Doll House for Pippi Longstocking (Langstrumpf)

Summary:
For my daughter I have built a colorful Pippi Longstocking (Langstrumpf) doll house with plywood and some accessories (3D printed parts). The building concept is modular so you can adapt it easily and let your creativity play.

Step 1: Material and Tools Required

Material required:
-Plywood 4mm
-Pine wood lath22x22mm
-Wood glue
-Paint
-Wood tenons (to connect the triangle wood profile of the roof with the 4-groove-profile)

Tools required:
-Buzz saw/circular saw
-Jig saw
-Drill machine
-Hammer
-Sand paper

Step 2: Design Phase

Download the drawings or models of the standard parts. Size your doll house as you like and setup a BOM (bill of material) with the dimensions of each part. Then cut all the parts, doors and windows and grind the corners and edges. Perform a fit check with all parts before painting. If it the grooves are too tight, make them larger. Keep in mind the paint will add to the thickness of the plywood panel! I have written numbers on each physical part for identification and equally on the 2D drawing. This will assist again during assembly.

Attached are some photos to understand the design principles.

Step 3: Painting

Usually I paint wood with “colored water” as I like it to see the wood structure on one hand and on the other hand it saves drying time and paint: mix water-solvable paint with some water, apply it with a paint brush regularly and let it dry. Be aware the plywood parts (in my case 4mm) bend quite a bit if you paint them on one side at a time. If you paint the other side later, the bending will be compensated again. This kind of paint technique is fast drying so you can proceed with final assembly soon.

Step 4: Assembly

Use wood glue (water resistant) at each joint and wipe off the exceeding glue. Work quick but accurately as angular tolerances accumulate and maybe the last pieces don´t fit. The back walls will help to stabilize the structure.
I recommend to place some felt knobs on the lower side of the house to avoid scratches on the parquet floor.

Step 5: 3D Printed Parts

If you do not own a 3D printer like me, go to www.3Dhub.com, register and search for a 3D printer in your neighborhood. 3D hubs is a worldwide 3D printing community. Upload your 3D models as STL file, pay online and grab the parts at the person who printed the parts for you or you get the parts shipped depending on the services provided. Also, you can select different materials (e.g. PLA, ABS etc.) and colors. If you want to design things on your own: go to Autodesk 123D, download the design software (free) and do 3D modeling on your own. Then save your model as STL file, which is used as a standard file format for 3D printing. Or just go to www.thingiverse.com and search for CAD models for download.

The ABS printed parts I have painted with a brush. In some flower boxes I have put plastic flowers and casted them with gypsum.