The dollar store is a great place to find cheap, inexpensive supplies for your DIY dollhouse furniture and accessories. While you certainly need to be discerning about what you get and it’s quality, we found some really adorable things our last trip there! So we’ve decided to make a list of all the things to look for when shopping at the dollar store for your dollhouse.
Here’s our Dollar Store Dollhouse Shopping List:
Toothpicks – Great for just about anything, and it even came in a cute canister. If you need a LOT of toothpicks, it’s probably more economical to buy at a big box retailer, but we loved the canister it came in!
Battery Operated Tea Lights – These little lights can be used in a number of ways, for lighting fixtures, for a fireplace glow – you name it!
Hair Clips & Accessories: We found all sorts of cute hair clips and barettes and headbands and more that would make for excellent accessories and decor in the dollhouse!
Socks: Dollar Store socks come in all kinds of colors and patterns and sizes, and this would be great fabric to use for bedding, or a rug, or even curtains!
Artificial Flowers: I was surprised to see an artificial flower section, and there were some cute ones that could be used for different things. They also even had packages of mini-rose petals!
Floral Wire: Floral Wire is great for making things like hangers, bending and twisting into a number of furniture pieces and accessories, fastening things together and more.
Photo Frames: What can you do with a photo frame? Make a decorative coffee table, or snag one of the small sized ones for a large photo or mirror.
Binder Clips: These are great to use as clamps when gluing and assembling dollhouse furniture and accessories.
Duct Tape: Know that super expensive cute patterned duct tape? Yup – the dollar store by me now carries it!
Stickers: Not for everyone, but can be cute for a number of different dollhouse DIY projects. For example, you could make a character themed room and use the stickers as wall decals! There are also many stickers now for card and scrapbook making at some dollar stores, so these can be great to use for easy wall decor.
Greeting Cards: We found a number of greeting cards that you could use the photos or verses for and make some cool wall art with!
Beads: Beads have a lot of different uses in dollhouses, and it’s always good to have some on hand!
Jewelry: Our dollar store doesn’t have a lot of jewelry, but sometimes you can find some nice things that will work well for various decor and accessories.
Popsicle Sticks: Great thing for many uses!
Miniature Toys: The toys at the dollar store aren’t the greatest, but with some plastic paint you can give them a decent makeover!
Party Favors: We found cute little baby carriages for a baby shower that would bave been perfect for a dollhouse.
Foam: You can carve and cut just about anything out of foam!
Stones & Pebbles: Use for making a fireplace, stairs or path leading to the entranceway or in the dollhouse garden.
Floral Marbles: So many uses for these! They are basically marbles, but they come in flat shapes and multi-colored too!
Floral Moss: Great for the dollhouse garden or if you’re creating a nature/fairy inspired scene.
Decorative Sand: Build a sandbox or accent your walkway, or maybe use for a beach scene.
Plastic Containers: All types of plastic containers you can use for your dollhouse creations!
Cotton Balls: Can be used in a number of ways, for example for filling pillows or for other applications.
Q-tips – These can be great for painting or can be used for adding other paint finishing details to small pieces.
Paperclips – Can do much with the lovely paperclip!
PushPins – Another useful thing to have handy.
Ribbon: We were impressed by the nice selection of ribbon at our local store!
So many great finds at the dollar store, and this is just the beginning of the list! They often carry seasonal items, so you never know what you can find!
Have you found anything cool at the dollar store for your dollhouse DIY projects you’d like to share with us? Anything else we should add to our shopping list? Tell us about it in the comments below!
I found small horses that I painted and hot-glued to foam for a rocking-horse.
That’s a great idea!
Containers of nail polish make excellent bottles.
Half of a picture frame makes a fireplace mantle.
Electronic accessories have unique little bits and pieces used for all sorts of things.
In the ‘Baby’ section of the store, you can find baby washcloths, which can be made into bath towels or bedding for the dollhouse. In the boy’s toy section, I found some little trophies, which I painted and turned into nice plant pots for either side of the front door or garden spot. In the ‘Party’ section, there are rattles which can be separated and the rounded halves used as lamp shades. Some dollar stores also have unpainted miniature furniture.
I found wood grained contact paper that I used for my hardwood floors!
I get hot glue sticks, glitter and contact paper that looks like wood and granite fron the dollar tree, which also carried everything mentioned above!
Dollar Tree is great! Thrift stores too! 🙂
Baby face cloths cut up to make perfect towels for the dollhouse loo! Lots of great colours too.
