Attic Trap Door
I am creating a rooftop garden, so I needed a way to access the roof. I initially considered building an exterior staircase for the dollhouse, but the architectural details made that impossible. There was no suitable exterior wall for a staircase, so I decided to use the attic for access instead.
At first, I planned to cut an opening in the roof for an operable attic trap door, but I forgot to do this before installing the roof. Dismantling the finished roof wasn't practical, so I opted to create a faux door instead. I drew inspiration from The Pierce Dollhouse, which has an attic trap door.
I cut a square from balsa wood and added trim around it. After staining it, I glued it to the ceiling in the middle of the room, near the dollhouse staircase. I had to use balsa wood for the door because I had already applied ceiling paper in the attic and forgot about the trap door. If I had remembered, I would have made the door like the one on the exterior of the rooftop, where I simply stained the area and added side rails.
The best part of this project was finding a ladder. I thought I would need to make one from scratch, which I dreaded, but luckily, I found an already assembled ladder at my local craft store that was the right scale and height. I trimmed it slightly at the top so it wouldn’t look too slanted in the low ceiling room. After staining it to match the interior trim, it looked like it belonged with the dollhouse. I glued it in place at the trap door.
I painted the exterior rooftop with a base coat of brown. This area will eventually be covered with grass and other garden features.
