So you love miniatures, but you don’t actually have a dollhouse.  No problem.  There are lots of options for displaying miniature items that don’t involve having an elaborate dollhouse.

Of course, the simplest option is to just display your mini’s on a shelf.

I have several pieces of miniature furniture on the bookshelves in our living room.  Granted these aren’t 1:12 scale, but it’s the same general idea.

Another super simple option would be to create a mini vignette under a cloche.

You’ll possibly remember my clock cloche.  I usually switch up the contents for the season or current holiday.  But it’s also perfect for displaying a miniature scene.

Can I mention that sweet little bench for a moment?  I purchased it unfinished from Miniature Crush.

I chose it specifically because the back was the perfect size for that image from the Roycycled Label Masterboard decoupage paper.  I just loved the look of that blue and white label.  So, I painted the bench with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean, then went over that with a couple of coats of Drop Cloth.  Then I used Mod Podge to decoupage that label onto the back of the bench.

Once that was dry, I sanded the edges to distress the piece and then gave everything a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.  I followed that up by adding a little bit of their Dixie Belle Dirt in Ash to the corners here and there to add a bit of dimension and age.  You can see that rather well in that close up photo, but in real life it’s a little more subtle.  After all, this bench is only just over 4″ wide.

I had initially planned to put this bench in the 2nd floor hallway of my dollhouse, but in the end it didn’t work out for that spot.  After testing it out in a bunch of other rooms as well, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have a good spot for it.  So I’ve listed it on my ‘available for local sale‘ page (although shipping to the lower 48 is also an option for this one).  So if any of you are interested, be sure to check that out.

OK, back to ideas for displaying miniatures without a dollhouse.

Another option is to create a unique shadowbox like my clock case.

Once I gutted the clock parts out of that case and had my handman/neighbor Ken add a little shelf, it was perfect for a couple of mini room vignettes.

I just added some dollhouse wallpaper to the back and then furnished both spaces.

My friend Meggan recently shared a miniature scene inside a lantern with me on Instagram, and if you search online there are lots of examples of lanterns with mini vignettes inside.

But you don’t have to have a cool old vintage clock case or a suitable lantern, you can also create shadow box style rooms in any sort of small cupboard.  I could see doing that with this little cupboard for example.

It has just enough space for a couple of miniature room vignettes.

Or you could devote a shelf or two in your hutch to becoming miniature rooms.

Simple shadow box rooms are all the rage right now too.  You can use just a basic shadow box kit from your local hobby store.  Or you could create something like the primitive dollhouse that I picked up at a garage sale.

You know, back in the 17th century miniaturists were housing their miniatures in cabinets, like that amazing apothecary cabinet I saw at the Rijksmuseum.

And then there is the famous ‘cabinet house’ of Petronella Oortman (also at the Rijksmuseum).

We don’t have to get quite that extravagant, but if you break it down, that’s just a bookcase with glass doors on the front.  Add a couple of vertical dividers here and there and voilà, you’d have a cabinet house.

Head out to Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and just look for a cast off bookcase of some kind.  This one would have made a fabulous cabinet house after removing that fretwork from the doors …

Another clever idea that I’ve seen online is to create a little scene in a small case.  So the other day when I was out thrifting with opK, I picked up this little set of 3 nesting ‘suitcases’.

I decided to see what I could do to create a quick miniature scene inside one of them.

I added some bookpaper to the back to serve as wallpaper, and then glued a barn style sliding door in place.  It doesn’t really open, but that’s OK.

I added another printed rug and then ‘furnished’ the room with a roll top desk that I just picked up at a 2nd hand shop.

That’s just a very basic example, most of these sorts of things that I see online are much more detailed than mine.  So the sky’s the limit if you want to keep adding more and more to your scene.

If you have any fun ideas for creating a miniature vignette, leave a comment and let us know.

In the meantime, as I mentioned on Friday, I’m off visiting with my mom this week so I may not respond to comments right away.  But hang tight, I’ll be sharing some more miniatures for sale when I get back as well as the miniature artist’s studio that I’m adding to the attic space of my dollhouse.  I’ve also been invited to tour Miniature Crush’s facility in Savage, MN in a couple of weeks so I plan to share that soon as well.

So be sure to stay tuned!