DIY Dollhouse Renovation: Melissa & Doug Wooden Multi-Level dollhouse Makeover
Looking to give a worn-out dollhouse a fresh start? I recently transformed a $30 Melissa & Doug Multi-Level dollhouse from Facebook Marketplace into a the tiny play place of my dreams, complete with hardwood floors, statement wallpaper, and a stone exterior that looks surprisingly realistic.
This DIY dollhouse renovation totally converted me to the building miniatures obsession, and my 4-year-old absolutely loved it when I gave it to her on Christmas morning!
DIY Dollhouse Renovation Tools and Materials
Tools:
Materials I used:
- Chunky popsicle sticks
- Dark Walnut stain+poly
- Loomwell dollhouse wallpaper (I used the patterns Gia, Prim & Odette)
- Cork tiles
- Rugs and runners
- Faux vines (from Hobby Lobby)
- Cardboard
- Egg cartons
- Scrapbook paper
- Ribbon
- Rub n’ buff
- Lollipop sticks
- Painters tape
Finding The Dollhouse
Iām not going to lie to you, I used to slightly judge the miniatures obsessed crowd, but since freefalling into the world of dollhouse renovation for my daughterās christmas present, I emphatically get it now.
Making tiny versions of furniture and wall treatments for little doll mice is such a fun way to basically turn off your brain, and this little $30 Facebook Marketplace dollhouse turned out so much better than I thought it would!
Being a gift for my 4-year-old, it was full of fun wallpaper patterns and pops of color and her reaction on Christmas morning made all the hours (and hours and hours) of accidentally hot gluing my fingers worth it.
Anyway, letās dive into what went into this mini renovation (that thankfully didnāt require any construction debris or a torn-up home for once):
The Before & The Vision
The dollhouse I renovated is the Melissa & Doug Wooden Multi-Level dollhouse, but the algorithm has been serving me dollhouse content nonstop for the last few weeks and Iām convinced you could make a beautiful upcycle from basically any blank slate dollhouse there is.
This one was actually in really good condition when I got it ā it only had one broken-off front door and a crack in one of the balconies but otherwise it was the perfect blank slate.
I honestly didnāt really have a vision for this project before diving in, I just knew I wanted it to be a mini version of something Iād actually do in a space. I had seen a few inspo pics of faux brick and stone so that was obviously on my list (if you couldnāt tell from my exterior paint project or my stone fireplace), and I wanted creaky old wood floorboards.
DIY Dollhouse Hardwood Floors
I ordered these chunky popsicle sticks from Amazon and got to work gluing them down on the floor. They were thin enough I could cut them with some sturdy craft scissors and magically I didnāt need to cut any lengthwise!
I used this Ryobi hot glue gun throughout the project and itās so handy – it heats up really quick and is cordless (plus uses Ryobi batteries so you can keep switching them out).
Once everything was glued down, I taped off around the edges and used a foam brush to brush on some wood stain. I used the color Dark Walnut and itās a stain and poly in one which gave it a nice finished look in one coat.
The floors turned out so good, like they honestly look like hardwoods and I kind of love the imperfections in the stain or the boards that are a little sticking up because it gives old house vibes. Also a note on the popsicle sticks: the pack comes with so many that I was using them for all kinds of crafts throughout the dollhouse (more on that later), and I still have dozens left!
Dollhouse Wallpaper
At first I was planning to use thrifted scrapbook paper as wallpaper throughout the rooms, but then I learned that Loomwell makes tiny dollhouse wallpaper. Like, itās their regular wallpaper designs but shrunken down to dollhouse scale and they were nice enough to reach out wanting to gift me some for this project.
I chose a pink swan pattern, a green unicorn (my fave!), and a yellow floral pattern to incorporate all my daughterās favorite colors and things in there. The wallpaper itself is peel and stick and let me tell ya, itās a lot less intimidating to wallpaper a dollhouse than a full-sized room!
I just used a box cutter to trim it as I went and I love it, especially the unicorn living room where I used regular-sized popsicle sticks to do a board and batten wall treatment, too. I would honestly live in this room.
The details
I tried to make a lot of the little details in the dollhouse, but what I did buy I got from Hobby Lobby and Amazon.
I bought the dollhouse rugs (which came with a rug and a runner in each pack) from Amazon and ā you guessed it ā hot glued the runners down the stairs which is one of my favorite little details.
The fireplace I got from Amazon but I built the surround out of cardboard and egg cartons, and the furniture in both the bathroom and kitchen are from Hobby Lobby. The rest of the furniture came with the dollhouse set, but I painted just about all of it with sample pots I already had in the garage.
I used a faux leathery material from an old storage basket Iāve had forever to cover the couch in the living room, and cut up ribbons and one of the extra rugs for the throw pillows.
The wall art is made from sections of a scrapbook page I cut up and glued onto a cork tile backing to make it look like a frame, and the tiny books in the bookshelf are just pieces of cardboard I painted the āspinesā of.
The little shelf in the kitchen is made of those same popsicle sticks and some clean lollipop sticks for the peg rail and I love this detail especially because it looks like our kitchen peg rail shelf!
The Exterior
Going for a faux stone exterior was such a fun element of this project, and Iām going to do a separate post on that process because it was a little more involved.
Essentially, itās made of cork tiles and painted and it looks way more realistic than I thought going into it!
The little faux vines I bought from Hobby Lobby for about $1 per pack and went through two packs just hot gluing the vines on where it felt right. For the door handles, I used rub n buff on a piece of scrap cardboard and glued a jewelry bead onto it for the knob.
I used more popsicle sticks along the roof for a fun farmhouse-y effect and painted the whole roof black with some leftover paint I already had.
The result
I am honestly so surprised at how much I loved this whole DIY dollhouse renovation, and by how much everyone on Instagram did too! Itās such a fun, low-stress project and now I feel like I canāt throw away any trash without second guessing whether I could use part of it as dollhouse furniture.
I hope this dollhouse will be plenty loved and played with for years to come, of course, but also maybe I should flip and sell another one just for the fun of it?
Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you liked this DIY dollhouse renovation make sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow along on Instagram!
