I decided that it’d be fun to make a custom board game. So I thought- what would I like to play? Then it came to me! A game where you decorate with dollhouse furniture. So I started collecting and made myself (and my family) such a fun game! I’ve had lots of requests for instructions to make it. Here’s my tutorial for a board game book My Darling Dollhouse.

board game book my darling dollhouse

SUPPLIES

Blank Board Game
Printable Sticker Paper
Dollhouse furniture- 4 chairs, 4 tables, 4 lamps, 4 pets, 4 rugs, 4 art
Dollhouse wallpaper- green, red, yellow
Large Book Box (I got mine from Home Goods, I don’t have a link for it)
Table Saw
1/4″ Plywood to make rooms
Corner Clamps
Wood Glue
Linen Fabric to cover the Book Box
Fabric Dye
Heat and Bond
Tissue Paper
Elmer’s Glue
Cricut Machine
Iron-on Vinyl
Easy Press
Dice
Wood Pegs

free downloads

For this project I have free downloads for you! They include the rules, the images for making the squares on the board game, the logo for the game, and the cover and spine images for the book box. Please note, these are for personal use only.

To download the free printable, just put your name and email in the form below. You’ll get an email right away with how to download. Plus you’ll be subscribed to my newsletter! If you’re already subscribed, go here to download.

how to play

I thought I’d do a brief overview of how to play My Darling Dollhouse. It’s kind of a combination of the games Monopoly and Pretty Pretty Princess.

The goal is to be the first person to fully furnish their house AND get the golden key. To furnish your house, you need a chair, table, rug, pet, lamp, and piece of art. You choose the pieces so you’re also decorating your house as you go! There are challenges like termites where you have to return your table. Role the dice and go around the board to see if you can be first to finish!

step 1- make the rooms for the game

To start, make the boxes for the dollhouse rooms. My husband made these out of 1/4″ plywood. Cut the plywood with a table saw to these measurements-

4″x2-1/2″ for the sides of the walls- cut 8 pieces
6-1/4″x2-1/2″ for the roof and floor- cut 8 pieces
6-1/4″x4-1/2″ for the back wall- cut 4 pieces

Use wood glue to adhere the walls together. Start with the floor and the wall piece. Use a corner clamp to keep them at exactly 90 degree angles.

Then glue all 4 walls together.

Once this has dried, glue the walls and floor/ceiling onto the back wall.

Allow to fully dry. Now we have the rooms to decorate for the game! These fit perfectly in the large book box from Home Goods. The cover of the book box is 13-1/2″ tall by 10-1/2″ wide. The book box is 3-1/2″ tall. The inside measurements are 12-5/8″x 9-3/8″- this is the storage section of the book box.

Finished, the room boxes measure 6-1/4″ wide by 4-5/8″ tall by 2-3/4″ deep

step 2- dye the linen

For all of my games, I like to store them in linen book boxes so the games look like books. I’m using a cardboard book box for the foundation of this project which means I need to wrap it in linen project. I’m going to explain briefly how I doing this step, but I have a detailed tutorial if it isn’t enough information.

To begin, take linen fabric and dye it the color of your choice. I’m going with a purple color. I put water in a pot and boil it. Make sure the pot is big enough to hold the water and the fabric. Get the fabric wet (this helps for even dyeing).

Next, add Rit Dye to the boiling water. I’m using the color purple. When it’s dyeing, put the fabric in the dye bath. I leave it in for 5 minutes. Then I put it in a pan and throw it in the washing machine by itself and give it a wash and then a dry.

step 3- make the linen covered book box

I take the dry linen and iron it flat. Note, it will get frayed on the edges during the dyeing process so use a piece of linen that’s bigger than you need (I used a 27″x17″ piece).

Then I cut a piece of heat and bond and a piece of tissue paper to be 26″x16″. I iron them all to the fabric (iron the heat and bond to the fabric. Then iron the tissue paper to the heat and bond). This creates thick fabric that won’t let glue seep through it. Last, I trim the linen to the same dimensions as the tissue paper and heat and bond- 26″x16″. This removes all the frayed areas.

