The McKinley Dollhouse Week 11

I began trimming the bathroom and kitchen. You can see how applying ceiling and floor trim makes all of the difference to the finished look of a dollhouse. I used the same size trim for the floor as the ceilings in this dollhouse. Because the kitchen wallpaper has a border, I applied the ceiling trim flat against the ceiling, rather than flat on the walls. That way it does not interrupt the borders design.

The bays ceiling paper was already applied, so I applied wallpaper the exterior edge of the bay opening. I did this because this edge will be visible through the bay windows, when looking into the house. You can paint them if you wish but it was no trouble for me to add some strips of wallpaper to it.

I installed the kitchen bay walls. I had to deviate from the instructions in this step. There are two ways to wallpaper these walls, before or after installation. If you follow the instructions, you will have to wallpaper, each wall individually, before installation. Then you will be left with gaps on the interior, which will have to be covered using wooden dowels or some other type of trim along each wall joint. Do not attempt to use spackle. The gaps will be too wide for it and it will not blend in well with your wallpaper. The other option is to wallpaper the walls after installation, like I did. With this method you will not have visible gaps.

I installed the walls, wallpapered them and then installed the window seat once the walls were dry. Getting the window seat into place, after the walls are installed, will not be easy, but I found it was worth not having gaps to deal with between wall joints. You might have some damage to your bay window opening edges, but they can be fixed easily once the seat is in place. Make sure you finish your window seat with paint or stain before installation.

This dollhouse does not bring trim for the bay or tower openings. You will have to make them yourself. I personally can not leave them without trim, so I applied trim to the sides of the bay opening and placed wooden caps at the tops. I sanded, filled and painted all edges, so they are smooth and without gaps.

I can not bend wooden trim into an arch for the openings top, so I used the next best thing: fabric. I glued fabric ribbon along the top of the arch and then painted it, after it was dry. It looks just like fancy, carved, wooden trim.

I also upholstered the window seat and continued applying baseboard trim to the rest of the room, including the kitchen door opening. I applied wooden caps to the tops of doors trim.