A cute little project, The Dura Craft Ashley

Monday, December 7, 2020

A cute little project, The Dura Craft Ashley

I just finished building a Dura Craft Ashley dollhouse for a sweet little 6 year old girl for Christmas. This is the first house I've ever built that was meant for a child to actually play with, so I did a few things different. I reinforced the floors and walls as I went along, I sealed the front door shut and I did not use the spiral staircase that comes with the kit. I think it would have been too fragile and may have broken easily. Instead of the spiral staircase I made my own out of mini Jenga blocks. I intentionally angled the staircase the way I did, so that she would have more living room space to play with.

I usually furnish and detail my houses as well, but she'll be receiving this empty so all I did was add some cute little curtains, and added flower boxes to the front dormer windows. I really had to stop myself, I wanted to keep adding more and more details, out of habit. She'll have plastic "play" furniture for the dollhouse, as she's still a little too young. The house has already been picked up and no longer in my workshop, so I can only hope now that she has a magical Christmas and gets many years of enjoyment out of the little Ashley.

I will make a video of the documented build step by step, including making the Jenga staircase. It's not a very large house, and it's not a complicated one either. I would consider it a quick build, except you have to cut all your own trim with this kit so that's pretty time consuming...and there's a lot of trim required to make it look decent. They do provide the trim for you, which is great. I used that, plus some extra trim that I picked up at Lowes.

Also, as I do with all my houses, there is a large decorative embellishment on the front of the house and also on the side of the house. I put her name on the front of the house as well, just to make her feel extra special.

Here's a few photos: