What kind of dream home would your dolls live in?

It's a good thing you said "dream home", because I definitely don't know how I would ever be able to do that in reality. XD I have SDs and I would need some massive shelves.


But if I ever had space, time and actual skills, I would do a shelf for the three siblings and they would each take a few rows of that shelf:

Circe (my Maskcat doll Yaël) would have a lovely witch's cottage. Simple but cluttered with a bit uneven flooring, modest and simple furniture, well-used, a bit cozy but mostly practical, done with mostly wood with copper and a lot of shelves with flasks, herbs, cauldrons, etc. Think a herbalist workshop, but with weird stuff mixed in, like gems, animal skulls, etc. It also have a small stove and a cot. And books. Tons of books, everywhere, some used to press plants and flowers. She probably has a washbasin and a few clothes hanging near a window too. (I want it to reflect her initial solitary nature, dedication to her craft and practicality. She's also the most down-to-earth of the siblings and the most human-like, as she loves it the most She's also the only one to wish for simplicity and who does not see the allure of power, so probably the wisest too). I can see lots of natural tones: greens and browns, perhaps a bit of beige, warm tones.

Aetes (my IOS Levi) would live in the basement of that cottage and have a laboratory of his own, to do his weird experiments on corpses. It hits up all the clichés of "gloomy laboratory": it's dark, it has funky candles, there are weird symbols on the floor, etc. Unlike Circe's space, which has mostly wooden furniture, Aetes has mostly furniture carved out of stone. I can see a dismembered corpse on a bloody table and him taking notes on the consistency of blood or something. There are some books and scrolls, but most of it are his own notes. I don't see him sleeping on a bed, or even a cot. I can somehow imagine him just passing out on the floor when he wants too, though his sisters have thrown him a pillow and some sheets he mostly ignores and are rumpled in a corner. He comes up regularly, but his sisters do everything they can to avoid coming down because they love him dearly (the eldest brother Perses is already dead, Aetes is their baby brother, so they tend to dote on him), but he creeps them out. XD His room are in cold shades, blues and purple, bit of silver. It's the kind of room you can't wait to get out of.

Pasiphaë (my incoming Maskcat Astrid) would ideally live in a palace in Crete surrounded by servants who tends to her every need/want, but it's a bit hard to go back there when you are 1) a divorcee mourning her son 2) after all that mess with the Minotaur 3) even in my dream, I can't seen myself doing a whole PALACE, so she would live upstairs of that cottage and have a room with impressive windows so she can see the sky and stars at all time, something a bit like a planetarium (she was also revered as an oracular goddess, so I thought this fitting).

She also has luxury tastes (ex-queen of Crete) so way better and more expensive furniture than her siblings (though not as expensive as when she lived in Crete: she has learned from that debacle, that if you have to flee you lose everything you can't bring with you.). I imagine her having a beautiful space where she can serve meals, tea and expensive pastries in beautiful dishes, and the siblings often meeting upstairs for tea time and meals, as it's not as creepy as Aetes's space (the sisters refuse to drink tea next to a corpse's head, can't blame them) and not as constantly cluttered as Circe's space (she has only one chair, and most of the time it's a secondary bookshelf). Due to the size and number of furniture pieces (and the fact that the sibling use her space as a living room), I can see her taking two shelves rows or more. I see the space reflecting her taste for opulence, her vanity but also her need for social interactions and her family-centered values. (In my story, none of the siblings (and none of the divine beings) really need to drink, eat, sleep or even breathe but they can enjoy it (because it make them feel like humans, it can make them feel a bit better, etc.), and in the case of Pasiphaë, it is the social dimension of the meal she needs and enjoys most.)

Unlike her siblings, she doesn't sleep, as she doesn't enjoy it and would rather spend her nights doing divination works or reading, so she has no use for a bed. For some reason, I see her in a very cold-looking room, white walls, glass windows, white tiles, but with cozier-looking furniture (mostly dark and red, probably mahogany, furs and velvet) that has seen some use to symbolize the mesh of her different lifestyles: cold, elegant, impressive-looking, but also warm and inviting, though too over-the-top to be considered functional (for example embroidered pillows ). I think she has expensive-looking wooden furniture that is very comfy for her "social pieces" and metal/gold and glass things for "personal furniture pieces". I think she has a picture of her son in a locket, hidden under her clothes. She's not the type to display her wounds.



If I have even more space (and if I can ever shell the Penelope and Odysseus characters), I would do a second shelf for them, with three rows, with the very famous bed carved out of a tree (for me a red oak) on the highest row and plan the other rooms around the trunk that would go from the bottom row of the shelf until the top row (where the bed is) and separate the shelf in two halves. Besides the top row, which is their bedroom, each spouse has a half that they is "their space" but they also have stuff in the other's space. I see it as a nice, greek house, not ostensibly luxurious, but with a few elements of decorations, most notably tapestries and objects that would be considered foreign in Ancient Greece or curios.

