I began assembling the fireplace. It is a straight forward, easy assembly. I decided to paint mines all white, in keeping with the all white woodwork of this dollhouses interior.
This fireplace needs a lot of work for proper finishing. I first had to assemble and then give it the first coat of paint. Painting helps reveal gaps and other imperfections that have to be addressed. I sanded the fireplace on all sides and used spackle for filling in of gaps. I then lightly sanded again and gave it a second coat of paint.
To customize the fireplace, I used spackle and stencils to create raised designs and give it the appearance of carved wooden inlays. I describe in detail how this process is done in the Gloucester Dollhouse Blog
I printed out brick paper from my computer and used it to cover the fireplace hearth. I am going to dry fit this hearth into the fireplace but I am not going to glue it permanently yet. I will leave it loose, so I can slide it upwards when I apply my flooring. Then once the flooring is in place, I will push it down and glue it in place. This is because I want the hearth to sit over the flooring but I need to install this fireplace before the flooring goes in.
While the fireplace dried, I wallpaper the front of the staircase, since this must be done before the fireplace is installed.
Getting this fireplace in place, is just has difficult as it was to get the staircase in place. I recommend you sand the top and bottom well, then place the top edge in place and use a rubber mallet to tap the bottom into place. It doesn't matter if the floor is damaged because it will be covered up but watch the ceiling as it is already covered with ceiling paper. Damage to ceiling paper can not be rectified and with the staircase in place, you will not be able to remove it for a re-do either.
I placed the dollhouse on its back and used hand held weights to clamp the fireplace in place until dry.
Once dry, I continued to wallpaper the living room.
