Easy DIY Doll Fireplace

With the holidays coming up I was feeling like our dolls needed a place to hang their stockings up for when jolly old St. Nick makes his appearance. This fireplace was a quick and easy project for our American Girl dolls and could easily be made on a smaller scale for Barbies. The whole project cost me about $3 to complete.

Supplies Needed

To start, I found a picture frame at the thrift store for $1. I searched for something that was pretty substantial for its size with enough detailing that it could pass for the architectural details of a real fireplace. I also made sure it was thicker on the outer edges so it could support a mantle.

Our frame has a 6” by 6” opening and is just under 10” by 10”. I will say that I wish I had gotten a frame that was maybe an inch or two larger so it was a bit better scale. Our mantle doesn’t quite come up to the dolls’ elbows and I think it should be a bit taller.

Next, I found some long wood pieces that could be added for the mantle. I had found something at the thrift store, but decided it wasn’t quite long enough so I ended up buying some craft wood at the craft store that was the right length.

We also needed a handsaw, spackle, sandpaper, and paint to complete the project.

How to Make the Doll Fireplace

We used a hand saw to cut off one end of the picture frame. We were careful to make sure it was as even as possible so the fireplace wouldn’t be lopsided. You can fix a small bit of lopsidedness with extra hot glue.

I saved the piece that we cut off and flipped it so it is now the bottom support of the fireplace. Depending on your frame, this might not work for you. You will just need to find another piece of wood or use craft wood that is flat to help make your fireplace stand. Here’s how it looked when we put the flipped piece at the bottom and the craft wood on top for the mantle.

I glued all pieces together with hot glue. After the glue was dry I filled in the cracks with spackle, let it dry, then sanded a bit. Then I used acrylic paint and painted the entire fireplace a light gray. Spray paint or regular wall paint would also work just fine. I just used what I already had.

For the fire, I found an image online that was realistic and high enough quality so it would still look good when printed. You can find the image I used here. I cropped it with my Photos app on my laptop to fit the frame, printed it on to card stock, then simply used a glue stick to attach it on top of the insert that was in the frame when I bought it.

Here’s our mantle painted with the new fireplace insert added in. It looks so warm and inviting, right?

And here’s Nanea hanging out by our newly decorated mantle. We love how it turned out! Do you decorate your doll’s space for the holidays?