Unfinished Doll's Dollhouse by Handley Classics

Looking for a dollhouse miniatures store in your area? Having a hard time finding one? From New York City to Los Angeles and Seattle to Miami, we receive countless e-mail inquiries from customers wondering where they can go to purchase dollhouse furniture, miniature accessories, dollhouse kits and dollhouse supplies. Unfortunately, those seeking an in-person miniatures shopping experience, are finding it difficult to shop for miniatures in person. While small independently-owned dollhouse miniatures stores do still exist, many are going the way of the dinosaur.

With our tough economy, increasing competition and overhead costs and the growth of the internet over the last 15 years, many miniatures store owners have found it more cost-effective to sell online. While it is disappointing to some dollhouse enthusiasts that they can’t see, touch and feel the vast array of dollhouse miniatures merchandise in person, the move to online selling does ultimately benefit our dollhouse miniatures customer.

1. Lower Prices – Lower overhead costs mean lower prices for miniature buyers! Without the added overhead of store rent, utilities and excess employees, dollhouse store operators can sell their products at more competitive prices. For those miniature lovers on a budget, this is a huge plus – now you can afford to buy that extra end table or miniature lamp!

2. More Product Selection – Selling online allows some dollhouse miniatures retailers to offer a larger product selection. Depending upon the physical size of a store location, some dollhouse retailers can only afford to stock so many items for sale. There are currently over 20,000 different miniature dollhouse items for sale on the market today. Almost every miniature item from sewing tables to miniature baby bottles and tiny dollhouse copper tea kettles to fine lace curtains are available. Selling online allows retailers to reach a larger market and offer more miniatures for sale.

3. Convenience – We all know that shopping online offers more convenience than shopping a store in person. Buying doll house furniture and miniatures is no different. There’s nothing more fun than surfing the internet at 11:00 PM on a Sunday evening in your pajamas as you dream about the tiny accessories and beautiful collector miniature furniture that will someday fill your dollhouse.

Shopping online is a great benefit to all dollhouse miniatures customers. Look for websites with detailed photographic images of their dollhouse miniature products. This will allow you an up-close view of the miniatures before you buy. Also, look for important information in the product description such as details about quality and materials, scale and precise measurements.

When looking for an online retail store, be sure to also check the store’s return policy. Zoolabees Dollhouse Miniatures offers an excellent no-hassle return policy. We do this because we understand you can’t view the merchandise in-person and we want to make sure all of our customers are 100% satisfied with their purchases.

Hansson Miniatures Walnut Linen Bench

You’ve constructed your dollhouse kit. Installed the doors and windows, laid your flooring, painted your ceilings and wallpapered your walls. If your passion for interior decorating is what drives your love of the dollhouse miniatures hobby, then the real fun is about to begin as you embark on your dollhouse interior decorating journey.

Today, we’re going to talk about making the most of decorating space in your dollhouse haven. Depending upon the size of your rooms, you only have so much space to work with, and if you’re like most miniaturists, you’ll want to maximize your decorating square footage.

There are many opportunities for decorating in empty spaces you may not have considered. Here are some suggestions on places you may not have thought to add doll house accessories:

1. Cabinets and Chests: OK, this one seems pretty obvious. Those empty shelves and drawers and just crying out for dollhouse accessories. Depending upon the room and function of the miniature furniture piece, this is usually your biggest opportunity to embellish. If it’s a sideboard or miniature cabinet in your dollhouse dining room, don’t forget the miniature stemware, flatware or dollhouse utensils. If it’s a wardrobe in your dollhouse bedroom, fill it with dollhouse clothing, miniature hats and shoes or tiny clothing boxes. Likewise, miniature chests can also be filled with folded blankets or other miniature linens.

2. Luggage: Do you have miniature luggage or trunk you purchased as an accessory for your dollhouse? This is the perfect opportunity to turn empty space into a creative display. Arrange the inside contents neatly or leave them to spill out for an overflowing affect.

