The Living Room
Today, I started working on the living room. I plan to tackle one room each day, experimenting with different styles and techniques.
First, I focused on the flooring. I love the look of the marble shelf liner roll I bought, so I decided to use it in this room. To ensure it sticks well, I applied tacky glue to the floor, as the adhesive on the paper alone wouldn’t hold it in place. I cut a piece of the paper, creased it around the walls, and trimmed it to fit. It worked well, and remember, edges don’t need to be perfect if you’re adding baseboards or trim later. This paper can bubble and crease easily because it's thin.
To apply the tacky glue smoothly, I used a foam brush and made sure to cover as much of the floor as possible. It's important that the floor is smooth and free of paint drips or glue globs since these imperfections will show through the paper. If you notice any bubbles in the paper, make a small slit over them with a craft knife and then flatten them with a credit card, starting from the edges of the bubble towards the slit. This will make the slit nearly invisible. Avoid trying to flatten bubbles without making a slit first, as this can stretch and damage the paper.
Next, I moved on to the walls, where I plan to use fabric. A tip from a friend’s daughter suggests wetting fabric with liquid starch before applying it to walls. She claims this method allows you to peel off and reuse the fabric later. Although I didn’t try this since I had already used tacky glue on my dollhouse, it sounds like a great idea worth sharing.
Before applying fabric to the walls, it's essential to create paper templates since you can't easily crease fabric like you can with paper. Cutting fabric can be challenging; it's best done on a large table surface, but it often ends up slightly larger than your template. To avoid excess fabric around ceilings and floors, aim for accuracy when cutting. You can always use fabric trim later for finishing touches. I used tacky glue again for attaching the fabric to the walls. Avoid using wallpaper paste, as it may seep through and become visible. Fabric tends to wrinkle and bubble more than paper, but if you smooth it down while waiting for the glue to dry, it will shrink back into place. The key challenge is keeping it smooth during application.
Apply glue generously across the entire back of the fabric. You can use a foam brush or simply smear lines of glue that will spread when pressed against the wall. Tacky glue dries clear and won’t leave wet spots on your fabric. Make sure your walls are well-painted; any dark spots will show through when the fabric is wet with glue. Wet fabric can look dull and lose its pattern temporarily, but once dry, it regains its crisp appearance and even colors. You can also create templates from cardstock or thin cardboard for applying fabric instead of directly onto the dollhouse walls; however, I opted not to do this to see how well fabric adheres like regular wallpaper.
Fabric patches well like wallpaper does; however, avoid patching if possible since matching patterns can be tricky—heavily patterned fabrics work best for this purpose. Also consider colorfastness; if your fabric isn’t colorfast, applying glue could smear your patterns. Always test a small area first.
After putting up the fabric on the walls, I glued wallpaper panels that I had previously attached to cardboard for a raised panel effect. Then I added trim around the panels as well as along the ceilings and floors, enhancing details with some decorative roses for an elegant touch. The result resembles an expensive architectural style but achieved with affordable materials.
Working with fabric trim can be challenging due to measuring difficulties and fraying edges; remember to apply glue to every cut edge to prevent fraying. I left one wall bare for now because that’s where the staircase will go once I finish other interior work. Adding wallpaper panels or trim there would interfere with fitting in the staircase later.
Finally, I trimmed the doorway and added some fabric roses for accents. The textured ceiling is exactly what I envisioned for this space!
