South Shores Dollhouse

South Shores, A Modern Beach Style Dollhouse Built From Scratch

This dollhouse was built completely from scratch. The kind people at Lowe's cut the MFD board based on my measurement requirements. I cut all windows and doors with a jigsaw. The house was built for my granddaughter who decided she wanted a modern one after seeing one I built for a toddler. She insisted the house be modern and since modern dollhouse kits are scarce, I decided to built it from scratch. The beach is one of her favorite places, so a house based on that theme seemed perfect.

We selected this house as our prototype. It is an actual three-bedroom house designed by Greenline Architects & Builders, in Calicut, Kerala. Our final product is shown below.

This is a scratch-built house that is made from MFD. After getting the wooden pieces cut, I dry-fitted them to determine what adjustments were necessary.

The next step was to determine placement and cut windows and doors.

As you can see, the windows required quite a bit of straightening.

The interior was wallpapered with a solid sheet of stucco style life-sized paper. The windows were left covered as textured paint was sprayed on the top half of the house and the roof. The bottom section was painted a sandy shade of brown. The textured spray on the roof was painted a darker shade of brown. The only steps taken in the interior at this time was the division of the first and second floors. The wallpaper on the first floor was painted a caramel color and the top floor was painted a faint shade of grey.

Instead of the brickwork on the front panel, I used colorful tile. The windows were straightened and framed.

I used stained glass paint to create the upstairs and downstairs exterior doors.

Tile trim was added to the patio, acrylic windows were installed along with the patio railing and posts.

I made the fish tank using resin. The biggest problem I had was keeping items inside the tank from floating to surface. The biggest mistake I made was adding a color to the resin that turned out to be too dark. I inverted one of the cases that the Reutter Porcelain sets came in for the tank and used the lid for the base. The table was made from scraps of wood.

It's coming along! I changed the color of the wrought iron furniture from black to white.

Sitting room furniture has been re-upholstered.

Bedroom furniture was painted in bright colors to fit my granddaughter's taste!

Still have quite a bit of accessorizing left to do. I used Florida beach and vintage beach posters for wall art in this house. I found a stripped piece of fabric that worked as both a rug in the dining area, a beach towel, and a cover for the chaise lounge on the patio.

I love the Miami posters in this room!

The kitchen looks pretty sparse now, but it's a work in progress. I designed the rug to match the love seat in the sitting area. I planned to use it under the coffee table, but the table completely covered up the rug.

More Florida posters cover the wall in this room. A mirror is inside the buoy hanging on the wall.

My granddaughter wanted a screen from her Minecraft game on the computer. The walls in this area are covered with vintage beach movie posters.

I made this shelving unit to divide these living spaces, but to also hold my collection of shells. The coral piece was made from clay.

The bathroom has some unique fixtures. I'm not sure what they're made of, but it looks like alabaster. They are pretty heavy. The sink was missing a base, so I improvised one.