The Harrison Dollhouse Day 20

The first room I was able to completely stucco was the living room where the front door is. I did not have enough stucco for the ceiling but I can always do that later. It is always best to finish your ceilings before you do the walls but since this dollhouse has a stucco interior rather than wallpaper, it shouldn't be too difficult to finish it later.

I painted the staircase railing wall and the front door.

I painted the stucco after it was dry because I find it doesn't crack if you paint it afterwards rather than mixing the paint in with it.

I primed the floor with dark brown paint so the vinyl flooring blends in well. You don't want to see raw wood between planks or where the planks meet the walls. Always start from the end of the floor closest to you and work your way to the wall furthest from you. Stagger the joints and always butt the joints that you did not cut to size so they are completely flush together. Cutting the floor planks around the rounded bay is a little tricky but not too bad. They do not have to be precisely perfect since there will be baseboards covering the edges.

I used the vinyl flooring planks to make the baseboards. This is optional. It depends on the look you're going for. If you decided to have white trim in your dollhouse, you might not want to do it like this.

I am painting all of my interior trim dark brown to match the outside half timber trim. I like how it looks against the light stucco. I decided to not use stain on the interior trim because of the flooring. The stain would have never matched up to the flooring. This is one of the things that can be quite a hassle with die-cut dollhouses. Staining the original wood will cause a lot of hue variations between staircases, flooring and all of the interior trim. These dollhouse kits are usually comprised of a lot of different wood grains and hues. You can get lucky and have a kit with even wood but don't count on it. What you decide to do is entirely up to what you like and has nothing to do with technique.

I installed the windows in this room.

I also painted and installed the doorknobs on the interior doors. You want to always make a starter hole with a nail so you can insert your door knobs without bending them in the process. Add a little bit of glue to the starter hole. The doors of a die cut dollhouse are thin so you will not be able to insert the doorknobs on both sides of the door in the same place. They will push each other out if you do. Insert each a little away from each other to the side. The height of the doorknob is more important than anything else so make sure they are the same height on both sides of the door.

I have to hinge the staircase closet door to its frame next time. I used a pull instead of a regular door knob for it.