organizing the Characters

If you’ve been following me on social media, you might have seen that a couple of weeks ago, I finally labeled all of Emme’s storage bins.

Anytime I asked her to clean up before, she suddenly developed a mysterious “my hands are too tired” illness. She forgot where everything went, acted absolutely exhausted, and insisted that I had to help.

So, I labeled everything—and now she has no excuses. The bins (from Target!) look amazing, and you can grab the free printable labels here. No email sign-up needed—just a Canva link where you can edit them for your own characters.

Using actual product photos makes it super easy for kids to match up toys—like, if you see Bluey on the label, then obviously the little Bluey toy goes there. No more guessing games.

The Perfect DIY Dollhouse Accessories

When it came to furniture, I decided to reuse most of what we already had from Emme’s original dollhouse. Traditional 1:12 scale dollhouse furniture is a little too big for the figurines she plays with, so this set works way better. You can also get a similar set in white and pink.

These work great with:

The only piece I really modified was the couch, which had fallen apart from too much stepping on it. I wrapped it in a piece of craft-store leather to make it look like our own leather chair-and-a-half. Emme thought that was so fun!

Oh, and I added a working ceiling fan that I found on eBay. It was $20—which felt like a big chunk of my budget—but she really wanted it, so, here we are.

The (Almost) Elevator

The only request I didn’t fulfill? An elevator.

Midway through the build, Emme casually mentioned that it would be so cool if the dollhouse had a button-operated elevator.

I mean, yeah, that would be cool. But also, it was December 24th and I was already pushing my luck.

I briefly entertained the idea of a pulley system, but what she really wanted was a push-button lift. That was a hard no from me this time, but maybe for version 3.0? Instead, she ended up with a set of stairs and a ladder! Both of which took maybe 10 minutes total to build.

DIY Dollhouse Stairs (For $5!)

Most pre-made dollhouse stairs were too big and too expensive. I wasn’t about to drop serious money on tiny stairs, so I made my own for about $5.

Here’s how I did it:

  1. Measured the hole for the staircase (3.5” x 3.5”)
  2. Cut my first stair board 8.25” tall
  3. Kept subtracting ¾” for each step
  4. Cut-glue, cut-glue, cut-glue
  5. Clamped everything and sanded the edges
  6. Added leftover wallpaper strips to the risers for extra detail

I left the stairs unattached so Emme can move them around, but honestly, they might get glued down eventually. For a full tutorial including video, read here.

More Easy DIY Projects

If you loved this project, check out these other approachable DIY builds:

This was such a fun project, and Emme loves her new dollhouse. It’s way bigger than her original one, and I love that it still feels like a nod to the simple, neutral version I first built—just leveled up with fun details like stairs, wallpaper, and that ceiling fan. The original, very thrashed one has been moved to little brother’s room, and he likes playing with the peg people and his animals in it!

Would you ever build a DIY wooden dollhouse with stairs? Let me know in the comments!

DIY dollhouse with stairs pin
Don’t forget to pin this for later!

1 thought on “DIY Wooden Dollhouse with Stairs and Accessories – Easy Build”

  1. Pingback: Easy DIY Wooden Dollhouse Stairs and Ladder » Megan Leigh Acosta

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