On the middle row, there is a room with a big weaving loom next to a window with a beautiful view and there is another study room with books, scrolls, strategy games and more curios. There are some forgotten board game in the weaving room and a few gadgets in a corner. There are a vase with flowers in the desk of the study, and a beautiful tapestry hangs on the wall of that study.

I could do a row with a kitchen and a dining room.

Finally, on the very bottom row that leads to the outside, I can see a training yard with a few traditional greek weapons and a beautiful garden filled with flowers.

In my head, they are both geeks in their own interests, so they collect whatever they want without rhymes or reasons and so have an eclectic array of colors, though the wood element of red oak tree is very present and both of them have stuff in the other's room. (As the saying goes: Couples who geek together, stay together! XD And they are a very strong couple). They have the warmest color scheme: beige, warm brown, dark brown red (with the red oak). Their home is also fairly messy, because I think they are so taken by their own hobbies (and each other) to be meticulous about stuff like perfect order. They clean up when they have visits by mostly shoving everything in a room out of sight, and that's it, but since none of them care, they don't fight about it.



EDIT: I will ignore the necessary but not very glamorous aspects of housing: loos, plumbing, water rooms, functional kitchens and stuff. XD

EDIT 2: I realize that my characters are all bookworms. If I ever did this, I would need to make TONS of small books.

 

I wish I had the time, skill, and more importantly the room, to make dollhouses for my bjds. Your ideal house sounds lovely! I hope you're able to make it, or something like it.

As for me, I think I'd have to have more than one. My dolls' aesthetics are just too different! I'd love to have a little forest cottage with a garden and a mossy roof. Sort of primitive, with a wood-burning stove, herbs hanging to dry, exposed woodwork, maybe mushroom themed furniture... I'd also love a sort of ramshackle, cobbled-together room where I could just go nuts with weathering/distressing all the materials and making it look as worn and ragged as possible. A mini post-apocalypse bunker, if you will.

 

I don't have the time, patience, or space for diorama let alone doll houses, but if all my BJD were actual 1:6 scale, I would love for all of them to live in a Dracula's castle doll-house exterior, with modern interior leaning towards industrial and high-tech décor. I know my fav BJD character would love a house like that if I were to make one for him, but he's not really true-to-scale-anything, and would need something massive like close to 1:3 or up-an odd scale, just to not look ridiculous within the environment. Where in the world would I find a human house big enough for something like that..? I know there are human homes big enough or bigger than that out there, I just wouldn't' be able to justify living like that, nor afford it (although tbh, I would love to live in Dracula's castle with modern industrial design as well). DX

 

I've been meaning to work o n Puki Castle for my PukiPuki and RealPuki for... erm.. Many years, over ten years at least - but never got beyond the dry buuild stage to mark the modifications i want to make ot the basic kit:


I have masses of furniture to go into it when it's done - meanwhile it's temprarily set up in a cupboard:


My larger dolls (SD sized) are mostly children in a huge extended Victorian/Edwardian family and I'd like to get a room box (if I can find space for it) set up of their nursery with an battered wing-back cair by th fireplace and a table for painting and drawing and games, and shelves and cupborads of their toys. But given space restricitons it's more of a pipe-dream than a reality, even though I've got the fireplace and some of the furnishings squirrelled away. I occasionally set up temporary rooms for them for pictures - like Nettle's bedroom here:


Teddy

 

I've been planning a room box for my Pukifee Tori and her OT little sister for a while now, which would be a "simple" little girls bedroom, with beds dresser/wardrobe, at least one toy box and shelf, lots of toys/dolls/plushies and a large window with a window seat, oh and maybe a rocking chair and a small table with chairs where they could have make-believe tea parties with some of their toys.
Also had plans in the works for my pipos baby cheshire Valentine's home so far I've managed to get a few small birdcages for him to choose between for his home, a couple of clocks and a sign to hang on his door. I need to work on his floor, gather a few more clocks, figure somewhere for a cat bed to go which I have the fabric to make, and a tea set to replace the one he's borrowing from my OT Alice doll, and a tea table/cart to set it up on.
I have basic ideas for a space for my DZ Scorpio Aggi (points to avatar) but nothing beyond getting tiny shells and precious stones and such for her collection.
I don't think I've the space to even consider more than that right now but I would ideally like some shelves or something that I could somewhat decorate as places for my dolls.
Luckily I mostly collect tinies so my collection doesn't take up as much space as it could.

 

Oh this is such an interesting challenge to think about. I think for my dolls I would need to really think hard which setting I'd want them to have. They represent the characters of my epic fantasy I am writing. I think the easiest would probably be to make some significant room of the citadel where many of the characters come together or to make rooms from their appartements in the wiseling city of Innesrood. Tough decision.

