The homes boast dream lists of amenities—a library with a nineteenth-century rolling ladder, an outdoor shower on a rooftop terrace, a modern art collection that includes Picasso—and all for less than $20,000 per house. The kicker? Residents must be no more than six inches tall.
In 2022, Houston-based interior designer Alexandra Killion wanted to grow her skills and give back to her hometown. It was at the onset of the cottagecore movement, and she discovered a woman on Instagram turning a pink Barbie Dreamhouse into a chic abode. That gave Killion an idea: She could recruit a handful of peers to transform dollhouses into micro design showcases and auction them off for charity. But even though she was a seasoned designer, the renovation was harder than she expected.
“I gained a whole new appreciation for craftsmen,” Killion says. “Trying to make tiny chairs and lampshades—I had no fingerprints left after all the hot glue.” Her first dollhouse mirrored her “transitional” style, mixing historical elements (a canopied bed, a brass chandelier) with contemporary features (a burl-wood dining table, bright blue kitchen cabinets). It sold for $18,100 at the inaugural La Petite Maison Gala.
By the end of year two, the dollhouses—along with an art auction and raffle—had raised $350,000 for A Shelter for Cancer Families, an organization that provides support for families receiving care at Texas Medical Center. The third annual gala will take place on December 4 at the Hotel ZaZa in Houston’s Museum District and will benefit Family Houston, a 120-year-old counseling nonprofit. Killion hopes to double the proceeds from the first year, and while her dollhouse still holds the auction record, this year’s over-the-top submissions could change that.
Eight Texas designers were given three months to transform 3.5-foot-wide, twelve-room plywood structures designed by Houston-based architecture firm Reagan & André and built by Alair Homes. The theme is “après-ski,” so there are nods to winter and the holidays throughout, but that’s where the similarities between the dollhouses end. The coastal McMansions in the Hamptons inspired a mini version from one designer. Another offered a take on modern Mexican decor with a pink stucco exterior and pint-size Talavera pottery. One dollhouse isn’t a house at all: Jean Liu of Jean Liu Design in Dallas crafted a doll hotel, modeled after the titular building in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. It comes complete with a two-story lobby, a natatorium, and Mendl’s Patisserie. “The style of these spaces is carried out in the similar 1930s decor as the film’s setting, which proved a fun and delightful departure for our studio, as we mainly work in a modernist and minimalist vein,” Liu says.
Liu isn’t the only one who stepped outside her comfort zone. Free from client expectations, several designers tried new techniques and worked with vendors to shrink furnishings using a twelve-to-one ratio. The gala’s cochair, Lauren Wills Grover of Wills Design Associates, built a flamingo-inspired banister and installed a miniature version of a viral “melted disco ball” coffee table by Rotganzen.
“I felt like I could follow my gut and do things that would have been really difficult to get a client on board with in a normal project,” says Avery Cox, owner of Avery Cox Design. For her Greek-inspired “Greco Deco” home, Cox partnered with fellow Austinite Kendra Scott to turn jewelry into light fixtures.
Other materials came from as far away as India and Guatemala. Houston designer Amy Kummer searched everywhere for a miniature King Charles spaniel that resembled her late companion. She finally found the perfect replica on Etsy, made by a felt artist in Finland. “Tiny Winston now sits faithfully in the dollhouse entry, keeping watch for the next visitor—just like he did in real life,” she says.
When the designers couldn’t find a suitable stand-in for something, they made it themselves. Houston’s Courtney Barton painted pistachio shells to look like turtle shells and hung them on the wall. Fellow Houstonian Elizabeth Garrett used wood chips to create “limestone” flooring. Kristen Leigh Steen, a watercolor artist and textile designer, wanted to use only fabrics and wallpapers from her own line, but she realized she was missing a bold stripe. She developed a micropattern for the dollhouse playroom that she now plans to add to her human-scale collection in the spring. Steen’s playroom also features a custom media cabinet with a working TV that will be playing the movie Elf on a loop.
“This has truly been one of my favorite projects that I’ve ever worked on,” says Steen, adding that it became a family affair. “My older two children were fascinated. They would come home from school every day wanting to know what I had done or give me suggestions about what they thought the different rooms needed. By the end, even my husband joined in and made suggestions about adding gutters and a putting green.”
All of these details—big, small, and really small—are on view to the public at various venues throughout Houston until December 3 as part of the free Le Petite Maison Dollhouse Tour. Each venue is hosting a cocktail party or shopping event, and kids are encouraged to attend.
“Ultimately, this is a kid’s play activity,” Killion says. “A lot of the furniture we made is fragile, but at the end of the day, if something happens to it, it’s probably nothing a little glue can’t fix.”
