Customer Reviews

Plan Toy Chalet Doll House with Furniture

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The dollhouse is much larger than I thought it would be, when it arrived I was shocked at the size of the box and put off assembly for a few weeks. When I opened the box I was relived to find half of it taken up with the furniture and packaging. The pieces are well made but there are a lot of them! I would estimate at least 40 pieces, not counting screws or furniture (the furniture is all completely assembled). None of the pieces have that 'made in china' smell that many new toys seem to suffer from. The roof pieces have a faint smell similar to finger paint (the wood in plan toys items is stained with a food grade dye rather than painted).

Assembly was not overly difficult but did take a solid two hours to accomplish by myself. Someone who is handy or uses a drill rather than a screwdriver could likely assemble it much more quickly. All that is need to put it together is a phillips head screwdriver and some patience. The instructions are complete but use only pictures. Many of the pieces look very, very similar so attention to the detail on each piece in the diagrams is needed.

The house overall is significantly lighter than I expected. It's still a large, heavy toy but each piece can be lifted by my four year old. The two halves are not connected which allows the kids to be creative with the layout and play with the same toy at the same time without getting in one another's way although one side is larger than the other so they have to take turn with the 'better' side. I really like the lack of distinguishing features on the walls. Unlike many dollhouses the rooms are all plain and very similar in size and shape so what was a bedroom yesterday can be a kitchen today.

I only gave three stars for several reasons. The dolls, or lack thereof; I had assumed it would come with at least a few dolls but they need to be purchased separately. The furniture is ok but is incomplete. For example, there is a stove, sink, and fridge but no table. How can the dolls eat the food they prepared? It doesn't seem like an issue until your six year old gets upset because her dolls are hungry and need a place to eat. At this price I would have expected a complete furniture set and dolls. The paint; every other plan toy we own is stained but this doll house has some painted parts. The roof; the picture shows a yellowish color but in reality it is a bright safety cone orange. I'm not sure why they choose this orange and lime green color scheme, I would have much preferred something more subdued. The living room furniture; I purchsed this particular dollhouse because it seemed gender neutral but what you can't see in the pictures is that the couch and chairs for the living room are painted white and have hot pink cushions. The living room is more 'Barbie's dream house' than 'natural chalet dollhouse'.

The big issue with the dollhouse was the two doors that go on the back of the house. These two doors are either too big or the holes for them were drilled in the wrong spot because they don't fit and are unusable. I plan on contacting Amazon regarding this but have a feeling they will want the dollhouse shipped back and I really don't want to have to put in several more hours disassembling and reassembling.

Overall, I would not buy it again.

A few tips:
- watch the price for a few weeks if you have the time, I was able to get it for almost $50 less than the normal price but it took nearly a month for the price to drop and it went back up within the day
- use google to search for images of the dollhouse and look for one with children in the picture, it will give you a much better idea of the size than the dimensions listed

The house is even better than in the pictures. It was really easy to put together, but one of the pieces of wood did crack when screwing it to the base - we were using a screw gun so it may be advisable to use a screwdriver. It is wonderful to be able to move the sections of the house around as well as the two staircases. The ability to be able to access each room from nearly all sides of the house is another great feature. My daughter is only two, but she has been able to manipulate people and things around the house with relative ease. Definitely recommend!

We bought this for our 3-year old daughter several weeks ago and she loves playing with it. The construction and quality is very good,very durable, and not flimsy or plywood. Even my engineer husband was impressed. This will survive many years. After researching several doll houses as others have,I loved this modern design and the fact that it can be changed to so many different plans. As an example of it's versatility (and knowing full well this would happen),a friend of my daughter came over to play and as they both started to play with the doll house, they fought a little over which rooms their own dolls should go into. So I separated the two halves, created two houses, and voila! Problem solved. That right there and I was glad I bought it. I haven't seen any other doll house that can do that. She also uses the roof as I slide. Great buy!

This dollhouse is a worthy investment. It's spacious, colorfull, devided into two pieces which gives more playing options, it comes with all the basic furniture, and it's just durable. I really liked it's modern architecture and equal furniture. My five years old son loves playing with it. Besides of the traditional dollhouse-plays, its shape and partitions are good stimulators of his imagination. So he plays some adventurous themes on the roof of the house.