Next, use Elmer’s glue to attach the linen to the book cloth. Work on the front cover first. Fold over the edges and use a pencil to mark where they hit the “pages” of the book. Cut to size. Trim the corners at a 45 degree angle.

Then use an artist paint brush and Elmer’s glue to adhere the edges in place. Having a bone folder to push everything in place works nicely. Begin with the top, then the bottom. Last, push the long edge into place.

Move along to the spine and then finish with the back cover. Your book is now covered in linen.

step 3- make the labels for the cover and spine

And now, it’s time to make the labels for the book box. I’m using lavender iron-on vinyl and I’m cutting the vinyl with my Cricut machine. Use the free download above to upload into Cricut Design Space for this step.

For the cover, size it to be 9″x12″. For the spine, size it to be 3″x12″.

Once the vinyl is cut, weed the excess vinyl to reveal the cute design with the houses and name of the game!

Use a heat press and iron the vinyl onto the linen book box.

Repeat on the spine. Note, I like to use the smaller heat press for the spine.

Now the outside of the book box is complete!

step 4- make the game board

For the next step, we’re going to start by printing the rules and components to add to the blank game board. Above is the free download for this step. Use cardstock to print the rules. Place the rules in the board game book box. Use sticker paper to print the logo and the spaces for the game board.

Note, the sticker paper I used came with a plastic cover to make it water proof. Make sure to use that to make the stickers super durable!

Cut out the logo and the spaces for the game board. I used scissors for the logo and a straight edge cutter for the spaces.

Then place the stickers on the game board. I put the logo in the top left corner- making sure it isn’t on a fold or cut. After that, I put the squares for the game around the board. These are spaced so they don’t go over any folds or cuts in the board so it can fold without damaging the stickers.

Make sure to space out the different challenges and prizes. I put the home square in the lower right corner. Then I put the golden keys in opposite corners. I could have been more careful with lining up the stickers perfectly, so try and do that.

step 5- rooms and furniture

To continue, wallpaper each of the rooms. This is an optional step, but I thought it’d be cute to add wallpaper to each little room to make it more fun to decorate. You could also paint the rooms. For this step, I used wallpaper samples from Spoonflower. Here’s the links to the red, green, and yellow wallpaper.

Collect the furniture. This part took me weeks to do. Lots is found thrifting or antique shopping. My friends found me pieces. I bought a few things new (like this lamp). It was fun to collect and make everything, but it did add up price wise and took me awhile to do.

As I was collecting, I assigned furnishings to each room so I could get coordinating wallpaper and rugs. This was wildly fun for me. But when you play the game everyone furnishes their room differently so it’s part of the game!

For the rugs I took screenshots of rugs I liked online and ordered them to be printed on a sample piece of velvet through Spoonflower. When they arrived, I just cut them with scissors. I’ve done rugs like this for dollhouses before and it works great!

Seeing all the furniture together was really exciting after the weeks of finding each tiny piece.

step 6- make the game pieces

Finally, all that needs to be done is to make the game pieces. You can buy pawns online, but I used some wood pegs I had and painted them different colors. My original plan was to paint them to look like little people, but I ran out of time. That would still be cute- especially if they’re the right size to fit in the houses! Though the colorful pawns work great too.

Make sure to add one dice to the game so it’s playable.

after

Now all that’s left is to put the game board out and play it the board game book My Darling Dollhouse!

The rooms all fit perfectly in the board game box and look so pretty wallpapered.

My son played with me and kept saying how fun it was- that melted my heart!

And honestly, it is fun! Decorating the house and racing to do it is objectively a good time!

price breakdown

I finished this game about a month ago so I’ll add up what I can remember. The book box was $13. $10 for the blank board game. I needed $3 heat and bond. I probably spent $30 on dollhouse furniture. Probably $20 on rugs and wallpaper samples. So I spent around $76 to make this.

A lot of people have asked me to get this produced and sell it, but I can’t imagine how expensive it’d be. So hopefully you can make your own with this tutorial and the free printable!

Anyway, I’ve never designed a board game myself before, so this was pretty fun! It took lots of time and steps, but I’m really proud of it. Please let me know if you’re going to make this board game book My Darling Dollhouse.

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