Best age for a doll's house

What's the peak age for doll-house play? Just regular doll-housy stuff, not barbies etc.

I don't know about my own kids but we got ours when I was about 3 and I played with it for years. I was a real girly-girl though - I was still playing with my dolls at 11!

I can't wait until our DD is old enough for a dolls house. I think I'll have just as much fun as she will, lol

DD is 2 and has one. She doesn't really do imaginative play as such but tends to put the the dolls in the bed and talks to the dolls. She loves it. It is one of her favourite toys.

Charlotte got one a few weeks ago for her (3rd) birthday, and she loves it!!
I did get a second hand one, needs some reno work lol, but I didn't want to go spending a fortune if she wasn't interested. But she adores it, so will be getting some more furniture and bits for it for Christmas from Santa.

We got DDs at 18months (a chunky FP one) and she still loves it. She'll be 5 in May.

My father made a wooden one for my girls for last Christmas, so they were just 4 and nearly 2. DD2 has only started playing "properly" with it in the last few months, but they both love it :lol: Can't see either of them growing out of it for quite a few years. My mother-in-law does folk art and she did all the painting so it's just beautiful, I'll be sad when they do get too big!

If you do get one, get the Early Learning Centre furniture. It's really tough and you can leave out anything that's a bit too small (like books for the study set!) We had some other stuff from Ebay and it started breaking really quickly.

DD1 got one for her 3rd birthday, and both DD1 and DD2 love playing with it.

DD got one for her 1st bday but she's nearly 3 and has no interest in it! she prefers her musical instruments

DD got one for her second birthday. She loved it then and still loves it. It's been great for her imaginative play.

OK help please - I'd like a nice (but fairly basic) doll/furniture set - girly colours - preferably wood but will take sturdy plastic - that's not going to cost an arm and a leg. Product recommendations? Where to buy?

Have checked out the ELC stuff - very nice - but once you've bought enough sets to make a basic house, very exxy!! PLUS only one store here and they don't even have the people right now.

I've looked on ebay too but I have hesitations about how well the dolls fit the furniture.

Alternative is to do the tight-arse mummy thing, give her the dollshouse and then just stock it with the duplo furniture/people that we already have. Will that totally destroy the doll-house experience? Opinions?

Maybe I am a tight-arse mummy, but I reckon get the house first, add the furniture over time. So use what you have and guage her interest.
Then you can grab bits and pieces every week or so, or when they are on special at Toy World lol

DD1 got one for her 4th birthday in august but shes not hugely keen on it yet, typical for everything i think she'lllove

target sells the wooden ones with furtinutre for $150 and under

Marydean, no definitely use whatever furniture you've already got! My girls put Little People, My Little Pony's, whatever they want in there. They've got a combination of cheap furniture and ELC in there at the moment, just gradually switching it over. The ELC stuff can get exxy, I look out for their sales and pick it up then. My comment above was just a warning that the cheap stuff won't necessarily last...

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm eyeing off a "le toy van" basic set online which has bits from most rooms but I can get the people for it too so hmmmm, have to decide today I s'pose.