Happy New Year - Let's talk Doll Houses

When I was a little girl I always got very excited about dollhouses. Recently I have been thinking about how much I would love to get a doll house for my little girl. I do not want to get her a typical dollhouse though, so I started looking around to see if anyone was making something that I would like and could appeal to my architectural sensibilities. I was very pleased to find some very creative and fun designs. I wanted to share with you my favorites.

This one is the Emerson doll house by Brinca Dada. It is like someone took one of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses and used a shrink ray on it. I think this one is my favorite not only because of the design of the house, but because you can tell that it is well put together and the creators also took the time to create a beautiful set of furnishings to go with it. Check out their website to get a peek at their entire line of dollhouses and furnishings. It will leave you wishing you could shrink yourself down so you can live in one of them.

 This second one is called Liliane Doll Villa by Liliane BV a Dutch company that makes a variety of children's toys. Liliane M.E.M. Limpens is the designer and director. In her website it describes how in women's shelters in Holland, children have been able to share their experiences and the emotions created by the situation of being in an abusive household through interactive play using the dollhouse. Liliane's desire is that when children play with the dollhouse it can instill feelings of what is possible, of security and of confidence. I got a bit teary eyed when I was reading through some of the stuff in the website and it made me realize that dollhouses are not just toys and can be great ways to interact with your child and get to know them on another level. 

This is the Green Dollhouse which is sold through ABC Home. The name of the house is well suited to it as it is intended to instill children with knowledge about sources of green power like the wind turbine at the top and solar panels on the roof. It also has shading structures and recycling bins. All in all a fun way to teach kids about saving resources. Check out the ABC Home Website for more information on it.