This dolls house house display box is designed as a "windowbox", or a 'vitrine', a display with a very narrow space behind the front facade. This basic design can be used for everything from shop scenes to a simple stable or room vignette, depending on how you finish and decorate both the windowbox interior and the front wall.
The windowbox design shown here has enough room inside to hold a counter display, or costumed dolls at work or relaxation. It could also be used as a tool shed or stable. The narrow box is tall enough to be fitted with lights, and will have a removeable or hinged top, and a removeable front, allowing for easy access to change displays. If you wish, you can easily add a second floor above the main display. The area in front of the windowbox can be finished as a garden space, a paved area in front of a shop, a sideyard for the main display or a work area or stableyard.
Windowboxes are good displays for a shelf, and if made of lightweight materials can also be hung on a wall, depending on their scale. Windowboxes are also great candidates for a 'street of shops' for a club, where space or time is limited. Windowboxes usually concentrate on the main areas of a shop, with simple view lines, rather than attempting to create an entire shop interior. They lend themselves to period scenes, where shops kept much of their contents stored rather than on display, or scenes where a single example of a miniature, rather than an entire rack of similar ones can create the focus for the storyline of the miniature scene.
