I’ve been collecting minis myself since the 1970’s. I have a lot of roomboxes and other projects I’m working on and have heard of bunches of fun ideas from other mini collectors, so I thought I’d share those with you.

First I’ll put a list of my projects then, a list of the ones I’ve heard of from others. Let’s see. My projects (none of which are finished – sigh….)

• Victorian Parlor Room Box. This is one I didn’t make from scratch – I bought it on eBay years ago and I’ve added some of my own miniatures to the scene. It’s got a gorgeous bay window with shelves displaying a hand blown glass collection and is electrified.


• Teddy Bear Shop (Of course since I also collect bears!). My main problem with this project is that I probably already have too many miniature bears to fit into it. I bought a gorgeous already made flower shop on eBay years ago that’s going to be turned into a bear shop. I’ve been thinking of adding a porch (from a kit) to put more bears out there…


• Garage sale – this one is the first project I ever did. I made it in the 1970’s for a contest at a local fair. I made this one from scratch all by myself had lots of fun with the details – mice hiding in a stack of newspapers, cobwebs, even a baseball stuck on the roof. Didn’t win though. LOL!


• Garage – this one wasn’t one I made, but it’s a really great garage that even has a garage door that slides up just like a real one. I found this one on eBay and added my own pieces to what was already there. One of my favorite pieces that I added was real miniature concrete blocks.


• Fairy Forest I mentioned this in my guide on how to display miniatures. This one started because I won a gorgeous miniature fairy in a contest to name a mini friend’s miniature shop. Once I won the fairy, I loved her so much I had to create a scene around her.

  I had a box custom made with clear plexiglass sides so the forest would look real. I have a wonderful waterfall, trees, flowers and animals. A lot of the minis for this project were custom made by artists to my specs, but I bought the waterfall and a gorgeous miniature unicorn on eBay.



• Tacky Dollhouse Last (most recent, I should say), but definitely not least is my tacky dollhouse. Everyone (including me) has pretty Victorian dollhouses and I wanted something different, so I decided to make a tacky dollhouse.

  This project started with a kit for a shop with a 2nd floor. The ground floor is going to be a sort cross between an antique shop and a junk shop.The person who runs it lives above with a rickety outside staircase. The apartment on the 2nd floor wouldn’t be complete without a miniature computer with eBay on the screen since (of course!) the person buys and sells on eBay. Ahem!

  Tacky stuff in the apartment includes a condom box, cigarette butts, beer cans, even a copy of the National Enquirer. The furniture can most tactfully be described as kitsch and a lot of it has been bought on eBay, of course.



• Victorian Dollhouse - Annabelle This one isn’t exactly mine, but it’s my hubby’s so I’ll list it here. After years of ignoring my minis he started looking at them and now he’s hooked too! He’s building humongous dollhouse (for him!) – the Annabelle. I wonder if he’s going to let me decorate the inside?

Hokay – that’s it for my mini projects. Here are some that other mini friends have made:

• Bordello This actually seems to be a very popular mini project. One lady I know has had the people for her dollhouse miniature bordello custom made to her specifications. Ahem. And, I’m *not* gonna go into details on this one!


• Haunted House Mini people seem to love making dollhouse miniature haunted houses and witches houses and not only on Halloween! Not to mention spooky cellar laboratories – boo!


• Doctor’s Office This is another very popular dollhouse miniature project – doctor, dentist, optometrist, etc. – all sorts of medical offices. People also do these as gifts for relatives or their doctors. One person I know even made a coroner’s office (morgue) for her hubby. She told me that she made it inside an antique doctors’ bag.


• Shops Again, very popular and the list is endless. Candy shop, grocery store, library, bookstore. Dollhouse miniature shops can be modern or other eras too, of course. One shop I saw on eBay once was a really fun one (and I lost the bid on it too!) was a dollhouse shop. The person who made it had the shop filled with 1/144” scale dollhouses and dollhouse kit boxes in miniature. Maybe I should’ve bid higher??


• Lighthouse Lots of people who love the ocean make dollhouse miniature lighthouses and/or beach houses.


• Cabin Dollhouse miniature cabins range from modern Adirondack vacation homes to more rustic camping or fishing cabins. Or, you could do a historical Colonial cabin.


• Nursery Everyone loves babies, so dollhouse miniature nursery roomboxes are fun. Lots of people do these for gifts for baby showers too.


• School House A school room or school house is a great dollhouse miniature project to do with your kids.


• Christmas Or, any holiday! Some people just decorate their existing dollhouses for each holiday. Others make special dollhouses or miniature scenes to put out on holidays or give as gifts on those holidays.


• Wedding/Anniversary Lots of people make dollhouse miniature room boxes or vignettes to commemorate their own weddings or make them as gifts. Or, to be used as favors at the wedding.


• Sports/Hobby People sometimes use their favorite sport or hobby as the theme for a dollhouse miniature roombox. (Like I did with the teddy bear shop). This is another theme that is used a lot for gifts. A football roombox for that hard to buy for football fantatic, for instance. One person told me that they made a theme roombox to give to her favorite rock star when she went to her concert.


• Religious People have told me they’re doing a dollhouse miniature roombox of a Church or Synagogue, lots of times to be displayed there, but also as gifts for religious occasions.


• Medieval This one isn’t done as much (I wonder why?) but I’ve known people to make dollhouse miniature medieval or Colonial scenes.


• Memorial This is a sad one, but people sometimes make dollhouse miniature scenes to remind them of and honor loved ones. I haven’t made a scene, but I do buy minis that remind me of my mom.


• Cakes This isn’t a permanent dollhouse miniature scene, but lots and lots of people tell me they use minis on cakes. One guy wanted to recreate his parents life on an anniversary cake. That was a huge cake! Another person told me they wanted to make a camping scene. Most do themes – sports, etc.


• Cards Lots of people use dollhouse miniatures to make personalized and/or themed greeting cards. Victorian ladies used to do make their own greeting cards and I guess it’s still done!


• Other interesting ideas Two of the most unusual things I ever heard of people doing with dollhouse miniatures is to put them into game pieces and use them for buttons. A lady in England made a whole set of backgammon game pieces for a friend by embedding dollhouse miniatures into Lucite.

I’m sure I’ve left out a ton of great ideas that people have had for themes and scenes using dollhouse miniatures, so I’ll update this as more come up!