Since I am going to make a rooftop garden, there has to be a way to get up on the roof. It would have been really great to be able to create a staircase system along the exterior of the dollhouse but because of its architectural details, that was not possible. There is no available exterior wall to place a staircase structure against on this model. I decided to have access to the rooftop through the attic instead.
At first, I was going to cut an opening in the top roof in order to have a operable attic trap door but I forgot to do it and installed the roof. It wasn't worth dismantling the finished roof to make the door, so I made a faux door instead.
I remembered how The Pierce Dollhouse has an attic trap door and I kind of mimicked it. I simply cut a square out of balsa wood and added side trim to it. I stained it and glued it to the ceiling. The place it made more sense to put it was in the middle of the room, near the dollhouse staircase.
The reason I had to cut the door out of balsa wood is because I also applied ceiling paper in the attic, forgetting that i was going to do make a trap door on it. If I would have remembered, I would made the door the way it is on the exterior of this roof top where I just stained the door area of the roof and applied the side rails to it.
The best part of this part of the project, is the ladder. I thought I was going to have to make a ladder from scratch and I was dreading it but thankfully, I didn't have to. I found a ladder at my local craft store that was already assembled and the right scale. It was also the right height but I trimmed it a little at the top anyways, so it wouldn't look too slanted in this low ceiling room. I stained it to match the rest of the interior trim and it looks great, like it came with the dollhouse. I glued it in place at the trap door.
I gave the exterior roof top a coat of brown paint as a base only. This top part will be covered with grass and other gardenscape.
