Dolls House 2025 Project: Culmination

 

The full scale Dolls House, which started as a 3D Printing project in the classroom for our junior students has now been fully completed, designed, laser cut and had all of the finishing touches added.

You can view the project as it started as a 3D Printing task with the slideshow on the guides/special projects tabs.  It is also mentioned numerous times on our laser cutter exemplars tab which you can click on with the link here.

The dimensions of the print we would describe as extremely significant in that the design and build measures 850mm across is 450mm deep and 750mm high.    It has the numerous rooms that were previously described in the process of making it.

The entire project has been laser cut with the exception of the hinges that support the opening and closing of the roof (as shown left) which has been created by using the Bambu H2D to create the hinges.

The final project has shifted from being a gift to the junior classrooms into a object that is being put into the school auction for our major fundraising event for the year which is taking place on October 31st for our School Market Day 2025.

Dolls House 2025: Major Update

 

Earlier this year we spent a number of weeks working on a significant project involving our technology, as we attempted to rebuild and then fully furnish a Dolls House for the junior school students at Auroa Primary School.

It was always the intention to repair the original item and replace the pieces while maintaining as much of the original as possible.   The more that we investigated this and started the process, particularly with the chipboard that made up the bulk of the item the more that we realised this was not really possible.  MDF when it becomes wet becomes 'fluffy' and cannot be returned to its original state.   This was the case in a number of places for the original dolls house.

As a result we have undertaken an entire rebuild of the structure using the laser cutter to create the sides.   The junior students from the classroom used the printers to create the furniture to fit inside the dolls house, as the dimensions for the replacement are still valid and would work with the new structure.

The material that the students designed could then be inserted directly into the new .   This project has been completed with precision and accuracy and the students primary role has been to put the pieces together once they have been cut.

The final step for this project, now that the structure has been built will be to seal it, to ensure that it lasts for as long as possible and then combine it with the 3D printed furniture so it can be used in the junior classroom.

The dimensions of the project are extremely large as it is a regular full scale dolls house.  The laser cut measures 1200mm across the front, has a depth of 400mm and is 600mm high split into two levels.   Stairs and dividing walls for each of the sections of the house are going to be added.
 

3D Printed Dolls Bunk Bed - Exemplar

Challenge: To create a piece of furniture for a Dolls House.

Background: This task has been detailed from a number of perspectives and the process has been repeatedly highlighted on this blog.   You can see an overview slideshow of the process if you click here.

This task was completed by a seven year old who has been using Tinkercad for two months.  The student was able to work independently to complete the task, and has completed several designs in the sequence.   After completing a basic bed shape the student wanted to extend themselves further - the initial design was functional but lacked detail that the student was able to add.    The idea for the bunk bed and the scale came from the companion figure.

We have been encouraging the students to think outside the box with the project and to look at how we might able to be use some of our other technology and some of our other resources at school.  For instance we offer sewing as an elective for our senior school and this is something which would potentially work well with hand sewing (for blankets for instance and pillows perhaps with some stuffing).

You can also see the direction we are intending to move towards to cover the floor and the walls of the dolls house in the photograph on the left.

Size: The design measures 90mm long, is 50mm high and 60mm wide.   It has the exaggerated steps and pillows, with the intention of it working with the plastic figure shown in the photograph.   There was a significant amount of 'rafting' with this design as the student printed it in one design, instead of splitting it into two seperate pieces.   This is potentially something that we could guide the student with in the future, the dimensions as they stand need to be this size for the figure to work.  We also want it to be robust it needs to work for junior students who are going to handle it repeatedly and interact with it.

Timeframe: Four and a half hours on the regular default settings.  As noted this could be improved by the removal of the middle section and then the joining of the two pieces together.   

What we would do differently/next steps for the student: There really is little more that could be expected from this design all things considered.   The location and the use, which is by five year old children, needs to make sure that its robust enough for a heavy use item potentially.

The student it goes without saying is extremely impressed with how the project has gone, and how the overall result has been produced.  This is currently the near end run of a roll of 'rainbow' print.   We will be looking at ways to create the bedding (as noted above) and how we might use technology to help with it.

3D Printed Dolls House - Furniture Exemplars

 

We have reached the point wth the examples that the student are producing following a period of reworking and refinement that they would now be described as exemplars.

Students have been continually bouncing ideas of each other to ensure that they refine, improve and rework their designs.

They have started to consider applying scale to them to ensure that they are able to work in conjunction with a figure or model to ensure that they are viable.

Early designs featured the basic shapes the new versions that are currently coming from students features designs that are had additional details that were not previously included with the designs.

Another example of this would be the comparison between the desk shown left and the bed in the top right.   The bed has been scaled perfectly to fit the figure, the desk in its current configuration is slightly too large as it comes in at nearly should height for the figure.

The other discussion that is being had with the students is what happens next? What else can we work on to complete?   The next direction where we want to start working on is how can we combine the furniture with the house and the rooms.

We have started to look at commercially available examples of decals or stickers again while this is in the early stages with some basic designs, which at the 

moment the scale is not quite right but we are wanting to inspire the students with the direction that we can go.

We can already determine that the floors and the walls could both be decorated this way, by focussing on decals for the floor and wallpaper for the walls.   It might also be possible to include additional details in the images that are not present as physical aspects of the house for instance other details that would be reflective of a kitchen background.  These early flooring examples (shown left) have been printed with a. standard colour printer and then laminated to put in place to ensure that the idea can be demonstrated.   As the Roland Versa sign maker pints .png files our junior students could complete the task on pic collage.

3D Printing Furniture for a Laser Cut Dolls House

 

We have detailed that this year we are looking at students undertaking several long term projects - the first of which is rebuilding the dolls house that was rescued prior to it being dumped in a rubbish bin.

The Y8 students who are working on this are using their design skills to use the laser cutter to rebuild as much of the base as possible.

As much as the intention was to repair the damage to the original house, the main wood that was used to put it together was untreated MDF which has in a couple of places been wet, causing considerable damage.

After finding examples online that showed some ideas that could be used in the design (such as the shutters on the windows or the faux brick work) the students were able to use inkscape to design the ends.

This is being produced by the senior students at our school, although our junior school students can see the project and have been informed of its intention, which is to give it to the junior school for them to use in the Y1 classroom, where our five year olds are.

We thought about how our own juniors, who are slightly older, seven and eight year olds.  We wanted these students to be apply their design ideas using Tinkercad to create something to compliment the dolls house.

The first designs that the students created were using Tinkercad's main interface.   These had minimal creation from the students, but the idea was to use these as inspiration for students to create their own versions.    In this example the student combined the table with the lamp and then used the size of the table relative to the size of the dolls house.   We have a rule with the students thats typically we ask the students to design their own version of items rather than use ones that are commercially available.

An example of an authentic design from a student is shown left, the students design is based of course on a bed, with the student using the design to create the basic features.

We have also considered how we might be able to use other technology available to our students - the idea is to use the Roland Versa Sign Maker to construct the stickers for the base, and then use potentially the students to hand sew the blankets to fit the base.