I glued the back wall and foundation strip to the dollhouse and pre-assembled the bay. I found that wallpapering the bay first, without any gaps or seams, would be easier if I wrapped the wallpaper around the edges. The bay will be fully wallpapered without beadboard on the bottom half.
While everything dried, I started painting the half-timber trim, which needs to be done before installation. The trim is made of white cardboard, but don't let that intimidate you; it offers many possibilities. You can even stain it. Just paint it brown with one coat to achieve a wood grain effect. I was surprised by the result after the first coat, but several coats were necessary to get the right shade of brown.
As the trim dried, I worked on the chimney side. I noticed it lays flat against the wall, so I printed some bricks and glued them to the area that will be inside the fireplaces. After that, I glued on the chimney side and clamped it in place.
Next, I wallpapered the back walls for a polished look from the outside and also wallpapered the bay, setting it aside to dry completely before attaching it to the dollhouse. I then began working on beadboarding. I cut skinny sticks to about half the desired length, knowing they wouldn’t need to be perfectly flush since I would trim them later. I glued the first stick on the front left corner and continued toward the door, hoping they would align well since there’s no interior trim in this dollhouse. Unfortunately, they didn’t line up flush with the front window.
After gluing in the window, I started beadboarding from the door edge toward the window but still didn’t achieve a flush finish. Since I prefer it to be flush with the window rather than the door, I adjusted my approach slightly under the window. I then worked on the other side of the window, starting from the wall again, but it also didn’t end up flush. Adding another skinny stick there would make it visible from outside, so I decided to leave it as is; drapes will eventually hide this imperfection.
I trimmed out the beadboard at both the top and bottom with skinny sticks and installed the fireplace hearth, sides, and mantle before continuing with beadboarding on this wall. After trimming, I began staining; it’s much easier to stain after installation. I loved how darkly stained the fireplace turned out—this was actually a mistake that ended up looking great. I also stained the top floor to complete that part.
I installed the door next to finish off the front wall; it went in easily, and then I painted it blue. I painted and sanded the entire front wall before applying a second coat. I dry-fitted the half-timber trim first to see what areas needed spackling. With this dollhouse, not all tab and slot gaps need spackling since most will be covered by trim. However, I noticed one gap that wasn’t covered and spackled it before painting and gluing on the painted half-timber trim.
I glued on the entire bay assembly to the dollhouse and continued finishing each side while installing more half-timber trim. It's important to watch your trim until it's completely dry since it can pop up in some areas; using plenty of masking tape helps keep everything in place.
Next, I printed more bricks and covered the entire exterior of the chimney with them. Using a glue stick, I applied paste directly onto the wood before attaching the brick-printed paper. Avoid using watery glues on regular typing paper as they can cause warping. Finally, I used a template from the door's exterior trim to cut an exact replica from leftover cardboard for an interior trim piece, painting it to match the fireplace color.
