Dollhouse roof

I must admit I was very nervous about constructing the roof. I had no idea how I would get that curve or how I would make all of the rooms square up to the top. 

So I decided I would just tackle one problem at a time. 

The first task was to add a 1” ledge all around the exterior of the house. If I would've had foresight I could have just made the attic floor 1” wider too have it stick out. But hindsight is 20/20.

The next step was to determine the lowest height that the exterior attic walls would be. 

(Tower top still to be built on the front square section.)

After studying photos of houses with this type of roof I held poster board pieces of paper to the edge of my ledge and to the point on the exterior attic wall where I thought the curve would stop. 

I traced that curve onto a piece of paper that I placed against the tower in the corner with a pencil to get the shape of the curve. 

Then I cut that shape out to use as braces and each brace was glued on with wood glue. (See exposed section above)

Then a piece of poster board was placed over the braces so I could cut the corner down to determine the corner curvature were two roof sides would meet.

While I had the curved roof dry fit, I traced the window holes and cut them out. 

Finally the poster board was glued onto the braces with one pin slipped in the middle of every brace. 

After that I needed to determine the degree of slant I wanted it to be up to the flat part of the roof. (Sorry I don't know all the correct terminology for roof sections.)

Above, in the center front there is a piece of board for a support beam. This will be a tall square beam with a half circle table attached to it and two stools placed under it. A fun way to add a support beam.

I drew on graph paper to figure out how large the flat area would be at the very top of the house.  There was some erasing and refiguring before I got to where I was happy and where my angels would line up. 

Then I cut my interior walls and cut the angles along them and cut out all of the slanted pieces and dry fit everything together. 

I had to make that left side tiny room with the flat roof to make the angles work because I just couldn't figure out how to  make that part of the roof slanted to meet the other slanted sections.

Once I was happy I took everything apart.

I wanted the inside slant and ceiling to not have large gaps so I glued on watercolor paper under each piece and gave the main flat ceiling a slight lip with that paper so that the slanted pieces would lay on top of that lip and cover any gaps between the pieces. 

I also used water color paper as wallpaper.

I used pins, nails, hot glue, and wood glue to secure everything. 

Then I cut mat board for ceiling trim at the top of the walls. I got really lucky that the board matched the color of the water color paper perfectly!

Uhoh! Don't worry, he has fallen out twice before. He's not the best builder, but is a great climber.

There are a few thin gaps here and there, but I am impressed with how nice it turned out, a perfect studio apartment space for the eldest son. The right will be a future craft room for mom that will be full of storage from moving in for a while. The left room with exposed wood, still needs to be treated to look old. This will be a small storage area for over spilling boxes of holiday decorations.

Now on to making the windows!


Original roof drawings:

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Vee Siding

I decided to go with a vee siding effect for the Kinfeld. So I hand-cut the siding strips from a large left over inventory of matted frames. After gluing one onto the exterior base I placed another strip, thin side against the house, to space the next strip so the gap in between would always be the same. There were only a few spots that got a little wonky, but overall I am happy with the finished look.

I was suppose to move onto the roof once the siding was down, but was too eager to see it painted so I mixed up a sample latex paint I got with some older paint I used in my actual house hallway. The original sample I purchased for $3.00 from Home Depot turned out to be a bright green when it was in the shadows or in certain light. Very strange.

So I cut it with some light grey-blue latex and it was perfect! A nice grey-green.

 

Then I needed to see the white trim against that pretty green! So off I went to A C Moore with my 50% off coupons and bought some sheets of thin wood. I cut the strips to size, sanded, and painted them. A little wood glue and I was a happy girl. :)

Sorry my pics don't quite show the true color because I tend to work at night and the light isn't so great.

Now on to the roof! I will post all the details once I get a little further. It has been a challenge to get the curvature correct, but I am now on my way.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Dollhouse floors and walls

Because I was trying to keep my budget very small I decided to print my own wood floors. In real life you can’t see gaps between planks and the same with a 1:12-scale print out. 

First I selected a seamless pattern image from the Internet. In some cases I couldn’t find one so I had to make alterations in Adobe Photoshop. Once the files was ready I filled the floor space measurement with the pattern.  

I will be showing how I did this using my Kinfeld hall floor as an example. This was the most difficult because room because I added a border all the way around as I did for the dining room space and this room had the stair hole in it.

I carefully measure the space and set my computer file up as such.

Photoshop has a “layers” option so I built the floor up using that feature.

First I pieced together a herringbone pattern then I added the dark wood trim and the planks outside of that.

Then I printed it out on two legal sheets (my printer won’t go to 11x17).

Then I coated it with a water soluble satin varnish. Because this is an ink jet print it will smear when it gets wet. You can spray it with a fixative (like one that is used for charcoal drawings) if you like, but I just went for it.