Either way I would do a big room where most of the dolls could come together and be posed as if they were in a great hall enjoying each other's company. Let's take the citadel; then it would have an arched ceiling beautifully painted in deep shades of blue-green and gold. A large golden chandelier lighting up the space. The walls would be painted in scenes of stories they kept in their extensive library. Chaise longes would sit againt the walls and set up in a square so people could sit together while enjoying the food presented in the centre of the square on a table. Then in the centre of the hall, there would be space for dancing. A small dias at the centre or maybe to one of the sides of the dancefloor for a small number of musicians. If I was really going to pretend that I can use as much space as I want then there would be a small room attached that would hold a luxurious chapel since the chroniclers are very religious. (I don't think I could ever really achieve this look IRL though haha but one can dream).

So to continue the dream, aside from the hall I would also make one complete apartment. This would include a four poster double bed, a wash station (bowl, stand, jug to hold fresh water), a chest to hold clothes and a desk that would be littered in books, scrolls, ink and pen. Oh and maybe a good rug. I'd also include some candles that would somehow give a glow to the room. Then also make a window that appeared to look out on the valley bellow (the citadel is up in the mountains).

Well that would be it haha, if I could ever achieve this IRL that would truly be a miracle. It would make for beautiful pictures, for sure!

 

Sounds delightful, and very impressive if you couldactually pull it off.

Teddy

 

Oooh, these are all such fun ideas!

I've got one dollhouse going for OT dolls to scratch my cabin itch. The BJDs have more of a sci-fi setup; having a little spaceship for Ara and Nova would be so fun! A pain in the butt to do furniture for, but especially if it could be done so button panels and such light up? Throw in some little spots here and there for them to hang out, fun knickknacks they got on their adventures... More whimsical than the spaceships I usually plan when writing, that's for sure.

 

I have plans for some roomboxes... but anything beyond a temporary set-up that I can switch out the furniture in for versatility will have to wait until I've moved into a place with more space. As for the dream...

Vince: The easy one-- his character is that of a living doll, his dream home is just a little space on a bookshelf in my bedroom, with a place to sit and some of his little toys or his tea set displayed with him-- to have his clothes and props rotated now and then, sure, but to just exist within the house suits him. And with a little sofa/day bed, I can squeeze Pete and Billy in with him if they don't get a room of their own, they can sit together on the same couch.

Pete and Billy: I mean they WANT the Our Generation camping trailer from Target, if not the American Girl 80s bedroom stuff-- a bunk bed would be ideal but not necessary for these guys, and just... colorful fun stuff. Little 1/4 scale video game gear and such, little posters on the wall... something that looks like a room shared by a casually femme pretty boy geek and a LTF who never takes off his dinosaur costume.

Marigold: I want to make a little kitchen for her. Character-wise and in terms of sketches I've done, she lives in a hobbit-hole type place, very cottagecore, but for doing a roombox for her it's definitely the kitchen! (In my wildest dreams I also want a single-wall window seat and bookshelves scaled to her, instead of trying to change set decorations out on the 1/4 scale roomboxes and having her not really fit in any other rooms)

Party Martian: Honestly I'd LOVE to put him in a very 80s room, like a living room/lounge. Have him really pop against a mostly pastel backdrop? But I don't have solid plans to give him a room box. I have at least some furniture that's in scale for him, though, so he might at least get a section of bookshelf to call his own

Jack: Jack is where I start having big, definite plans-- he and the fashion-scale crew I'm assembling get to be cast in different roles in different settings/stories, but for Jack, the main one is D&D-inspired, and his quest has long been to find his missing husband. They fell in love in said husband's family's library, and I've got a velvet settee that was gifted to me by someone who had no idea it was exactly the piece of furniture I'd described him spending so much time on, so I've got to do a set that's a corner of that library, and that's going to be his 'home' (though I'd also LOVE to do a dungeon or forest set for my adventurers)

Deanna: When she's not playing the part of a fellow quester in Jack's story-- or doing outdoor photos, which... she's got a horse for that very purpose-- Deanna's main 'home' is going to be a bedroom. Thanks to my sister, I finally have the AG Samantha bed that I'd wanted ever since we were kids. Her room is going to be for her 'regency heroine' universe, but some furniture-switching and set-dressing changes can allow for Deanna to have a bedroom or a parlor, Jack to have a library or bedroom, etc. I want to be able to make the base rooms for them very flexible, and use as much as I can in multiple universes just by doing things like changing the bedclothes and props.

 

If I had that much space...
I would definitely take a whole room and place different 1/3-sized boxes filled with furniture in there so it would seem like you're going through a little IKEA or smth like that. All my dolls' characters live in a real world, in modern times so nothing very special would be needed.

