I primed the interior wall first. As long as it's a light color paint, it is fine. It does not have to be white. You just want to seal the wood so it doesn’t soak up all of your wallpaper paste and so that you get an even light background so that dark wood blotches don’t appear through your wallpaper.
I applied the wallpaper when the priming paint was dry. I decided to use scrapbook paper for my wallpaper. Scrapbook paper comes in many fun and modern patterns and colors. They are also color coordinated together so every room matches. They are a great alternative to miniature wallpaper for small 2 room dollhouses like this one.
Because I’m putting on the wallpaper before assembling the shell of the dollhouse, I’ll probably end up with seams where two walls meet at the corners. I’m going to keep the walls as tightly together as I can get them. This wallpaper is so heavily patterned that I don’t think any tiny seam will be noticeable. If it is, I will cover it up later with a small wallpaper scrap. I’m keeping all of the wallpaper scraps I cut off so far because these scrapbook paper sheets are not that big and I don’t want to end up running out of wallpaper.
After the wallpaper dried, I cut off the excess and began preparing the rest of the parts. I primed all of the walls and painted the ceiling, which is the underside of the attic floor. I decided to use this light green color that matches the wallpaper.
I also primed the floor itself because I will be using a floor covering on them. At first, I had tried to make a painted checkerboard floor but it did not turn out right so I just primed right over it and bought miniature plastic tile flooring instead. You should always prime your floors if you plan on using a floor covering, regardless of the type. Prime in a color similar to your flooring choice.
Notice that the attic floor has these tabs around it. They will become the window sills for the attic windows once the floor is installed so I’m not painting them for now, since I plan on using a different color paint on them.
I started off building the dollhouse with wood glue, I decided to switch to tacky glue to complete the dollhouse construction. Tacky glue dries clear so it will not harm my wallpaper finish. Wood glue can not be used for any finished parts.
I installed the center support and I’m waiting for it to dry, while clamped, before I put wallpaper on it. While that’s drying, I'll apply wallpaper to the rest of the interior walls. I’m leaving the upstairs wallpaper for after the walls are up and after I put the floor in. I'll have plenty of accessibility to do this then. I just have to get it done before the roof goes in.
Installing the first floor is pretty simple. You’ll have to wrestle with it a little bit, but it's relatively uncomplicated. I didn’t even need a hammer. It’s a good thing that I let the porch assembly dry over night. If I wouldn’t have, it would have come apart with the pressure needed to put in the floor. The corners where these two walls meet, looks good. No visible seams. I hope the rest of the walls fit that well.
You have to be very careful with how you proceed in this next step. There is only ONE WAY to install the attic floor so read the instructions that came with your kit very carefully. In the kit instructions, all four dollhouse walls do not go up at the same time, like I did it. If you put them all up at the same time, you will be unable to fit in the attic floor.
After all of the wallpaper and floors dried, I began putting up walls. I clamped all of the walls down with masking tape and now it's just a matter of waiting before inserting the attic floor. I don’t want to pull down the walls as I’m trying to do that so I’m letting them dry a little. Also I have seen no visible seams in the corners where the walls meet so thankfully, wallpapering this cottage first, did not cause any inconveniences.
I do have to wallpaper the other side of the center support wall because a small piece of it is in the interior of the dollhouse and its edge is exposed. It’s a very small little area to apply wallpaper to. Also I don’t believe I have enough of this wallpaper print left to be able to complete both bays. I was thinking of using the upstairs striped paper as a contrast.
After the walls were dry, I began installing the attic floor and quickly realized that it could not be put in after all three walls were up. I had to solve the problem by cutting off all of the window sills. I'll have to do some minor repairs around the sill area that I cut off. I repaired the small areas around the sills and then glued them back on. Everything is looking right now. I clamped and now I am waiting for it to dry. After it's dry, I’ll repair some more and paint it again.
