Christmas is coming and I have been searching for a doll house for Juliet. She already has her beautiful dollhouse bookshelf her daddy made for her, but her developmental therapist has been recommending a small dollhouse for her to help with imaginative play, fine motor skills, and expressive speech. We got this little Fisher Price Laugh and Learn house toy for Juliet’s birthday and she really loves it. It has two small figures, a frog and dog, and lots of small levers and buttons to play with, all which delight Juliet while also helping her tune her fine motor skills.
Fisher Price makes a little play house and princess castle, both of which are perfect for Juliet right now. They make noises and have small places for her small fingers to explore, while also remaining safe enough for her age set.
Fisher Price also has this cute house that folds up. It comes with a mommy, daddy, and baby and you can buy additional furniture to make it more homey.
When I first started to wander the toy aisles after Drake was born, I fell in love with Calico Critters. I have always loved animals (wonder where Drake gets it from) and loved the darling little animal families, precious little homes and shops the collection carries.
There is another similar line called Lil Woodzeez that also has animals and homes for them. Juliet is still a bit too young to justify the prices of these sets, but maybe when she is older. I am actually hoping that these toys might appeal to Drake too since he loves animals and making little families so, in the future maybe these toys can bring entertainment for both my kids together.
Melissa and Doug makes a nice wooden fold up dollhouse with some furniture and dolls included, which seems like a ice starter set for little girls. I think the folding up part is nice for traveling around and taking it places. They make a larger manor home one as well that’s a bit more pricey.
Kidcraft seems to make a lot of different wooden dollhouses that are several feet tall, which might be nice for a child to grow into. They lean toward the pricier side for a toy, so I probably wouldn’t buy any of these until Juliet was older and showed a marked interest in playing with dolls. As a child I hated dolls personally, so I want to wait to see her level of interest before committing to a more expensive option.
Calego has a larger pop-up doll house that folds flat at a much nicer price than some of the wooden ones. This might be perfect if you already have lots of dolls and accessories and are just looking for a home to place them all in. You can really personalize and make this one your own instead of buying pieces specific to the house.
And while not a traditional dollhouse, I really like this adorable Goldilocks and the Three Bears playset. With the right amount of imagination, you can play out not only the traditional story of Goldilocks but lots of other adventures. I like that it can be taken down and reassembled so it doesn’t take up a lot of space up. I think Drake would have a lot of fun building the house and playing with the little figurines.
If you are handy or love to DIY, there are tons of ways to create a dollhouse. Maybe I’ll try to wrangle Mr. Chocolate into making a dollhouse.
via younghouselove and plaidonline
via sewshesews
via suttongrace and semiproper (made from two nightstand drawers)
Etsy even has shops that sell kits, though some of them seem more for display than play.
If you can sew there are some wonderful sewn dollhouse tutorials out there too.
And lastly this was too sweet not to share. A little mouse cozy in his little bed. I think I might have to try this and make one for Drake & Juliet.
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
I can’t wait to make a dollhouse for our baby girl!
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
We have the basic Melissa and Doug dollhouse and Noelle plays with it every night lately! I bought it for her 1st birthday and she played it sporadically over the years, but this past year she really got into it!
cantaloupe / 6164 posts
We have the FP little people house & the li’l woodzeez, and Sadie plays with both every day!
honeydew / 7295 posts
My son is obsessed with dollhouses right now. Perhaps more than trains. My husband saw a woman throwing out a beat up old fancy one and brought it home for him. Needs work but its darling!
blogger / nectarine / 2043 posts
We were gifted a Little People set with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Baby C has zero interest in it, except to chew on the figurines LOL I might pull it back out now that’s she a bit older and see if it catches her attention.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@Mrs. Carrot: we put our Little People house away because M had no interest in it. I’m going to bring it out at Christmas again when she is 2.5 and see if she is interested in it yet.
pomelo / 5720 posts
@MrsMccarthy: I am dying to get one for DS but all of the ones I see are pink or purple…I just want one that looks like a house! There is a Dora one at his school that he lives but I can’t find it online.
pomegranate / 3225 posts
So timely… Going to get LO one for Christmas!
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
Is it wrong that I want some of these!? (For me!) Great collection of options!
blogger / honeydew / 7081 posts
A dollhouse! This never even crossed my mind for K…and some of those animal ones are precious!
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Maddox loves his dollhouse! I think it’s from plantoys? It’s wooden and has really cute furniture. We bought it used off my local moms list.
nectarine / 2180 posts
We have a Plan Toys dollhouse that DD loves. It’s definitely gender neutral. We got a great deal on Gilt last year and it even came furnished.
cherry / 248 posts
@mrs.chocolate I love them all especially the calico critters. My daughter just turned 2 and a friend handed down the melissa and Doug fold and go one and she loves it. I bought hera few of the fisher price loving family people and the suv that goes with it and that was a hit. Thinking I may get another car maybe the convertible too since my boys love it too.
pear / 1852 posts
So many house choices! We’re lucky though, I won that Princess Castle for my daughter in an online contest when she was about a year old. She loves it still today at 2.5, although her kitchen is much more popular.
olive / 57 posts
I want to get our daughter a doll house this year too! Can’t decide what to do though, I would love to customize one, just seems like too much of a project right now…
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We got the Daniel the Tiger Treehouse and it was an instant hit for our 2 yr old son. Changing it from house to space pretend has been very engaging.