I used the real kitchen door of the dollhouse in the schematic and pulled it off the sheet. I put my screen door over it and saw that my screen door is wider than the original and also shorter. This is actually a good thing. It would have been much more difficult if the door was narrower than the opening.
I positioned the original dollhouse door over my screen door, centered and then marked around it with a pencil so I could have a guideline of where to cut it to make it smaller. I had to use a box cutter/utility knife to cut the door down to size.
These laser cut screen doors are extremely fragile. The wood is birch so it's very delicate and they have been laser cut in order to achieve the fancy design. Sanding them down to size will not work because there is a great risk of damage. Scissors or an Easy Cutter will also be too rough on the door. The best way to cut these doors down, is to lay them flat on a sturdy surface and gently score them with the utility knife along the guide lines. Do this firmly but gently, without pulling. Just let the blade do the work. You will see that the knife goes through them extremely easily.
I gently sanded the sides to make them smooth and straighter. The best way to sand the door is to lay one edge on a flat surface and sand, turn it around and do the same for the other side.
Once the door fit perfectly in the opening, I painted it and installed it. I left the screen mesh to the side for now. Make sure the door fits into the opening without pressure. Also be careful when painting the door. The wood tends to become very soft with the moisture of the paint, making it even more fragile and easily broken with hard brush strokes. Allow it to dry completely before attempting to install it. I suggest an over night drying time, to be on the safe side.
Once the door was in, I used a skinny stick to hide the gap at the bottom of the door. It's actually a perfect fit.
There are several ways of hiding this gap. You could just simply install the door, leaving the gap at the top. Then take your interior and exterior trim, cut off the “legs” to size so that this trim hides the top gap. Since I decided I wanted to put the original door of the dollhouse on the inside, in an opened position, I wasn’t able to do that or it would be noticeable that the door opening is much shorter than the opened door.
After everything is glued in, finished and dry, I glued on the mesh screen to the interior of the door. After some touch ups with spackle and paint, the door is complete.
While that fully dried, I went ahead and installed the porch roof supports. I should have painted them beforehand but they are easy to paint afterwards. Clamp them tightly against the wall until they are dry.
