What does "Scale" mean?
Scale:
The two most popular scales for dollhouse miniatures are 1" scale (or 1/12 scale) and 1/2" scale (or 1/24" scale).
1” scale means that
one inch equals one foot.
1/2” Scale means
that ½” equals one foot.
A miniature lady, who
would be about 5 ½” tall would be comparable to real-life ladies who are
about 5’ 6” tall.
If a typical room in real
life is 8’ from floor to ceiling, in 1” scale miniatures that room would be 8”
high. However, in a ½” scale house the miniature room would be only 4” high.
There are also other
scales to be aware of:
1/4" scale (1/4" = 1 foot)
1/6" Playscale or Fashion Doll (1
1/2" = 1 foot)
1/18" scale (1" = 18")
and the tiniest scale is 1/144" scale
(1/12" = 1 foot)
Fashion Dolls or Barbie dolls are about
11” tall and are not considered miniatures. They are “Play scale” (1/6 scale)
which is about 1 ½” to one foot. So an 11" tall doll vs. life size would
be comparable to a 5 1/2" tall 1 inch scale miniature doll vs. life
size. Because not many accessories are available in Playscale, Barbie
collectors often use 1" scale miniatures for their scenes even though
they're not really made for that scale.
Collectible cars are
usually 1/18" scale and look a little too small for 1" scale displays
but, again due to a limited availability in the appropriate scale, 1/18"
cars are often used regardless.
The scale miniatures you
will find featured on this website will be 1" scale, 1/2" scale and
1/44" scale, although most will be 1" scale.