Peek Inside A Doll’s House Built For Grown-Ups

Dolls’ houses began as ‘cabinet houses’, miniature versions of noble estates, showcasing exquisite craftsmanship for adult appreciation. Lucy Clayton and her mother Rebecca, the duo behind The Kensington Dollshouse Company, are reviving this sophisticated hobby by crafting bespoke, heirloom houses that blur the line between realism and imagination. 

Meet The Mother & Daughter Team Creating Bespoke Dolls’ Houses – For Grown-Ups

If you thought dolls’ houses were for children, think again. They may have moved to the nursery in the Victorian era, but before this they were known as cabinet houses, representing miniature versions of a noble person’s own properties. Instead of describing your Scottish castle or Yorkshire manor, you’d steer guests to view the house on display in miniature, decorated in exquisite style and often made by the same craftspeople who worked on the life-size version.

Lucy Clayton of The Kensington Dollshouse Company has seen a recent rise in popularity for her wares, perhaps in some way due to a resurgence of a love of crafting, and also because it’s infinitely more achievable than a life-size project. ‘There’s a tenderness to it,’ explains Clayton. ‘The idea of making curtains for my own house fills me with dread, but I can run up a pair for a doll’s house in an hour or so.’ 

She has recently returned from installing a Lilliputian house for a client in Dubai. Working from their Kensington studio, Clayton and her mother Rebecca craft heirloom houses that blur the line between realism and imagination. ‘Often we’re building a world with a hyper-real feeling, a kind of kingdom of its own that stirs an emotional reaction.’ 

Mother and daughter duo Lucy and Rebecca Clayton

Clayton was gripped by the miniature bug after a visit to a doll’s house festival in 2021. There with her son on the premise of buying a present for his baby sister, they returned with a 12-room MDF mansion, which sat unattended for weeks before Clayton, having immersed herself in books on the subject, finally took up a paintbrush to begin priming the walls. 

Her attention to detail is exhaustive: a real marble chequerboard floor (‘which was a nightmare to install’), ceilings papered with embossed card to give the illusion of plasterwork, and a terracotta kitchen floor. The usual scale is 1:12, which allows a level of detail that can be properly seen. ‘In a doll’s house, you can do things that would be prohibitively expensive in reality. I can go mad with Robert Adam fireplaces and Fornasetti furniture. Even a lavish little kitchen is only going to cost £50.’

Vinterior Collaboration

The Kensington Dollshouse’s work has been exhibited everywhere, from Venice’s Homo Faber to Harrods, and the mother-daughter duo regularly works with independent miniature makers around the world. One of their projects – a collaboration with online vintage marketplace Vinterior – was displayed at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton before being auctioned for the museum’s Campaign for Change, supporting social justice charities. ‘My love of vintage is lifelong,’ Clayton says, ‘and finding this once forgotten home and giving it a mid-century makeover was very special. We combined antique papers, handmade pieces and a few surprises.’ 

This doll’s house, designed in collaboration with Vinterior, drew on mid-century aesthetic influences

The bathroom became a jungle room, lush with tiny palms and tropical flair. The drawing room walls glint beneath harlequin wrapping paper, while a sofa is upholstered in a 1940s silk scarf found at a jumble sale. In the hallway, Gryphon tiles and framed alpine prints – cut from an old Sotheby’s catalogue found in an Oxfam – lend the perfect touch of eccentricity.

For the bedroom, Clayton dressed the walls in a Claus Porto soap wrapper; two vintage Bradbury & Bradbury wallpapers appear in the bedroom and kitchen, with the latter featuring 1940s flowerpot motifs that feel right at home behind a bright orange Aga. Kitchen walls are lined with graph paper, and all paints are from Edward Bulmer. The result is charming and eclectic – a house that feels lived in and loved. 

Cece’s World

Another recent commission was a doll’s house called Cece’s World, made in collaboration with the jewellery brand favoured by Rihanna. Clayton’s miniature vignettes – the Underworld, Earthly Delights and Realm of Dreams – reflect three themes of Cece Jewellery’s Triptych collection. ‘Each of these rooms is so evocative and atmospheric, telling a distinctive story that mirrors the narrative of Cece Jewellery. There is always something precious about a doll’s house, but this one is particularly magical.’

An eye peeks through into glitzy Cece’s World, designed in collaboration with the British jewellery brand

The Toy Shop At The Top Of The World

Lucy’s latest project is a miniature Christmas shop in collaboration with Polar Post, letters from Father Christmas founder, Charlotte Wood. ‘I told myself I wasn’t going to rescue any more dilapidated dolls houses but my heart melted when I saw this for sale,’ says Lucy. With the festive period approaching, she settled on a theme – a magical miniature shop from the North Pole; Charlotte came up with the name – Toy Shop At The Top Of The World.

‘The building was initially bright green with white interiors, what  I would call “an 80s paint job” when I first bought it’, laughs Lucy, ‘the only colour I liked was the red front door’. She chose Little Greene Theatre Red and Cambridge Blue by colour specialist Patrick Beatty for the re-paint. The floor is etched acrylic inspired by a 1940s lino design Lucy had used in a previous dolls house while brass accents contrast against the deep blue walls. A new fireplace, representing earth, sits below a celestial mirror etched with stars. The shop is filled with sweets, musical instruments and a silver rocket – all the makings of a magical Christmas. Charlotte explains, ‘Everything we create at Polar Post is made with one thought in mind, to bring the North Pole to life so little hands can feel the magic of that faraway land. Lucy is a magician when it comes to conjuring up delicious scenes in miniature form. It has been a joy being part of the magic she weaves. And the end result, in the words of my seven-year-old, when he saw the shop in its full glory, was: ‘I want to live there’. This shop marks the occasion of the publication of their book; an invitation to step inside their magical world of miniature interiors. 

While collaborations are fun, the heart of Clayton’s business is the dream houses she creates for private clients. ‘I’m often torn between historical accuracy and remembering this is a house for fairies,’ she says, ‘and occasionally, I can’t find things I want.’ She cites the champagne flutes in her own doll’s house as an example. ‘I couldn’t find nice ones at 1:12, and after all, it’s pleasing to edit out the tedious elements of reality. I don’t think the incumbents will complain.’ 

Enjoy the limited-edition book, in time for Christmas, £24.99 including UK postage and packing, via kensingtondollshousecompany.co.uk