Our dollar store has patterned duct tape in many great designs. I have seen miniature sofa throw pillows made from the zebra stripe, that were really nice. I have made a leopard design rug by cutting a length of patterned duct tape and sticking it to the shelf liner in the housewares section – the liner looks just like the non-slip liners that go under regular size rugs. The dollar store also sells checkers games, and a game similar to Jenga. The checkers are 1″ in diam. I (acrylic) painted three of the black ones dark brown, and three of the red ones with a deeper red color and used them for a layer cake. For the frosting layers I cut 3 1″ rounds of white Fimo/Sculpey clay that I had- 3 per cake, so that one was the top frosting layer I assembled and baked, per directions on pkg of clay, then decorated – One chocolate cake, and one red velvet cake. If you already do clay-ing, you probably already know you can use the dollar store clear nail polish as a glaze for your mini food items. The Jenga-style game comes with plain wood pieces that can be used for making tables, shelves, lawn chairs, whatever. There are also buttons in the toy section that are shaped like flowers. They are flat and come in an assortment of 7 pastel colors. Our store also has cloths for cleaning computer screens. One side of the cloth is the microbiber cleaning cloth and the other side is a beautiful silky pattered design. The edges are neatly finished and they are the perfect size for a be comforter. I found one in the perfect color/pattern for a little girl’s mini bed. H-m-m-m-m … maybe I should just write a book – LOL.
Great ideas! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your great ideas.
With a little imagination and creativity, binder clips can be made into handbags. Paper clips can be bent into coat hangers and push pins can be used as legs for a stool or sofa. There are examples of all of these online.
Love that idea!
I’ve used the ear buds as a shower head. I attach one to the dollhouse shower wall and the other as a hand held shower head.
On my last trip to the Dollar Tree, I bought some tools for working on my dollhouse. I got a set of 6 small screw drivers in a nice plastic case – (flat end and Phillips), a small level (6″), a 6-inch hacksaw and a set of 4 long, thin seafood forks. I thought they were for olives or pickles, but they will be a nice tool when working with FIMO clay and making things like mini lettuce leaves. These tools are just the right size to work on the dollhouse and drill, cut, level and shape the small items I make for my dollhouse.
Sounds like a good find!
I found this stuff called bouncy putty or bouncing putty mastic to make small clay creations. It’s almost exactly like the air dry clay that comes in the Poppit clay kits from Michaels. I’ve made cupcakes, lollipops, ice cream cones etc….. I also buy the tiny glitter jars meant for decorating fingernails. Those jars are useful in many ways. Mini 1:12 Yankee Candles, candy jars, food jars, canisters etc…. I’ve used the caps from many dollar tree items for pots, pitchers and canisters. The glue stick and chapstick caps are my favorite for canister making. Hairspray caps work well too.
My dollar store sometimes has plain wooden doll furniture in 1:12 size: chairs, tables, dressers. The drawers don’t open and the joints are sloppy. But with some sanding and painting or staining they can be improved.
I made patio doors out of a double picture frame. The medium sized frames that you can put two pictures into
I love that idea! Thanks for sharing!
The tiny plastic bottles of nail decor (stars, etc.) make great jars of “sprinkles” for a baking scene. Nail decals make great ornaments for cannisters, etc. I used tatoos on clear glass to make gorgeous dishes! The foam on makeup applicators make great bath mitts and the handles can become bath sponge handles. Tines from plastic forks make great handles (with pom poms) for dish scrubbers and bath sponges. The cardboard stick from a Q-tip is great for a flag or wall hanging. Short lengths of velvety ribbon are good for door mats. Colored paper clips cut in short lengths, stuck onto clear tape folded over makes a great set of felt tip markers. Black gravel is good for filling coal shuttles. Painted partially gray and sprinkled with red and copper glitter looks like glowing coals in the fireplace grate or campfire.. Stick on rhinestones make great light fixtures esp in smaller scales. Tiny ones are good for jewelry and buttons. Brown eyeshadows give Fimo or air dry clay “bread/rolls/etc.” a just baked look. And plastic blister packs make “Pyrex” baking pans. Pipe cleaners make great teddy bears and other small animals. Floral tape sandwiched onto wire makes plant leaves. Bamboo teriyaki sticks are good for curtain rods, tipped with a bead, flag poles, and wall hanging rods. I love our local Dollar Tree (Augusta, Maine).
These are super tips Kathy, thank you for sharing! I am going to have to try making some of these things! Sounds like you have a great dollar store!
Lots of sponges for making furniture, salt and pepper shakers in plastic “crystal” provide tops that can be used for fancy bowls and bottoms that make fancy floor lamp bases. Gift boxes in various sizes make good bases for beds and sofas. Toothbrush packs provide push broom heads. Napkin holders make bed head and foot boards. Make up sets have small mirrors and metal flats that can be pan or trays. Hankies make bed linens. Tweezers are good for making the furniture. You can often find small jewelry boxes covered in velvet or with feet and decorations. Stores that specialize in quinceanera or wedding supplies have lots of fun favors and decorations which convert to doll house furnishings.
These are wonderful ideas Janet, thank you for sharing! 🙂
Try pipe cleaner craft items and part of a kabob stick and you have a toilet brush.