Or have you achieved that already? I'd love to see what furniture people have found for displaying their bjds, assuming they aren't all tucked away for UV protection. For me, I would love some sort of dark wood curio cabinet situation, but it would need to be fairly narrow to fit in my bedroom.
If we're talking pie-in-the-sky DREAM doll display I would love to have a LARGE multi-room museum-style layout where small (1-2 doll) displays can be spaced out in their own enclosed glass boxes. I hate the feeling of clutter, I hate not being able to see all of the details of my dolls because another doll is sitting in front of them But obviously I'd have to have... museum-type funds to afford such a setup. On the more realistic side I'd love to have all of my dolls in closed glass display shelves. I only have 1 at the moment (Ikea FABRIKÖR), and I can definitely tell they accumulate less dust. They also just feel safer in there. I just don't have room for that right now... hopefully someday.
Someone (heaven help me I can't remember who) said that they made shadow box-like shelf displays (I think) for their dolls. Like each doll was in a scene, hanging on their walls. I would love to decorate my whole house like that. Granted, some of my dolls are between 3 and 6 feet tall, so that would be some big shadow boxes, but still.
I dream of a huge glass cabinet... maybe lighted too... cute and antique looking. Probably white. And with shelves big enough for MSDs and SDs to stand up for display I hope I can find something like this someday. Currently my dolls are just on a bookshelf, and I can only stand the taller ones on the top shelf.
Honestly, I would love to have enough open shelves/table tops to be able to see all my dolls. I lack that. And I have dolls of all sizes. So they're layered on top of a small wardrobe and I haven't changed the clothes/wigs of those in the back for a long time.
I still haven’t figured out the best way to display mine yet, I have been thinking if there is a way to make dust + cat proof shelves for them by making acrylic display cases for them like you can get for figurines. I’d love to see how others display their bjd’s.
Hm, I'd probably say a cute little uh what are they called... it's not a dollhouse. Does anyone remember those Legend of Zelda playsets from GameStop? I wanna do something like that with my dolls. Like a "playset display" of sorts, for lack of better term. No walls, just little furnishings on a large flooring board (maybe a backdrop board propped against the wall for atmosphere) on a long dresser for them with tables and sofas and stuff for them to sit on. The drawers would be where extra furnishings, clothing, and hair care products are all at.
I used to have a doll room with a deep shelving unit where I could create nine rooms for 1/3 scale dolls. I tore it out, planning to move and...things fell through. I miss it so much, and my dream would be to have a huge room (this one was tiny) to give Bren a full castle! Most of my dolls are either his friends or castle-mates, so they'd almost all belong in there somewhere. But as the room is so small and my shelves are all gone, for now, I'm working on just making what I have pretty, no real dioramas, just clean, neat and organized with the dolls sitting around on shelves or bookcases.
I will have at most 4 SD dolls altogether. If and when that time comes, I will buy an IKEA Stockholm 2025 glass cabinet to place on top of my medium-height dressing cabinet. That way, I can enjoy a frameless view of them and then turn that dedicated space into a small living room for them—fitted with a sofa, rug, and lamp, etc. Currently, my two SDs stand closely together on one side of my glass-doors Billy bookcase, which also houses most of my smaller fandom merch collections.
I like my current doll display method of "free range" dolls -- displayed anywhere in my home where I put them down, usually posed like they're interacting with each other or the environment. I play with my dolls a lot and move them enough that they aren't at risk of gathering dust. I also live alone and don't have pets, I take off my shoes when indoors, and keep my home quite clean, so this works out. I want to always have my dolls "free range" like this, and never confine them inside a cabinet or in their boxes. My dream is to set up 1-2 small, permanent "stages" around my home, like decorated settings/backdrops where I can pose the dolls, but also don't have to disassemble them afterwards. Similar to how Volks Tenshi-no-Sato or a doll photography studio does with their displays. And it's looking like I can actually set these up in my home soon - we'll see!
a vintage style glass cabinet with enough space to change my dolls' poses at will and even add a few doll-sized furnitures (like a small couch) would be perfect, even better if lighted !! atm i don't have the space for it though
Oh, I like that idea! Can I ask how you currently display your 3 ft tall dolls? I recently acquired an OT 3 ft doll (Patti Playpal) and while I'm fascinated and generally enjoying her size, I'm not entirely sure what to do with her or how best to display her. For me, I would love to finish off my garage (so it had heat/ac) and turn it into my "dolly universe" where all my dolls, doll houses and props could be displayed and played with more easily.
Built in shelves like a library around 3 walls of the doll room. On the fourth wall I’d like a work bench with shelving above it to store, tools, parts, clothes, and accessories. In the middle on the room I need a comfy chair that swivels for a 360 view. Currently I have OT dolls on bookcases and bjd in matching display cabinets that have glass in the doors. Then some more 1/8 displayed in an ikea dollhouse. I also have a desk and comfy chair. It is a nice set up but it’s not exactly what I want.
I’ve done this with my (rather extensive) collection. Because I’ve collected slowly over the past couple of decades, I’ve always maintained permanent “stage settings” throughout my home, occupied by groupings of dolls who can interact freely with one another. I used this as a fun way to decorate my home. A shelf fully tricked out as a curated display is way more fun than a poster on the wall, for instance. So that’s how I did it, by finding whatever boring, empty space I could and decorating it to the hilt to suit my dolls’ characters.
I'd like to display mine in room boxes decorated and funished like the rooms in a Victorian home, but I don't ahve the space for them and finding furniture and other accessories in the right scale for SD sized dolls that are children and very young teens, rather than adults is rare-to-impossible. Due to large numbers and lack of space they are somewhat crammed together wherever I can fit in shelving or cabinets for them - this is some of my dolls in the Dolly Drift Corner in my living room Teddy
I have a set of Billy bookcases from Ikea that I've been moving most of the collection into, in a downstairs room that doesn't get much sun, but where me and my friends play games one the weekends. My collection includes a bunch of dolls inherited from my grandmother, so they get their own place amid the BJDs and it's fun to see them all together.
I wish I had a more exciting answer for you, but unfortunately, I don't - I use a toddler-sized chair from Ikea (swiped from a person who has kids) and one of those stuffed storage ottomans as seats for them. Edited to add: although sometimes I stand them up, too. I like big dolls and I cannot lie Still looking for the perfect stand for the off-topic big girl. Folks have suggested mannequin stands, but mannequins are held up with poles through their feet. Iris (the 6-foot-tall doll) couldn't be held in place like that.
If money was no issue and space no object, an individual diorama for every one! I saw one person with something like this for 1/3rd scale / uncle dolls and it was structured a bit like a dollhouse, was absolutely beautiful. For myself, I'd want those to be in different places around my space, like each area has its own little piece of whimsy. In actuality though, I don't keep them all out at once and I rotate three in a glass bookshelf and 2-3 out on my desk, with one being a "permanent resident" because he's too big to go anywhere else at the moment (75cm)! I want to at least make a little of it come true and make one diorama inside of the bookshelf for one of my 1/4th's, though.