3. Bed: A dollhouse bed does not necessarily need to be made up with linens and overflowing with pillows. Use your dollhouse bed to display neatly folded linens. If you prefer to leave the bed in a made up state, consider placing a miniature bed tray or silver tea set towards the foot of the bed.

4. Pantry or Larder: Consider adding a small built-in pantry or larder to your dollhouse kitchen. The shelves provide an excellent place to display food items and baskets of miniature produce. You can also use the area to display miniature pots and pans and other miniature cookware.

5. Walls: When we think of walls, we typically think of a place reserved to hang pictures or other artwork. The walls are a wonderful place to add dollhouse accessories you would normally find inside of a cabinet or on a shelf. Consider hanging miniature copper pots in a kitchen or a dollhouse hat in your bedroom.

6. Floor: Don’t forget about the floor! Choosing clever and appropriate accessories can help you to maximize the dollhouse room and give you more places to display your miniature treasures. The key is to choose miniature accessories that look natural when placed on the floor, such as a large vase or a miniature dog bed. There really aren’t any rules, but common sense dictates there are some items that should never be on the floor (such as food or kitchen utensils). Most importantly, make the space something you will love and treasure for years to come.

Follow these simple steps for perfect-fit dollhouse doors:

The doors of your dollhouse kit must be fitted in exactly the same way your windows would be installed. See our posting on How to Install Dollhouse Windows. When installing your miniature doors, it is essential that the door frame is flush with the interior wall. If the door frame is not flush with the interior wall, fill in the opening edges with 1/8-inch square wood to build up the door frame so that it is flush with the interior wall. The door trim will fit on top of the square wood pieces, giving your doors a professionally installed look.

Dollhouse interior doors will include wood frames around all four edges of the door. This includes a frame at the bottom of the door called a threshold (this is the lower sill of the doorway). The threshold helps the door to maintain its shape and contains the pin where the door pivots to open and close. You won’t usually find a threshold in real homes since it would make it difficult to install carpeting and hardwood floors that extend from one room to another.

Always test fit your doors, but don’t install them until your dollhouse carpeting or flooring is installed. The reason this is important is that you will want to remove the threshold of the door so that you won’t have to install your dollhouse flooring around the bottom threshold. This will give your dollhouse flooring a smooth, flowing look as the floor seamlessly extends from one room to another.

To remove the bottom threshold of the dollhouse door frame, cut the threshold from the vertical door frame making sure that the bottom of the vertical frame is almost even with the bottom of the door. Leave about a paper thickness of clearance between the bottom of the door frame and the flooring just in case you need to tape wire lighting or later decide to redecorate.

After you have cut your threshold, mark the location of the door’s bottom pivot pin on the floor and punch a new hole for that pin with a map pin. Test the door and frame to be sure the door swings properly.

If you are installing dollhouse carpeting, leave enough clearance, so that the door can swing open and closed. You will need to make sure the door is shorter than the side door mouldings. Place a sample of your carpet underneath the door to ensure that there is enough clearance to accommodate the carpet pile height so the door can swing open and shut. Also, the lower pivot pin may be too short to extend through the carpet. If this is the case, remove the old pin with a pair of pliers and replace using a regular straight pin.

Lastly, fit your trim around the edges of the dollhouse door frame. If you are upgrading to a more ornate trim (custom interior doors should have matching trim on both the inner and outer door frames), make your cuts on the replacement trim strips using a razor saw and mitre box. After your cuts have been made, fit the trim around the door to make sure you are happy with the end result. Lastly, don’t glue your doors or trim until all wallpaper, interior painting and floor finishing have been completed.

Zoolabees Dollhouse Miniatures carries a wide selection of dollhouse miniatures including miniature furniture, accessories, lighting, building supplies, dolls and dollhouse kits.

The above blog posting contains excerpts from Robert Schleicher’s Creative Dollhouses from Kits.