DIY Christmas Cottage Dollhouse

I started with a small dollhouse I purchased from my local Kmart (in Australia) that cost me just $22 AUD.

I removed the front door and then gave the whole house a light sand.

I then used a scraper to apply a mansory filler paste (used to fill holes in bricks) on to the sides. I did one side at a time.

Once I had one side done, I used a butter knife to form lines into it in the shapes of bricks.

I left it to completely dry before starting the next side so that I wouldn’t smudge it at all.

Once I had finished all 4 sides, I left to completely dry & harden.

Next I used a mix of brown, black & white paint to paint the bricks. I watered down each paint, applying the brown on first, then going over it roughly with black (to get that old brick look) and lastly I lightly dabbed some white on top to give it a little more character.

Next I started on the roof.

Originally I was going to make a paste from bi carb, glue & paint to make snow but after experimenting a bit, I couldn’t get the texture how I wanted it, so I decided to experiment with expanding foam filler instead.

I practised on some cardboard first as I really didn’t want to ruin the project. Once I was happy with it, I then sprayed it onto the roof. As the foam can be cut, sanded & painted once dry, I wasn’t too concerned about putting too much on as I could always fix it up later.

Once the foam had completely dried, I used a spare blade from a Stanley knife to start cutting the excess foam and shaping it to be less bumpy.

I then sanded it smooth, but left a few bumps here and there as I wanted it to look realistic.

Next I painted it white, I did 3 coats of gloss white acrylic, leaving a few hours inbetween each coat.

Once the roof was done, I then cut some thin balsa wood up with a Stanley knife to make frames for the windows.

I painted them white first and then glued onto the windows with wood glue.

I wasn’t a fan of how “clean” they looked being plain white, so I then used some water down black & brown acrylic paint and very lightly went over them to give it more of a “weathered” look to suit the bricks.

Lastly, I used a Stanley knife to carve some detail into the plain wooden door, and then I used watered down black & brown acrylic paint to paint it. Again I was very rough with this as I wanted it to look “weathered” to suit the rest of the exterior.

I also rounded the door handle with some sand paper as it was cylinder shaped before.

I then put the door back onto the house and added a little bow I had from my craft supplies to finish it off.

I also put a string of battery powered lights for something extra.

And that’s it, she was finished!

This was such a fun little project, and also a new challenge for me as I hadn’t worked with mansory or foam in projects before.

For more of my projects please check out my Instagram page @_prettyliving