Chad Valley Wooden Dolls House

Last year my daughter joined a new nursery and fell in love with the wooden dolls house they had. Deciding this would be a perfect Christmas present, I started having a look around.


My first port of call was my old trusty, ELC. They do stock a beautiful doll's house, unfortunately it's £100 price tag was really pushing my budget, especially because the doll's and furniture weren't included and had to be bought in sets ranging ...
...the doll's house, a set of doll's and the bare minimum amount of furniture to be bordering on £200.


I then saw an advert on TV for a Christmas catalogue with a doll's house for just £39.99. I looked it up on the website, and was impressed with how it looked. What swung it for me in the end was that it also included a set of 4 doll's AND 5 sets of furniture, 30 pieces all together. I ordered it and it arrived a few days later. ... more

Last year my daughter joined a new nursery and fell in love with the wooden dolls house they had. Deciding this would be a perfect Christmas present, I started having a look around.

My first port of call was my old trusty, ELC. They do stock a beautiful doll's house, unfortunately it's £100 price tag was really pushing my budget, especially because the doll's and furniture weren't included and had to be bought in sets ranging from £15-£25. My quick calculations priced the total cost of the doll's house, a set of doll's and the bare minimum amount of furniture to be bordering on £200.

I then saw an advert on TV for a Christmas catalogue with a doll's house for just £39.99. I looked it up on the website, and was impressed with how it looked. What swung it for me in the end was that it also included a set of 4 doll's AND 5 sets of furniture, 30 pieces all together. I ordered it and it arrived a few days later.

The Toy

My daughters is slightly different to Ciao's picture. It's a 3 story double fronted doll's house for children aged 3+ with a removable pink roof and doors, and a carry handle at the top.

The house is made of light coloured MDF and the the front section opens on both sides to reveal a living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Under the removable roof there is a huge attic room. All rooms are undecorated.

The doll's house comes with 4 wooden doll's, a mum, dad, boy and girl all dressed in basic but pretty gingham clothing. It also comes with enough furniture to fill each room, including appliances for the kitchen and facilities for the bathroom. These are also made of wood.

I bought mine from the Studio catalogue for £39.99 which included free engraving of my daughters name on the roof. This year I have noticed it is also available, without the engraving, on Amazon for £38, or in the Argos catalogue for £32, Bargain!

Assembly

It's actually not TOO bad to assemble, I've come across worse. When this arrived, apart from a quick check to see all the pieces were there and in tact, I put it away in a cupboard as I didn't want little madam discovering Santas surprise if I'd assembled it.

A week before Christmas I decided I better give it a go, so I would have plenty of time to rope my dad in should I need too. All the screws required where provided, I just needed my own cross head screw drivers...which I dug out of hiding.

I got off to a good start, although it was quite fiddly and another pair of hands would have been useful just to hold bits in place while I screwed. The instructions where very clear to follow and it took me an hour to get the house practically assembled. I was feeling more than a bit pleased with myself, DIY is generally not my forte! Happy that the house would be ready in another half hour and feeling quite smug with myself, I set about finishing off and all that was left was to add the hinged front panels.

This is where I hit a snag. I'd thought I was quite organised with a selection of sizes in screwdrivers, however the screws that go on the hinges where TINY and none would fit. A-ha! I thought, that really useless set of screwdrivers I got in a cracker last year will be just the ticket. But after turning my house upside down, I couldn't find them. I had to hide the house, partially finished and buy some minuscule screwdrivers the next day. Once I had them, the hinges where fixed easily and within another half an hour the house was complete. The furniture comes ready assembled so I just popped it in, had a little play, then hid it away for the big day.

Our Opinion

I was actually very impressed with this from the moment I started assembling it. I was worried it would be poor quality, but while it's not on par with the ELC dolls house, it was better than expected.

The wood has proved to be quite durable, as this is my daughters favourite toy and is played with daily, yet hasn't suffered any damage yet. I would be cautious about giving this to a boisterous child, or even a 3 year old. My daughter received this at age 4 and had passed being rough with her toys, and had learned to respect them and engage in more gentle play. The only piece that has suffered any ill effect is a wooden rocking horse I stood on, the head broke off but after a dab of super glue it's as good as new.

I like the size of the doll's house too. At 23 inches high, and 21 inches wide it doesn't take up vast amounts of space, but is still big enough for my daughter to move furniture around and play with. The only room I find erring on too small is the bedroom on the first floor. It's a bit of a squash to put the bed in with the stairs in place, luckily the wooden stairs can be removed easily and it's probably an issue to me, who likes setting up everything perfect when tidying it away, than it is to my daughter.

It's perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing as the pretty decorated doll's houses on the market, however I find it fits in my living room better than a more garish alternative, in fact I have no problem with it being a permanent fixture and I am quite fussy). Being blank inside means that you could decorate this to your own taste if you wanted, you could even paint the outside if you liked.

Another positive I have found with this house is that it fits most other standard doll's furniture. My daughter has recently started collecting sylvanian families, and has put her animals and some furniture in here. It's massively cheaper than the Sylvanian family house, and my daughter is happy to use it with them.

After 8 months I remain pleased with my purchase and my daughter loves it. I would recommend this doll's house as a good, cheaper alternative with many hours of enjoyment packed inside. 

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