Getting started on building your doll house- The Boston and The Shop

All of our doll houses come with detailed manufacturers instructions, these are supplementary to them to give you an idea before you make a purchase.

We recommend you go through these instructions and slot together the doll house WITHOUT glue to start with, and familiarise yourself with the panels and instructions. VA glue is required to glue the panels together. After each and every stage check that all panels are nicely slotted together. These doll houses are precision machined and will need a minimal amount of sanding, if any. If you have built a doll house before then you cannot fail to be impressed with the build quality of this one.
1) The first step is to clear a space large enough to work in. Preferably a solid hard floor or a table. Cover the work surface to prevent damage to it.
2) Lay out the back panel as shown in the photograph on the left with the grooves facing upright. I have marked the grooves in red on our photo to help identify the right way round to place it.

Finding the Internal Walls

3) Find the centre wall section, It has three door cut-outs and it looks like this.

Finding the Floor Sections

4) Next, locate the 2 floor sections, they are slightly different to each other as you can see and will only fit the doll house one way.

Assembling the Doll House Internal Walls and Floors

5 Squeeze a little PVA glue into all of the grooves on the back panel. (Do not use any glue until you have been through these instructions and are 100% confident that it all fits)
6) Place the centre wall partition into the groove in the back panel, this runs from the bottom of the house to the top, with the two door cut-outs and two slot cut-outs pointing up, away from the back panel.
7) Slide the two floor sections into the slots of the centre wall section, all the way in, to locate in the grooves on the back panel.
9) CHECK all panels are located in the grooves properly.

Adding the left wall

9) Find the left hand side wall (as in image) and place it to the left side of the house as shown in the image. The grooves are marked in red on the image to make it easier to understand.

Getting Ready to Attach the Wall to the House

Attaching the wall to the house

Put some PVA glue into the slots on the side panel. Lift the house (you may need some help, and be careful) on to the top of the side panel as shown in figure A. Then slowly tilt it up through 90 degrees to sit on top of the side panel- figures B, C and D.

Gluing the Left Side Wall to the Doll House.

10) Put some PVA glue into the slots on the side panel. Lift the house (you may need some help, and be careful) on to the top of the side panel as shown in figure A. Then slowly tilt it up through 90 degrees to sit on top of the side panel- figures B, C and D. The house will finish up on top of the side panel not located in the grooves, which you put glue into. So next you need to slide the house into the grooves. It will all fall into place and the back of house will line up with the back edge of the side panel.

Gluing the Doll House Back to the Side

11) Now you just tilt the back of the doll house back just enough to squeeze some PVA glue into the join, as shown in the picture. Run the glue down the full length of the join between the back of the doll house and the side, then slowly lower the house onto the side and clean of excess glue. Double check that all panels are located securely in the grooves.

Glue the last doll house wall into place

12) Leaving the doll house on its side, now run a bead of PVA glue along all of the ends of the floors and walls, marked in red in the picture. Then place the last side on top of it. It will easily slide into the grooves and locate into position. If necessary you can tape it to the rest of the house.

Gluing to the base.

13) Lay the base next to the house, as shown in the picture, the grooves of the base face up and are shown in red in the picture. Squeeze a bead of PVA glue along all of the grooves.
14) Next lift the house on to the base, by now you may be able to lift the house onto the base, or you can just lift it onto the base the same way you did the first doll house side wall and tilt it through 90 degrees, and then slide it into the grooves.
15) Now find and glue the top of the house into place.
16) Check all panels and dividers are securely sitting inside their grooves, use tape if necessary.
17) This completes the main construction of the doll house.
18) If you are papering your roof, we recommend doing that before assembling and fixing the dormers into place.

Adding The Dormers

15) You will need some tape for assembling the dormers, just slot them together, gluing all joints, and then before the glue dries, glue them into the slots on the opening part of the roof, as shown in the picture.
16) After this has dried, the roof and front opening doors can be screwed into place on the doll house, all screw holes are pre-drilled for your convenience and a perfect fit. You may find it easier to decorate the doors before attaching.
17) Next you can decorate the windows and fix them into place, and add the architrave around the inside.
18) Then decorate and assemble the stairs, before gluing into place.
19) Now have fun decorating and furnishing your new doll house.

This design is copyrighted by See n See.