Dollhouse Kitchen Cabinets DIY
The first room I tackled in the Vermonth Farmhouse Dollhouse was the kitchen. I totally scrapped the existing cabinets that came with the house, and decided to make my own our of paper, wood, glue, and wire. These cabinets are faux front and nonworking — but perfect for beginners! Paper is cheaper than wood, requires less tools to cut, and makes a great medium for beginners to use.
Materials & Tools List
Foam Core Posterboards
Cardstock or Regular Posterboard
Glue (like Aleene’s Tacky Glue)
Super Glue (I like Gorilla Super Glue with the blue top)
Hot Glue
Gold Beads (for drawer hardware)
Gold Wire or repurposed Bead Eye Pins
Black Construction paper or cardstock
Black buttons (1/4 - 3/8 in)
Paint
Other supplies: X-acto knife, scissors, paint brush, ruler
Measuring & Making Kitchen Cabinets
Start by measuring your kitchen space and drawing out your plans on a piece of paper. Draw this exactly to scale as you need the final project to be. This will be your template when cutting and measuring each piece.
I used the wooden fridge that came with my free dollhouse find and fit it into my plans.
The next step is a little bit of measuring and trial and error. Cut out rectangles of your foam core (use a X-acto knife or box cutter-type blade) that match the size of the cabinet fronts. The cabinet lowers can be one solid box, while the uppers in my design needed to be individual boxes. We’ll use the next step to add the details on the cabinet fronts, so, for now, focus on getting basic boxes made in the right shape.
Mini Tip - To convert real world object measurements into 1:12 scale, divide the inches by 12. For example, 36” in real life is 3” in dollhouse world.
In 1:12 scale, a standard base cabinet would measure 2” deep x 2 3/4” tall. The width will depend on your design. An upper cabinet would measure 1” deep x 3” tall. Once again, the width will vary, and even the height can vary based on your ceiling, too.
Cut out separate rectangles for the cabinet sides and back of your foam core. You will glue these together using hot glue or tacky glue. I chose to do a toe kick on the cabinet base, which created a 1/4” x 1/4” notch in the bottom of the cabinets. This is an extra detail but you don’t have to add it.
I also made the vent hood above the stove the full 2” depth, so that it covered the full footprint of the stove below and added a design detail by standing out from the upper cabinets.
This next step is a bit fiddly! Using your hand drawn template as a guide, you now need to cut out the surface details of the cabinet in cardstock or posterboard. I did a series of rectangles on top of cabinet doors and borders around the drawers to imitate a shaker cabinet style. Since I wanted the oven to be a bit more bulky, I used another small piece of foam core for it’s front.
The kitchen sink is made from a separate box of foam core and fits into a notch in the cabinets.
Painting and the Final Touches
The next part is easy - just paint! I used the color Ryegrass by Valspar for my cabinets. You can get paint samples (about $5) mixed at a home improvement store in any color. This little pot is more than enough paint for many projects!
I used black paint and black construction paper pieces for the open door and stove top.
Using gold beads and bent wire snippets, I created gold knobs and pulls for the cabinets. The hardware is secured with a tiny dot of superglue. Glue small black buttons on the front of the stove to look like temperature knobs.
For the countertop, search for a marble texture (or any other counter top texture) online. You don’t need a very large image! I printed my marble texture off on regular computer paper, covered the back in Mod Podge glue, and spread it onto a piece or foam core or 1/8” basswood sheet. Fold the ends of the paper around the edge of your countertop.
I used black construction paper, with white and black circle to simulate a stovetop. A dab of gold paint and a spare square dowel or stick makes a perfect oven door handle.
All that’s left is to install your kitchen into your dollhouse. I do recommend gluing the base cabinets down, and of course, you’ll need to glue the upper cabinets in place. Tacky glue works great for this.
I also purchased a gold faucet off Etsy to complete the kitchen sink. And two spare 1/8” x 1” x 2” basswood boards were used to make open shelving above the kitchen. The colorful kitchen turned out great!
Video Timelapse of the Kitchen Process
While this video isn’t necessarily a step-by-step tutorial, it does give a good idea of the process and how parts and pieces were added together.
Find more timelapse videos of my dollhouse reno and follow along with my recent projects over on Instagram at @martingoesmini.