Dollhouse Kit Bashing - Ever Heard of It?
By Julia Morrison
Have you heard of dollhouse kit bashing? Even if you haven't, there's a good chance you have done it if you've ever tried your hand at making dollhouses using a kit. Kit bashing means modifying a dollhouse kit, perhaps by adding a different porch, or an extra room, or even using the parts from two different kits to build a dollhouse mansion. Basically, kit bashing is making dollhouses from a kit, without following the instructions that came with the kit.
Many dollhouse enthusiasts find building from a kit to be easier to handle than creating a house from scratch using dollhouse plans. You may not have the skills or inclination to cut all of the wood from scratch to create a dream home in miniature scale. Yet there's always the desire for making dollhouses unique. You don't want your house to look exactly like the one on the box, right?
How do you start 'bashing' if you've purchased a dollhouse kit and want to modify it? One of the most popular ways to modify a kit is by switching out components such as doors, windows, or porches with upgraded versions. Making dollhouses with these upgrades is as easy as swapping the upgrades in place of the kit contents. You can also cut openings in the dollhouse shell to add extra windows or doors where there aren't any.
More drastic changes are also possible, from adding or removing interior walls, to changing the floor plan, to splicing together the shells for two houses to make a completely customized mansion. Maybe you'd rather have a third-story loft, rather than a nursery and a child's room. Or, you want to create a fourteen-room castle out of two smaller dollhouse kits. The option of kit bashing allows for an infinite number of design possibilities, limited only by your imagination.
A bit trimmed off an edge, the replacement of an interior wall with a stately column, and fancy upgraded windows or staircases will give your dollhouse a look all its own, while providing the convenience of starting with an easy-to-build kit.
Those who favor kit bashing when making dollhouses reuse the parts contained in the kit whenever possible, but also create other pieces using sheets of basswood, which can be cut to fit your needs. With a miter saw - which you'll need anyways to cut the pieces that come in most wooden dollhouse kits - you can make the pieces of the house fit together in new and creative ways.
The Dollhouse Company is a one-stop shop for everything you need to build a doll house. From doll house kits, furniture and accessories to finished dollhouses and how-to books.
Our selection ranges from contemporary houses to Victorian parlours, from cottages to large dollhouse mansions. We cater for novices, experts and collectors and also offer dollhouses for our youngsters.
Feel free to download our FREE e-book on how to choose, build and decorate your dollhouse at http://www.thedollhousecompany.com
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