Not only did I prime the walls, but the floor also. I used the same brown paint that I’m going to make my stain with for the tiles. Priming the floor helps hide any raw wood in any small area between the tiles. Since I’m using a dark stain for them, you will see any light color showing through in the tiniest of areas.
I bought Greenleaf wood tiles. There is no wrong way to glue these on your floor. You can make a template of your floor like you do for shingling and glue them to that. You can make lines on your floor as a guide or just use the back edge of the dollhouse floor to begin your tiling, as I did.
I used hot glue to put on the tiles. The tiles are made of the same thin veneer as shingles so I didn’t want them to curl up on me like siding does. Since this is a floor decoration and not a structural component, hot melt glue will work fine. I also need them to lay flat. Hot glue won't warp wood and it also helps prevent shifting while they dry.
In real tile laying, you have to measure from the center of the room and work your way outwards but I started from the corner of the main living room areas back floor edge. I’m not too worried about the edges that touch up against the walls because I’m going to use baseboards to cover them all. I do want my lines to be straight above all else.
As you can see, painting the floor first will really help in those tiny gaps between the tiles not show through. It's impossible to get them to lay completely flush against each other so the tiniest gaps will always be present.
I don’t want the tile lines to break up through the door opening so I continued them through the door and just cut the ones against the walls in the kitchen area.
Putting the tiles in was very simple. Minimal cutting around some edges was required. As you can see they have a very nice pattern to them from the grain. You want them to all be scattered around your floor, don’t try to match them up or you won't get the nice grain and hue variations throughout the floor.
After I was done with the first floor, I went ahead and lightly stained them a dark brown. I really thinned out the stain well because I wanted to see the grain variations. I didn’t want the stain to paint my tiles brown. The stain makes them look like ceramic or stone tiles. It creates a very nice effect.
I wallpapered the living room in two tones. The top one is like a texture and the bottom a pattern. I’m not worried about edges or where they meet because I’m going to use trim on those areas. I also wallpapered the kitchen.
In order for me to start trimming the inside I need to install the staircase. This staircase is very simple. As it dried, I went ahead and tiled the second floor and then stained it. I then stained the staircase and realized something. The second floor has a partition wall.
Well, no problem. I just tapped around the tile until I heard the hollow sound that signifies a slot. I then used the box cutter to cut through the tile to expose the slots. I then put in the second floor partition. I could have left it off but I really like the way it looks so I decided to take the extra time to fix it rather than discard it.
I'll have to wallpaper the second floor gables and partition before I can continue.
After I wallpapered the second floor walls, I installed the staircase. I used two different stain tones on it. The rails are darker stain and the stringers and threads are light stain. I thought the two different stains would go nicely with the different hues in the tiles.
The staircase is very simple to put in.
While the staircase dries in place, I went ahead and put the baseboard trim around the kitchen. I tried to make the stain have variable hues in each trim so it looks like the baseboards are made of the same tile material. This dollhouse does not come with trim for the interior door. I had to make it out of basswood sticks. I just did the lower half for now so I could put in the baseboards around it.
As that dried, I finished the staircase by adding the handrail and the top back piece.
While that dried I went ahead and prepared the roofs. I measured where each room would be after dry fitting the roof pieces and wallpapered accordingly. They will be ready to be put in by tomorrow.
