I wallpapered the four rooms on the first and second floor. I made patterns
of each wall out of freezer paper. The walls with the bay windows were tricky
to do, so I started with an easy room--the living room.| Main Dollhouse Page |
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I wallpapered the four rooms on the first and second floor. I made patterns
of each wall out of freezer paper. The walls with the bay windows were tricky
to do, so I started with an easy room--the living room.
This picture shows wallpaper being cut. I used my quilting tools: a rotary cutter, a ruler, and a self-healing mat.
I had never done any kind of wallpapering before, either in miniature or in a full-sized room. I didn't know how the wallpaper would behave. I did follow the instructions by spraying the wallpaper pieces with some matte sealer, but I found it was easier to apply the wallpaper paste to the walls, rather than to the wallpaper, before placing the wallpaper on the walls.
I only made one mistake. The wallpaper for the living room was not printed to the edges of the paper and I didn't cut off the bottom edge. When I was ready to install the baseboards, the unprinted area showed above the baseboard. (The unprinted part of the wallpaper can be seen in the photograph.) I fixed this problem by cutting some narrow strips of wood to place under the baseboards. The baseboards in the living room are now taller than those in the other rooms, but it does not look bad.
After the wallpaper, ceiling paper, and some of the baseboards were
installed, I started to attach the roof. Again, I did not follow the
instructions. Instead of gluing one roof section to the house at a time,
I first glued the two left roof pieces to the left gable front, and the two
right roof pieces to right gable front. This photograph shows the smaller
gable clamped together and waiting for the glue to dry.
I then glued the smaller gable to the roof. These pictures show both a view
from the back and the front of the house.In the photograph of the back of the house, one can see the baseboards installed in the bedroom, in the study, and on one wall of the living room. The kitchen baseboards will not be installed until the kitchen counters are assembled. I was also busy installing the trim around the doors during this time. The window trim will go in after the windows are installed.
Finally, I glued the larger gable to the house. I also attached the chimney.
In most of these pictures, one can see wires sticking out of the walls. This is because I installed the lights and outlets during the process of wallpapering and installing baseboards.
To install the ceiling lights and wall sconces, I applied the ceiling paper or wallpaper, then I drilled a hole through the wall. I ran the wire through the hole and glued the light fixture in place. For the wall sconces, the wires ran to the exterior of the house. I glued the wires in grooves that were cut before the house was assembled. A little putty, and the stucco and paint will cover the wires.
The outlets were installed in a similar manner, except all the the wires were run down the wall behind the baseboards. The outlets were placed directly above the baseboards so no wires are visible.
The installation of the outlets were my first major roadblock. The outlets are made of plastic (a really slick nylon?) and came with double-stick tape on the backs. This tape did not hold, and I didn't expect it to. So, I tried glues: both 5-minute epoxy and 6-hour epoxy, tacky glue, and super glue. The epoxies held until I tried to plug and unplug some lights. The outlets pulled off of the walls.
I was so frustrated with the outlets that I set the whole house aside for over a month. Finally, I tried another type of glue, something called "E-6000". This glue doesn't hold when a lot of force is used on the joint, but it works better than any of the other glues I tried. One tip I have to offer about this wonderful glue is to clamp it and wait 24 hours for it to dry. No matter how tempting it is, do not fuss with it, just leave it alone. Have faith. This glue will work.
After regluing all of the outlets, I was motivated to work on the house again.