I made fast brushstrokes keeping the varnish thin with no thick streaking. Once dry, I took my time and did a complete coverage with a second coat and let it dry.

I cut to piece it together along the wood pattern lines. So the cuts were between the planks.

I used Yes paste to adhere it to a very heavy water color paper. For the downstairs dinning room I adhered it to mat board. 

Yes paste is tricky when you have to butt join two piece together, so practice first. I use this adhesive for my mixed media art because once it’s down and dry it won’t peel up over time.

Scoop a credit card in the jar and spackle it down over your paper in a thin layer. Be sure to go over and off all the edges. If it does peel it will be because you didn’t hit the edges. 

Burnish it down with a credit card over a pice of wax paper. I place a sheet of wax paper and heavy books on it over night.

Once it’s dry and flat, trim out the watercolor paper with the floor print on it and placed it inside the house using more Yes paste or wood glue. Lay wax paper over it and burnish it down with a credit card. Lay something on it as it drys to be sure it’s flat.

I had some white showing through a section of the join so I used some pastels to cover it and varnished over that.

Walls

If you are building a foam board house you will need to adhere something to the wall verses simply painting it. This is because, depending on the paint, the paper covering the foam may ripple. Also because the corners may not be neat and flush depending on the way you built the house.

I used a few different types of paper as I experimented. The first was thick watercolor paper. I needed a long sheet to fill my walls so there wouldn't be seams, so I used a 50% off coupon and bought a big pad of it.

I also found a cool paper called canvas paper. It is lighter and easy to work with. They both take paint nicely. Once you paint them and it’s dry lay heavy books on it to flatten.

Above it the texture of the canvas paper. I used the side with the least texture.

Below is the texture of the water color paper.

Use Yes paste as explained in the floor post and adhere it to the walls. 

Trace and cut all your window and door holes before you glue it in. 

Below is canvas paper being prepared. The end is folded because each corner needs to overlap under the next piece so you don't have a gap.

You can see some rippling below. This is why you need to place a heavy book or lap top in it over night.

This is the finished master bedroom. I printed the patterned wallpaper on the right on regular copy paper and sprayed it with a spray adhesive on the back of it and put it up.

Totally dig this carpet! It is upholstery fabric. Joann has some great sales, so check in there between seasons. I also got 5 of those sample upholstery books on clearance for $5 each! About 10 square samples in each book. Gold!

I hope some of this helps. As always, get in touch if you have any questions. :)

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Dollhouse fireplace

I built the fireplace solving one problem at a time. I had no idea how I would do it so I found a photo of a Victorian fireplace and used elements from it. I didn't think ahead so that I wouldn't get overwhelmed. I used matboard, card stock, spakling paste, wood glue, jewelry elements, packing tape, blue tape, gold gel pen, craft paint and spray paint.

I got the flickering battery operated fire logs from Mainly Minis on eBay. They are great! They have a small on and off button on the wire that I can slip under the outdoor side porch.

I had to cut 1/4" off the resin logs using my bandsaw. Thank goodness it was a smooth and easy cut!

Despite the fact that I had to bypass a lot of wonderful details that were in the original fireplace that inspired me, I still dig it! After all, I like to look at creating miniatures as creating an illusion. Once all the furniture and accessories go into the room I won't see all the small things that could have went better in the build.

I will be making a fireplace for every floor and they will get more elaborate and antique as I go up.

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Dollhouse door hinge tutorial

This is smaller than normal door because it is a door in the back of the stairs, but you can use this same idea for your own handmade interior doors throughout your dollhouse.

If you will be opening and closing the doors a lot then I would recommend something more durable than card stock.

Cut a piece of 24 gauge wire to the height you want your hinge to be.

Cut a horizontal piece of card stock at the same height and about 1 inch wide.

Use a toothpick to put wood glue in the center of the card stock piece.

Use your tweezers to drop the piece of wire onto the wood glue.

Press it down with the tweezers.

Use your toothpick to put a tiny bit of glue on each side of the wire.

Fold the piece of card stock over the wire and use your tweezers to pinch in close to the wire to get the paper secure around the wire.

Quickly open the paper back up and press flat on a surface and be sure the paper is straight. Don’t wait too long or the paper will be glued together.

Let this completely dry

Determine the thickness of your door and cut the hinge to that width.

Paint your hinge front and back the color you would like it to be.

(I choose to paint mine shown here after I had glued it to the door.)

Glue one side of each hinge to the door where you want the hinges to be

Keep the hinges open so that the glue doesn't seep through the paper.

Once they have dried put glue on the other side of the hinges and glue that to the inside of your doorway. 

Brace with paper shims if needed until it is dry.

The card stock will be pretty durable, but you can also paint the paper with Modge Podge to add some strength.

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