Miniatures & Dollhouses Miniatures Tutorials

Make Your Own Dollhouse Lights

Young Woman Looking at Dollhouse
SIE Productions / Getty Images

Working lights and lamps for a dollhouse are not difficult to make. Beads and other found objects make great lamp bases, and you can easily buy tiny electric light bulbs pre-wired with cords from dollhouse suppliers. There are various options for prewired miniature bulbs on sockets, battery-operated lights, and lights that are wired into circuits on a transformer.

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    Flickering Miniature Fire with LEDs

    Make a miniature fire with three colored LEDs. This can flash and flicker realistically, without putting out a lot of heat, making it ideal for tight locations in a doll's house. You can set it in a fireplace, a barbecue pit, or a kitchen range without worrying about the low level of heat produced by the LED bulbs. Depending on the type of LEDs you use, the lights can be powered by AC (alternating current; standard household power) ​or DC (direct current) from an AC-DC transformer or a battery pack.

    Note: While it is possible to create a similar effect with standard blinking bulbs (not LEDs) or a mixture of red and clear bulbs commonly sold for dollhouse fires, fires powered by regular bulbs give off too much heat to allow them to be set behind a fireplace grate under a mantel, or inside a doll's house cooking range.

  • 02 of 05

    Rustic Miniature Bear Table Lamp

    Miniature table lamp made from a bear shaped bead.

    Lesley Shepherd

    Made from a bead, this bear table lamp is great for a miniature cottage or a den. Alternatively, you can make a more sophisticated lamp shade or use a glass or patterned bead instead of a tiny solid bear. If you're using a bead, make sure it has a hole that is large enough for the bulb wires to pass through.

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    Miniature Waterfall Chandelier with Crystal Beads

    A modern waterfall chandelier with a working light, in dolls house scale.

    Lesley Shepherd

    Bugle beads and jewelry findings are the building blocks for this simple miniature waterfall chandelier. Beads can also be used to add crystals to wall sconces or other types of lamps. It is important to use beads that sparkle and reflect light, to give the miniature fixture a realistic effect. For the same reason, cut crystal beads are often a better choice than less expensive pressed-glass beads.​​​

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    Miniature Lighthouse Lamp

    A working miniature light house made with a flashing LED

     Lesley Shepherd

    If you want a tiny lighthouse for a seaside display, or you want to bring the look of a cottage into a miniature project, this tiny lighthouse made from a stable or blinking LED, scraps of wood, and a bead is an easy project.

    You can also make the lighthouses without a working bulb, or make several without a working bulb along with one working unit to set in a dolls house shop display.

    Continue to 5 of 5 below
  • 05 of 05

    Trouble Light for a Miniature Garage

    A die cast car engine lit up by a working model trouble light in 1:18 scale.

    Lesley Shepherd

    This working trouble light for a die cast car or miniature garage is built around an LED bulb so it doesn't give off heat that could damage parts of a model car. The light is easy to assemble from common materials and is designed to be connected to a 9-volt battery so it can be operated without a full transformer.