We purchased the Chalet without furniture because we own the Plan Toy Neo furniture sets (living room, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and children bedroom). Unfortunately many of the upright furniture pieces do not fit because they're too tall and hit the sloped roof (such as the shower, dresser, bookcase, vanity table, floor lamp, etc). I would not recommend the Chalet unless you're buying the set with furniture (where the pieces are probably scaled to fit the low ceilings). It's too late for us to return because we opened and assembled it. I wish someone had mentioned in their review and saved me the money.

My wife purchased the Chalet Dollhouse by Plan Toys for our 28-month old daughter. She just received it this morning (Christmas morning). She received several toys, but this was the one she spent the most time with. Ours came with a basic set of furniture, bathroom and kitchen fixtures. The bed included pillows, side tables and a lamp. The living room had a couch, lamp, tv & stand. The kitchen had a range and a dining table. The bathroom had a toilet, tub & sink/mirror combo. It would have been nice if they had included some people (mother, father, kids, dog, etc.). Our daughter immediately grabbed other characters from other toy sets to use.

The assembly instructions include only images of the dollhouse. The only writing is "long screw" or "short screw" and "ring" (for some rubber washers. The dollhouse is actually two separate structures. The first structure is on two levels, the other is on three. There are approximately 6 diagrams for the first structure and approximately 8 for the other. Each diagram is shown from the same angle. It was challenging to try and figure out where walls and vertical supports were supposed to go when they were not clearly shown in the diagrams. It took me about 45 minutes to put everything together. Stare at the diagram closely and match up the parts. One reason is there are six grey dowels that act as floor-ceiling supports. Each is slightly different and they can't be interchanged (one has a slot in the side for accepting a half-wall, one is drilled out to accept a dowel on one end, etc.). Look ahead at other diagrams to see if one piece matches another assembly location before you screw it together.

In total, there are about 12 long screws (about 1" in length), 8 shorter screws (about 3/4" in length), about 20 rubber washers and two wooden dowels. They also incorporate slots where the floor joins the walls. I liked this feature because it cut down on the number of screws needed.

A hint is to only tighten the screws about halfway during each diagram. Once you have put on the last screw in a diagram, then go back and tighten everything before going on to the next diagram. On the 3-story structure, there are some windows and walls that fit into slots before tightening up the screws. You may have to pick up the dollhouse to see that everything is nested in the slots before tightening everything up.

All in all, I'm happy with the purchase, but I wouldn't have said the same thing during the 45 minutes I was cursing it.

We ordered the first one and numerous flat sections were warped meaning it couldn't be put together. One square foot section was warped more than 1/2 inch meaning when the screw was tight the wooden peg wouldn't meet the hole to hold it together. After a stern conversation with Amazon they agreed to send a replacement at the same price rather than at the $70 increase in price - how nice (note sarcasm)! The second one has arrived promptly (thank you Amazon - no sarcasm). The replacement has numerous warped parts and is as useless as the first, so is being returned.

Either the quality checking at Plan Toys is very poor or more likely the storage prior to dispatch is less than idea result in the parts warping.

We've heard nothing but good things about Plan Toys and a local store stocks many of their products and visual inspection supports their reviews.

We've obviously been very unlucky and are now frantically searching for other options ready for our daughter for Christmas day.

Given our experience I can't recommend the product, more so, because Plan Toys have not bothered responding to our contact with them, which has left a very bad taste in our mouths.

Whilst there was some frustration with Amazon, mainly due to our frustration so close to Christmas, I know they'll deal with the returns promptly and at least remove that concern.

Plan Toys Chalet Dollhouse With Furniture
Very well made with Natural Dies and (Non-Toxic)finishes. After researching dollhouses I was surprized at how many had warnings about Toxic paints & varnishes!! This house is more open than the traditional houses making it easier to play with. Very sturdy, easy to assemble. It can be easily arranged in several different ways making it "several houses" in one. Great Deal - considering it comes with all the furniture which is equally well made. There are all kinds of cute accessories available also. I would absolutely recommend this product.

We purchased this for our 3 year old GrandDaughter (what a doll). She loves it! Unlike most doll houses, it actually has stairs for the little people to get to the second floor. I know, I know, its only a doll house, but why do you think the makers of this doll house made the stairs? So the little girl can walk her little people up to the second floor. That's why. Very well constructed. Very well thought out.

One happy girl received her first doll house! We resisted grandparent offers to buy a doll house - to avoid the tendency toward plastic and Barbie... and made the plunge after the holidays. No overdone antebellum erzatz but instead a clean modern design, all for a reasonable price. The results are spectacular (I want to play with the house too!). The "green" design - and positive impact on the artisans in Thailand - is a nice bonus.