How to Make a Miniature Kitchen Scale

Learn how to make a miniature antique kitchen scale for your dollhouse kitchen using the scraps and baubles you already have.

I have a fascination with old antique kitchen scales. I’m not sure why I love them, but I have 3 of them in my real house. They offer so much character and personality compared to their modern digital counterparts – and yes, I have one those, as well!

So I had to make a miniature antique scale for my dollhouse kitchen. And to do that, I found inspiration from the the craps and trash I have been collecting this past year.

My family did not understand why I saved that plastic pull out part from our bottle of lemon juice. But I saw that it made the perfect bowl for my kitchen scale.

And if you love this idea and have a bin full of discards like I do, check out the other dollhouse miniatures I made with plastic pull tabs.

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Supplies you need

• Bit of wood: I used a scrap piece of balsa wood as it was easier for me to carve up. You can use any wood for the scale base. I also used a flat piece of wood to add a base.
• Metal washer: I used a washer for the round scale face to glue my scale face on. You can also use any round scrap you have on hand like craft wooden circles or cut something out of card stock.
• Small nail: I rummaged thru my husband’s nails in the garage and found these tiny nails. I believe they are used in securing hooks onto picture frames.
• Plastic trash from bottles: What do you call this thing?! This is the pull tab from bottles of lemon juice or cartons of orange juice you usually throw out.
• Sharp blade: I used my x-acto blade to shape and cut my balsa wood.
• Sandpaper: This is so sand smooth your wood pieces – any grade is fine.
• Glue: I used Aleen’s tacky glue to glue everything together.
• Small hammer or heavy object: If you are not using balsa wood, you will need a small hammer to tap the nail into the wood.
• Spray paint: I chose a high gloss black spray paint for my scale. I touched it up with some dark zinc metallic paint. Feel free to paint your scale any color you want.
• Printer and paper: You will need to print out your scale face.
• Mod Podge: I adhered the paper face with mod podge to give it some protection and shine.

Step-by-step directions

1. Remove the pull tab from your plastic piece (save it to make this cute mini wooden trays) and push nail down the center of the plastic bowl.

2. Cut and shape your scrap of wood into desired shape to make the core of the scale. For mine, it was basically a square with the front cut on an angle, similar to a computer Lego piece. Sand smooth.

3. Add glue to where you want the face of your scale. Place washer here.

4. Push nail through top of scale then remove. Add glue to this hole and pierce nail through the plastic bowl and into the hole of the wood. Allow glue to dry completely. If you want the scale to have a base, glue thin piece of wood now. I ended up adding a painted base later.

5. Once glue is completely dry, spray paint scale desired color. I used black spray paint and then added touches of a dark metallic zinc paint.

6. When paint is dry, print out scale face to desired size. Simply measure your washer and use this size. Cut the face out, then use mod podge to adhere it to the scale.

7. Add a layer of mod podge onto the outer face of the scale, too, for shine and to protect the paper. Once it is dry, your scale is ready to use.

Project tips and FAQs

I went with a vintage look with my kitchen scale, but you can also modernize it or paint it a bright apple red or robin’s egg blue. You can also use a shiny chrome paint.

If you like the kitchen scale face I used, you can find it here. You can also google ‘kitchen scale face printable’ and find a huge selection to choose from, as well.

And the cute cutting boards you see in the picture below? Well, I have a PDF/SVG file you can use with your Cricut Maker to make a variety of dollhouse cutting boards.

PS If you try this craft, why not leave a star rating in the direction card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback.

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