There will definitely be a big living room, a bedroom, and a kitchen, all in high-tech style. It would be great to have a little office and a university study room as some of my boys are students and University is an important place for them.

To be honest I have plans to free some space in my room and create at least a cool living room where my boys will enjoy their time watching movies, playing video games, and chit-chatting. :3

 

I used to have shelving with doll rooms and I miss them greatly. They were all bedrooms for various dolls.

my plan to rebuild is to build a coffee shop. I have more dolls than I’d have space to give them individual spaces, but their common hang out is the coffee shop owned by my first doll. It would have wood floors, brick walls covered in art, a counter with desserts and sandwiches and the menu on a chalkboard behind the counter. There would be cafe tables and couches and a tiny stage in the corner for open mic night.

 

I would love dioramas that I could play with, each of my dolls could have their own room that way. I would have to have any dollhouse set up as individual dioramas simply because of the nature of the building that they live in. It's more akin to a boarding school/college dorm or maybe a hotel-style setup. I could even have all the main rooms, like the entry hall, the kitchen, common rooms, and maybe an area for the outside gardens.

 

This is something I've been thinking about a lot, recently. The "main" dolls I have are from the same story, though at separate scales, so my plan is to build roomboxes from different points in the plot to set them up in for display. This is also one of the reasons I've decided to stick to 1/4 or smaller only, for space, haha.

Both of them will be set in the same castle, different rooms; since we have one of the larger Ikea KALLAX cube units, I plan on modifying one of the shelves to have an extra-wide shelf to be able to set up a bedroom + balcony roombox for the ones that fit well enough for that to be their scale, even if it's isn't exact. Obviously, it needs a bed, and I've been looking at kits for adding in working doors to insert as a divider, along with a side table and potentially (depending on how the space works out) a full desk in the corner. It won't be the entire room, so it's not going to be overly detailed in terms of props.

For the MSDs we're looking at a parlor room instead, centered around a piano with a fireplace and some wall shelving for interest. I don't have it in me to make the secret passage that's supposed to be behind said shelving, but it'll be there in our hearts. Again, it's not going to be the full room, since I want to save space and it doesn't make sense for them to be overly cluttered, but I'd really like to add a chandelier that's functional in some capacity for lighting.

Everyone else... is going to have to make do with the garden. Thankfully, nobody has a concept or outfit that would be incongruent with an outdoor setting. Since some of them don't even have characters and were just bought for being pretty, like my fullset Dearmine bean, I wouldn't even be able to say what their ideal roombox would look like-- and flowers are always a nice background for dolls besides.

 

My dream doll house would absolutely be Victor Nikiforov's apartment from Yuri on Ice (original anime version). I'd love to take pictures of my Yuri and Victor dolls snuggling on the couch with Makkachin.

 

I think it would have to be an entire world for me. I like the idea of my dolls always being on the move and not settled in one place.

 

I would make a boarding school for my minis and tinies. I'd use a cabinet or armoire with deep shelves to protect them from dust and curious kitties. At bare minimum, there would be a library, science lab and music room. If I had more space to spare, I'd add a computer lab and lounge/recreation room.*

If I had all the space, I'd divide the library to make a semblance of cataloguing rather than hodge podge organization. Books sorted by age, subject, and so on, with a separate, more kid friendly area for my tinies. The science lab would be divided into the area with microscopes and such and chemistry equipment elsewhere.

In addition, there will be dormitories where they can hang out or rest after a long day of academics. There will be a kitchen/dining area as I am a foodie* and it's fun posing my dolls with delicious things. A sewing room for my more crafty dolls, and laundry equipment to clean their clothes.

Most importantly, the space will be accessible to all. Several of my dolls are disabled, so I'd make sure there's space for those with mobility equipment to maneuver, large print books and Braille writing equipment for my blind girl, and medical stuff to keep everyone healthy.

*I already collect food, musical instruments and study materials for my dolls. I'd love to have somewhere to put them all.

 

I've got the dream house for my Real Puki witch in progress. It's a half-timbered Tudor cottage with a stone chimney and fireplaces. I've put wood floors in the living room and bedroom, and have Victorian wallpaper for the walls. I have an ice-box and a cast iron stove for the kitchen. I have a lot of Halloween and witchy props to go in the house when its finished, though it's still a work in progress.

The mature tiny gang is a group of friends, that in my head and in the stories I've written all live in a rambling farmhouse they are in the process of renovating. I'd like to make the two shelves they live on look more like rooms inside of that house than a jumble of furniture and props.

My MSDs are in a world being rebuilt post-apocalypse, so it's very much a reusing found materials and converting abandoned buildings into dwellings aesthetic. I'd like to have a space to represent part of the home they've built together.