Installing the Exterior Doors
Unfortunately, I lost all the original photos for this post, so I can only share the finished images.
I will be installing the hinges on all of the exterior doors, which requires a lot of time and patience. Start by painting or staining all the door components. Keep the front doors together, especially if you plan to stain them, as their wood grain runs vertically. In contrast, the kitchen door's wood grain runs horizontally. It's important for both front doors to have matching wood grains and hues.
Before assembling the doors, install the windows according to the instructions. For the kitchen door, I used the stained glass acrylic pane from the dollhouse kit, while for the front doors, I chose a "leaded" glass scrapbook paper sheet I found.
Once your doors are dry, dry fit them into their openings. Sand them down until they fit easily. Then, hinge them to the exterior door trim. Remember that hinges must be placed flat against both the door and trim; do not try to attach them like a real hinge on the interior edge of the casing, as the wood is too thin and fragile. I often emphasize this point in my assembly blogs: these doors are heavy, and their hinges are small and delicate. While hinging will make them operational, they may not work perfectly. Handle them with care. Since these doors are hinged manually, various factors can affect their operation. A common issue is slight warping of the wall around the door opening. A door may swing perfectly before installation but could become misaligned once the trim is glued in place. If your door does not want to close or open completely, do not force it; this could pull off the hinges and create bigger problems.
I hinged the kitchen door to the interior trim so that I can attach the screen door to the exterior trim. Be sure of which direction you want your doors to open before placing the hinges. The screen door I selected is a laser-cut model from Greenleaf Dollhouses. It needs to be assembled and finished before use, but it fits perfectly without any trimming or added strip wood.
After touching up all the doors, I added hardware to them. They are not fully complete yet, as they still need some trim that I will add later when I find it among my supplies. The key is that they are in place so I can continue with assembly.
For some reason, hinging these doors was particularly challenging. The wood was hard, and some of the trim crumbled during assembly. Although I managed to get them moving on their hinges, my front doors refuse to close completely. They worked well before installation, but warping in the front wall likely caused this issue. As mentioned earlier, just leave them as they are; it’s not your fault and cannot be fixed without replacing the entire front wall.
The side wall where the kitchen door is located was more forgiving; that door swings open and closed fairly well. However, my screen door also struggles to close fully due to clamping issues related to warping. Again, there’s nothing that can be done about this unless you replace an entire wall. Any trim installed on this opening will bend similarly and cause operational issues with the doors. Some dollhouses may present more challenges than others, but at least you’ll have detailed working doors that enhance visibility into your dollhouse's interior.
