How to Make Furniture for Dolls Using Everyday Things

Cut a tea bag box in half, longwise, to make a bed for a 4-inch doll. This gives you 2 open boxes; turn one open box upside down and glue the flat surfaces of the boxes together. Paint the bed. Cut a sponge to fit the top open box for the bed mattress. Cut bedding out of fleece material from a worn blanket. Cut, roll and glue together a 1-inch-wide by 2-inch-long fleece strip for a pillow.

Stack unused hardback books to create a bed for a larger doll. Glue the books together and paint. Cut a sponge to fit or lay several kitchen sponges side by side and glue in place, for the mattress. Cut bedding from fleece to fit.

Keep your empty spools of thread to use as the base of tables for smaller dolls and use plastic lids from yogurt, margarine and coffee for a variety tabletop sizes. Use pillar candles as solid bases for tables suitable for taller dolls and paper plates for larger tabletops. Tap 3-inch pencil stubs through the lid or plate into the hole of the spool or into the candle to help secure the table tops.

Clean out the little plastic measuring cups that often come with powdered products to use as small lamp shades. Decorate the outside with markers. Use empty glue sticks as bases for these lamps. Glue the lampshade to the glue stick with glue that works on plastic.

Cut out a 4-inch pie piece from an 8-inch paper plate to make a larger lampshade. Bring the edges together into a cone shape and staple. Decorate with markers, crayons, or paint. Stack two or three 16-ounce jars of peanut butter or spice containers; glue them together and spray-paint them gold for the base of the lamp shade. Add the lampshade.

Cover a tea bag box with brown construction paper to turn it into a dresser for a small doll. Mark lines for drawers and glue on buttons for drawer pulls. Cut a piece of cardboard from a cardboard box a little larger than the top of the box. Paint it brown and glue it to the top. Use larger boxes to create dressers for larger dolls.

Select boxes for bookshelves to fit the size of the doll and furniture you're working with. Using several identical boxes, cut out one side of each, stack them and glue them together. Spray-paint the shelves or cover them with construction paper. Make books out of cardboard and pages cut from newspapers or magazines; add the books to the shelves.