This is a small, four room dollhouse, but it’s a challenge to wallpaper because of the angled second floor. You can choose to paint the dormers a complimentary color, but I decided to wallpaper the whole thing.
Here’s the method I used to wallpaper angles like these dormers:
1. Place the assembled dormer on the print side up of the wallpaper you want to use.
2. Lightly trace the outline of each dormer section onto your wallpaper. The front and sides. For the sides, make sure you trace a little wider than the actual piece so you have an extra edge to fold. You don’t need to do this for the front wall piece.
Make your traces light. You can do it on the back of the wallpaper but you will not be able to see your design and what will actually be on the wall you wallpaper.
3. Start with the walls first. The first wall piece should overlap the edges of the roof and the front wall.
4. The second opposite wall should have an edge overlapping the front wall. You don’t have to do it for the roof on this piece because the other piece already will do that.
5. The last piece is the front wall triangle. Now all the edges are covered and you have a neat and finished look.
Because of the many wallpaper cuts required for the dormers, make sure you have extra wallpaper sheets so you don't run out.
I wallpapered the rest of the second floor after the dormers were done.
I printed floors and floor medallions for this dollhouse. Printies can be a good thing, but many times they can be more troublesome than convenient. Printing from home is excellent for smaller scales especially 1/144th" scale. For bigger dollhouses, your printies can end up being more costly than just buying flooring because you will need to use a lot of printer ink to achieve high quality print outs. A top tip is that a local office supply store can print finer selections for a better quality and price.
Here is a preliminary view of the flooring with the medallions. I will begin gluing after the walls and ceilings are up.
The ceiling printies have a plaster look, I created it by shrinking a very light wallpaper print so the design becomes tiny specks, like plaster.
The ceiling was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. It actually didn’t come out as desired because the printouts were small and I had to do a lot of patching. When you have to patch with light colors or solids, you can see the seams more clearly than if you're working with patterns. Thankfully there is only one ceiling in this dollhouse and you can't really view it.
After the wallpaper and ceiling was glued in place, I began the floors. I glued all of them and centered the medallions. The mucilage has caused blotchiness on the floor that will disappear when varnished.
Since the dormers are now wallpapered, I painted them and installed the windows. Make sure that your window silk screen patterns are all aligned the same way on each window.
Once the windows were dry, I installed the dormers. They are very simple to put in but you will have to paint the edges of the dormers and their openings. Choose a color that will match your wallpaper for a nice blend. You will not be able to wallpaper these edges because it will ruin the continuity of your pattern, since the walls of the dormers are angled.
