This time last year Florence was sent a Plum toy kitchen for us to review for the blog. We all absolutely love it and Florence and Jimmy continue to use it to play with passionately. One of Florence’s favourite games is ‘restaurants’ and the kitchen is a major part of that. Little girls also enjoy playing ‘home’ and having a kitchen is a beautiful addition to Florence’s games. Jimmy also enjoys the kitchen and for him, hiding inside the cupboard is one of his favourite tricks! It’s such a beautiful item too; it’s wooden, well made and bright but not over ostentatious colours! We really love it!

Florence is quite a girlie girl and our kitchen is mainly pink but they also do kitchens which would suit any child and when I saw Plum at a toy fair this year I thought the white kitchens were absolutely superb. I also thought their amazing play table and dolls houses were absolutely fabulous! Again there was a more boyish version of the dolls houses with a wonderful fire station but I knew it was one of the pink proper houses that Florence would be interested in. We have been very lucky because Plum asked us if we would like to review one of the houses so of course I said an absolute YES PLEASE!

We were sent the Hove Dolls House which is the smallest of the collection and is a fold out house to make the most of space. Perfect for us as space is a premium in our two bedroom flat! Until we move we are having to be very creative with storing things and this is excellent for that reason alone. It also has a carry handle and can be taken from room to room with everything stored away inside it! It is made from responsibly sourced timber and is strong and sturdy yet surprisingly light weight.

The doll’s house open!

The house comes with seven accessories made up of a bed, two chairs, a table, a bed side cabinet, sofa and coffee table. These are all wooden too and very strong. Inside the house, the roof flips over and the front wall folds down to reveal a garden scene, there are three floors. Each floor has painted walls to depict a room so downstairs is a kitchen, dining room and living room scene, the middle floor is a bedroom and the attic space is a play room. In the garden the floor has pictures of a slide, seesaw and water feature as well as other garden type things and it extends the house further which is a very clever idea.

The house and furniture!

This is the perfect first dolls house as you don’t really need to buy any other pieces of furniture because of the detailing inside and it’s not terribly big or cumbersome. I think a bigger dolls house, one which is more of a blank canvas, would be more suitable to an older child. As this one is for ages 3+ and can be carried around, it is perfect for a younger one who likes the idea of a dolls house but doesn’t really understand about collecting all the pieces and not having everything immediately. It’s a beautiful addition to any play room as well and looks pleasing on the eye when sitting on the shelf. Because it closes with everything inside it can store other things you would need like the dolls inside it and can be as messily put away as you like because once the roof flips over and the wall shuts closed you can’t see anything bit the pretty house exterior!

The house comes flat packed but the holes are all pre drilled and it has very easy to read step by step instructions which even I found easy enough to follow! I do usually get Jonny to build anything which needs putting together but sometimes I give it a go myself and this one was easy peasy! It took only half an hour so even if you leave the pre birthday or Christmas build until the last minute you’re not going to be in too much difficulty!

Flat packed but with easy to see number stickers on each piece which correspond to the instructions!

The build was super easy taking half an hour and I like the fact that the screws are painted pink on the ends so as to be less noticeable!

The house is built before you know it!

What I like is the fact it is so sturdy and being wooden it gives it an old fashioned edge which I personally find pleasing. At the same time though it is modern in its painting and appeals to children. I love the fact it stores away so neatly and can be easily moved from room to room by the carry handle. It is also fabulous that it comes with all the accessories you might need. Of course you could buy more but I really don’t think it is necessary.

I’m not so keen on the fact that it comes without any dolls. I understand that most dolls houses don’t but because of the nature of this particular house and the way that everything else you would need is there, I think some dolls would be a welcome addition and would happily pay a little bit more to have some included. Saying that, the house is only £40 which is an absolute steal and I have found two different dolls which fit nicely with the house. ELC do a little wooden family of 9cm tall dolls for £12 and Le Toy Van make Budkins dolls of which there are many different ones and these, at around 10cm tall, are also perfect. We have however just been using our HappyLand people for now.

The house in play!

What a lovely dolls house at a brilliant price! Very impressed and any child who wanted toplay dolls houses would be too! This one will absolutely not disappoint!

I have not been paid to write this post but I was sent the product mentioned for the purpose of honest review.