Mum Of 3 Creates Marvel Doll House For £27.40 Using 36p Craft Bargains
- Lauren, 26, wanted to give her son his own doll house as he loves them
- She shopped around for Marvel doll houses but couldn’t find any
- By going DIY and using existing supplies she only paid £27.40
- Her unique creation features 3 storeys, a Marvel jail and unique stickers
Getting a doll house is easy - if you want one with plenty of feminine touches. But sometimes you want something a bit different, which is exactly why one mum of 3 got crafty and made a unique playhouse for her Marvel-loving son.
Lauren Hedges, 26 from Shrewsbury, Shropshire who is mum to 3 children aged 7, 5 and 3, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘My little boy has some difficulties, one of them being his limited play skills. However he loves playing with my daughters’ doll house (much to their dismay)!
‘I decided to look into boys' doll houses. Alfie is obsessed with everything Marvel and has so many figures lying around, so I figured it would be perfect to have a boy's big wooden doll house to put them in. In this day and age you would think they would exist by now!
‘Luckily I enjoy upcycling and anything crafty, so I decided to start looking into houses that various people had made, however even though they were nice they just didn’t suit us or the vibe I wanted to go for.
‘I decided to purchase a second hand dolls house along with some furniture off Facebook Marketplace for £10. I then went searching in our family craft box for any bits and pieces I could find that I thought would ‘tie-in’ to a dolls house as well as Marvel before purchasing anything to try and save a bit of money.
‘In the end the rest of the materials and finishing pieces I needed only ended up costing me a total of £17.40!
‘This is a fraction of the price that doll houses go for in the shops these days, and even better - it’s been personalised to suit my son's interests and it’s one of a kind, made with love by his mum.
The first room of the Marvel house I worked on was the jail. The first item I picked up was 5 metres of 4mm thick grey elastic cord from eBay for £3.29 (although I had a lot of spare so I could definitely have got away with a smaller amount for cheaper).
‘To attach these to the dolls house I cut them into strips and used a staple gun to staple them down before adding superglue for extra support to prevent them pinging off if pulled with force.
‘The flooring was a roll of patterned black vinyl which I picked up from Temu for £1.48 (this was also used for the flooring on the middle section of the house). I made the jail stickers myself using vinyl I already had.
‘I then moved on to the first floor room. The silver flooring was a kitchen sticker vinyl roll which came from Shein for £1. The gold Avengers clock came with the dolls house - I painted it and made my own stickers for it (I did the same with the stickers on the walls).
‘The sofa was sprayed when I sprayed the house. For the blue cushioned part of the sofa I used blue acrylic paint and was generous when applying it so it would soak into the sponge. Finally I got the mini welcome door mat from Temu for 69p.
‘Next up was the second, or middle, floor. For the flooring I used the remainder of the black vinyl roll from the jail. The table and chairs came with the dolls house so I painted them with red and black paint from my children’s craft box.
‘The mini working vending machine came from Temu for £1.29 and the mini realistic food used was from my children’s Mini Brands which we already had lying around the house.
‘It was then time for the top floor. The rainbow flooring was coloured vinyl sheets I already had, I cut them into strips and placed them down in order. The bedside table, lamp and bed also came with the house when purchased, again I sprayed them when spraying the house.
‘For the duvet set I used one of my son’s capes that we had a duplicate of. For this I simply cut it, wrapped it round and glued it down. The cobweb with spiders came from Asda; it was reduced to 10p from their Halloween stock and I glue gunned it down.
‘The string wooden star lights came from Poundland for £1. I screwed them to the roof and taped the battery pack to the side. The last piece on this floor was the miniature telephone which came from Temu for £3.48.
‘The last floor was the balcony, or top floor. I used different shades of green acrylic and painted it thickly with small strokes to create almost a ‘grass’ effect. I also used this to paint flower stems. For the flowers I used felt flower embellishments from my children’s craft box and glue gunned them to the wall.
‘At this point I went all over bits of the house. The wallpaper was free samples from B&Q, I applied wallpaper paste directly on the house rather than the paper. I already had this in the house, but you can purchase it for as little as £1.49 from The Range.
‘I spray painted the outside of the house, the inside walls down the sides and the stairs with a £1.99 black car spray paint, along with a car spray clear lacquer for £1.99. These both came from the car section in Home Bargains. They work the same as all other spray paints for a fraction of the cost!
‘The silver trim on the roof along with the trims at the bottom of each room along the floor was done with silver metallic paint from my children’s craft box. They also sell these in Home Bargains, B&M and The Range for as little as £1.
‘I used alphabet shaped wood letters on the roof to personalise it for my little boy Alfie - these came from Shein for 36p each. The Marvel sticker on the left of the roof, along with all stickers inside the house, I made with vinyl I already had.
‘If I had to do it again, I don’t think I would change anything about the house itself - however I think I would try to be less hard on myself. I was so desperate for it to be absolutely perfect, it didn’t even cross my mind that Alfie would love it regardless of any imperfections because it was made especially for him.’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Lauren has done a fantastic job creating this Marvel playhouse. It’s a shame she struggled to find pre-made options in the shops but this is a bargain-friendly masterpiece! I’m sure my son would love this Marvel house too - can he come over and play?!’
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